Rex Clinkscales Takes a Break from the 2017 WSOP in Vegas to Win a WPT Deepstacks in Tampa, FL

Rex Clinkscales, 34, is originally from San Antonio, Texas. He currently lives in Las Vegas with his girlfriend Ting Ho, and their 5-year-old son. Ting is also a professional poker player. Clinkscales’ mother Bonnie is a huge help for them when she comes out to Vegas during the WSOP to make their lives easier while they grind a full schedule of WSOP events and cash games around Vegas. Clinkscales won the WSOP Circuit Philadelphia main event in 2013 and bubbled the ESPN final table of the national championship. He has won two events at the Venetian in Las Vegas and also won the Colorado State Championship in 2014.

One of his favorite poker memories is when he won the Wynn Classic $550 event in 2014 and met Ting. He didn’t have any poker trophies at the time and she had a cool trophy from her Wynn victory. So of course he wanted to win one for himself. And he did. He won the very same event she won in 2012 to get a matching trophy. Clinkscales has more than $1.1 million in live career earnings.

Event: World Poker Tour Deep Stacks – Tampa

Players: 1,100 • Entry: $1,100 • First Prize: $162,354 • Finish: 1st

Key Concepts: Knowing your opponent wants to ladder up and is concerned about the payouts

Craig Tapscott: You actually left all the WSOP events going on during the series in June and went to Florida.

Rex Clinkscales: I did. I had just busted out of event no. 29, the $2,500 no-limit event at the Rio and while I was walking to my car I had this feeling I should get out of Vegas for the weekend. So I remembered that there was a World Poker Tour Deep Stack event going on in Tampa coming up that weekend. I sat in my car, booked the trip, and two hours later I was on a plane.

CT: You had to be pretty wiped out once you got there.

RC: You could say that. I played day 1b and let’s just say that didn’t go so well. I was exhausted from the previous week at the WSOP and the long cross county flight the night before. After I busted I went and had a nice dinner, got a good night’s rest, and came back on Saturday with one thing in mind, to win the event!

CT: So how did the second bullet go?

RC: Saturday went pretty well. I was able to bag a healthy stack of 143,000 coming back to 1,500-3,000 blinds on day two. But the day got off to a rough start. I lost a key flip holding J J vs. A-K that left me with just 70,000. But I always felt if I was able to just get a double I would be in position to make a run. I grinded a 20 to 30 big blind stack for hours and then finally secured a double when I got my A-A all-in preflop against the 9-9 of Ryan Luker, who went on to finish the event in fifth place.  

CT: What happened after the double up?

RC: We were down to the final two tables when things started to fall into place for me. Then I was able to apply a lot of pressure while we were shorthanded. I feel very comfortable playing shorthanded and I felt as if my opponents were very uncomfortable. I was able to put my experience to play and really take control of the tournament.

CT: So how did the day close out for you as the final table came together?

RC: I was able to keep that momentum going the rest of the night and ended up bagging 2.7 million in chips, which was good for second overall. When Monday came around I had formulated a game plan to come out and apply maximum pressure and take control of the table right away.

CT: Share one hand at the start of the final table that you played well.

RC: Ok.

Clinkscales opened to 130,000 from mid-position holding K Q. Sebastian called from the cutoff. Cohen called from the button. Villain no. 3 called from the small blind.

Flop: A A A (pot: 500,000)

CT: What were you thinking after this crazy flop hits? Can you really continuation bet into three players?

RC: Well this is a very interesting board texture; the small blind with his stack size would have most likely squeezed any of his premium hands preflop. And Sebastian is the type of player who almost always three-bets me with pairs 7-7 and higher and almost any two Broadway cards. Michael was the one guy I was a little worried about, so I decided to fire a continuation bet and sure enough Michael was the only caller.

Villain no. 3 checks. Clinkscales bets 180,000. Sebastian folds. Cohen calls. Villain no. 3 folds.

Turn: 2 (pot: 860,000)

CT: Do you feel confident that you can fire another barrel and get Cohen to fold?

RC: I can give up or put max pressure on Michael and fire another barrel. After I thought about it, I decided to fire again.

CT: Why? Did you have a read on him you can share?

RC: Well I knew Michael was trying to ladder up and that he didn’t want to bust in this spot.

CT: What range did you put him on?

RC: I put him on a hand like 8-8 or 9-9. I thought I would be able to get him off the hand on the turn or the river with the right bet.

Clinkscales bets 465,000. Cohen folds. Clinkscales wins the pot of 860,000.

RC: He went deep into the tank and eventually folded. I asked him if he had 8-8 and he said yes, but I later found out it was 9-9 from the live stream.

CT: Nice play. So how did your plan to apply maximum pressure play out after that hand.

RC: Let’s just say things didn’t go so well. (Laughs) By the time we were down to seven players the chip counts looked like this:

Sebastian Momtazi – 2,485,000
Michael Cohen – 1,375,000
Andrew Boccia – 6,390,000
Amelio Amato – 1,750,000
Ryan Luker – 1,350,000
Zoltan Anda – 2,365,000
Rex Clinkscales – 1,850,000

I was in the middle of the pack.

CT: So then the table took a break.

RC: Yes. During that break I made a few adjustments and decided I was going to slow down and let my opponents do some of the work and let things come to me.

CT: Can you be more specific about the adjustments you were blending in to your strategy?

RC: One of the adjustments I made was to tighten up and play a more straight-forward approach instead of just blasting everyone away. I also changed my sizing as we got more shorthanded and went to a larger bet sizing; much different than the small ball strategy I had been using since midway on day two.

Key Concepts: Blind vs. blind play

Anda raises to 260,000 from the small blind. Clinkscales calls from the big blind holding K 10.

CT: Did you have any read on Anda?

RC: Zoltan was a lot of fun at the table, He was one of the more inexperienced players and was more of a loose cannon. He would just randomly put out crazy big bets. I was just waiting for him to do it against me, and I was lucky that I smashed this flop. He was not going to fold his hand no matter what. It’s always nice to have a little lady luck on your side.

CT: This hand catapulted you to a great position at the table.

RC: Yes. This hand was probably the easiest of my career, but it lead me to the win.

Flop: K K 10 (pot: 700,000)

CT: No brainer. Wow!

RC: I know.

Anda moves all-in. Clinkscales calls. Anda reveals Q Q.

Turn: Q (pot: 4.040,000)

River: 7 (pot: 4,040,000)

RC: Luckily I faded the one outer and was able to secure the double. Zoltan would be eliminated a few hands later.  

CT: I wanted to share that hand as it’s clear you have to have a little luck go your way to win a tournament. But let’s go a little more in-depth into blind on blind play in tournaments.

RC: OK. The cliché notion of playing the opposite of the players at the table has even more relevance when we’re speaking of blind vs. blind situational play in MTT’s.

CT: How so?

RC: Well if you’re the small blind and the big blind to your left is passive enough to let you limp in or predominately just calls your raises, then I’m inclined to play virtually all cards dealt my way.

CT: Share an example.

RC: If the player to our left is super-aggressive and won’t put up with that, I’m fine with playing a very limited range of preflop holdings. Both of these scenarios are relatively easy and automatic; the skill lies in the countless shades of grey in between by correctly deciding what the most logic-based course of action we should take. My best advice is to pick your battles wisely when you’re in the blinds. If it’s an easy opponent you should ravenously play against the other blind. If our opponent isn’t an easy customer, we’re more likely to use our finite amount of chips in a more appropriate manner, namely attacking the big and small blinds of weaker competition. 

CT: And as the big blind?

RC: When I’m in position on the small blind, I’m less likely to constrict my range if the small blind is an aggressive player for the sheer fact that if I can connect post-flop in position, I intend to capture a disproportionate amount of chips relative to the small amount I had to commit preflop. The bottom line is the stronger you can play against weak competition and the more you can limit your exposure to the tough players, the greater net gain in chips we can expect over a large sample size. ♠