Online Poker: Play Some Hands with Alex 'AJKHoosier1' Kamberis

Alex “AJKHoosiers1” Kamberis did well for himself in 2007, but his 2008 is shaping up to be incredible. He already has more than $500,000 in Online Player of the Year-qualified finishes for ’08, including a runner-up finish in the Full Tilt $750,000-guaranteed event in July and numerous other first-place finishes. He currently sits in third place on the overall OPOY leader board.

Card Player wanted to pick Kamberis’ brain about his tournament play with a specific hand example, but we also wanted to see if he was equally astute when it came to cash-game play. We took a look at some of his hand histories and came across one cash-game hand and one tournament hand that we wanted analyzed, and Kamberis was up to the task, but he wanted to add that “for the record, I watch my good friend and roommate Alex (redargoe on Stars) playing six-max cash games, so a lot of what I say is based on that. Probably more so than my own playing experience, even.”


Cash-Game Hand

Info	Blinds: $2-$4	Six-handed
Player	LERABUT	Alex “AJKHoosier1” Kamberis
Stack	$428.70	$543,10
Hand	Q-Q	K J

LERABUT limps for $4 preflop from under the gun. Action folds to AJKHoosier1 on the button, who raises to $20. Both blinds fold, and LERABUT calls. The flop comes K K Q, LERABUT checks, AJKHoosier1 bets $36, and LERABUT calls. The turn is the 9. LERABUT again checks, and AJKHoosier1 checks behind. The river brings the J, LERABUT checks once more, AJKHoosier1 bets $94, and LERABUT pushes all in for $372.70. AJKHoosier1 calls, and LERABUT reveals pocket  queens for a full house, queens full of kings. AJKHoosier1 shows a better full house with kings full of jacks and takes down the $860 pot.


Alex “AJKHoosiers1” Kamberis: [Laughs] Wow, fun one.

Shawn Patrick Green: Yeah, tell me about it. LERABUT limped under the gun. What information, if any, does that tell you in a six-handed game?

AK: I honestly don’t know a single good regular six-max player who open-limps with literally any hand — ever. Not in no-limit hold’em, at least, and I do a ton of limp-punishing, especially in the low- to mid-stakes games.

SPG: No limping from any position?

AK: Yeah, not any position, really; maybe the small blind, but even that is really rare. So, if someone is a frequent limper (which this guy was), it’s really safe to assume they’re just loose-passive and probably not the best poker player, so anytime I can isolate them in a hand with anything playable, especially in position, its obviously going to be +EV [expected value].

SPG: As far as isolating goes, are you going to try to do so with an extremely wide range of hands, or are you still using a kind of narrow range?

AK: It’s a pretty wide range, basically; anything I would open with, I’ll punish with versus a limper. Occasionally I’ll limp behind with hands like small pocket pairs that have a ton of value post-flop in multi-way pots, but usually when I come in versus a limper, it’s with a raise.

SPG: And so, in this case, with K-J, do you think that you’re likely to be ahead at this point, or is that not really much of a consideration, anyway?

AK: I probably am ahead, but it doesn’t really matter; the vast majority of the time, I’m just going to be C-betting [continuation-betting] a flop that he misses and taking it down.

SPG: OK, that’s what I was getting at. So, you raised to $20 and he called. The flop gave you trips, which is usually an excellent sight. Is there any reason to play cautiously?

AK: At this point I am 99 percent sure I’m good. The only hands that beat me are A-K, K-Q, or Q-Q, and the vast majority of players — even bad ones — are raising those hands preflop. So, I am ready to get as much money in as I have to.

SPG: So, at this point, you were playing to maximize value. He checked, and you led out for $36 in a $46 pot. What kinds of hands were you putting him on where he would call that bet?

AK: Any queen, J-10, maybe even something like A-10 or A-J if he’s loose enough. The point is, if I’m going to be C-betting every flop, then I need to C-bet when I flop trips, and in cash games, something around three-fourths to four-fifths the pot is usually my standard bet size. So, I just go ahead and fire.

SPG: He called, and the turn brought the 9, putting out a possible straight and a flush draw. He checked to you. What is going through your head now?

AK: Well, the J-10 got there, but, to be honest, I like this card. I can’t really be that scared of a straight, and it means that there’s literally no bad card on the river. Any jack gives me a boat, any 10 gives me a straight, and anything else is a brick. The flush draw that’s out there now doesn’t concern me, because unless he had exactly a suited queen of spades, there’s really no way for him to have spades, anyway. The reason I checked behind was partially for pot control versus the J-10 — not that I’m afraid of it, but because it’s one of the few hands that will really continue versus a big turn-bet here — and partially for deception. At this point, it looks like I was making a typical limp-punishing play and am now giving up. If he has a queen, I want him to think it’s good.

SPG: Good point. I would have thought the 9 would be a scare card, and I was going to question checking behind for pot control and letting him see a potentially killer card for you on the river.

AK: I might worry about a 10 or jack killing my action versus a queen, but I think a big turn bet does that anyway; there is no card that kills my hand.

SPG: So, the Jd came on the river, giving you the second nuts behind an unlikely K-Q. He checked again. What do you put him on after all of the action thus far, and how do you use that range to try to tailor your potentially final bet for maximum value?

AK: I was pretty sure he had just a queen, but it’s not all that important to me what he has. All I’m trying to do is capitalize on my turn check — which, in general, is a show of weakness — by putting out a normal bet on the river. So, I bet $94 into a pot that’s around $120ish at this point (like I said, around three-fourths of the pot), hoping he thinks I’m bluffing since I checked the turn and am just trying to represent the 10 now. Just because I think he has a queen doesn’t mean I should bet really small to try to get value — it’s important to be consistent in bet sizing, and, also, sometimes it’s easier to get a call from a marginal hand if you bet big (or at least normally), because they will think its more likely that you are trying to make them fold and less likely that you’re just taking ’em to Valuetown.

SPG: And then you had to be doing back-flips when he pushed all in.

AK: There was a little bit of giggling, yeah.

SPG: So, not to be results-oriented or anything, but you kind of dodged a bullet, here, when you saw his pocket queens. He would likely have gotten all of your money if it weren’t for that river. Do you think he played the hand poorly?

AK: Other than the limp preflop, I think he played his hand very well. He check-called the flop because I am C-betting with any two cards, so slow-playing is a good idea. He checked the turn to let me fire again, and then checked the river, knowing that he’ll only get value versus hands that I’ll bet anyway, like a small boat or straight with hands like 10-10 or J-J. His check-shove might be slightly optimistic versus a good player — I’m not calling with a 10, but I don’t think he knows that — but versus the vast majority of players, there’s definitely a ton of value in shoving that river with queens full.

So, I wouldn’t criticize him for his play, and it would have been next to impossible to push me off of the hand at any point, anyway.

SPG: And was the preflop limp even really that bad?

AK: Yes, it was awful [laughs]. Like I said, I don’t know any good player who open-limps preflop in a six-max cash game, and to do so with Q-Q in a game that is playing fast and loose-passive, for the most part, is silly. He’s going to end up getting in versus a lot of limpers and totally killing the value of his hand unless he flops a set. The point is, don’t open-limp preflop in a six-max cash game — ever. Just don’t.

SPG: [Laughing] OK. Let’s mix it up here and switch to what you do best, tournaments.


Tournament Hand

Info	Full Tilt $75 $14,000 Guaranteed six-max	600-1,200 with 150 ante	Five-handed table
Player	eazy1mike	Alex “AJKHoosier1” Kamberis	LegalEagle1
Stack	41,985	43,003	122,452
Hand	?-?	8 8	?-?

LegalEagle1 limps for 1,200 preflop, eazy1mike calls in the small blind, and AJKHoosier1 checks his option in the big blind. The flop comes 8 7 4, and eazy1mike leads out for 2,222, AJKHoosier1 calls, and LegalEagle1 calls behind. The turn is the 4, and eazy1mike now checks. AJKHoosier1 bets 4,400, LegalEagle1 calls, and eazy1mike check-raises to 17,989. AJKHoosier1 calls, and LegalEagle1 folds. The river is the 9, and eazy1mike pushes all in for 20,424. AJKHoosier1 calls, and eazy1mike turns over J 9 for a busted gutshot-straight draw and a rivered pair. AJKHoosier1 shows pocket eights for a full house and takes down the pot of 92,242, eliminating eazy1mike.

SPG: First off, set the stage. There are six people at your table. What has the play been like?

AK: I like this hand because I think it’d be helpful to the average online tourney player, since it took place in a small-stakes tourney [the Full Tilt afternoon $75 six-max] that was full of typical bad players. It’s somewhat deep in the tournament at this point, so play has tightened up a bit, but overall people are playing pretty loose-passive and badly. Just think of exactly what you’d expect in a low- to mid-stakes six-max tourney.

SPG: OK. So, did that have something to do with checking your option with a mid-pocket pair, then? What was your plan?

AK: Yeah, it does. I figure if I bump it up, I’m going to get flatted [flat-called] a lot, which would basically be a nightmare with a small- to mid-pocket pair out of position, since most flops are going to be ugly and really tough to play. So, I decide to keep the pot small, treat my hand like 2-2, and just try to hit a set and get paid big, since, for the most part, these guys are calling stations.

SPG: OK, so you have two opponents going to the flop, and viola, you flop a set, albeit on a draw-heavy board. With 4,300 in the pot, the player in the small blind led out for 2,222. What is your thought process at this point?

AK: Besides “Yahtzee!”?

SPG: [Laughs] So, you’re not too scared of anything here, even against two opponents? And, to be fair, you don’t technically have the nuts [laughs].

AK: [Laughs] Nah, definitely not scared of much. I only lose to 6-5, and yeah, the board is draw-heavy, but you can’t play your hand out of fear, you need to play your hand optimally. Also, at this point there’s really no reason to assume anyone has a big draw of any kind. I thought that it’d look too strong to bump it up here in a limped pot versus the guy leading out into two other players, and with another guy left behind me, I wanted to keep him in and give him the chance to do something silly, like post-flop squeeze, to which I could then come over the top.

I feel like some people never flat with hands like sets on boards like this because they are too scared of their opponents getting there, when, in all reality, if they have any kind of real draw, they’re probably not folding anyway, and you really need to mix it up, sometimes. So, yeah, for deception, amongst other reasons, I just call. I’m definitely not afraid of anything at this point.

SPG: Very good point. It’s so “in” nowadays to bet your strong hands on draw-heavy boards that maybe it’s swinging the other direction now, in terms of profitability, toward playing them more slowly.

AK: Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of times when you need to protect a hand, even as big as a set, but sometimes you just have to be a little trickier than that.

SPG: So, with almost 11K on the pot, the turn is a money-card for you, pairing the board. You come out swinging. Why is it now profitable to push against them?

AK: Well, like I said, I called on the flop for deception, right? And, like you said, the board is draw-heavy. So never in a million years are they going think I have any kind of boat here, and if they do have a draw, they’re now stone dead, so I put out a smallish bet, not to push anyone out, obviously, but to try to induce some action from those draws. And because my hand is just so ridiculously disguised at this point, between the check preflop and the smooth-call on the flop, the 4 looks like such a stone brick; it’s impossible to put me on anything. So, this time, I bet for deception. And I’m obviously trying to get more money in at this point, so I don’t want to check here and risk missing a lot of value; I need to start building the pot.

SPG: Do you think a lot of people miss value by checking turns, because opponents sometimes mentally check out if they get to see a river and know for sure what their final hand is?

AK: Yeah, I think that’s a mistake a lot of people make, either not being willing to lead out when out of position, in general, or thinking that just because they have a stone-cold-nut hand that they should slow-play it to get action. Not surprisingly, the best way to get action sometimes is to bet, and I think this was one of those spots.

SPG: OK, so you bet, got called behind, and then check-raised. Obviously you have to play cautiously now in case of pocket fours, right? Kidding, kidding. Honestly, though, what did you put him on, given that you want to maximize your profits?

AK: Honestly, I did put him on pocket fours and almost folded, but couldn’t bring myself to do it. [Laughs] Nah. At this point, I figure his range is between hands like a boat, the straight, a big draw, or something completely ridiculous. Versus all hands but the big draw, my best option is just to call here, since if he has got a boat or straight, he’s not folding at any point, anyway. If he’s doing something silly, I need to let him keep doing it. And since there’s another player in, I obviously didn’t want to push him out for any reason.

SPG: Gotcha. So, the rest of the hand kind of plays itself. The river was a 9, and the other player pushed. You called, and he had J-9 for a gutshot and a rivered pair.

AK: Cooler! I mean, yeah, I accomplished everything I wanted to, and I kind of let him get there. I’m not sure if he shoved the river for value or as a bluff, but yeah, J-9 no good. It definitely paid off to play my hand counter-intuitively on literally every street, since most people would raise preflop with eights, most people would raise the flop with a set, and most people would slow down when they filled up. So, I did the opposite.

SPG: And you said that this exemplified some of the big mistakes people make in these small-stakes tourneys. What were his biggest mistakes here, aside from going broke [laughs].

AK: Well, to be honest, the only parts I hate about his play were the fact that he went crazy in a limped pot (almost always awful) and the fact that he shoved the river, even though I’m literally only calling on the turn with made nut hands, given that he only has another 20K behind. I like his flop lead with two overs and a gutty, to be honest; I lead out in pots like that with hands like that all of the time. I’m not sure if he should be completing preflop there with J-9 offsuit, either, but it’s close when the button limps.

SPG: Perfect. Thanks for doing the interview! Anything else you wanted to say?

AK: New videos are coming up at PokerXFactor, and my management is at PokerIcons.com. Sponsor me, please! Thanks to everyone for their support (and money), and see you in London for the World Series of Poker Europe.

Related Articles

Bad Beat Jackpot Hits In Canada For $1.7 Million

WATCH: Billionaire Hits Two Lucky Rivers On HSP

WATCH: Robl's Kings Cracked Twice For $1 Million

Most Viewed Articles