Final Table Takedown: Evan Sandberg Scores Ring At WSOP Circuit Lake Tahoe

Evan Sandberg had a rocky start to his poker career. Following a deep run in the 2018 WSOP main event for $42,980 and chopping up an event at the LA Poker Classic for $169,700, the negative side of variance hit hard, and he ended up broke and back living with his parents.

After being fired from his job as a dishwasher at a local restaurant, Sandberg packed his bags and drove to Las Vegas, living in his car while grinding up a $350 stake he had been given by a friend. It took a bit of time between live and online play, but he eventually built back a $30,000 bankroll.

Then in 2021, the San Francisco native broke through by taking third in a Hard Rock Poker Open event for $158,400 while also taking home the trophy at the Wynn Fall Classic mystery bounty for $293,322. The next year, he added $94,568 and his first bracelet in the WSOP Online $2,000 no-limit event.

The final tables continued to stack up, especially around Las Vegas. This summer, Sandberg earned his second bracelet, again coming online, this time in the $1,000 no-limit event for $124,831. Most recently, he won the WSOP Circuit Lake Tahoe main event for his first gold ring, banking $133,841 while bringing his career totals to $1.9 million.

Card Player caught up with Sandberg to break down a few key hands from his most recent win.

Craig Tapscott: You picked three very interesting spots to share with us from this tournament. Why did you choose to share these three?

Evan Sandberg: The first two hands I thought were great to share because they’re spots that even a year ago, I likely wouldn’t have played this way. In fact, it’s kind of ironic I probably would have taken aggressive action in the first hand and passivity in the second.

The third hand is more of me being myself, and how I’ve always thought about the game.

Event: WSOP Circuit Lake Tahoe
Buy-In: $1,700
Entrants: 439
Prize Pool: $664,085
First-Place Prize: $133,841

Stacks: Evan Sandberg – 450,000 (7.5 BB) Villain – 1,200,000 (20 BB)
Blinds: 30,000-60,000 (60,000 BBA)
Players Remaining: 8

Sandberg is UTG holding J 10.

ES: I was the short stack with 7.5 big blinds. The average stack was 35 big blinds, so I had my work cut out for me. The last couple hours I had barely entered a pot, and I blinded down from 850,000 to 450,000.

CT: Were you happy with your play overall?

ES: I was concerned that I was playing too tight, but I didn’t have many opportunities to enter a hand for most of the final table. But then I finally had one.

J-10 offsuit under-the-gun used to be a standard spot to shove for me [with this stack size]. But after watching some of the best players grind out short stacks at final tables, I realized that I didn’t have to panic yet.

Even though I had lost nearly half my chips while barely even entering a pot, I reminded myself that at a final table the chips on the bottom of my stack are worth a lot more than the ones on the top. So even though I had blinded off half my stack, I probably only lost about 30 percent of my stack’s equity.

CT: What did you do?

ES: I was feeling a bit anxious having blinded down. Then I thought for a moment, and my gut told me it was a fold.

Sandberg folded.

ES: The results-oriented side of me was quite happy when I watched that hand play out. The cutoff opened and the big blind three-bet all in and took it down. I realized I likely would have busted had I went with my hand. I ended up being very fortunate a few hands later when I picked up kings on the button and got a much needed double up.

CT: Did you review the hand with a solver or with friends? What were the results from that?

ES: I ran this through a final table solver (which is very different than a standard chip EV solver, as it should be) and it says that even hands as strong as K-J offsuit and K-9 suited are folds.

However, the solver I’m using has a flatter payout structure than this tournament, and it also doesn’t account for future game considerations. Having to pay the blinds next hand is a big consideration.

CT: They do have limitations.

ES: Solvers definitely have limitations. I should be shoving a bit wider than it says (I’m shoving K-J offsuit, for example). This is actually a real good example of the limitations of solvers. They are definitely helpful, but I wouldn’t 100 percent trust its outputs for reasons like the ones I listed. 

Stacks: Evan Sandberg – 565,000 (9.5 BB) Villain – 1,200,000 (20 BB)
Blinds: 30,000-60,000 (60,000 BBA)
Players Remaining: 8

Villain raised to 150,000 in the small blind. Sandberg looked down at K-3 offsuit in the big blind.

ES: This is an interesting spot.

CT: Why?

ES: Because with my stack being just over nine big blinds, I expected the small blind to be shoving all-in the majority of the time. Maybe he would give me a walk if he had a really bad hand, but in general I expected him to be shoving.

What does it mean when he elected to make a small raise to 2.5 big blinds? Well, there’s what it means in theory, and what it means in practice.

In theory, it should mean that he’s extremely polarized. He either has such a strong hand that he would rather raise and let me shove into him so he can call off, or he has something that is too weak to shove so he elects to raise smaller and see if he can take it down.

The key here is that if he has a hand like K-J, he just wants to shove and take down the pot.

CT: And in practice? 

ES: Well, I can’t be sure. My opponent was a recreational player, but to his credit he had been putting his opponents in some tough spots throughout this final table. But I felt like he was going to be heavily weighted towards weak hands. Perhaps a hand like 10-4 suited which is actually good enough to be shoving he might just raise small with.

CT: So, what to do?

ES: I feared that I might look like an idiot, but obviously that can’t factor into my decision.

Sandberg moved all-in.

ES: I expected a very quick decision from my opponent. I was thinking he likely had a weak hand that he would fold but realizing there’s a chance that he was incredibly strong and snaps me off with a big pocket pair.

However, he actually thought for a very long time. I realized he might have the type of hand that I was hoping he would shove with, say K-9 or Q-10, to name a couple examples. Ultimately to my relief he ended up…

Villain folded. Sandberg won the pot of 270,000.

Stacks: Evan Sandberg – 590,000 (10 BB) Villain – 2,000,000 (33 BB)
Blinds: 30,000-60,000 (60,000 BBA)
Players Remaining: 7

Villain raised to 125,000 from the button. Sandberg looked down at K 5 in the big blind.

ES: The small blind folded and I was in the big blind with 590,000, or just under 10 big blinds. I was the shortest stack, but the guy on my left was also quite short, and the small blind didn’t have that much more than me either.

Sandberg called.

ES: As the shortest stack I still felt comfortable calling with this hand. If I was perhaps sixth out of eighth at the table, then I would actually have to play tighter because I can likely get some players to bust before me.

The pot is now 340,000 and I have 465,000 in my stack.

Flop: 10 9 8

ES: This was a flop that was very good for my range, but absolutely terrible for my hand. I took some time, thinking that I have a lot of hands that are going to contemplate leading out in this spot.

Sandberg checked, and the button checked behind.

Turn: 7

Sandberg checked, and Villain bet 80,000.

CT: What did you make of this bet?

ES: What made it interesting is that I think a lot of players would always bet a jack on the flop.

He had a big stack, and I was under a ton of pressure. I only have slightly over a pot-sized bet left, and I think it’s extremely natural for him to put me all in on the flop if he had a jack.

CT: So, a red alert when off in your head?

ES: Definitely. It made me think that a lot of players are likely to be bluffing in his spot when betting the turn. Though I do think there’s actually a category of players who almost never bluff in this spot because they are afraid that they can’t credibly represent a jack after having checked back the flop.

These are some of the things I enjoy the most about poker, trying to figure out how your opponent thinks about different situations. From watching this guy play, I felt like he probably would bet all his jacks on the flop, even a hand like J-9 which might be an attractive check back.

Sandberg raised to 175,000. Villain folded, and Sandberg won the pot of 340,000.

ES: Of course I can never be 100 percent sure, but it felt like a great spot to try to take down the pot. Lucky for me it worked out.

CT: What do you credit the growth of your game to?

ES: It’s a combination of time spent studying and working on my mental game. I see these two things as going hand in hand. I try to improve one and then the other, rather than just improving my technical game.

I think that pure studying without working on your mentality can be dangerous for many, because it means that when you’re not on your “A game” you can misapply a lot of what you’ve learned. As for studying, I do some solver work, but probably not as much as others.

CT: How so?

ES: When I do use a solver, I look at one solution and try my best to understand it conceptually rather than memorizing the spot. This goes with pretty much all these game theory concepts; I try to understand the concepts more than the charts.

For example, what makes a good spot to underbet, overbet, block bet, range bet, play heavy check. I also watch a lot of the GGPoker Super Million$ final tables. They are free on YouTube and you can see some of the best players navigate final tables with all the hole cards face up. This alone is very valuable, and they always have a guest commentator, and a lot of the time that guest is a world-class player. It’s amazing to me that this is free material to the public.

CT: You’ve been at some final tables with some killers over the last two years. What did you learn?

ES: I have been. Early last year I was at a final table with Alex Foxen, Bin Weng, and some other tough players. This would always be a tough spot, but I was in a really bad mindset at the time and my anxiety levels were through the roof. I couldn’t snap out of it.

CT: Did you freeze up?

ES: Not really. But I ended up playing like a nit because I thought I had no chance of playing my ‘A game.’ If that type of situation happened today, I think I would deal with it much better with the techniques I’ve incorporated since then.

CT: How do you work on your mindset?

ES: As far as mental work, I’ve taken up yoga, and learned some postures and stretches that help ease my mind. It’s also helped me pay attention to the state of my mind and body more. One of the biggest changes in the last couple years is how fast I am now able to realize when I’m drifting into a bad mental state. I used to not realize it until it was too late, but now I catch myself very quick. ♠