Alex Jacob -- What's My Line?

[p::Alex Jacob]] has been playing on the tournament circuit ever since bursting onto the scene at the 2006 Foxwoods Poker Classic, where he finished runner-up to Victor Ramdin. Just a few months later, Jacob took down the U.S. Poker Championship in Atlantic City for nearly $900,000. Since then, Jacob has earned over $2.5 million on tour and has made four World Series of Poker final tables.

The Yale graduate recently final tabled event no. 39 at the 2009 WSOP, finishing in fourth place for $190,857. This was his fourth cash of the series.

With six players remaining at the final table, Jacob played an interesting hand with Brandon Cantu to double up and take the chip lead. Here he breaks down the hand and explains his decisions on each street.

Event – Blinds/Antes	WSOP $1,500 NLHE	40,000-80,000 with a 10,000 ante
Player	Alex Jacob	Brandon Cantu
Hand	AA	?
Chip Count	1,820,000	4,140,000

The Hand

At the final table, the remaining players were six-handed when Brandon Cantu raised to 230,000. Alex Jacob called in late position and the blinds folded.

The flop came J63 and Cantu checked. Jacob bet 300,000 and Cantu called. The turn was the 2 and again Cantu checked.

Jacob checked behind and the river was the 10. Cantu checked and Jacob moved all in for his last 1,290,000. Though he looked sick about it, Cantu called after only a few seconds.

Jacob turned over pocket aces and Cantu, clearly disappointed with his decision, muttered “Why’d I do that?” and tossed his cards into the muck. After the hand, Jacob was at the top of the chip counts with a stack of 3,640,000 while Cantu took a major hit down to 2,320,000.

The Interview

Julio Rodriguez: I’m assuming you flat called preflop, hoping he’d continuation bet most flops.

Alex Jacob: No, not really. When he checks, it sort of signifies, at least to me, that he actually has some sort of hand. I mean either he’s giving up completely or he hit something. But [giving up] is not really likely for a guy like Brandon. That’s just not how he plays.

JR: So at this point, what kind of hand are you putting him on?

AJ: I thought he might have some sort of jack in his hand that he decided to check-call down with or maybe even some sort of smaller pair that missed. If he had a hand like king-high, he’d almost always continuation bet the flop. So that made me think that he actually had a hand that might pay me off.

But then again, I hadn’t been flat calling too many raises at that point, so I may have seemed kind of suspicious to him, which is probably why he never put me to the test with a raise. But once he called it seemed likely that he had a one-pair hand and extremely unlikely that he was slow-playing a monster like a set.

JR: A complete brick hits the turn. Why did you decide to check behind?

AJ: Well, if his hand was face up and I knew that he was holding something like A-J, then I probably would have bet again. But based on my read, I thought there was a decent chance that he had called me with some sort of one-pair hand that didn’t really believe me on the flop. I didn’t think he would double me up with that type of hand and by firing twice, I’d be showing considerable strength. I figured I could induce a bet on the river and disguise the strength of my hand by checking behind.

When I check there, I might have a small pair myself and even if he only has ace-high, he might try to take it away from me on the river.

JR: Were you disappointed when he checked the river?

AJ: A little, but it wasn’t so bad if you think about it. First of all, I’m almost positive that I have the best hand and second, he has to have something as well. Had he been holding something weaker, he would have tried to take it earlier in the hand, if he had something stronger, then he would’ve at least bet the river. So now I know he can call a bet, it’s just a matter of how much.

JR: You decided to overbet the pot by a little bit by moving all in.

AJ: Right. Given the way the hand played out, I’m trying to continue representing a small pair that he can beat. Say I had pocket fives. I bet the flop, checked behind on the turn and now I’m trying to get a slightly better hand like pocket sevens or something to fold. I’m hoping that’s the way he’s going to see it when I shove.

I’ve played with Brandon before and I know he tends to pay off rivers. I saw him play a big hand earlier with the eventual winner, Ray Foley, where Brandon check-called it down and was shown aces.

I mean, you saw the hand play out. He called me in like two seconds. It seems like when he made a plan during the hand to check-call me the whole way and I figured that if he was going to pay me off, I might as well get maximum value by moving all in.

JR: So, did he ever mention what he had?

AJ: No, he never told me.

JR: Well, looking back on all the action, what is your final read?

AJ: I mean, I said something to him and he said something like, “Oh man, I had such a big hand there.” So I told him that I should have just reraised him preflop and he would have doubled me up anyway, but based on his reaction, it didn’t seem like he meant queens or kings. So, I guess I’d have to say it was something like Q-J or K-J.

Most Viewed Articles