Final Table Takedown: Mike Jukich Jumps For Joy With WSOP Monster Stack Win

Within two months of learning poker, Mike Jukich won a $10 rebuy online for $10,000. The Forest, Virginia native was hooked, and it wasn’t long before he was playing with his college friends, reading strategy books, and watching whatever poker he could find on TV.

In the nearly two decades since, Jukich has been a regular competitor on the tournament trail, with his best year coming in 2013. That summer he won a World Series of Poker Circuit ring and $165,438 in Baltimore. He followed that up with a deep run to 51st place in the WSOP main event in Las Vegas for another $156,265.

This summer, the 38-year-old was more determined than ever, even writing out his ambition to win at least six-figures during his Vegas trip. He warmed up with a win at the MGM Grand Summer Series for $37,667 and immediately registered for the $1,500 Monster Stack at the WSOP taking place on the Strip. Four days later, and he had secured his first gold bracelet and a massive $966,577 payday.

Card Player caught up with Jukich to break down some key hands that led to his victory, including one that made him literally jump on the table with joy!

Craig Tapscott: Let’s breakdown two hands from your epic dream run to a WSOP bracelet and nearly $1 million score.

Mike Jukich: Okay. But I do have to mention that I somehow ran pocket kings into pocket aces three times all-in preflop but was fortunate to have had them covered each time.
CT: That’s amazing. You must have been very grounded and patient.

MJ: I feel like it’s a great testament to the importance of controlling what we can control and winning the pots that don’t play themselves out in a standard fashion.

CT: Let’s breakdown the first hand.

Stacks: Mike Jukich – 74,900,000 (30 BB) Francis Anderson – 96,300,000 (38 BB)
Blinds: 1,200,000-2,500,000
Big Blind Ante: 2,500,000
Players Remaining: 6

CT: How did you prepare for this final table?

MJ: We started day four with 39 players remaining, and I was in 32nd place. We were scheduled to play down to a winner, so there wasn’t exactly any “preparation” to be had. I did have a small group of friends that I talk strategy with that would watch the stream and try to offer any advice.

As far as visualization goes, I made sure to be ready if I were to make the final table. I threw on two gold chains, a gold watch, and even had gold lettering on my shirt to try my best to attract the gold bracelet.

CT: That’s funny. Obviously, it worked. What was your stack size compared to the rest of the final table?

MJ: I was second in chips and [Anderson] was chip leader. What makes this hand particularly unique is that we had a player at the table with only about five big blinds. The ICM pressure really starts to play a role at final tables when the pay jumps are massive.

CT: What was the difference in payouts?

MJ: I think at this point the difference between sixth and fifth place was about $60,000, so it would be a disaster to bust out with someone being so short. I opened…

Jukich opened UTG to 5,000,000 holding 5 5. Anderson called from the cutoff holding A Q.

CT: What were your thoughts post hand after you saw what he had called with? Were you surprised he didn’t three-bet?

MJ: This is about the top of his calling range in this spot. He still has to respect my UTG open and doesn’t really want to play a massive pot.

Flop: A K 3 (pot: 16,000,000)

MJ: This is an excellent flop for my perceived range, but my hand doesn’t exactly interact with the board very well. His range here should contain a lot of Broadway type hands, and pocket pairs like sixes through jacks. Those hands would have folded immediately or called one street. So, I started with a small bet…

Jukich bet 4,500,000.

CT: Why that sizing?

MJ: It’s about 25 percent pot in order to clear out some immediate equity of the underpairs and begin to tell a story. But…

Anderson called.
Turn: 4 (pot: 25,000,000)

CT: Good card for you.

MJ: Yes. The card brought in a gutshot straight draw for my hand. I liked picking up a few extra outs here, and at this point my range is uncapped, which means I could comfortably bet again. Now I could really apply pressure to some K-x type hands that continued to my small-sized flop bet. Maybe even some A-x hands as well would decide to fold the turn. I went with a sizing that’s about half pot…

Jukich bet 13,000,000.

MJ: This allowed for me to have a pot-sized bet left on the river. I was hoping to get a fold right away here. But if not, I didn’t expect to ever be re-raised, so I should still be able to realize all of my equity.

Anderson called.

MJ: Gulp. (laughs) This was one of the biggest spots of my career, I know that I have a range advantage and should be able to go all-in as bluff on a lot of rivers. That was the plan. But we never know how we will react in those moments.

RIVER: 2 (pot: 51,000,000)

CT: Wow! What a card.

MJ: Thank God. The dealer burned and turned the two of spades. We will never know if I was going to be able to pull the trigger or not, and that was more than okay with me. (laughs) I don’t have the nuts, but as you should know 6-5 would be a hard hand for him to have in general. I blocked two of the fives, but also given the situation, stack sizes, and positions in the hand, my opponent will never have 6-5 preflop. With that said we had the best hand almost always.

CT: So how do you extract the most value?

MJ: Well, my hand was really disguised here. And if I was willing to be all-in, then my hand was going to look extremely strong. But when it came down to it, I decided to shove anyway.

Jukich moved all-in.

MJ: Now he had a very tough decision. He has probably the best hand he can possibly have by the river given the circumstances.

CT: What range did you put him on by this point?

MJ: He most likely three-bets A-K and K-K+, so A-Q is the near tip top of his range. He’s tortured by the ICM pressure, and tanked for what felt like forever, and ultimately…

Anderson folded. Jukich won the pot of 51,000,000.

MJ: He ended up laddering up to third with that excellent laydown.

CT: Upon reflection, what do you make of your shove?

MJ: Looking back at the hand I still like my shove. Folding almost everything is correct in this situation, for him. But we can’t just assume that our opponents will always play perfectly. As an exploit when we know that the villain in the hand should not call with almost anything, then maybe when we do get there on the river it’s better to pick a size that they might just have to pay off.

Stacks: Mike Jukich – 134,000,000 (33 BB) Mateusz Moolhuizen – 189,000,000 (47 BB)
Blinds: 2,000,000-4,000,000
Big Blind Ante: 4,000,000
Players Remaining: 2

MJ: When we began heads-up play, I started at about a 2:1 deficit. We’ve only played five or six hands and seen one flop at this point, and I’ve won every hand and closed the gap on his chip lead significantly. At that moment, I had all of the momentum in the match.

Jukich raised from the button to 8,000,000 holding K Q. Moolhuizen called from the big blind holding 6 2.

Flop: K 6 2 (pot: 20,000,000)

CT: A pretty good flop for you, not knowing your opponent’s cards. What’s the plan?

MJ: Well, we weren’t super deep, so this was most likely going to be a big pot. He flopped two pair with a backdoor flush draw, meanwhile I had flopped top pair.

Moolhuizen checked. Jukich bet 6,000,000.

MJ: I choose to bet a small sizing. My hand needed very little protection, and this flop favors the preflop raiser. To my surprise I was quickly met with a check-raise…

Moolhuizen raised to 19,000,000.

CT: You can’t really fold here, can you?

MJ: At this point like I’ve mentioned before, he had not won a single hand heads-up. He had to be getting frustrated. Any pair heads-up is relatively strong, so having top pair with a queen kicker made for an easy call.

Turn: 2 (pot: 58,000,000)

CT: A blank.

MJ: Yes. All of his drawing type hands have missed, so this appears to be a fantastic turn card for me. There’s 58 million in the middle and…

Moolhuizen bets 20,000,000.

CT: Clearly, he had a very strong hand.

MJ: The pot had ballooned to 78,000,000. Facing this turn bet I had 109,000,000 behind, so I had a few things to think about. He could’ve had some combinations of suited 2-x that he defended preflop, but not very many. I was also worried that he may take the bottom of his range on the flop and raise. And some of those combinations included 2-x.

CT: As you stated, he could have simply been very frustrated. But did you really want to risk it all in this spot? It doesn’t matter how much gold you’re wearing.

MJ: It might be an attempt to stop me from running him over. My hand is too strong to ever fold, but most likely just calling is correct here. If I did decide to shove, then I’m hoping the Villain will have to fold out all of his bluffs or semi bluffs and deny any equity he may have. And there’s also a chance we had our opponent in a spot where he was coolered and forced to call off with a strong K-x hand, I can’t have it every time right? So…

Jukich shoved all-in. Moolhuizen called.

MJ: I announced, “all in.” What happened next is a player’s worst nightmare, the dreaded snap call. I was devastated. I knew I was in trouble. He not only had a deuce, but he had 6-2 suited for a full house.

CT: Your mind must have been racing.

MJ: I can’t really describe what was going through my mind at the time. I just knew that this could possibly be the end to my dreams of winning a bracelet.

I heard his rail saying, “it’s over, it’s over.” And I thought to myself – really? I’ve played a lot of poker over the years and seen everything. So, his rail’s overconfidence actually allowed some hope to enter into my mind.

I was focused on the river and visualized a king. I had played four long days and wasn’t ready to go out like this. It all happened so quick…

River: K (pot: 268,000,000)
Jukich won the pot with kings full of deuces.

MJ: And just like that I took a near 5.5 to 1 chip lead. The very next hand I won my first WSOP gold bracelet. I jumped on the table and hugged the dealer. It still feels surreal to win one, but to do it in that fashion… it’s indescribable.

CT: Did you go back and replay that all-in on the turn? What did you learn from that hand when all was said and done?

MJ: I knew the right play was to just call the turn and my friends certainly let me hear all about it. As it turned out with the river being a king, I likely would not have completely doubled through. It’s one of the worst rivers he could see with his particular holding. I still would have taken down a big pot and kept the momentum, but who knows what could have happened if I had just called. ♠