Capture the Flag: Ray HensonCash Game Pro Talks About Deep Runs in WSOP Main Event |
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Ray Henson has been a cash-game grinder since he was 21 years of age, and in the past decade he has established himself as one of the best high-limit players around. Despite the cash-game background, years of deep runs at the World Series of Poker have helped Henson earn the bitter-sweet distinction as one of the most skilled members of the poker community without a WSOP bracelet.
The 33-year-old Henson has remarkably finished in the money in the WSOP main event four times in the past seven years, with his closest run at a final table being a 12th place finish in 2007 for $476,000. This year, Henson once again cracked the top 100, finishing in 99th place out of 6,865 runners.
In addition to being extremely proficient at wading through massive no-limit hold’em fields, the Texan, who never was an online player, choosing to put the vast majority of his hours in at the Commerce Casino in Los Angeles, has also successfully balanced family life with his poker career.
Card Player caught up with the cash game pro to talk about his deep runs in the main event, what a bracelet would mean to him at this stage in his career, and how online poker’s Black Friday has affected the live cash games.
Brian Pempus: First off, can you talk about your cash game background? Describe your progression through the stakes in the poker world.
Ray Henson: I started playing poker when I was 21, in a $4-$8 limit hold’em home game. My parents taught me how to play. My dad would go to some home games with bigger limits, and I would go watch him. It was about two to three months after I began at $4-$8 that I started playing $15-$30. I was beating it on a consistent basis, so I decided to quit my job and start playing full time. I would go to Vegas or follow the tournament circuit playing mostly limit cash games, some pot-limit Omaha, as there weren’t a whole lot of no-limit hold’em cash games at this point in time. As no-limit started getting popular I would play some, but I have mostly kept to my limit hold’em roots. Now I usually play $100-$200 to $400-$800 limit, sometimes with no-limit and some mix games sprinkled in. The mix games are growing rapidly at the higher limits.
BP: Can you talk about your deep run in the WSOP main event this year?
RH: My run this year was so much different than my 12th place finish in 2007. That year I had a ton of chips all the way through. This year I was extremely short stacked much of the tournament. At one point on day 2, I got as low as five big blinds. This made it much more of a grind as I had to truly battle the entire time, knowing one small mistake could be the end of me. On the final day, I started with about 15 big blinds and battled all day to get to an average stack going into my final hand. I busted with an over pair to a flopped two pair to finish in 99th place.
BP: With this year’s performance, you now have cashed in the main event four times over the past seven summers. What about your game makes you so successful at making it deep in this one event?
RH: In this event the stacks are so deep, so more post-flop play is involved, rather than a lot of preflop shoving. This makes it more like a cash game, which I feel benefits me versus most tournament players, and it takes so much of the luck out, which benefits me versus the amateurs. Even when you get short in this event, you still have between 20 to 30 big blinds, and most people panic at this point and make a mistake. This year I spent much of the tournament at about that stack size, but I never panicked. I remained patient and picked my spots.
BP: What kind of advice would you give to cash game players who want to branch off into tournaments?
RH: I would advise cash game players, who want to play tournaments, to study! These tournament players are good, especially some of these online kids that have played thousands and thousands of them. It’s so easy to underestimate these players and to think we cash game players are so much better. I made the mistake before, thinking that I didn’t need to study, and now I know better.p0-
BP: Can you talk about the importance of table image? Has it been harder for you to get action after appearing on TV for World Series events?
RH: Table image is huge in poker, and knowing what kind of table image you have is even more important. I can be playing at a table and three people may think I’m really tight, and three others may think I’m just a loose cannon. So knowing what each individual person thinks is crucial! In regards to the TV exposure, I actually have more people wanting to play with me now, just because they have seen me on a poker broadcast.
BP: As one of the best players in the world without a WSOP bracelet, how important is it for you to finally get one? What would it mean for your poker career?
RH: Oh boy, yes, I would say a WSOP bracelet is pretty important to me! I have always dreamed of winning one, and hopefully next summer I will be able to achieve that. I don’t play tournaments year round, but I do spend every summer playing tons of WSOP events. To be able to take one home and show my daughters, saying to them, “Look what Daddy won!” — would be an amazing feeling. For them to see my accomplishment, after years of my hard work, would be nice. I have always said I would love to play more tournaments, and so maybe if I were able to win a bracelet I would actually start playing more.
BP: Anything interesting happen for you in the cash games this summer?
RH: I actually decided to focus solely on tournaments and not play any cash this summer. In the past I would play both, and I noticed it affected my play during the events. I would show up tired from playing the day before, or skip a tournament altogether because I would be in a good cash game.
BP: Have you noticed Black Friday hurting the amount of fish that frequent the cash games you play? Or have the games improved with online poker being absent?
RH: Black Friday definitely has hurt the number of fish in the games because there is now a higher concentration of competent players who are all playing together. There has been some benefit though, because there are more games running and more limits available around the clock than in the past. Also, all the online tournament grinders have had to turn to live cash games to make their living. A lot of them are very good, but a lot of them just aren’t as good as they were at online tournaments. So in a way Black Friday has hurt the live cash games, but in a way it has helped.
BP: In general, excluding the positive and negative results of Black Friday, how have the live cash games changed over the years at Commerce (and elsewhere)?
RH: Over the years the games have gotten much tougher. Part of the reason is because I’m playing higher limits now, and part of the reason is because some of the fish from years ago have learned to play better. Also, the U.S. economy has really hurt the cash games, because a lot of the fish that used to come in and lose a lot of money have quit playing on a regular basis, either because they can’t afford to lose that much or they need to be at their respective businesses more.
BP: You have been around poker for a while. What is your prediction for the future of the game in this country?
RH: I think that there will be another poker boom after they resolve this online poker situation and make it legal again. I think mix games are going to become very popular at all limits. I’m hoping, as I’m sure everyone else is also, that this will happen very soon.
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