Final Table Takedown: Tommy Hang Captures First World Series of Poker Bracelet

Tommy Hang grew up and still lives in Washington state. He went to the University of Washington, studied business administration where he played poker recreationally, and had the same dreams every poker fan did, thanks to the movie Rounders. Hang has a beautiful wife and three loving kids, who are his pride and joy.

He has been playing poker professionally since 2004 and mainly focuses on the higher-limit cash games. He prefers to play at the Commerce Casino in Los Angeles, and the Bellagio and Aria casinos in Las Vegas. He flies back and forth when there are games and when he is home he is strictly devoted to family time. Hang has advanced to six WSOP final tables, is a proud owner of one gold bracelet, and is itching for another. 

Event: 2014 WSOP H.O.R.S.E. Event
Players: 743
Entry: $1,500
First Prize: $230,744
Finish: 1st

Hand No. 1

Game: Limit Hold’em

Key Concept: Bluff raising

Villain raises from under the gun (UTG) +1 to 24,000. Hang raises to 36,000 from the button holding 8 8. Villain calls.

Flop: J 10 4 (pot: 100,000)

Villain checks. Hang bets 12,000. Villain raises to 24,000.

Craig Tapscott: This hand occurs before the final table. What is your thinking in this spot?

Tommy Hang: In limit hold’em, I never fold in this spot in position. This is mainly because check-raises on flops happen more frequently, especially with drawing boards like this one.

CT: And, of course, you could have been out-flopped.

TH: Yes. I could be beat. But he could have a range of straight draws as well or just a worse hand. And if I’m lucky, I could turn an 8 or even catch a 9 and have an open-ender draw.  

Hang calls.

Turn: 6 (pot: 148,000)

Villain bets 24,000. Hang calls.

CT: You are stubborn.

TH: (Laughs) Yes. My thinking here is that I am beat, but I am very stubborn and want to see a river. I want to see if it is another brick card and if he will be able to bet again since my call on the turn is strong.

CT: What range of hands do you think the Villain will put you on after two calls?

TH: He should know that I can have a range of those hands that hit the board as well, but no more than one pair though at best. Otherwise I would have raised. I could also have flopped a straight draw and that is where I why I want to see the river card and how he reacts to it.

River: K (pot: 196,000)

Villain bets 24,000.

CT: Did you pick up anything from the Villain when he bet out on the river?

TH: I noticed that he took a little longer and bet differently than he did earlier in the hand. This bet raises flags, because that’s a horrible river for many hands. If he has a big hand like a straight, two pair, or a set, I’m not winning this hand either way. But if he has one pair, and is trying to value bet me, maybe I can put him to the test and see what happens. So I decided to stay aggressive.

Hang raises to 48,000.

TH: He got frustrated right away and started to lose it. He tanked and complained out loud and…

Villain folds. Hang wins the pot of 220,000.

CT: Why not show the bluff? Then he would have really lost it.

TH: (Laughs) Yes. I could have. But I had a good table image at this point and when I had shown my hands I’ve had it. And I’ve picked my spots well with my bluffs and haven’t gotten called often. He looked demoralized afterwards, no need to needle him. That was a key pot for me because it catapulted my chip stack to above average and allowed me to stay in the zone and able to continue my style of play.

Hand No. 2

Game: Omaha eight-or-better

Key Concepts: Hand reading ability (looking for signs of strength or weakness)

Craig Tapscott: Set the final table up for us.

Tommy Hang: I’ve been very active in my play when it came down to the final nine players. I’ve been playing with these players for days now and had some tells and was familiar with my opponents’ table images. The other player that was aggressive at the table was Jim Collopy, who would eventually be playing me heads-up for the title.  
Collopy raises to 50,000 from UTG. Hang raises from the cutoff to 75,000 holding A K 5 2. Collopy calls.

Flop: J 10 7 (pot:  188,000)

Collopy checks.

TH: I was chip leader at this point and Jim was second, so my goal is to always keep the pressure on. This is not a good flop with any real draws other than a gunshot, but I still must bet and take the lead in the hand.

Hang bets 25,000. Collopy raises to 50,000.

CT: What types of hands is he doing this with?

TH: He is mostly check-raising with what hit the board, like a set, two pairs or a straight and hands that are draw-heavy like flush draws and straight draws like A-K-Q.  
I know he’s aggressive so he can take the check-raise line with a weaker hand too like K-K or Q-Q in hopes to take down the pot early.  

Hang calls.

Turn: K (pot: 288,000)

TH: Now this card was an interesting one for me because he’s going to fire 100 percent of the time after check-raising me. And it brings the flush on board with two additional straights. My one pair of kings is very weak here if I call, and my only hope is to catch a bluff to win this pot.

CT: So an easy fold?

TH: Well I could see two options, fold or raise. I decided that if his ranges were maybe bluffing weak hands or if he has one pair or blockers, I may be able to take away the pot with a raise on the turn because I have the A blocker to represent a nut flush. And I am not afraid of getting reraised. My play at the final table was going off of a lot of reads from my opponents tells of strength or weakness. I figure I would pick up a read after my raise on the turn and could take it down right there.

Collopy bets 50,000. Hang reraises to 100,000. Collopy tanks and then calls.

River: 6 (pot: 488,000)

Collopy checks.

CT: Can you continue to represent a big hand and throw out a bet here?

TH: Each bet is very critical at this point so maximizing and minimizing is key. After he checked I took a quick moment to see if he had a range of hands that would fold the river to a bet. I also thought about how he had reacted to my turn raise and how the hand played out thus far. In most cases I would bet here and put the player to the test of calling or folding, because by checking I am just giving up. But I decided that he wouldn’t fold. So I…

Hang checks. Collopy reveals 5 4 3 2 for a flush and wins the pot of 488,000.

Hand No. 3

Game: Limit Hold’em

Key Concepts: Induce bluffs; Extracting maximum value

TH: So my goal now that we are heads-up is to chip away at him one bet at a time and maximize where I can. I won the two previous hands before this one and can see him getting frustrated.

Collopy limps in from the button. Hang checks holding 10 7 from the big blind (BB).

CT: Could this have easily been a spot to raise?

TH: There really was no need to play excessively aggressive, because I want him to be passive as much as possible and promote him to limp when I’m out of position. If this were a cash game in limit hold’em heads-up, if anyone were to limp I would raise a lot of my ranges to take the lead in the hand.  

Flop: 10 10 2 (pot: 60,000)

CT: Dream flop for your hand.

TH: I flop trips and now my goal is to maximize and extract as many chips as possible, and hopefully keeping him in the hand to the big bet streets.

CT: Yet he limped preflop? He can’t have much.

TH: Correct. Jim’s range of hands is very weak and being that I flopped trips I’m just hoping he bets and then I can call to keep him in the pot.

Hang checks. Collopy checks.

Turn: 6 (pot: 60,000) 

Hang checks.

TH: I have to check again and hope that he bets.  

Collopy bets 60,000.

CT: Time to raise?

TH: My thinking again is that his range is very weak, and that he doesn’t have a payoff hand unless he hit the 6. So I didn’t want to lose him. I’ve already accomplished one of my goals which was to extract a big bet from him. If he has a 6 he will bet again on the river and I can check-raise and really maximize if he calls.

Hang calls.

River: Q (pot: 180,000) 

Hang checks. Collopy bets 60,000. Hang raises to 120,000. Collopy calls and mucks. Hang wins the pot of 420,000.

TH: I achieved my goal in the hand and maximized value. I also opened the door and showed that I was capable of slow playing and had more check-raises in my arsenal. 

CT: Tell me about the evolution of your H.O.R.S.E. game.

TH: I actually started poker in limit hold’em. I didn’t really want to play other games since back when I started poker, before the recession, limit games were great. But a poker player back then pulled me aside and gave me the greatest advice.

Paraphrasing what he said, “You will have your limit hold’em games here. But sometimes it is not close to being the best game in the casino. And if you want to succeed in this industry and make a living at it, you have to know all the games.” Soon after that I started playing mixed games. I didn’t read any books or watch any videos. I just played against good players, and when I lost a hand, I would learn from it. I would see a key situation in the hand play out, and ask a question or two on why, learn from it and build my own strategy. I always liked the challenge and testing my poker game against the best of the best. Now I strive to stay on top of this game and maybe bring home a few more WSOP bracelets while I’m at it. ♠