Final Table Takedown: Ankush Mandavia Shares Two Flopped Sets Against Very Different Player Types

Ankush Mandavia is a graduate of the University of Georgia whose parents were hoping he would have aspirations to be a doctor or a lawyer. Instead he found poker during college after the Moneymaker boom and never looked back. He considers one of the coolest experiences of his poker career coaching Martin Jacobson in preparation to an eventual win at the 2014 World Series of Poker main event. 

Mandavia has been a Supernova Elite on PokerStars for three years, with over $5 million accumulated as a heads-up sit-n-go regular playing high stakes. Last year was a breakout year for Mandavia and it all started with a third-place finish at the 2016 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Super High Roller for $787,000. He would then go on to take home four more titles and more than $1.2 million including a WSOP gold bracelet in the $5,000 turbo event.

Event: 2017 Venetian Deepstack Extravaganza

Players: 695 • Entry: $1,025 • First Prize: $107,381 • Finish: Chopped First

Key Concepts: Getting value from recreational players; Read based play

Ankush Mandavia: I had built a pretty decent stack at this blind level. The tournament structure was very profitable with few professionals, so my general strategy was to play more exploitable.

Craig Tapscott: Please give our readers a little deeper explanation of what you mean when you say, ‘more exploitable.’

AM: What I mean by more exploitable is playing the hand in a way that takes advantage of your opponent’s tendencies, rather than play it in way that you normally would without a read. For example, if you know a person is calling more than they should, you can widen your value range in order to maximize profit. But the danger in this is opening yourself up to being taken advantage of by good players paying attention. That’s why this is only good at soft tables where people are generally unaware of what you are up to.

The Villain no. 1 raises from UTG to 3,500.

CT: Any reads at this point on this player?

AM: He has been playing just about every hand he possibly can since I got to the table, even calling the small blind with 5-4 offsuit etc. and raising at a very high frequency. 

Villain no. 2 calls from UTG+1.

AM: So far reads on Villain no. 2 are that he is a sticky player in general. I look down when it folds to me; I’m holding 10 10 on the button.

CT: So what are your options? You seem to have a good read on Villain no. 1 having a pretty wide opening range. Should you reraise to isolate the loose player?

AM: Possibly. My best options are to three-bet or flat. I think a three-bet in this spot in a tournament like this (very soft) is too high variance. If you get four-bet you are in a real awkward spot and will be guessing for your tournament life. Even though your range crushes Villain no. 1, it doesn’t necessarily do well vs. Villain no. 2. So I thought about it and decided to…

Mandavia calls.

Flop: 10 7 7 (pot:15,600)

Villain no. 1 bets 6,500. Villain no. 2 calls.

CT: Wow! You must be doing cartwheels in your head. What’s the best option to get the most value? You’ve got a very loose player and a sticky player on the hook. Reel them in.

AM: (Laughs) Well now we need to decide between flatting and raising. While in general flatting allows you to get more value post-flop, certain situations like this allow you to raise vs. very aggressive and sticky players. Villain no. 1 can make ‘moves’ with a variety of hands if he doesn’t believe my raise.

CT: He could easily have a big overpair?

AM: Yes. I am quite sure he is incapable of folding an overpair in my opinion. But Villain no. 2 is sticky, so he’s also not likely to fold any of his strong range unless Villain no. 1 continues. So I decided to raise it up.

Mandavia raises to 16,000. Villain no. 1 raises to 40,000. Villain no. 2 tanks and folds. Mandavia calls.

Turn: 5 (pot: 102,100)

Villain no. 1 moves all-in. Mandavia calls.

River: 3 (pot: 174,500)

Mandavia reveals a full house. Villain no. 1 mucks. Mandavia wins the pot of 174,500.

CT: Do you have any idea what he was holding?

AM: He tried to muck but showed 6-6, and we won a pretty sizeable pot for this stage in the tournament. We likely got the maximum playing exploitable in a situation where the standard is to slow play.

CT: Well played.

AM: Thanks

CT: I’m curious. Why would he go crazy and play a pair of sixes this way? What could he possibly be thinking? Did you have an aggressive image? Something must have triggered this huge blunder.

AM: It’s hard to determine why a recreational player would decide to go crazy with 6-6 here. To be honest I was surprised to see a hand with so much value played this way, as normally a player would like to get to showdown. I don’t think the hand triggered the mistake; I think he just wanted to win the pot at all costs. I think a combination of my table image and his inexperience led to the mistake. Though I hadn’t played many hands, a young player in a hoodie always looks aggressive to a lot of people.

CT: You had an amazing year in 2016. Is there any one thing you can attribute to your success?

AM: I can pretty much attribute much of my success to the network of friends that I have consistently talk poker strategies with. They have improved my game so much over the last few years; some names include Connor Drinan, Pratyush Buddiga and Upeshka De Silva. I’m very thankful to all of them.

CT: Would you share the key thing you’ve learned that has improved your tournament game as you worked your way up to the highest stakes as an online heads-up sit-n-go specialist?

AM: Being a high-stakes sit-n-go professional forces you to play every single hand and be able to understand and read board textures well. That practice has definitely helped in tournament play as I feel more comfortable playing a wider variety of different hands from different positions.

Key Concepts: Pay jumps: Player types

CT: Where were you at the final table in relation to stack size?

AM: I was second in chips at the time. The pay jumps were very big, which was a major consideration during this hand I am going to share. The action folds to the small blind and it’s an older gentleman who hasn’t played many hands since the final table began. But he’s shown he is capable of thinking at a higher level than the rest of the field with some of his previous plays. He was third in chips with about 35 big blinds. I had about 50 big blinds.

Villain raises to 360,000 from the small blind.

AM: He opens to 3x the big blind and we look down at 10 10, once again. 

CT: Please don’t tell me you flop a set and tell the table after raking in a monster pot, “Easy game.”

AM: (Laughs) You will have to wait and see.

CT: So you seem to have a solid read on the older gentleman. What’s his range in this spot?

AM: I assign him a stronger range with a small probability of a steal; therefore I don’t want to get it in preflop. 

Mandavia calls in the big blind holding 10 10.

Flop: A J 10 (pot: 1,120,000)

CT: How did I know this was coming?

Villain bets 500,000.

CT: I have a feeling this is a spot to slow play a bit. What are you hoping he’s holding?

AM: Yes. I didn’t see much of a reason to raise and get it in here. He might even hero fold a hand like A-K or A-Q. But A-J is the only real hand that we are going to get in vs. here that we are crushing. Also flatting allows him to continue to bluff if he doesn’t have much.

Mandavia calls.

Turn: K (pot: 2,120,000)

AM: This card brings in a backdoor flush draw. He bets very big this time, about three-quarters pot.

Villain bets 1,200,000.

CT: What now? He could have kings or aces or perhaps the queen.

AM: I know. We are in a really tough spot now.  We have a ton of equity which isn’t fun to fold, but it’s not very likely for our opponent to be bluffing. He could definitely have a flush draw here but a queen is much more likely and he is trying to protect his equity. We don’t have the right odds to call for the board to pair. So I end up letting it go. 

Mandavia folds. Villain wins the pot of 2,120,000.

AM: This is a situation in which if he is bluffing it is very profitable, because we are only going to continue with a queen. But at the same time most people are not willing to bluff off their tournament deep at a final table.

CT: That brings up a good point. What is the biggest mistake you see inexperienced players make in these type situations?

AM: I think the main mistake an inexperienced player makes is to bet their nutted hands. If he were to check a queen, I would be more likely to bluff him off two pair or sets by the river if I had a weak hand like one pair. He doesn’t usually get value from worse and is somewhat lost with potential tough decisions if the board pairs or a flush draw gets there. ♠