What's My Line? -- Osmin 'Oddie' Dardon

Every Thursday, Card Player sits down with some of the best in the game to discuss pivotal hands from the week’s biggest tournaments on the circuit.

Osmin "Oddie" Dardon is one of L.A.'s best cash game players and has recently made his presence known on the tournament circuit, as well. This summer, Dardon finished third in one of the World Series of Poker's $1,500 no-limit hold'em events, cashing for $243,734. Recently, Dardon went on a run through one of the toughest fields of the year at Bellagio's Festa al Lago. His third-place performance earned him another $506,245, putting him in 40th place in Card Player Player of the Year race.

Card Player spoke to Dardon about the hand that almost had him on the rail. Instead, he averted disaster and rebounded to make the final table.
 

Event/Blinds-Antes	Festa al Lago	6,000-12,000 with a 2,000 ante
Player	Osmin Dardon	Olav Prinz Von Sachsen
Chip Counts	982,000	672,000
Hand	4 4	10 10

The Hand

Mike Wattel raised to 30,000 in middle position and was called by Osmin “Oddie” Dardon in late position and Olav Prinz Von Sachsen in the blinds.

The flop came 10 8 4, and Von Sachsen checked. Wattel bet 50,000, and Dardon thought for a moment before he raised to 125,000. Von Sachsen tanked for several minutes before pushing forward a check-raise to 375,000.

Wattel quickly folded, and Dardon counted out his stack. After a minute, he asked Von Sachsen how much he had behind. The count was about 270,000, and Dardon did the math. He had both the raise and the amount behind covered, but something was bothering him. After about another minute of thought, Dardon mucked 4 4 face up, stunning the table.

As he slowly walked toward the balcony overlooking the Bellagio fountain, Von Sachsen put him out of his misery by showing his 10 10 to the table. After realizing he made the right decision, Dardon immediately burst into celebration, giving fist pumps and high fives on the balcony for several minutes before returning to his seat.

After the hand, Dardon was left with 825,000 in chips, while Von Sachsen moved up to 935,000.

The Interview

Julio Rodriguez: Oddie, can you walk us through your set-over-set laydown?

Oddie Dardon: Mike raised preflop, and I made the call with pocket fours. It came to Olav in the blinds, and he hesitated. It looked like he wanted to reraise, but he just called. My profile of him at the time was that he was a very conservative, tight player. So I put him on some sort of middle pair.

The flop came nicely for me, a 10-8-4 complete rainbow. But I looked over at him, and it seemed that he really liked the flop. He checked, and Mike bet 50,000.

JR: What about Mike’s bet?

OD: I thought he had nothing. Just an ace-high continuation bet. I was way more concerned with Olav. However, there was the possibility of a gutshot-straight draw with a hand like Q-J, so I decided to raise small.

It came to Olav, and he thought for so long that I knew he was strong. Based on his preflop range and image, I had him on an overpair or a set.

JR: After a few minutes of thinking it over, he reraised you pretty small.

OD: Well, there’s the catch. Nobody tanks for that long and then practically min-raises. The minute he raised me after tanking so long, I told myself that he had the nuts. He made it a point to show me that he was super nervous by tanking and shaking his hands like that. I consider that a tell. That being said, it is still a very tough laydown to make. I took my time and counted out my stack, but ultimately I had to throw it away.

JR: Why did you show your hand?

OD: I thought it might motivate him to show me his hand.

JR: If the situation were reversed and you had flopped top set, would you have let him off the hook, as well?

OD: Absolutely not. In fact, I would probably play his hand completely differently. I don’t think I would have given him that much information, and there’s no way he would’ve been able to get away as easily as I did.

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