Tournament Trail Q and A -- Will FaillaThe Thrill Talks About His Win at the Caesars Palace Classic Heads-Up Tournament |
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Will "The Thrill" Failla has been one of the most colorful characters on the tournament trail since he began posting consistent results in 2005. He now holds over $1 million in career tournament winnings. During his poker career, he has made apperances at a dozen final tables, and he has won four poker tournaments. Despite all of his success, he is still waiting for the first big television apperance that will bring his special brand of table talk and charisma to a larger audience.
Failla recently won another tournament when he took home the title in the popular $1,000 no-limit hold'em heads-up championship at the Caesars Palace Classic. He had to fight his way through a field of 128 players, but it was a relatively smooth ride for the experience pro, desipte a semi-final match against Steve Wong and a final match against Cody Slaubaugh. In both cases, he swept the best-of-three format to take home $30,730.
Card Player caught up with Failla after the win, and he talked about intuition, betting patterns, and showing down bluffs in the context of a heads-up event.
Ryan Lucchesi: How was your match in the final round against Cody Slaubaugh?
Will Failla: I had a serious read on when he was bluffing me. I just knew when he was bluffing me. I knew going into the match what I had to look for. I had some friends that had seen him online, and they had told me what to look out for, and they were 100 percent right on. They couldn’t tell me about the reads live; those I picked up on my own. They said he would bluff the river if he had the opportunity. He did that at the end of the first match with 7 high, which, in a raised pot with an ace on the board, was a tough call. I had second pair, and I didn’t want to double him up, but I had a good feeling, and luckily I called.
RL: Do you think your advantages as a live player are more fortuitous in a heads-up match against online players?
WF: I think that the live players that have intuition, that they truly can feel what’s going on and see what’s going on in a guy’s tells … can really go on their instincts. It helps my game a lot.
RL: How much more creativity can you use in a heads-up tournament in your betting patterns?
WF: When you hit top pair it’s a lot stronger than a full-ring game, of course, and it could be any card. In the last hand, I had pocket kings and I limped in with them, and he raised with 10-7. The flop was 7 high, and he led out to me, and I just smooth-called. The turn was a king, and not too many people are going to play it the way that I played it. He checked, I led into him with the stone-cold nuts, and he called. He got coolered; he hit two pair on the river, so that’s why I say I ran well there.
RL: I noticed that each of your best-of-three matches went two and out. Do you think that a lot of players start panicking when they get down in a heads-up match? Do you think mental toughness and heart come in and play a big part at that point?
WF: I don’t want to get into a situation where I have to actually struggle and work to make it happen. The pressure is off when you win the first match. I think poker players understand a thing about motion, and I was in the motion. I was going in the right direction, so I went with it. I wanted [Steve Wong] to think he was beat, and every time I showed him a hand, he was beat. I was in his head.
RL: Do you think that you show down your hands a little more during heads-up matches to play head games?
WF: It depends on the opponent. There was this one guy earlier that I held 8-7 against, and the flop was 10-9-3, and he was betting hard the whole way. On the river, he checked with 2,000 in the pot, and I said, “No, no, no … no checks here.” I talk a good game, that’s a part of my game. I led in with a pot-sized bet. He mucked it, and I showed 8-7. “Did you have 8-7 beat?” I asked to put him on tilt. I pick my points when I want to show a bluff, and I don’t show against everybody. If I show it, it is all for my advantage, and it is something that just worked the past two days.
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