The Poker Play Part I: Melanie WeisnerMelanie Weisner Discusses Key Hand On The Bubble Of A WSOP Event |
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Event: WSOP Event No. 24, $1,500 no-limit Hold’em
Field: 2,192
Prize Pool: $2,959,200
First Prize: $540,136
Blinds: 800-1,600
Weisner: K
Q
The Villain: 7
7
Melanie Weisner: It’s the exact bubble of this event and I have around 100,000 in chips. The average stack is around 45,000. I have been playing very aggressively and this kid on my left had just three-bet jammed 18 big blinds a few hands prior. He has about 36,000 to start the hand. I open from middle position to 3,500 with K Q and he thinks for a minute and calls from the cutoff.
Flop: 10 7 6
Weisner checks, villain bets 4,600, and Weisner calls.
MW: I call with the intention to check-raise (and sometimes lead) a bunch of turns that either improve the equity of my hand or are scare cards.
Rebecca McAdam: Did you have an idea of his range at this stage? Would he be good enough to get involved with you on the bubble with a less than premium hand?
MW: I definitely thought he had a value hand at this point, be it something like 9-9, 8-8, A-10, etc.. I obviously don’t put him on a set but it’s certainly in his range and even though his range should be pretty strong it hits his range more than mine. I definitely didn’t think he would get involved with absolute air at that point, since I was playing very aggressively and he didn’t really have a stack to move me off of much. I also wouldn’t say getting involved with me with a bad hand would be indicative of him being good or tricky, due to his stack size it would just be a fundamental error. But given the previous dynamic, I definitely thought he would have three-bet J-J+.
Turn: J
Weisner checks and the Villain quickly checks back.
MW: At this point I know he is trying to get to showdown with a value hand and he can never have a flush or straight so I plan to check-raise a lot of rivers when I don’t hit and he goes for thin value.
River: 2
Weisner checks, Villain bets 7,900, Weisner jams for 20,000 more. Villain goes into the tank.
MW: He tanks forever and starts mumbling to himself, talking the hand through to himself, and says that he has a monster (which I was a little confused about since he didn’t bet the turn). He says, “You wouldn’t just check-call the flop with air… but you would have done… if you had…” and puts his head in his hands and just keeps talking to himself in agony.
Meanwhile, the guy on my direct left, who has been very demure and quiet the entire level, decides to call the clock. The guy in the hand is visibly upset, calls the floorman over and asks if the bubble has burst, to which the floorman scolds him, “I cannot give you any information regarding that!” The guy who called the clock looks pleased.
Based on his out-loud analysis of the hand I can tell the guy is a pretty decently thinking player and is clearly affected by the tournament elements at the time. I watch as the guy is in visible agony over this decision and the floorman counts down to zero and his hand is declared dead. I show the king high and the guy looks like he wants to die. He tells me he had sevens and starts lamenting about how he should have bet the turn. He congratulates me on a nice play and we discuss the hand a little further, about the value hands I would take that line with etc.. He seems pretty crestfallen and says he has got to take a break now and leaves the table.
We’re a few minutes into the next orbit when the guy on my left says, “Just so you know, I knew you were bluffing. But I thought you deserved the pot and I thought he’d fold if I called the clock. Ha ha!”
Here’s to the guy on my left!
Check back tomorrow for part II of This Poker Life with Melanie Weisner where she discusses taking advantage of the bubble and engaging in conversation with her opponents while in an important pot.
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