Final Table Takedown: Discipline And Hero Calls With Kasey Lyn Mills

Dallas-based poker pro Kasey Lyn Mills has burst onto the tournament scene, picking up three World Series of Poker Circuit rings at Choctaw Casino in Durant, Oklahoma in the span of just one year.

The WSOP Circuit regular has nine final tables on the tour overall, plus a deep run in the inaugural World Poker Tour Voyage Championship.

Card Player recently caught up with the Poker Now ambassador and commentator to break down a couple key hands from her latest victory.

Hand No. 1: Embracing Discipline Under Pressure

Players Remaining: 17

Craig Tapscott: Can you talk about your latest WSOP Circuit win, which came in a $400 six-max no-limit event?

Kasey Lyn Mills: With the field dwindling from 45 players to just a few, I felt confident—until the dynamics shifted. As the final two tables merged, I hit a cold streak that tested both my discipline and resolve.

Up until this point, I had accumulated chips throughout the tournament with little resistance. My aggressive strategy worked well until about two tables left in the tournament. That’s when I encountered the first real pushback. With the blinds going up, I suddenly faced a series of three-bet jams from competent opponents who weren’t afraid to counter my aggression.

CT: Please give us a few examples.

KLM: Within two orbits, while holding a comfortable chip lead, I had opened K-Q offsuit, A-7 suited, and A-10 offsuit in standard spots. My opponents responded with a three-bet jam each time for 21, 15, and 22 big blinds, respectively.

Calling would have jeopardized a significant portion of my stack. Some players might be worried they are getting picked on or think they will be perceived as weak, but it is important to continue playing the solid, aggressive strategy that got you there.

My strategy paid off, and I was able to battle down to a heads-up battle with a small chip disadvantage of 1,200,000 to 1,800,000.

Sometimes, the most important hand is the one you don’t play.

CT: Agreed. What were a few of the hard lessons you learned before recognizing that it’s sometimes best to wait for a better spot?

KLM: Since I come from a cash game background, I’ve had to learn some tough lessons about stack preservation, especially when it comes to the [late stages of tournaments].

The very thing that can consistently get you a big stack will also send you to the rail if you can’t shift gears. I’ve had several bustouts where I had built a great stack and made one big mistake by either overplaying a hand or not over folding a hand in a spot where my opponent is not capable of a big bluff deep in a tournament.

This comes down to understanding the shifting dynamics of tournament poker, and it takes experience to learn. Many players think ICM (Independent Chip Model) is only important on bubbles and final tables. It is actually important much earlier in the tournament, and you must be cautious when you decide to put chips in the middle.

CT: What were the ICM implications given you came in as the big stack?

KLM: ICM is used to estimate a player’s tournament equity (expected value in real money) based on their stack size relative to others. It becomes especially crucial in final table or bubble situations, where chip values are not linear — meaning that having twice as many chips does not mean you have twice as much equity due to payout structures.

The simplest example I would like to give is that in Chip EV (cash game poker), you would take a 51 percent edge all day and make a living on it, but in tournament poker, you will likely need a higher edge to make the risk worth it as chips gained are not as valuable as chips lost. It is important to understand risk premium to know how much equity you need for the breakeven threshold.

As the big stack you want to adjust to increase aggression against medium stacks. Medium stacks feel trapped by ICM, as they don’t want to risk busting before the short stacks. You can frequently three-bet light and steal pots without having to show strong hands.

You also want to be selective in calling all-ins. Even if you have a solid hand, calling off against another big stack can be risky. Losing a huge pot can drop you from the dominant position to a middling stack, hurting your final payout potential.

Make sure to pressure short stacks wisely. Short stacks often wait for a pay jump and fold more often, however, don’t overextend against a short stack when they shove, as their range will likely be stronger than usual.

It is also important to stay fluid as we can easily go from chip leader to medium or short stack. Adjusting logically instead of emotionally on the fly will help you ride the waves of tournament poker.

Hand No. 2: A Heads-Up Hero Call

Players Remaining: 2

CT: You had a slight disadvantage heads-up, but were still sitting on nearly 50 big blinds.

KLM: In this deep-stacked heads-up match, I had been mostly opening on the button. I had a good feel for my opponent and closed his chip lead to almost even stacks for the big hand that would propel me to victory.

I wanted to play lots of hands from the button, and even though I had primarily been raising, I decided to limp in this hand.

Mills limped from the button holding 8 5, and the Villain checked.

CT: What kind of read did you have on the Villain at the final table?

KLM: Having played with this opponent for a while, I had a solid read on his tendencies. I believed he had very few traps in his range, and I could discount most A-X hands, pocket pairs, and some K-X holdings.

Flop: A 8 3

Villain checked.

KLM: My opponent checked, and given my read and the board texture, I opted to check back with middle pair.

Turn: 7

Villain checked.

KLM: My opponent checked again, and now I decided to go for value as I figured I was always ahead and could get value from worse pairs and draws.

Mills bet 80,000, and Villain raised to 320,000.

CT: What did you make of this raise?

KLM: I took some time to think. Given my earlier assumption about his range, I felt he still had very little aces and other traps. For these reasons and based on how he played thus far, I did not think his line made much sense. From my experience, this tends to weigh more towards bluffs, so I decided to make the call.

Mills called.

River: 2

Villain bet 450,000.

KLM: Without hesitation, he quickly led for 450,000, which was most of my remaining stack. At this moment, I had to put the entire hand together.

I had already discounted most of his A-x holdings. I blocked straights with my five. The flush draw missed, which meant my lack of a spade in hand didn’t block his potential bluffs.

Given my turn call and how the board ran out, I believed even his strong value hands wouldn’t always want to bet big here on the river.

Considering all these factors, I concluded he was too weighted toward bluffs. Still, making this call with just a weak pair of eights for most of my stack was daunting. If I was wrong, I’d be left with only 10 big blinds.

Mills called. Villain said they had queen high and mucked. Mills won the 1,800,000 pot.

KLM: In the end, I decided to go with my read and flicked in the call. My opponent barely whispered, “queen high.” I tabled my hand, scooped the huge pot, and the momentum was unstoppable from there. A few hands later I felted him.

CT: Great call. That had to feel great!

KLM: Thanks. Ultimately, my tournament victory wasn’t defined by one spectacular hand but by a series of disciplined decisions—the folds when the odds were against me and a calculated hero call when the moment demanded it.

CT: Your game has grown tremendously over the last few years, and the results show your hard work.

KLM: When it comes to improving at poker, I think the most important factor is that you have to love the game. If you aren’t obsessed with it and think about it 24/7 at some point in your career, there will always be others who do. They will want it more, and you’ll be drawing dead.

Talking about the game with other strong players is probably the best way to improve, as you can get ideas about the game, and they can point out flaws in your logic that you may not otherwise recognize.

Many players only talk about the big pots they play when doing hand reviews, but it is usually the small, common spots that cause the biggest hits to your win rate. You likely do something every day that you don’t realize is a flawed way of thinking.

CT: What do you notice when watching players at the table?

KLM: This is another aspect of live poker that many people do not value highly enough, including many top online players. Most players stay on their phones too often and miss a lot of crucial information. Tournaments can be long days, and we are all guilty of going on our phones and checking out mentally, but the more you can stay present, the more information you can pick up.

Some simple examples will be if you see players yet to act behind you, showing their action ahead of time, such as getting their cards ready to fold. If you are in the cutoff and see the button about to fold, you can now consider raising a wider range.

Some specific things I will be on the lookout for are eye movements and reactions. Do they flinch when looking at the board when the turn gets revealed? Do they look away, blank stare, look at their chip stack? It is important to get a baseline for each player and add that to our bank for strategic decision-making.

I also consider breathing and pulse tells along with other body language. There are dozens of clues the body wants to give away, and many players aren’t aware that they need to do a better job concealing them.

It is also important not to be overconfident with a single read as different tells can mean different things depending on the player. I like to get a baseline with showdown evidence to confirm my reads and will continue to adjust them as new evidence presents itself.

Kasey Lyn Mills is available as a host for events, poker commentating, and marketing/brand promotion at AboveTheFelt.com. Find her on Twitter/X and Instagram @PokerMommaa. ♠

*Photos by WSOP, Poker.org, Eric Butler, Matthew Berglund, WPT.