Run It Twice -- Andrew Robl

Andrew Robl is a high-stakes cash game player who honed his skills online under the moniker “good2cu.” He quickly rose up the ranks from the micro stakes and now consistently competes in the highest no-limit hold’em and pot-limit Omaha games live or online. Robl sat down with Card Player to discuss an interesting hand he played recently in Bobby’s Room at Bellagio.

The Game

Game: No-limit hold’em
Blinds: $100-$200
Ante: $400 dead on the button

Key Concepts

• Good players tend not to bluff against other good players if it is difficult to represent a strong hand
• Always review all factors when making decisions in cash games
• The ability to make big laydowns is much more important in deepstacked cash games
  

  
  Run It Twice — Review of the Hand

Preflop: Villain raises to $800 on the button. Robl makes it $3,000 to go with 8 7 from the big blind. Villian calls. The pot is now $13,000.

Kristy Arnett: What do you know about this player up to this point?

Andrew Robl: The Villain is a young kid who I didn’t have much experience playing against. He normally plays $10-$20 no-limit and is usually a very aggressive player. This was a very big game for him, and I knew he was taking a shot. He’s normally very aggressive, but he was playing pretty snug so far in this session.

KA: How had the session gone for you so far?

AR: I was stuck about $60,000 at one point during the session, and I’d been playing for 20 hours. I had just gotten even before this hand, which was a small emotional victory for me.

KA: Is the $400 dead on the button ante a usual occurrence in the big game?

AR: Yes, there’s normally an ante. It’s just to induce action. Since there’s more money in the pot preflop, it forces people to play more hands and get involved. You have to play faster or you’ll get blinded away.

KA: Why did you decide to reraise preflop with this hand?

AR: This is a hand that, against someone who opens on the button a lot in a game with an ante, is definitely playable. I think you could make a case for calling or reraising. I decided to reraise because it’s a hand that plays well once the stacks get deeper. We’re about 500 big blinds deep. The Villain will open pretty wide here on the button and call reraises with a lot of hands in position.

Flop Action: The flop is J-10-4 rainbow. Robl checks, and Villain checks. The pot is still $13,000.

KA: What went into your decision to check instead of continuation-bet?

AR: I decided to check because my read at this point was that he’s not going to give very easily because this flop hit a wide range of his calling hands. Plus, when you check the flop as a preflop reraiser, normally you don’t have nothing, because if you have air, you’re going to continuation-bet to try to take down the pot. I thought that if he didn’t have a very strong hand, I might be able to take the pot down on later streets.

KA: Were you trying to represent a hand as good as top or middle set?

AR: No, I don’t think I would check jacks or tens very often, just because we are so deep that I need to start building a pot. If we were at only 100 big blinds, I could definitely check those kinds of hands. I’m representing more of a hand like pocket queens or even a hand like A-K or A-Q. I think he would put me more on a hand like that, where I probably would still have the best hand, but had no value in betting.

If he had a big hand, I would think he would bet it to build a pot so he could stack me, so when he checks behind, I figure he has a type of hand that has some showdown value. So, let’s say he had a hand like 6-5 suited. That hand has a little hope of winning the hand, so I think he would bet to try and take down the pot. When he checks behind, I’m thinking he has a hand like ace high, K-10, A-10, pocket eights, a hand like that.

Turn Action: The turn is an offsuit 9. Robl checks, and Villain checks. The pot is still $13,000.

KA: Now that you hit your straight, why check again?

AR: I decide to check again because at this point, after I check two streets, it basically looks like I’m done with the hand, like I have A-K or A-Q and I’m giving up. So, on the turn, I would expect him to bet pretty much his entire range of hands, even if he has a hand like K-10, I think he’d just make a small bet to protect his hand. I was checking with the intention of check-raising.

River Action: The river is an offsuit 3. The board reads J-10-4-9-3. Robl bets $3,000. Villain raises to $13,000. Robl reraises to $30,000. Villain reraises all in for $100,000 more. Robl folds.

KA: Why did you bet so small on the river?

AR: I was just hoping that he’d call with some kind of weak hand with some showdown value. My line doesn’t really make very much sense, so he’s going to have a lot of difficulty putting me on a hand.

KA: Since it was small value-bet, were you surprised when he raised?

AR: Yes, I was pretty surprised. There are not a whole lot of hands he’s trying to represent here. If he had a straight like K-Q or Q-8, he would have bet the flop probably with his outs, since we were so deep, he wouldn’t really have to worry about a check-raise. And if he didn’t bet the flop, I thought he’d definitely bet the turn to build the pot, like I said before. So, when he raised the river, I thought it would be an odd bluff, so I put him pretty squarely on a hand like pocket threes for a rivered set and he’s just raising me for value. I decided that, at this point, if I reraised, if he did have a hand like pocket threes, I don’t think he’d ever fold that given the action.

KA: After he went all in, what led you to your decision to fold?

AR: Given how the action went up to that point, it was very hard for me to put him on any type of hand. I thought it was very unlikely that he had a straight, because of the reasons I talked about before. It’s also very difficult for him to have a hand he would bluff with, because, like I said after he checked the flop and turn, he almost surely has showdown value. So, if he has a hand with showdown value, why would he raise the river as a bluff, especially when it’d be hard to represent much. It would be really hard for him to think that he could get me to fold a better hand.

When he shoved, I knew there was no way he’d do that with trip fours, because there’s no value in it. I’m never calling with a worse hand. I would never expect anyone to turn three-of-a-kind into a bluff in a pot like this. It put me in a very tricky situation. Also, all of the before-mentioned lines as reasoning for why players do things, those are how more advanced players play, mostly online players who play hundreds of thousands of hands who see all these patterns. Sometimes live players play a little bit differently. As I thought about it more, I remembered that this is a very big game for him, and I didn’t think his line made any sense, and there wasn’t a hand he could really be bluffing with. I decided that since this was such a huge percentage of his bankroll, maybe a quarter of it in play, and I just didn’t think he was capable of making a move there. After tanking for five minutes, I decided to fold. It was a pretty huge fold to muck the third nuts. He mucked his hand, so I still don’t know he had, but I’m pretty sure it was a good fold.

KA: How important is it to be able to make big laydowns in high-stakes cash games?

AR: It depends on how deep you are playing. Normally when we play, we are playing 200 big blinds deep, but in this case, we were playing 500 big blinds deep, which makes it a totally different game. It’s a lot more in-depth. You have to be able to fold even the second nuts. It is different from online or six-handed, as well, because in these very aggressive games, you only have 100 big blinds. In a game like that, if you get a good hand, even a hand as weak as top pair, you’re going with it for your whole stack just because of how the games play.

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