Final Table Takedown: PokerGO Broadcaster Jeff Platt

Jeff Platt found poker during the Moneymaker boom, but it was more than a decade before he could work it into his career. The Dallas, Texas native graduated from the University of Southern California with a degree in broadcast journalism and scored his first gig working the sports desk at a Jackson, Mississippi news station.

He then worked for ESPN covering his hometown Dallas Mavericks of the NBA, and followed that up with a job reporting on the San Antonio Spurs, lobbing questions at legendary coach Gregg Popovich. He decided to take a shot in 2018, moving to Las Vegas for a chance at combining his two loves of broadcasting and poker.

It wasn’t long before he got his chance on PokerGO with shows like Friday Night Poker and The Big Blind, while also working events like the WSOP, SHRB, U.S. Poker Open, and Poker Masters. Platt is now the co-host of No Gamble, No Future, alongside Brent Hanks, which airs every Tuesday on PokerGO, with past episodes available on demand.

As a player, Platt has also found success. He made consecutive deep runs in the WSOP main event, finishing 203rd in 2014 for $44,728 and 60th in 2015 for another $113,764. Last year he finished fourth in the WSOP Double Stack event for $160,662, and this year he added another WSOP final table online.

Platt banked $100,804 in September at the Venetian, finding the winner’s circle in an event during the DeepStack Extravaganza series. Card Player caught up with Platt to discuss a couple of hands he played en route to the title.

Craig Tapscott: It seems that you have been playing a lot more events this past year, and your results have consistently been improving.

Jeff Platt: I’ve really worked hard on my game over these last two years. I use various training sites and watch a lot of poker streams. Fortunately for me, my job also provides an avenue of studying, as I get to sit there and watch the very best players in the world play hand after hand after hand. My studying helps me become a better player, which also makes me a better broadcaster.

CT: What was your game plan for this final table?

JP: I was in fifth place going into the final table, with just under 30 big blinds. We made the final table late in day two of the tournament, and after about a ten-minute break, we started playing, so it’s not like I had much time to prepare. I was cognizant of the other stack sizes and knew that Sergey Kislinsky was on my left with a lot of chips. He was the best player, in my opinion, remaining at that final table, so I knew I’d have to play relatively tight.  

Stacks: Jeff Platt – 950,000 (19 BB)
Sergey Kislinsky – 3,000,000 (60 BB)
Blinds: 25,000-50,000 with a 50,000 big blind ante
Players Remaining: 7

Action: Kislinsky opened from UTG to 110,000. Platt defended from the big blind holding Q 7.

JP: This was a pretty standard call. At this point in the final table, there were no super short stacks. I’m one of the bottom stacks at around 20 big blinds, and not worried about ICM or pay jumps at this point. 
 
Flop: Q Q 5 (pot: 295,000)

CT: Luck box.

JP: (laughs) Exactly. That was a good flop. 

Platt checks.

JP: I checked. I’m doing that with 100 percent of my hands on that flop, and Sergei bet…

Kislinsky bet 75,000.

CT: Any reads on this bet sizing?

JP: This was the standard sizing for him on this kind of a flop. Now, here’s the first question we’ll run into on this hand: do I check-call or check-raise?

I think Sergei thinks of me as a somewhat-capable player, and a capable player would not just check-raise with a queen. I would check-raise with a lot of my ace-high/king-high suited hands with a backdoor flush draw. I’d check-raise with hands like 8-6 suited or 7-6 suited that also have backdoor flush draws. And I’d check raise with some fives here, as well. So, with all that said, I decided to check-raise with the goods.
CT: How did you put together the bet sizing?

JP: I thought my sizing on these check-raises was supposed to be small, considering I started the hand with just 20 big blinds. So, I go about 2.5x, and make it…

Platt raised to 195,000.

JP: Now it got a little wild when Sergei clicked it back.

Kislinsky raised to 375,000.

CT: You certainly can never fold in this spot.

JP: Nope. And since I’m never folding here, my options are shove or call. I think in the GTO universe, both options are totally fine. In the moment, I thought that if I did jam, that for the most part, better hands would call, and worse hands would fold. Now if he had K-K or A-A, maybe 7-7 or J-J, sure, he might flick in the call, but I really wanted to keep in his bluffs. So…

Platt called.

Turn: 6 (pot: 1,045,000)

Platt checked.

JP: I was using the same rationale I’d just mentioned, wanting to keep his bluffs in.
Kislinsky bet 180,000.

CT: That seemed like quite a small bet sizing for the turn. What did you make of it?

JP: True, it surprised me. With more than a million in the pot, I just assumed his only options were check or jam (for about half-pot effective). I guess I really didn’t know what to make of it. 

At this point, I had about 550,000 behind. I was still thinking about keeping his bluffs in, and there aren’t many scary river cards. If he has a better queen or 5-5 or 6-6, I’m going to lose all my chips anyway.
 
Platt called. 

River: 9 (pot: 1,405,000)

Platt checked. Kislinsky shoved all in. Platt snapped called. Kislinsky showed K J, and Platt won the pot of 1,925,000.

JP: That was great news for me and a really important double-up. While I did snap-call there, it’s not like I was 100 percent confident I had the best hand. He could’ve easily had a better queen, and my day would’ve been done. This is just not a spot, based on all the aforementioned points, I would ever fold.

CT: Looking back at it, your call on the turn for more than one-third of your stack looked extremely strong. I was surprised he didn’t shut down on the river.

JP: I actually think it’s fine and wasn’t surprised he’d follow through on certain bluffs there. I’d have called on the turn with a five or six or any of my flush draws (which I have a decent amount of after check-raising flop). All of those hands he could easily push me off of with a river shove (even though I just had seven or eight big blinds behind)

Stacks: Jeff Platt – 6,500,000 (65 BB)
Russel McClean – 5,200,000 (52 BB)
Blinds: 50,000-100,000 with a 100,000 big blind ante
Players Remaining: 2

CT: I’m curious. Have you had much heads-up experience? What was the plan now that you were playing for the win?

JP: Entering this heads-up matchup, I was 1-7 lifetime in heads-up, which is something that’s always bothered me.

My plan was to follow the basic preflop strategy I’d seen time and time again on our PokerGO broadcasts. Any time we get down to heads-up, I’m fascinated by how the best in the world navigate those waters. Michael Addamo and Jason Koon really stand out to me, as do players like Jeremy Ausmus and Nick Schulman.  

I was using a mostly limping strategy on the button heads-up, mixing in a few raises here and there, and never folding. I could hear the voice of my broadcast partner, Brent Hanks, in my head while playing. “Jeff, you won’t see any folding on the button here with the big blind ante in play.”

Action: Platt limped on the button holding J 10. McClean raised to 400,000.

JP: That was a good sizing by him, and this had happened a few times already in heads-up play. My hand is way too good to fold, and there’s really no reason to three-bet. So, I…

Platt called. 

Flop: Q 9 7 (pot: 800,000)

CT: Pretty good flop for you.

JP: Yes. Not the worst flop for the J-10! He led out…

McClean bet 300,000, and Platt called.

JP: Pretty simple call here, my hand had a ton of equity versus his range. And I don’t think a raise accomplishes too much here, as on a Q-9-7 rainbow flop, most of his hands would continue. And sometimes I get put in a disastrous situation if he had three-bet, as I don’t want to get blown off my hand.

Turn: J (pot: 1,400,000)

JP: This is one of the turn cards that you would assume is good for me heads-up.
 
McClean bet 700,000.

JP: He leads out for a little less than half pot.

Platt called.

CT: Did you consider raising?

JP: At this point in the hand, if I raised, all his better hands continue. And of course, a lot of his worse hands would fold.

River: 4 (pot: 2,800,000)

McClean bet 1,200,000.

CT: What was you read after he led out here?

JP: Well now things got a little tricky. In super-simple terms, the second pair heads-up had to be pretty good, right? But it’s the other card in my hand that pushed me towards a call. That 10 of clubs. 

CT: Why was that?

JP: Well not only was I blocking his straights (K-10 and 10-8), but I also was blocking all his backdoor flushes. Then again, could I be blocking one of his main bluff candidates in the A-10? Sure. 

I was thinking that board had gotten pretty scary for even his good hands. Would he just resort to check-calling river with hands like A-A, K-K, K-Q or A-Q? I blocked his most likely two-pair in Q-J. With that club-club runout, I thought he’d be able to turn his ace-high (with the A) hands into bluffs. 

He still, though, didn’t have that many bluffs overall. Or did he? I still don’t know. I went back and forth for a while and ended up…. 

Platt called. McClean revealed Q Q and won the pot of 5,200,000.

JP: Yep, top set was good folks! Fortunately, I was able to come back from that one, and ended up being on the right side of that fun heads-up battle. ♠