Ryan Daut won the very first World Poker Tour final table of 2007 when he took down the title at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure in early January and he finished the year by making the final table of the last WPT event of the year, the 2007 Doyle Brunson Classic (he finished in sixth place). On day 5 of this record-breaking event, Daut had a lot of chips to work with, and 12 players remained in play at two six-handed tables. Here is what the reigning PCA champion had to say during a break in the action:
Ryan Lucchesi: You have a lot of chips right now. How are you playing a big stack this deep in the tournament?
Ryan Daut: My plan was to give up a tight image first, and then try to loosen up. But right when I set up my image on the other table, I got moved tables, and I got stuck at a table with a bunch of big stacks. So I'm probably going to play fairly tight, pick my spots well. There are certain spots I can probably raise with any two, but for the most part I'm going to stay fairly tight.
RL: How difficult is it to have to readjust to a new table after you have invested so much time into establishing your table image? You spend a lot of time building profiles for all the players at your table, then you get moved, and you have to start all over again. How much has that affected you today?
RD: I think it didn't affect me having to move tables. Coming to a new table wasn't the problem, leaving the old table was the problem. I've played against most of these players already in the tournament, so I have decent reads on them. I did have good reads on the players at the other table, but it was more just that I had the meta-game totally set-up and I think I had everybody thinking the way I wanted them to think.
RL: You have Raymond Davis on your left with a lot of chips, how are you approaching him?
RD: He seems like a fairly solid player, so I'm not too worried about him splashing around. I think the player to his left is pretty loose, but I think Ray is probably going to play pretty straight-forward, pretty tight…so I'm just going to play my normal game, I'm not going to factor that into decisions.
RL: So you have been here before after winning the PCA. How important is that experience factor this deep in the tournament?
RD: I think it's huge, especially because the money is going to start to make bigger jumps as we get close to the TV bubble. But I think right now it's not that big of a difference, I think the edge I have right now is that I play a lot of 6-max cash games online and we're six-handed, so I think that gives me an edge. But, being here before I don't think is as much of an edge because Devil Fish has a WPT title, [Erick] Lindgren has one, Ray Davis has been deep in WPT's before, and there are a couple of good online players. There are people who have been here before so I don't think it makes that much of a difference.
RL: You talked about the money jumping up very quickly now, is that overbearing on your mind at all, or do you have your eyes set on finishing first and taking down the title?
RD: Oh no, I'm looking at top three. The jumps are like 20k jumps all the way up to the TV table, and then they start to get bigger, but the money is all in the top three. So, I'm not really factoring that into any decisions besides top three.
RL: Now once it gets down to the final table of ten are you going to tighten back up?
RD: Oh yeah, for sure. I mean the odds that somebody has a hand at a ten-handed table is so large that you basically have to play tight, and the dynamics at the table are going to be really bad. There is probably going to be a couple people who are fairly short and you can't really raise speculative hands because then you have to call their all-ins, and you'll look like an idiot, and you're going to get it in bad. You have to tighten up when it gets to ten-handed unless it folds to you in late position.
RL: What advice would you give players who are approaching their first final table in a tournament and might be nervous?
RD: I would say just take a few more seconds on each decision to make sure you're making the right decision. Just take a deep breath, think through everything, and then make your decision. Don't act too quickly.
RL: Who do you not want to face at this final table?
RD: Umm…I don't know, I think the toughest player was eliminated today, Peter Jetten, his name is "apathy" online. He was I think by far the toughest player left in the field, and all the rest I think I'm fine dealing with, so I don't really care who makes the final table at this point.
