You’ve Made A Big Final Table! Now What?

The Pros: Asher Conniff, Christina Gollins, and Brad Ruben

Craig Tapscott: You’ve made the final table of a huge live event. How do you deal with the pressure of both the money up for grabs and having everyone watch you play? How do you prepare mentally and physically for the task ahead?

Asher Conniff: I’ve dealt with the bright lights before, whether on a televised World Poker Tour final table, a televised cash game, or a live streamed WSOP final table, but not to the extent and notoriety of the WSOP main event. The attention paid to it, and the knowledge that most of your friends, family and acquaintances are watching and sweating every hand, is intense.

The WSOP main is another beast altogether. It took a good half an hour to settle in when my table first got moved to the feature, but then we ended up there for nearly 25 straight hours over two days. I did my best to stay present and grounded, breathe, and most importantly, make sure I was having a good time and enjoying the experience.
I would make sure to work out and hit the sauna every morning and get a good meal in as well. Ultimately, there’s only so much preparation can do, as you must go out there and execute. I just did my best to focus and lock into every hand and every moment of gameplay.

Christina Gollins: Final tabling small- and large-field events is thankfully nothing new. However, final tabling a WSOP bracelet event, with the bright lights and cameras in every direction, that was like nothing I’ve experienced before.

Treating it like “another day at the office” and just another final table was my approach. I tried not to overthink it or set too high of expectations. I also chose to not share the news of how close I was to potentially winning a bracelet to people close to me (non-poker players who didn’t hear the news already). This was to avoid any additional pressure, as I didn’t want to be asked about updates throughout the day. I just wanted to focus on my game. 

I’ve been extremely competitive my entire life, most likely from playing sports at a young age. Every time I would step out onto the basketball court, whether it was for a scrimmage or a championship game, I had to condition myself to drown out outside distractions and influence, and develop tunnel vision.

Much like playing in an important finals game of basketball, the WSOP final table had people cheering, staring, and watching my every move, cameras flashing, and friends hollering and yelling. I heard nothing. I didn’t see anyone but those on the table with me, and cameras are nothing more than flies on the wall. This is not only how I treat a final table, it’s how I treat the entire tournament, starting from day one. 

In terms of my “prep routine,” the morning of a final table I try to get a short  workout in, eat a carb heavy breakfast, and overload on caffeine. I eat protein packed snacks on every break through the duration of the tournament. And you will always catch me with a liter of water next to me, (I drink 3x of these during a 10-hour poker session). Hydrating, good nutrition, and walking around or stretching during breaks is important for stamina and clear thinking. 

Brad Ruben: I made it to a similar spot at the World Series of Poker in October when I won the $1,500 razz event. That experience definitely helped me settle down and focus on the game [at the final table] this year.

I prepared my mindset by having meditated every day for the previous month and having gone to Zion the week prior to the series. This set me up for success early, and I was able to get into the zone quickly. 

Craig Tapscott: What’s your plan of attack? What kind of scouting research do you do on your opponents before it begins? And how do you approach ICM considerations?

Asher Conniff: Coming into the main event final table, my plan was to be aware of the fact that there was a shorter stack than myself. I also used timed aggression to put pressure on the other players, knowing that my chip stack could severely hurt theirs and they would be unlikely to want to take marginal spots against me.

While it’s always smart to be aware of pay jumps, the fact of the matter was that the $150,000 between tenth and ninth place pales in comparison to the $9.325 million difference between tenth and first. That number is hard to even look at. Obviously, things didn’t exactly go as planned. I folded incorrectly the second hand at the final table. The short stack got a reshove through the fourth hand, and I got flopped absolutely dead the sixth hand.

My friends and I did a lot of research on the other guys, but unfortunately my research told me that they’re all good players, with a few of them being very good. I planned on using my history of playing with most of these guys throughout the tournament to my advantage. And then I made a tight, understandable, and incorrect fold versus the most aggressive player at the table the second hand off the deck. As I said, there’s only so much preparation can do, you must execute, and at times be lucky. The experience was fantastic and I’m a very lucky person to have experienced a WSOP main event final table.

Christina Gollins: Regardless of my chip stack, my overall approach doesn’t change much. My “plan of attack,” stays consistent. I play generally tight/aggressive, unless the table dynamic or chip distribution calls for a drastically different approach. I play mostly high-value hands or hands with strong blocking capabilities, and I maintain a relatively low VPIP overall and do my best to let my opponents make mistakes.

In terms of my blind play, I do tend to defend wider than most and I enjoy putting my opponents to the test. I do as much as I can to not put all my chips in the middle to put myself at risk of elimination.

I’m aggressive preflop. I try and win without seeing a flop and securing dead money. And I try to avoid calling off what I call “probably flipping” spots, where I cannot range my opponent to enough hands that I dominate, and can really only put them on hands that have me crushed or are “probably a flip.”

An example might be an ICM spot where I open the hijack with A-J offsuit with 40 big blinds, and get shoved on by the small blind for 14 big blinds. My opponent is often doing this with low-mid pairs, but they aren’t doing it enough with hands like K-J offsuit, A-10 offsuit, A-9 offsuit, that I completely dominate. So in a spot like this, which mixes calls and folds, where I am “probably flipping,” I would lean toward fold.
 
As far as prerequisite scouting research, I don’t dig much before a tournament restarts, as I can figure out within a couple orbits who the capable players are. My ranges are slightly altered by the players on my direct right and left. This variable also impacts my aggression level. If I have, who I perceive to be weaker players to my left or people who over-fold, my aggression and opening ranges are increased. On the contrary, if I know I am going to get three-bet often, you better believe my opening ranges are ready to call off or go in for a four-bet. I like to believe that I have a very dynamic game that adapts live to my opponents.

Brad Ruben: I researched each player’s results at the WSOP Dealer’s Choice final table, looking for what games were their strengths. I also relied on my history with them from earlier [in the tournament]. My game plan was mostly based on how the chip distribution changed, and I had some games in mind for every scenario. I noticed how I had a couple opponents to my left with less experience in the big bet games, so my plan was to pick those most of the time.

As for ICM, I was very aware of the implications, not wanting to lose my position as a middle-of-the-pack stack. I was also aware of how others thought of ICM, and made a couple aggressive moves versus those ICM-aware opponents when we got down to four-handed and I was the shortest stack.

Overall, I’m very happy with my preparation and my play. My energy and focus were very high for this final table. This was a big contrast to how I felt later in the series, when exhaustion was taking over. In future series, I feel like I will add a week-long break in the middle, as I’m a firm believer that performance is directly correlated to how fresh one feels while they play. ♠

Asher Conniff is a WSOP Circuit winner and also a World Poker Tour champion, having taken down the 2015 WPT Championship for $973,683. The 34-year-old Brooklyn, New York native enjoyed a magical run through the 2022 World Series of Poker main event, finishing in tenth place for $675,000. He now has more than $3.5 million in career live tournament earnings. You can find Conniff on Twitter @misterashmoney.

Christina Gollins has broken out on the live tournament scene over the last couple of years. In December of last year she won a WSOP Circuit ring at the Bike and this year she’s made several final tables at the Venetian, including a win. This summer the Las Vegas native finished 11th in the massive WSOP One More For One Drop event, and took third in the Ladies Championship for another $73,604. Follow Gollins on Twitter @bbshark888.

Brad Ruben is a professional poker player and also a Peak Performance coach. The CEO of Analos Investments has dominated at the WSOP in recent years, winning four bracelets since 2020. This summer the Florida native took down the $1,500 Dealer’s Choice event, adding another $126,288 to his career totals, which are now over $1 million. Ruben is on Twitter @Brad_Ruben_.