Poker Tournament Trail -- Praz BansiBansi Talks About Playing Big Pots at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure |
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Praz Bansi (pictured right) began 2010 by making a deep run at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure. He finished in 18th place ($87,500) out of 1,529 players after holding the chip lead at various times of the tournament, and he was one of the most exciting players to watch at the event. When play had all but stopped elsewhere in the field during the money bubble, Bansi and Phil Ivey traded blows in big pots and captured the attention of the rail.
Bansi has been playing well lately, and he also ended 2009 on a strong note. He made the final table at the World Series of Poker Europe and cashed in third place ($569,748).
Card Player caught up with Bansi in the Caribbean and he talked about his recent strong run.
Ryan Lucchesi: How intense was it at your table when you and Phil Ivey were playing huge pots during the money bubble?
Praz Bansi: It was a fun day. A day when you can challenge the best in the world is fun. I finished well in chips, as well, so it was a good day all around.
RL: You played in a lot of big pots yesterday. Is it your usual style to play for home-run pots?
PB: Not really, it just depends on the situation. Early on, I might play in some big pots, but it all depends on the situation. Sometimes I won’t play a big pot. If I have a lot of chips, I try to not play in big pots, because I will have the chips to see a lot of flops and not take any big risks. It all depends on how I feel at the time.
The stage of the tournament is important, as well. I also look at the size of my chip stack in relation to the others, but sometimes you just have to play a big pot.
RL: The tournament field was playing very tight during the money bubble, but you and Ivey were firing some huge bullets. Were you trying to make plays at him, or were you guys just getting the right cards in the right spots?
PB: Yeah, obviously I wouldn’t go out of my way to tangle with him. It wouldn’t make sense to do that, because there are so many other players in this tournament. The situation just seemed to come up quite frequently between us, and neither of us was going to back down from those situations.
The bubble was irrelevant to what was going on between us, and it was especially irrelevant to me because of the size of my chip stack. It was more about putting pressure on the other players at the table, but then we ended up playing some pots, as well.
RL: You recently made the final table of the World Series of Poker Europe, and now you’re making a deep run in this event. Do you feel that you’ve been playing your best poker the last couple of months?
PB: I feel like I’m playing less poker, and that has helped. Earlier in my life, I faded some things out for poker, and after a little while I went back to things I did before poker, and it has made my play sharper because I don’t play as much. This way, I don’t have 30 days of bad beats accumulated in my head when I play a tournament. I play more in the moment, and I play more focused now.
No one can deny that a poker player’s luck changes over time. There are times when you run good no matter what you do. That’s another factor, I think.
RL: You seem to enjoy a more selective playing schedule as a strategy to raise your game and focus, do you also seek out playing the best players to achieve that focus?
PB: It’s really weird, but I always get better results against the best players in the biggest tournaments. I seem to do really well in those situations. I kind of struggle against amateur players; sometimes they don’t know what they’re doing themselves, so it is kind of hard to figure out their plan of action in a hand.
Playing A-B-C at times is something I need to focus on, as well. It’s important in a field like this where there are a thousand satellite qualifiers. You can’t play too tricky against them, because you will out-level yourself, and that is not good. When you are playing against good players, you both know exactly what each other is thinking, and then you can try and take it to the next level. Against a lot of these guys, you just have to play straight-forwardly, which is something I struggle with at times.
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