Final Table Takedown: Tony Sinishtaj Captures First Major Title Against Some of the Game’s Best Players

Tony Sinishtaj is 36 years old and has been playing poker professionally for about seven years. He fell in love with the game in 2003 after watching Chris Moneymaker on TV during the World Series of Poker main event. Sinishtaj has been married for almost nine years now and has a 13-month-old baby boy. He resides in Northern New Jersey, but considers himself 100 percent a New Yorker. He grew up in the Bronx as a young kid, but his family moved to Queens in his early teens, where Sinishtaj lived until he got married in 2008. 

Sinishtaj came in second at the 2013 WSOP Circuit event at Caesars Atlantic City for $107,000 and later that year took down a $2,500 buy-in event at the Venetian Deep Stack Extravaganza for $66,599. Before winning the 2017 Seminole Poker Showdown, he had gone deep in the $5,300 buy-in main events in 2013 and 2014 at the Hard Rock Casino. Sinishtaj has more than $1.2 million in tournament career cashes.

Event: 2017 World Poker Tour Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown
Players: 1,207 • Entry: $3,500 • First Prize: $661,283 • Finish: 1st

Key Concepts: Hand reading and ranges; Pressuring a shorter stack; Picking up equity on the turn

Craig Tapscott: Set up this key hand on the way to the final table for us Tony.

Tony Sinishtaj: Sure. I feel this was the turning point for this event for me when we were down to about 20 players. They picked me up from the big blind and brought me to one of the other tables. This new table looked much tougher than the previous one. We were short-handed with James Mackey to my left, and Dan Colman and Rob Mizrachi were to my right. This is the first hand dealt to me at this table and I am in the big blind with no small blind.

Colman raises to 60,000 from mid-position. Mizrachi calls from the button. Sinishtaj calls from the big blind holding K 6.

Flop: K 4 3 (pot: 215,000)

Sinishtaj checks. Colman checks. Mizrachi bets 85,000. Sinishtaj calls. Colman folds.

CT: What hand range were you putting Mizrachi on at this point? And what was your evaluation of his play up to this point in the match? Did you have any reads on him you were confident about?

TS: This was my first hand at his table. I had played with him a little earlier during the tournament, but not enough to get a read on his play. I expect him to be betting this flop with most of his button-flatting range. It’s a very dry board and he should be able to take it down without risking much.

Sinishtaj calls.

Turn: 7 (pot: 385,000)

CT: A pretty good card for your range.

TS: Definitely. This card gives me a gutshot and flush draw and a blocker to the straight.

Mizrachi bets 55,000.

CT: What did you make of his smaller bet sizing on the turn? Did it feel weak or was he setting you up?

TS: doubt he ever has the nuts with this size turn bet. It honestly felt weak to me even though I knew there was a chance he would come back over the top if I raised.

CT: But you felt good about your hand obviously?

TS: Yes. I liked my hand at this point. I could very well have the best hand, but could be easily out kicked. I guess the standard line here is to check-call and go to the river, but I decided to raise…

Sinishtaj raises to 250,000. Mizrachi raises to 550,000.

CT: You thought it was a possibility Mizrachi would do this. What do you make of this reraise now?

TS: This didn’t make much sense to me, unless he had exactly 5-6. And with 5-6 I doubt he would bet 55,000 into 400,000. So now my options are to call and check-call the river to keep in all his bluffs. Another option would be to put him all-in. I finally came to the conclusion that the best play would be to put him all-in.

Sinishtaj moves all-in.

CT: Why?

TS: Because if I call and a brick rolls off I expect him to give up on bluffs. And there is still a chance he has some weird K-x that has me beat, but would have a very hard time calling all-in.

CT: And it certainly looks like you have a monster hand by your actions.

TS: Yes. My hand at this point screams 5-6, so with all value hands he will hate the position he’s in. And if he does somehow find a call, I still have outs no matter what he has. He tanks for a bit and it looks genuine and then…

Mizrachi folds. Sinishtaj wins the pot of 1,185,000.

CT: Tony, can you please share a little bit about how you work on your game away from the table for our readers? Share how your game has grown and perhaps any changes you’ve made over the last year or two.

TS: The best way to improve your game is by running hands by people who are better than you and picking their brain; as this adds to ones overall understanding of the game. The game has shifted from a preflop game to a post flop game. These days you must be very strong at post flop play. In the past I had three-bet preflop much more often, but these days I’m happy taking people to the flop where I feel my edge is strongest.

Key Concepts: Fold Equity; Leading out into the raiser; Metagame

CT: When you come into such a strong final table with some very accomplished players around you, what was your game plan when you sat down?

TS: My game plan was to continue doing what I did to get me to this final table. Just about everyone there had more tournament success than I did, but at no point did I feel out matched or out classed. I’m very confident in my abilities and knew I had a very good shot at taking it down.

CT: This was a big hand for you against a very dangerous and accomplished player.

TS: Yes it was. I consider this the hand that basically won the tournament for me. It was the K 8 vs. Daniel Colman. I am pretty sure I butchered the hand, but whatever. (Laughs) Here it goes…

Colman raises to 400,000 from the button. Sinishtaj calls from the big blind holding K 8.

Flop: 8 6 2 (pot: 1,000,000)

Sinishtaj bets 550,000.

CT: What’s your thinking when you lead into Colman on the flop?

TS: This is definitely not the texture I normally lead on, but I felt like I could induce a light raise from Dan. He had already raised a lead from Darryll Fish with jack high earlier and I felt he would react aggressively against me. As expected he raises…

Colman raises to 1,550,000.

CT: Can you just call this raise? It seems like you either have to go with it at this point or not.

TS: Not really. I can’t just call. At this point I feel like I might have the best hand, but I can’t just call out of position vs. a superior player. If I just called I wouldn’t be able to realize my equity in an already bloated pot. So I decide to move all-in and put the pressure right back on him. My shove was for about 8 million.

CT: What range do you put Colman on to make this play?

TS: I figure the best Dan has here is one pair and even when behind I should have some clean outs.

Sinishtaj moves all-in. Colman tanks for over three minutes and eventually calls.

TS: Much to my surprise he turns over A A.

Turn: 10 (pot: 17,600,000)

River: A (pot: 17,600,000)

TS: I got lucky. I caught a backdoor flush to take down the pot and a commanding lead and cripple Colman.

CT: You said you knew that you most likely butchered this hand. Please explain about how you think you should have played it differently without being results oriented. Any regrets or thoughts about what you learned from this hand?

TS: No regrets. It would have been totally standard to check-call the flop. The turn gives me a flush draw. Check-call there and then check-shove river once I make the flush. By not knowing what the run out would be I should be check-calling flop and then check-folding some and check-calling in other instances. ♠