Final Table Takedown: Thomas Fuller Wins Aria Poker Open

Thomas Fuller was a professional poker player in his 20s, scoring some notable wins and big finishes on the North American Poker Tour, Heartland Poker Tour, and European Poker Tour. But he left the poker life behind, opting to continue his working career as an elementary school teacher with a profitable daily fantasy sports hobby.

The game kept calling back to the Colorado resident, however, and he found himself playing the occasional tournament in nearby Black Hawk.

Eight months ago, he decided to go back to full time play. The new father knew that his hard work and persistence would ultimately pay off, but a major win came in way ahead of schedule.

In December, Fuller navigated his way through a field of 1,130 in the $1,600 BetMGM Aria Poker Open, earning the trophy and the $227,074 first-place prize. Card Player caught up with Fuller to break down a few key hands he played en route to the title.

Event: Aria Poker Open
Buy-In: $1,600
Entrants: 1,130
Prize Pool: $1,615,900
First-Place Prize: $227,074

Stacks: Thomas Fuller – 20,100,000 (67 BB) Benjamin Gros – 4,800,000 (16 BB)
Blinds: 150,000-300,000 with a 300,000 big blind ante
Players: 5

Craig Tapscott: Congratulations on your biggest score and welcome back to playing as a professional.

Thomas Fuller: Thanks! I certainly had the best cards at the final table. Most of the pots I won were straightforward, including preflop all-ins. I’m actually most proud of two hands that I lost. 

Gros raised to 600,000 from the cutoff.

TF: At this point there were two shorter stacks with about 10 big blinds each. I had just busted Yaser Al-Keliddar and held a healthy chip lead with 67 bigs.

CT: What was your take on Gros?

TF: I’d been playing with Gros for a while going back to the previous day. I knew he was an excellent player who’d be highly conscious of the current heavy ICM implications. On the button with K 5, I had an easy three-bet.

CT: What was your plan?

TF: I could confidently three-bet this hand, knowing he’d have to fold everything marginal and would rarely call. If he jammed, I could comfortably fold. I decided to make it 1.2 million, or four big blinds.

Fuller tried to raise to 1,200,000 with K 5.

TF: But I didn’t make it 1,200,000, I stuck in 2,200,000. Even though we’d been playing with these chips for hours at the final table, I confused the red 500k chips for 250k chips (which didn’t exist).

500k is a rare denomination, not that I am used to playing with chips representing six digits. I was thinking four red 250k chips + two orange 100k chips = 1.2 million. But of course, it was four 500k chips + two 100k chips = 2.2 million. I am a rather slow player and had never played with time banks before this trip.

Not wanting to waste a time extension on a simple preflop three-bet, I stuck in the 2,200,000 before double-checking the amount. I ended up wasting a time bank anyway!

CT: We’ve all made mistakes like that at one time or another. What did Gros do?

TF: He tanked. I quickly realized my error and silently implored him to fold while he stared at me. Instead…

Gros shoved all-in.

CT: Okay, what now?

TF: Time to do some math. I had to call 2,600,000 to win a pot of 10,300,000 – nearly 4:1 odds. The misclick was a major error but could get worse if I compounded it with another.

As painful as it would be to double up Gros, who I considered the strongest player at the table, I was now getting too good a price to fold. There was also the upside of busting a fierce adversary and getting four-handed with a big chip lead.

Fuller called. Gros flipped over AJ.

CT: At least you were live.

TF: Yes. I had plenty of equity (37 percent) against A-J suited.

Board: Q10102K
Gros won the pot of 10,350,000.

TF: The river was a king, but it gave him a straight and the double-up. I continued to groan and berate myself after the hand. It appeared I was tilting heavily.

CT: That’s never good. How did you pull yourself together to be able to continue with some balance?

TF: It was not the look you’d expect from a professional poker player, especially an aspiring Stoic such as myself. “Fuller’s about to explode here,” commentator Remko Rinkema said after I let out an exaggerated, forceful breath. 

But what was actually going on was an intentional processing of my emotions. I knew my natural disposition and Stoic studies would keep my play tilt-free going forward.

Tilt has never been an issue for me. I knew I’d made a costly error in one of the biggest spots of my career, an error that could potentially haunt me for years. But I felt strongly that immediately acknowledging and accepting that error was the important first step in dealing with it. I didn’t want to deny or bury the mistake, in both the short and long-term.

The exaggerated breath I let out was my conscious acceptance that error would be part of my experience forever, along with the understanding it had no bearing on the future of the final table. Stoicism isn’t about denying or neutering emotions – it’s about maintaining gratitude and staying present. 

CT: How did you deal with the next few hands dealt to you?

TF: Fortunately, I picked up rags the next hand, then got back into the mix the hand afterward raising J7. I had an opportunity to bluff the turn when I picked up a straight draw, but opted to check-fold because I was concerned about a timing tell Yang Lu had displayed.

CT: If you were really tilting bad it would be hard pressed to fold a turn where you picked up equity.

TF: It turned out he had a set. If I was tilting, I don’t know if I would have put all the pieces together there and limited the loss to my preflop open. I believe I was 100 percent focused in that hand and the rest of the final table, a testament to the way I’d processed the misclick and my Stoic studies. 

CT: You settled that emotional flare up pretty quickly. That’s impressive.

TF: I’m grateful for how it all worked out, as I caught such great cards afterwards. I was able to win despite the mistake.

It would have also been a cruel exit for Gros, as he diagnosed that situation perfectly. He played a masterful final table. He was the best player there and I’m glad my mistake didn’t cost him a career-best live score. He deserved the victory, but I held over him heads-up. Gros is such a skilled and courageous player; I expect to see him make many big final tables in the future.

Stacks: Thomas Fuller – 15,200,000 (38 BB) Michael Estes – 5,000,000 (12.5 BB)
Blinds: 200,000-400,000 with a 400,000 big blind ante
Players: 4

Fuller raised from the cutoff to 900,000 holding A8. Estes called from the button.

CT: I’m sure you were a bit suspicious when a 12 big blind stack just called you in position.

TF: It is a bit startling when someone flats a raise on a stack like that at a big final table. He is not ‘supposed’ to have many flats on this stack. But Estes had generated chips throughout the final table with aggression that often deviated from a GTO, ICM-responsive approach.

Flop: 1085
 
CT: What hand range were you assigning Estes?

So, a trapping big pair was unlikely, as was a lower pair which I’d expect him to jam rather than call.

CT: What then?

TF: Well. I also wouldn’t expect him to have premium high cards, as most of those would also jam preflop. I would expect A-K, A-Q, A-J, A-10, and probably K-Q to move in preflop.

That left highish, connecting cards he wanted to see a flop with such as K-J, K-10, Q-J, Q-10, J-10, J-9, 10-9, mostly if not all suited. I wasn’t sure just how wide Estes could be here; although he had played loosely throughout the day, I still expected a minuscule range on 12 bigs. I wasn’t blocking any of this perceived range. 

CT: Proceeding cautiously, what was the plan?

TF: I now had to decide what to do with my nearly-naked middle pair. The pot was 2,800,000 and Estes now had 4,100,000, so about 1.5 stack-to-pot ratio.

This flop appeared close to neutral as far as range advantage. I wasn’t obviously compelled to bet or check it. I was afraid of having to make a difficult decision if I bet and he moved all-in, so I decided to check and see what he did. 

Fuller checked, and Estes bet 1,100,000.

TF: He bet 1,100,000 into the 2,800,000 pot. Not a notable sizing generally, but it felt a little large here as he was betting 2.75 of the 10.5 big blinds he had left.

It was a sizing that made calling less comfortable. It felt spewy to call here when I figured the rest of his money was likely going in on the turn and there were so few cards I’d like to see roll off the deck. I could go all-in, but would only get called by better hands and big draws.

It would be highly undesirable to go all-in, get called and lose, as my stack would then be about even with Estes, about half of Gros and about double Tran. I knew Gros would torment us in the ICM cage in this potential scenario, so I really wanted to avoid it. If I folded, I would still be in good position to get heads-up with Gros. 

CT: Were you able to nail down his hand range a bit clearer after the flop bet?

TF: I included a lot of tens and a lot of draws. I figured he would always bet a ten, but wasn’t sure if he’d bet straight draws like Q-J or J-9.

That uncertainty weighs the range further towards a ten or the unlikely trap. Ultimately the strength of this perceived range and the undesirability of calling or raising combined to make me fold.

Fuller folded, and Estes won the pot of 2,800,000.

CT: Did the fold here eat at you as play continued?

TF: Not really. While unconventional, I believe this disciplined, measured check-fold was the best line available to me. I had to stomach the possibility I had him beat and I’d look cowardly folding a strong hand.

Later I was thrilled to learn that he had J10. If I had put money in on this flop, my position would have been compromised. I believe this check-fold was the best decision I made at the final table.