dan smith talks about his early start, building a bankroll ......bellagio's bobby's room gets a new...

Bellagio's Bobby's Room

Gets A New Name

'Rounders' Star Ed Norton Calls Out

President Trump With Poker-Themed Rant

Strategy: How To Deal With Cold Four Bets

www.CardPlayer.com Vol. 34/No. 1December 30, 2020

Dan Smith Talks About His Early Start, Building A Bankroll At Age SevenHigh Roller Crusher Details His Rise To No. Five On Poker’s All-Time Money List

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Table of Contents - Card Player Vol. 34/No. 1

CARDPLAYER.COM VOLUME 34 / ISSUE 1

Features18

Dan Smith Details His Rise To No. Five On Poker’s All-Time Money List

By Julio Rodriguez

22Shifts In Poker Strategy: Dylan Linde

By Steve Schult

The Inside Straight10

Poker News Recap

14Player Of The Year Update

By Erik Fast

16Head Games: Avoiding Mistakes With Aces And Kings Preflop In Pot-Limit

OmahaBy Craig Tapscott

Strategies, Analysis & Commentary

26How To Deal With Cold Four-Bets

By Jonathan Little

27Badugi: Playing The Probable Best Hand

In The Middle RoundsBy Kevin Haney

28This Is Not The Main Event You Are

Looking ForBy Gavin Griffin

30Can A Poker Site Exclude You For Winning

Too Much?By Scott J. Burnham

32Gamble 106: Down By The Train Tracks

By Nathan Gamble

35The Hipster Holiday Home Game Where Nobody Knew How To Shuffle The Cards

By Houston Curtis

Also In this Issue6

About Us

37Tournament Schedules

38Poker Leaderboards

Tournament Hand Matchups

29Viacheslav Buldygin vs. Timothy Adams

31Viacheslav Buldygin vs. ‘WhatIfGod’

33‘WhatIfGod’ vs. David Yan

28David Yan vs. ‘WhatIfGod’

18 16

22

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INSIDE STRAIGHTNews, Reviews, and Interviews From Around the Poker World

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BELLAGIO’S WORLD-FAMOUS BOBBY’S ROOM IS NO MORE, HIGH-STAKES AREA RENAMED LEGENDS ROOMBy Steve Schult

One of the most famous poker rooms in the world recently underwent a name change.

� e high-stakes area of the Bellagio poker room on the Las Vegas Strip, known to poker fans as “Bobby’s Room,” has been renamed “Legends Room.”

Since its inception, Bobby’s Room has been home to some of the biggest poker games on the planet. � e usual game featured a mix with lim-its of at least $400-$800, but during the World Series of Poker, games are generally much larger, with limits of $1,000-$2,000 and up. At the time of this article’s publishing, there was a $2,500-$5,000 big bet mix game running in the room.

� e room was named after 1978 WSOP main event champion Bobby Baldwin. � e Oklahoma-native and four-time bracelet winner stayed in Las Vegas after winning the main event at 28 years old and forged a success-ful career in the casino industry.

In 1982, Baldwin was hired as a consultant for the Golden Nugget, rising to president of the property just two years later. Steve Wynn hired him to be the president of � e Mirage in 1987 and he was also the Chief Financial Offi cer of Mirage Resorts, which eventually became MGM Resorts following a merger. He became president of the Bellagio when it opened in 1998.

Towards the end of 2018, Baldwin announced he was leaving his position with MGM Resorts as Chief Customer Development Offi cer of MGM and CEO and President of CityCenter. � en about a year ago, it was announced that Baldwin will be the CEO of the competing Drew Las Vegas, which is scheduled to open in 2022.

Bellagio originally said that the room would remain in his name, despite his departure from MGM, but that changed in October with the renaming. � e move went under the radar as the COVID-19 pandemic, the passing of Mike Sexton, the Doug Polk-Daniel Negreanu heads-up match, and the announcement of a hybrid WSOP in December took most of the poker community’s focus.

As news of the renaming broke, many in the poker com-

munity took to social media to vent their frustrations with the decision. Some were adamant that they would continue to call it Bobby’s Room despite its new name, while others felt that the room should have been renamed for someone else, perhaps Doyle Brunson.

As successful as he was in the boardroom, Baldwin was nearly as successful on the felt. He won two WSOP bracelets in no-limit 2-7 single draw and a seven-card stud title, along with his main event bracelet. His last cash came in 2012 with a seventh-place fi nish in the $1 million buy-in Big One For One Drop. He was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame in 2003.

In 2010, as Aria’s poker room gained popularity among the high-stakes community, the fellow MGM-owned proper-ty debuted its own high-stakes area named after poker legend Phil Ivey. “Ivey’s Room” tended to attract the highest-stakes no-limit hold’em and pot-limit Omaha games, while limit mixed games stayed at Bellagio.

Ivey’s Room was later changed to “Table 1” in February 2019. Aria’s decision came shortly after a federal judge gave Borgata Hotel and Casino approval to go after Ivey’s assets in Nevada to collect the $10.16 million he owed the casino from his infamous baccarat session. Ivey eventually settled with the MGM-owned Atlantic City casino last July. �

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MONSTER SESSION GIVES DOUG POLK NEARLY $600,000 LEAD OVER DANIEL NEGREANU IN HEADS-UP MATCHBy Steve Schult

With 20 percent of their sched-uled 25,000-hand, heads-up grudge match in the books as of press time, Doug Polk has opened up a big lead over Daniel Negreanu. One particu-lar session to close out the month of November saw Polk net more than $332,000 over the course of 684 hands. �e heater puts him up a total of $596,197 through 5,751 hands, which represents nearly 15 buy-ins at the $200-$400 limits.

“Monster session today,” tweeted Polk after the pair had wrapped for the day. “Hit everything. Every hero call went right. Every big bluff got through. Every runout gave me the nuts. Every all in went my way. �is was the kind of session you dream about.”

In a post-match interview with poker pros Nick Schulman and Jamie Kerstetter, Polk said that he felt like he was locked in and playing well. After reviewing the hands a day later, his analysis confirmed his suspicions that he was playing above the rim.

“I ran the big pots from yesterday,” he wrote. “I’m plugged straight into the f***ing matrix. Almost zero errors in big pots. You love to [see] it.”

An ace-high call against a river shove in a four-bet pot was the epitome of how locked in the three-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner was on Saturday.

Polk raised to $910 on the button and Negreanu three-bet to $4,103.60 out of the big blind. Polk four-bet to $10,702.19 and Negreanu called.

Negreanu checked a flop of 6� 5� 5� and Polk bet $4,280 and Negreanu called. Both play-ers checked the 7� turn and the 2� came on the river. Negreanu moved all in for $25,617.43 and Polk tanked for a little bit before calling.

Negreanu showed K� Q� and Polk scooped the 200-big blind pot with A� J�. Polk was up $170,000 after the key pot and things only went up from there.

Despite losing, Negreanu felt good about his play. Even Polk acknowledged that he was running above expectation and that Negreanu is only getting better as the match goes on. Polk said he was winning at a clip of 31 big blinds per 100 hands, which isn’t sustainable over a large sample size.

“Should I be winning? Yeah, I think so,” Polk admitted. “Probably like 5-10 buy-ins. But I’m up 18 buy-ins since we moved to online. I’m obviously in god mode at the moment and that isn’t going to last forever. Also, he did make some improve-ments in the last session. Don’t com-pletely write him off because he went on a big downswing.”

�ere is a ton of side action on the match, with most of the bets booked with Polk as a 4:1 or even 5:1 favorite.

“We aren’t even halfway yet, so it’s not that big of a deal, but the disaster nightmare scenario is if there are a few [thousand] hands left and we are dead even,” said Polk. “Now, not only do you have to worry about winning, but you have to worry about side bets and not f***ing that up. And how does that change decisions?”

Before the huge session, the match had been fairly even with both players trading smaller blows. Negreanu won $117,000 over the first 200 hands, which was played live at the Aria before Polk went on his run online. �

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CARDPLAYER.COM 12

THE INSIDE STRAIGHT - News, reviews, and interviews from around the poker world

VOLUME 34 / ISSUE 1

Billionaire casino owner Sheldon Adelson is reportedly pushing for the legalization of casino gambling in Texas.

Adelson, who is the chairman and CEO of Las Vegas Sands Corp., which owns the Venetian and Palazzo casino resorts on the Las Vegas Strip, as well as several properties in the Asian markets, hired eight Austin lobbyists to sway lawmakers in that direction for the upcoming legislative session.

Gambling in the Lone Star State currently operates in a legal grey area. Card rooms have sprung up all over the state but charge either a member-ship fee or seat rental, as opposed to dropping a rake, which is expressly forbidden under the law.

In May 2019, however, two Houston-area poker rooms were raid-ed by local law enforcement. At the time, Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg, who recently won another term, told media “poker rooms are illegal in Texas.”

No customers were charged with a crime, but owners of the clubs were charged with money laundering and engaging in organized crime. �e charges were ultimately dismissed a few months later. Despite these card-rooms, Las Vegas-style casinos and traditional casino gambling is clearly prohibited under the law.

Adelson’s Las Vegas Sands Corp. recently announced that it was active-ly shopping its two Las Vegas Strip properties. It was rumored that the company would use that capital to focus on a possible New York casino market, or perhaps concentrate efforts in Asia. Now, it seems like those funds could be funneled into a first-mover advantage in a burgeoning Texas mar-ket.

Texas is one of the most anti-gambling states in the country despite the fact that every neighboring state has casinos, many of which are located near the border to lure Texans over state lines. But despite losing poten-tial tax revenue to other states, every

attempt at legalizing casino gambling in Texas by lawmakers has ultimately failed.

Rep. Joe Deshotel, a Democrat from Port Arthur, proposed a constitu-tional amendment to allow for casino gambling along the coastal area of the state during the last legislative session. It was unsuccessful.

“�e issue is trying to cut the money leaving Texas in such large amounts that could be going into the coffers here and helping Texans who need help,” Deshotel told the local NBC affiliate.

�e majority of lawmakers in the state have been Republicans for quite some time, which have been stead-fast against gambling expansion. But other Republican strongholds, such as Tennessee and Arkansas, have changed their tune on the issue as state govern-ments run low on funds and revenue streams to tax.

Adelson’s backing might further sway lawmakers, as he donated $4.5 million to Republican candidates in Texas during the last election cycle. In fact, Adelson is the Republican party’s biggest donor, having contributed a total of $480 million over the last decade to conservative causes, includ-ing a record $172.7 million in 2020.

�e 87-year-old is pushing for brick-and-mortar expansion, but has been outspoken in his distaste for online gambling expansion over the last decade. In 2014, he funded the Coalition to Stop Internet Gambling, a lobbying group that works to main-tain the current ban on internet gam-bling in most states throughout the country. In 2019, he successfully pres-sured the Department of Justice into reconsidering its Obama-era opinion on the Wire Act, a federal law banning bettors from transmitting gambling data across state lines. �

BILLIONAIRE SHELDON ADELSON PUSHES FOR CASINO GAMBLING IN TEXASBy Steve Schult

“Despite losing potential tax revenue to other states, every attempt at legalizing casino gambling in Texas by lawmakers has ultimately failed.”

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THE INSIDE STRAIGHT

Rounders Star Ed Norton To President Donald Trump: ‘You’re The Worm!’By Card Player News Team

�e man who played “Worm” in the movie Rounders is calling President Donald Trump a terrible poker player.

Weeks after Trump’s defeat to president-elect Joe Biden, award-winning actor Edward Norton took to Twitter and unleashed a rant about how Trump’s unveri-fied claims of election fraud are just a terrible bluff to try to destroy America’s democracy and faith in institutions.

Norton credited his father, who was a federal prosecu-tor, along with his experience playing with several “seri-ous” poker players to make the comparison, making use of numerous poker analogies to get his point across.

His message is posted in its entirety below.“I’m no political pundit, but I grew up with a dad who

was a federal prosecutor and he taught me a lot. I’ve also sat [for] a fair amount of poker with serious players and I’ll say this… I do not think Trump is trying to ‘make his base happy’ or is ‘laying the groundwork for his own network,’ or that ‘chaos is what he loves.’ �e core of it is that he knows he’s in deep, multi-dimensional, legal jeopardy, and this defines his every action.”

“We’re seeing a tactical delay of the transition to buy time for a cover up and evidence suppression, [as well as] a desperate endgame to create enough chaos and anxiety about the peaceful transition of power, and fear of irrepa-rable damage to the system, that he can cut a Nixon-style deal in exchange for finally conceding.”

“His bluff after ‘the flop’ has been called in court. His ‘turn card’ bluff will be an escalation, and his ‘river card’

bluff could be really ugly. But they have to be called. We cannot let this mobster bully the USA into a deal to save his ass by threatening our democracy. �at is his play. But he’s got junk in his hand. So call him.”

“I will allow that he’s also a whiny, sulky, petulant, Grinchy, vindictive, little, 10-ply, super soft bitch who no doubt is just throwing a wicked pout fest and trying to give a tiny-handed middle finger to the whole country for pure spite without a single thought for the dead and dying. But his contemptable, treasonous, seditious assault on the stability of our political compact isn’t about 2024, personal enrichment, or anything else other than trying to use chaos to threaten the foundation of the system as leverage to trade for a safe exit. Call. His. Bluff.”

“Faith in the strength of our sacred institutions and founding principles is severely stretched, but they will hold. �ey will. He’s leaving, gracelessly and in infamy. But if we trade for it, give him some brokered settlement, we’ll be vulnerable to his return. We can’t flinch.”

Norton has been a favorite of the poker community for some time thanks to his role in Rounders as a gifted, yet sloppy card mechanic. In 2016, someone paid €110,000 at a charity auction to play poker with the actor and listen to him tell stories about the movie.

Norton won a Golden Globe Award for “Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture” for his role in Primal Fear. He has also been nominated three times for an Academy Award. �

© R

ound

ers

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Place Player Points Final Tables POY Earnings

1 Vincent Wan 2,280 1 $909,420

2 Farid Jattin 2,177 6 $1,205,493

3 Anton Suarez 2,100 1 $1,000,000

4 Cary Katz 2,095 8 $2,420,543

5 Kahle Burns 1,956 6 $2,923,988

6 Tai Hoang 1,900 1 $909,420

7 Aaron Van Blarcum 1,896 8 $1,854,522

8 Sam Greenwood 1,881 6 $1,357,807

9 Tim Adams 1,857 6 $5,904,777

10 Brian Altman 1,848 3 $542,866

11 Michael Addamo 1,806 5 $2,143,310

12 Pablo Silva 1,800 1 $1,000,000

13 Trung Pham 1,794 6 $276,058

14 Ricardo Eyzaguirre 1,785 6 $415,575

15 Christian Rudolph 1,750 1 $620,000

16 James Romero 1,736 2 $745,000

17 Erik Seidel 1,686 5 $669,649

18 Eric Afriat 1,680 1 $394,120

19 Benjamin Winsor 1,636 4 $295,054

20 Lei Xu 1,620 2 $337,183

‘WHATIFGOD’ WINS 2020 EUROPEAN POKER TOUR ONLINE $5,200 BUY-IN MAIN EVENT

�e first-ever European Poker Tour Online $5,200 buy-in no-limit hold’em main event attracted a field of 1,304 total entries, crushing the $5 million guarantee to create a final prize pool of $6,520,000. In the end, the largest share of that money was awarded to Swedish player ‘WhatIfGod,’ whose real name is not currently public knowledge. ‘WhatIfGod’ earned $1,019,082 after outlasting the sizeable field and a tough final table that included many accomplished live and online tournament poker professionals.

Jon ‘apestyles’ Van Fleet finished eighth in the event for $97,344, while frequent high-stakes tournament player Viacheslav ‘VbV1990’ Buldygin placed fifth for $266,323. David ‘MissOracle’ Yan earned $520,966 for his third-place showing.

�e biggest name at the final table was Timothy ‘Tim0thee’ Adams. �e Canadian tournament star has more than $25 million in career tournament earnings, including a WSOP bracelet in the 2012 $2,500 buy-in four-max no-limit hold’em event. Adams finished as the runner-up for $728,633, the sixth-largest score on his record.

While this event did not award any POY points, Adams is one of the top contenders in the race with 1,857 points and more than $5.9 million in POY-qualified earnings on the year. He made six POY-qualified final tables in the early months of the year, including winning the $250,000 buy-in Super High Roller Bowl Russia for $3.6 million and 600 points. He currently sits in ninth place in the overall rankings. �

Timothy Adams

THE INSIDE STRAIGHT - Player of the yearAs of

12-2-2020

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THE INSIDE STRAIGHT

TRUNG PHAM CLIMBS INTO 13TH PLACE WITH SIXTH FINAL-TABLE FINISH OF 2020

Trung Pham started 2020 off with a flurry of final-table finishes, making five within the first two months of the year to put himself within striking distance of the top 20 in the Card Player Player of the Year race. �ose five scores earned him 1,490 POY points and more than $240,000 in year-to-date earnings.

Pham’s largest score of the year came when he finished second in the World Series of Poker Circuit Rio Las Vegas $1,700 buy-in no-limit hold’em main event, securing $129,305 and 760 POY points for outlasting all but one of the 746 other players in the field.

In November, Pham made his sixth final-table of the year with a runner-up showing in a $400 buy-in event at the Venetian’s DeepStack Extravaganza IV series. Pham navigated his way through a field of 794 total entries in that event to make it down to heads-up play against Carl Carodenuto. Pham ultimately finished second, adding $35,430 and 304 points to his yearly totals. As a result, he surged into 13th place in the overall standings, with 1,794 points and $276,058 in total cashes.

RICARDO EYZAGUIRRE EARNS HIS SECOND TITLE OF THE YEAR, MOVES INTO 14TH PLACE

Ricardo Eyzaguirre placed sixth in the event that Pham finished second in, earning $7,932 and 122 points for his fifth final-table showing of 2020. �e Orlando resident then made his way back to Florida in time to play in the monthly $1,100 no-limit hold’em special event held at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino.

Eyzaguirre had won the October running of this event for $46,000 and 408 points, top-ping a field of 259 total entries. �e November edition drew 253 entries, and incredibly it was Eyzaguirre who again came out on top, this time for $47,000 and another 408 points.

With these back-to-back victories, Eyzaguirre has now climbed into 14th place in the POY race, with 1,785 total points and $415,575 in earnings so far in 2020. He has now made a total of six POY-qualified final tables, including a sixth-place showing in the Mid-

States Poker Tour South Dakota $1,100 buy-in event for $20,539 and 280 points, as well as a runner-up finish in the $2 million guar-anteed $600 buy-in event at the Borgata Winter Poker Open that earned him $290,000 and 550 points.

Zachary Mullennix earned $37,000 and 340 points as the runner-up in the November event. �is was his fifth final-table finish of the year, with two titles won along the way. He took down a $1,100 buy-in preliminary event during the Lucky Hearts Poker Open in January for $48,640 and 360 points. In March he earned his third WSOP Circuit gold ring by winning the WSOPC Ameristar St. Charles $1,700 buy-in main event for $92,886 and 456 points. Mullinex now sits in 29th place in the overall standings, with 1,323 points and $189,250 in year-to-date earnings for 2020.

KOREY PAYNE WINS MID-STATES POKER TOUR VENETIAN $1,600 MAIN EVENT

�e Mid-States Poker Tour Venetian $1,600 buy-in no-limit hold’em main event drew a massive field of 1,239 total entries, blowing away the $400,000 guarantee to create a final prize pool of $1,771,770.

�e top 128 finishers made the money in the event, with the largest share going to eventual champion Korey Payne. �e Portland, Oregon resident was awarded $327,773 and his first live tournament title for the win. Payne also earned 960 POY points as the champion of this event. �is win alone was enough to move Payne into a seven-way tie for 76th place on the POY leaderboard.

Payne was not the only player to make moves in the POY race standings as a result of this event, though. Martin Zamani earned $148,829 and 640 points as the third-place finisher.

�is was Zamani’s third POY-qualified final table of 2020, and with 1,008 total points, he currently sits in 68th place in the POY rankings. He won his first WSOP Circuit gold ring by taking down the $2,200 buy-in high roller event at the Rio Las Vegas stop for $89,143 and 312 points. He followed that up with a sixth-place finish in a $1,950 buy-in event at the Bay 101 Shooting Star series for $10,710 and 56 additional points. He now has just shy of a quarter of a million dollars in POY-qualified scores on the year.

Trung Pham

Ricardo Eyzaguirre

Korey Payne

014_POY.indd 15 12/9/20 11:24 AM

CARDPLAYER.COM 16

THE INSIDE STRAIGHT - Head Games

VOLUME 34 / ISSUE 1

HEAD GAMESAvoiding Mistakes With Aces And Kings Preflop In Pot-Limit Omaha

By Craig Tapscott

The Pros: Chance Kornuth, John Beauprez, and Fernando ‘JNandez87’ Habegger

Craig Tapscott: If someone could only study pot-limit Omaha for 20 to 30 minutes a day, which area or situ-ation would you recommend they devote their time to? What worked best for you when you first made the tran-sition from no-limit hold’em to PLO?

Chance Kornuth: I encourage students to simply play as much as possible, particularly when they’re feeling confident or winning. Most players don’t play enough when winning and play too long when losing. Nowadays there is so much training material available, which can feel overwhelming as a player because subconsciously it may feel that if you haven’t digested every piece of content, you may have a blind spot providing an edge to your opponent. But realistically, I’ve always learned more from simply putting in volume at a stake where the swings don’t bother me mentally, and following up with a session review with a coach or player whose game I respect.

John Beauprez: I spent too much time focusing on board textures, that from a frequency standpoint, occur rarely. For example, strategic adjustments for a f lop of A-2-2 rainbow in a three-bet pot. In this situation, altering your approach doesn’t equate to a large profit increase over thousands of hands. The better approach

is to focus on the situations that occur most frequently, such as button vs. big blind ranges in single-raised pots, nailing down your three-bet range facing a late-position opener, and a variety of the other most commonly-played scenarios. I advise players to first make an honest assessment about their game, then after identifying your biggest weakness, focus on turning that into a strength.

Fernando ‘JNandez87’ Habegger: You need to focus on pref lop strategy first. When you’re new to PLO, it’s so easy to make massive mistakes based on pref lop hand selection. It’s understandable, because you’re suddenly getting dealt four cards instead of two. All these hands look so playable and nice, and you want to get involved. What most players don’t realize is that the majority of these hands aren’t actually as great as they might look. So, you’re going to end up in a lot of problem spots pre-f lop that can also compound post-f lop if you don’t know the right ranges. You will end up getting dominated.

Pref lop hand selection by far is the most important element of PLO when you’re new to the game. You want to create a plan and an outline of the game and then jump into each one of these study areas one by one. Spend a few days on raising first in, then a few days on three-betting, cold calling, defending the big blinds, facing a three-bet, etc. And all these choices play quite differently than no-limit hold’em. Different concepts are

016_HeadGames.indd 16 12/9/20 11:25 AM


THE INSIDE STRAIGHT

applied because of the pot-limit sizing, different ranges, and frequencies that are being used. Again, it’s very easy to make massive mistakes. So what you should do is seek out some hands-on tools that allow you to understand these ranges, and start getting an idea of how you should approach PLO pref lop decisions.

Craig Tapscott: A-A and K-K are the holy grail of start-ing hands in hold’em, yet they can be much trickier to play in PLO. What’s the biggest mistake new PLO play-ers make with these starting hands? Bonus question… is there a situation where you would ever fold aces pref lop in PLO?

Chance Kornuth: I’ve seen many new players both underplay or overplay their aces combinations pre-f lop. Of course, I’ve mostly been playing the Galfond Challenge and since ranges are wider and more aggres-sive dynamics exist, you want to three-bet almost all of your A-A-x-x combos since lighter four-bets are the norm. And getting all in pref lop with A-A-x-x always yields a nice profit.

In terms of situations where folding aces pref lop is best, I can think of only one, rare occurrence. In PLO tournaments on the bubble as a medium stack when other short stacks are likely to bust soon, you could consider folding aces. Our bust out frequency is too high with just A-A pref lop (even the strongest combos are only 65+ percent against most ranges), so it’s better to just avoid the high variance spot and fold into the money. In cash games I would never fold A-A at any stack depth. Beyond the immediate equity A-A-x-x has, even at deeper stacks when it becomes obvious due to the action that at least one other player has aces, you can still disguise your hand by calling, and utilize the blocker effects of aces on many different textures.

John Beauprez: The classic mistake is ignoring stack sizes and lacking positional awareness when deciding whether to inf late the pot. As a rule of thumb, you can three-bet or four-bet pref lop with any combo of aces as long as you can get the stack-to-pot-ratio (SPR) to ~1 on the f lop; so, you can unexploitably go all-in on any board. As SPR’s become deeper, becoming more selective with which A-A combos to inf late the pot with gains importance. Generally, single-suited A-A combos that can make a straight are okay to three-bet (espe-cially when in position and even more so against a weak

opponent). With 100 big blinds against more advanced players, you can begin to mix in some f lat calls facing a three-bet, especially with stronger A-A-x-x combinations like A-A-10-9 double suited.

Fernando ‘JNandez87’ Habegger: Let’s start off by making clear that aces are still by far the very best and strongest hands in PLO, and they are much stronger than kings. In a sense, that is very similar to no-limit hold’em.

In PLO, however, kings will have more equity than aces compared to the same hand matchup in hold’em. Single-suited disconnected Kings like K-K-9-4 will do far worse versus aces than a hand like K-K-10-9 double suited. With aces, you can’t go too wrong pref lop, as long as you make sure that you just three-bet your opponent if you can. And you can four-bet whenever you want as well, aces are doing fine in most situations. On rare occasions, you do sometimes fold aces pref lop in PLO. For example, if you face a tight, open raise from early position and you have trip rainbow aces like A-A-A-7, then you are supposed to fold. �

Chance Kornuth is the founder and lead instructor for Chip Leader Coaching. He has two WSOP bracelets, including the 2010 $5,000 pot-limit Omaha event and the 2018 $3,000 no-limit hold’em online event. He also won the 2016 AUD$25,000 Aussie Millions High Roller, and the 2014 Bellagio Cup. In total, he has amassed $8 million in live tournament earnings. Kornuth is currently battling Phil Galfond in a series of high-stakes online PLO matches as part of the Galfond Challenge.

John Beauprez is a WSOP bracelet winner, having won the 2013 $1,500 six-max no-limit hold’em event for $324,764. He has been playing PLO professionally since 2008, and has personally coached more than 400 players ranging from small-stakes grinders to high-stakes crushers. He is also the author of the best-selling PLO QuickPro Manual, and is the founder and lead instructor at PLOQuickPro.com.

Fernando ‘JNandez87’ Habegger is a long-time established PLO poker specialist and coach, having started in 2005. In 2018, Habegger launched PLOMastermind.com, a pot-limit Omaha training platform. He is the author of Mastering Small Stakes Pot Limit Omaha for D&B Poker Publishing. Habegger also livestreams PLO cash games on his Twitch channel JNandez Poker.

Chance Kornuth

John Beauprez

Fernando ‘JNandez87’ Habegger

016_HeadGames.indd 17 12/9/20 11:25 AM


Dan Smith Talks About His Early Start, Building A Bankroll At Age Seven

High Roller Crusher Details His Rise To No. Five On Poker’s All-Time Money List

By Julio Rodriguez

“If you were to look at some of my old [forum] posts, you would see me talking shit about tournament players.”That quote, ironically, comes from someone who holds one of the greatest tournament poker résumés ever, with

$37 million in cashes during his time on the felt. Although he is only 31 years old, Dan Smith has been playing cards for half of his life, having discovered poker

while traveling the country playing chess tournaments in his youth. The Manalapan, New Jersey native was already winning big online as a teenager, and by his junior year of high school he had a bankroll that would make many pro-fessionals jealous.

He had a bit of a slow start to his live tournament career, but Smith began to rack up huge scores as he climbed his way to the top of the high roller circuit. He now has 22 tournament titles, along with nine seven-figure cashes. He even cashed in two $1 million buy-in events, finishing third in both the 2018 Big One For One Drop and the 2019 Triton Super High Roller London. He also has a World Poker Tour title, winning the Five Diamond World Poker Classic in 2013.

Smith currently sits in fifth place on poker’s all-time money list behind just Bryn Kenney, Justin Bonomo, Daniel Negreanu, and Erik Seidel.

018_CoverStory.indd 18 12/9/20 11:26 AM


�ese days, however, he is more concerned with his role as a philanthropist than his results on the felt. In 2014, Smith founded �e Double Up Drive, an organization that matches public contributions dollar for dollar to more effectively help various charities. In the years since, he has brought on more members of the poker and daily fantasy sports community and helped to raise more than $16 million.

Card Player caught up with Smith for an episode of the Poker Stories podcast recently to discuss how he built his first ever bankroll, his biggest chess win, climbing the money list, and even why he decided to write his own eulogy.

�e highlights of the interview are below. You can listen to the full episode on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, or any podcast app.

Card Player: Can you talk about how you found poker? Dan Smith: My first love was chess. My uncle Paul got

me a dino-checkers set for Christmas when I was six, and I remember grabbing the wrong box, picking up chess instead. I didn’t know how to read, and both started with a ‘ch’ and had a checkered board. �e first day I beat my sister, and on the third day I beat my dad. For the next decade, I would go to tournaments all over the U.S. to compete. As far as junior players go, I was quite good and excelled. I think my highest ranking was ninth in the country for my age.

CP: What made you so good compared to your peers? Was it a lot of memorization of the plays, or was it more of a natural instinct for the game?

DS: It’s not memorization, because the game tree is just too large. I know this sounds crazy, but I think it’s true. �ey say there are more possible chess positions than there are atoms in the universe. So the game tree is ridiculous.

CP: Kind of like GTO (Game �eory Optimal) poker?DS: Poker is very forgiving. If you use the wrong bet size,

for example, it’s not necessarily a disaster. But in chess, an inaccuracy might just mean immediate game over. So, chess is more about precision. In poker, you can fold your hand and mentally check out until the next one. �at doesn’t exist in chess.

�ere are a lot of factors, such as good study habits, presence at the board, maintaining composure and not panicking. Some people collapse whenever they have a bad position. �ere are just so many variables, and I only had

some of them.CP: What was the highlight of your chess career?DS: I have knocked off a few grandmasters. I had a match

with the black pieces (which has a disadvantage because white moves first) in an official tournament game, and I drew (tied) Leonid Yudasin, who was at one point ranked number four in the world.

However, this was not as impressive as it sounds. I did play him 10 to 15 years past his peak, and he did let me know that I got lucky. (laughing)

CP: So, you’re traveling around playing in chess tourna-ments, and someone breaks out a deck of cards?

DS: It was the Moneymaker effect; everyone was playing online. At night or in between games, people started taking out the cards. I was playing largely with adults, but there were some kids as well. By contrast to chess, it just seemed like such an easy game.

At chess, not even at the highest levels, everyone is trying their hardest to win all the time. �en you see poker on TV and you see these knuckleheads who are clearly not trying their best, and are doing silly things. It felt like the right game to be in.

As a 15-year-old, playing these big [chess] tournaments, I would see the no. 15 player in the country struggling to pay his bills. But with poker, these people were winning a ton of money, and I thought, why not me?

At a certain point, I had plateaued. If you get to a 2,200 rating, that’s technically a master, and I was at 2,150. But that’s still a sizeable hurdle to get over and I kind of got stuck. But when I switched to [poker], every time I played, I was learning something new, while also still crushing. I really loved it.

�e fact that I was making a boatload of money as a teenager didn’t hurt, either. �e summer of my junior year in high school, I won $30,000 playing $3-$6 no-limit in consecutive months.

CP: And the gambling came naturally to you?DS: Gambling has always been in my blood. My dad used

to love the horses, and I spent many a Saturday afternoon at the race track. I have a distinct memory of winning $96 as a seven-year-old. He let me make one bet every day, and I made a $2 exacta bet and won. So, for the next several weeks,

DOES DAN SMITH STILL GET NERVOUS AT THE POKER TABLE, AND IS HE SUPERSTITIOUS?

“I still get nervous to various degrees. If I’m in a situation where I don’t have con-fidence in my ability to make the right decision... I have memories of being nervous on the bubble of super high rollers. Not because I’m concerned about not making the money, but more because ICM (Independent Chip Model) is just so hard to approximate and there’s so much guess work. Let’s say somebody puts you all-in with any two cards without even looking. There can be situations where you are supposed to fold A-K, and other situations where you are supposed to call with a marginal hand. The situation of having a complicated spot where I can make a large error, those are times I can recall feeling nerves. For the most part, in these really big moments, however, I [relish] the opportunity to broadcast my skills for everyone to watch.”

“If I’m running good... like in 2012, I had this ‘Dan Smith Nubs’ shirt that was blue and pink that I would wear to every tournament. There was also a red Yankees hat. The first time I wore that, I won the Aussie Millions $100k. One time, I swapped 4.4 percent with Ike (Haxton) and one of us won, so I made it a point to have exactly 4.4 percent in the next one as well. I think it’s fun to be a little bit superstitious, and it doesn’t cost you anything as long as you aren’t adjusting your play. So, I like to have fun with it. I think if you are entirely rational about gambling, it’s going to be a little less fun.”

Dan’s Lucky Shirt And Hat



I would take my $96 to the track and study the programs and make my bets. I just assumed I was going to be printing money at it.

CP: You had a brief stint at the University of Maryland, but ultimately decided to continue with poker, spending most of your time playing internationally. �ings started off well with a win at the Heartland Poker Tour main event, but then…

DS: I spent 2009 playing in Europe, and I went literally zero for the entire year. I just decided to play all of these live tournaments. I did not have any success in the live arena for the next several years. I probably wasn’t as good as I thought I was, but I was also running quite bad. But the nature of live tournaments is that the variance is sick and the sample size is never large enough.

CP: Was there ever a point in time when you considered quitting and finding something else?

DS: At that point, all of my eggs were so into the poker basket. I’ve always had a deep-rooted trust in my abilities that I would make it. I’m not sure where it came from, but I imagine my chess background helped. I also don’t think I had an alternative so I could quit. I had no degree and no other skills. I don’t know what else I could have possibly done [instead].

CP: Eventually things turned around for you, and then came the high rollers. When did you start to feel established as a tournament player?

DS: I won the Aussie Millions High Roller $100,000 buy-in event [for $1.06 million]. It was a big result and a lot of money. I kind of feel like that was really my first claim that I was a high-stakes player and that I was here to stay. I played the $250,000 event a few days later, which is completely outrageous stakes, and was especially so back in 2012. �en I had those back-to-back-to-back wins in the €5,000 buy-in events in Monte Carlo [at the EPT Grand Final]. �at was a really special run and I think that’s when I started to make a lot of noise.

Super high rollers started becoming a more regular thing in 2012, and I am on a short list of people who started play-ing all of them, and I have never been out of action. I would say there is less than ten guys who can say that, and I have been among the top players [during that stretch.] In any given tournament, the results are mostly irrelevant. Variance is a real thing, and luck is involved. But over the course of a decade, I’m proud of what I’ve accomplished.

CP: When you look at your top tournament scores, it’s hard not to notice the third-place finishes, or runner-up fin-ishes. Do you ever think about the money you left up top, or are you good about celebrating the close calls?

DS: In the immediate aftermath, there’s usually a little bit of pain. I had the biggest score of my career, third place for £7.2 million in the Triton [Super High Roller London] last summer. For an hour or so, I was pretty cranky and upset. I was chip leader four handed, and I thought I was in a really good position to win, which would have put me number one all time. But then just nothing went my way.

But in terms of after the fact, I don’t [look back with regrets]. I think I’ve had great fortune over the course of my career, and honestly, winning another tournament… the money doesn’t really change my life at this point. When I’m particularly flush with cash, I gamble bigger. When I’m los-ing or illiquid, I gamble smaller. Money doesn’t change my decisions, and in terms of hoping for more accolades, that doesn’t concern me.

CP: Is getting to the top of the all-time money list one of your goals?

DS: Whatever comes, comes. I think stats that don’t account for buy-ins are pretty silly. Having just a few million dollar buy-in tournaments really skew the results, so I don’t think it means all that much. I would obviously prefer to be number one over number five just because it means I have won a ton of money in the interim, but I don’t especially care about it.

CP: You are clearly one of the best players of all time, but if you asked the average poker fan, your name might not come up as quickly as some of the others. Do you ever feel overlooked or underrated given your accomplishments?

DS: I’m just not really that fussed with what people think of me. I would say when I was on my way up, the respect of my peers was hugely important for me. In my early twenties, I had some issues with mental health, not having particularly high self-esteem. And I thought I could get there by pursuing poker accolades, getting rich, and becoming the no. one GPI player. I did all those things, and then I realized my life was still exactly the same.

If you ask some random person on the street what they think of my poker game... who gives a shit? People are free to think whatever they like, and that’s not going to have any impact on my life at all.

My therapist had me do an exercise where I’m supposed to

The All-Time Tournament Earnings ListRank Player Earnings

1. Bryn Kenney $56,649,561

2. Justin Bonomo $51,107,461

3. Daniel Negreanu $41,086,897

4. Erik Seidel $37,861,201

5. Dan Smith $36,893,609

6. David Peters $35,199,248

7. Stephen Chidwick $34,687,561

8. Fedor Holz $34,202,365

9. Jason Koon $32,126,634

10. Steve O’Dwyer $31,268,703



DAN SMITH’S TOP TOURNAMENT SCORES�e no. 5 player on the all-time money list obviously has a supersized tournament

résumé. In fact, the cashes and wins that we couldn’t fit on this chart would make most poker pros envious. Smith’s first ever recorded cash came in June of 2008 at the Heartland Poker Tour main event at Turning Stone Casino in New York. It was one of the few venues that allowed him to play before turning 21.

After that, he endured a few dry years playing in Europe, before turning things around in October of 2011 at the EPT London festival. A few months later, he won the Aussie Millions AUD$100,000 high roller, for the first of his whopping nine, seven-figure scores. (�at’s tied with Daniel Negreanu for second. Only David Peters has more, with 10.)

Smith has 184 total recorded cashes, including 22 wins. Of those wins, 10 have come in events with buy-ins of $25,000 or more. Over the course of his career, he’s also managed to cash in 13 different countries. His smallest tournament cash? �at would be a 16th place finish for $1,533 at the 2010 Wynn Classic.

Date Event Buy-In Finish Payout

Aug. 2019 Triton Super High Roller London £1,050,000 3rd Place $8,784,000

July 2018 WSOP One Drop High Roller $1,000,000 3rd Place $4,000,000

July 2016 WSOP Big One For One Drop $111,111 2nd Place $3,078,974

June 2014 Bellagio High Roller $100,000 1st Place $2,044,766

March 2019 Triton Super High Roller Jeju HKD2,000,000 3rd Place $1,768,000

Nov. 2017 Bellagio High Roller $100,000 1st Place $1,404,000

Aug. 2012 EPT Barcelona Super High Roller €50,000 1st Place $1,186,420

Dec. 2013 WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic $10,000 1st Place $1,161,135

Jan. 2012 Aussie Millions Super High Roller AUD$100,000 1st Place $1,060,981

Sept. 2018 Poker Masters $100,000 2nd Place $700,000

March 2018 Super High Roller Bowl China HKD2,000,000 11th Place $556,407

June 2018 WSOP Poker Players Championship $50,000 3rd Place $521,782

July 2016 WSOP Pot-Limit Omaha Championship $25,000 3rd Place $487,361

June 2017 Aria High Roller $25,000 1st Place $413,280

June 2015 WSOP Pot-Limit Omaha $10,000 3rd Place $369,564

June 2012 WSOP No-Limit Hold’em $5,000 3rd Place $368,943

Feb. 2017 Aria High Roller $25,000 1st Place $337,608

April 2012 EPT Grand Final No-Limit Hold’em €5,000 1st Place $330,724

Nov. 2016 Aria High Roller $25,000 1st Place $312,000

May 2018 Aria High Roller $25,000 1st Place $305,000

Feb. 2017 Aria High Roller $25,000 2nd Place $295,120

July 2014 WSOP Main Event $10,000 20th Place $286,900

June 2016 Aria High Roller Bounty $30,000 1st Place $285,200

July 2016 Aria High Roller $25,000 2nd Place $264,900

Dec. 2016 Five Diamond No-Limit Hold’em $5,000 1st Place $257,097

write a eulogy about myself, in order to get a sense of what’s important to me. Granted, I’m not a eulogy writer, but I ended up not including anything about poker in it.

CP: Speaking of off-the-felt accomplishments, what you’ve done with your charity organization over the years has been incredible.

DS: I run a non-profit called Double Up Drive where the idea is that we run matching challenges. If you donate $100, I find someone who matches it so the impact is doubled. Over the last six years, we’ve raised more than $16 million.

Sometimes I have to take a step back and think about that. �ere was one year where my favorite charity, Strong Minds, sent me an email saying that thanks to our annual drive, 5,000 women in Uganda were able to undergo 12 weeks of therapy. �en I realized that Strong Minds was just one of 10 charities we had selected. When I think of the magnitude of difference we are making in the world, it’s profound and wonderful.

To learn more about Dan’s charity and the 2020 campaign, visit www.DoubleUpDrive.com. �


CARDPLAYER.COM 22

THE INSIDE STRAIGHT - poker Strategy

VOLUME 34 / ISSUE 1

Shi� s In Poker Strategy With Dylan LindePoker Pros Revisit Hands From The Past To Show How The Game Has Changed

By Steve Schult

Blinds – 8,000 – 16,000 with a 2,000 antePlayers Remaining: 6

Q

Q

J

J

Phil Hellmuth 1,150,000)

Mclean Karr 900,000

Q

Q

2

2

K

K

Q

Q

9

9

In the nearly two decades since poker experienced a boom thanks to Chris Moneymaker’s historic World Series of Poker main event victory in 2003, the strategy surrounding the game has evolved at a pace never seen before. With online poker, the game’s best players were able to see more hands quickly and develop more complex strategies to win. Bet sizing, aggression levels, and even something as basic as preflop hand selection has changed drastically since the game went mainstream.

Dylan Linde has been around for most of that evolution. The longtime high-stakes tournament pro racked up more than $4.2 million in live earn-ings over the course of his career and millions more online. Most notably, the Idaho native won the 2018 $10,000 World Poker Tour Five Diamond main event for more than $1.6 million. He also authored the instructional book Mastering Mixed Games, which was released in 2018.

Linde sat down with Card Player to break down a hand from the 2010 WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star final table, which featured Matt Keikoan, Hasan Habib, Dan O’Brien, and Andy Seth, as well as Mclean Karr and Phil Hellmuth.

The Action: Phil Hellmuth raised to 46,000 from the cutoff , Andy Seth called on the button, and Mclean Karr called out of the big blind. On the fl op, Karr checked, and Hellmuth bet 50,000. Seth folded and Karr called. On the turn, Karr checked and Hellmuth bet 90,000. Karr called. On the river, Karr checked and Hellmuth bet 190,000. Karr called.

Steve Schult: Phil’s pre-fl op raise was a full three times the blind. � is fi nal table was in 2010. If I’m remembering the evolu-tion of poker strategy cor-rectly, this was about when players started trending towards smaller sizes. Why was strategy shifting in that direction?

Dylan Linde: People started trending towards smaller sizes because every-

body was under-defending against it. You could really go small and people would still just fold anyway, even getting a good price.

� e other reason is that some people started ramp-ing up three-bet aggression. If you open smaller, you are going to be able to peel [more often], especially if you’re calling in position. And you’ll have deeper eff ective stacks post-fl op, as far as stack-to-pot ratio goes.

SS: Is there any merit to raising larger if you’re maybe playing a tad bit too tight? In this example, Phil makes a much larger open and he gets two callers. Why not get the extra value if you’re generally going to be raising only premium hands?

DL: I think at those eff ective stack sizes, you’re going to want to go a little larger anyway. I think 2.5x would be the standard now.

And then you would size down as you get shallower, because you still don’t want to give people an extremely good price.

In general, with a small-er ante, you are going to want to open smaller, but at the fi nal table you kind of get this eff ect with ICM [Independent Chip Model] where you can put some additional pressure on the shorter stacks by making it larger prefl op.

He is going to basically force them to put most, if not all, of their chips in prefl op, if they choose to three-bet. Also, they won’t be able to defend as wide. I guess Phil might not be taking advantage of this, but my experience playing with Phil is that he opens pretty wide prefl op, but he plays kind of tight post-fl op.

SS: On the fl op, Phil bets about a third of the pot when it’s checked to him.

The Hand

022_PokerStrategy.indd 22 12/9/20 11:27 AM


THE INSIDE STRAIGHT

I thought down-betting became popular many years later. Was Phil ahead of the curve here?

DL: It’s definitely what he should be doing. If he’s going to bet there, it should be small. In my experience, people weren’t doing the small continuation-bets as much at this time. Half-pot or larger was kind of the standard back then.

SS: What are the merits to betting smaller? What prompted this shift?

DL: You can bet smaller because it widens your value range in that spot. If Phil bets half-pot or larger, he can’t really be betting with 7-7 or 8-8. Because when your opponent continues, you’re almost always beat. And at this size, he can bet small and make a bunch of hands continue, especially from the big blind, that he can get value from with the weaker portion of his flop-bet value range.

Mclean is going to have to continue with some K-J suited type of stuff against a small bet and Phil will be able to extract some addi-tional value. And he can

do it from a place of posi-tion. Here, three-ways, it’s a little odd because Andy is in position and covering, and can put some pressure on Phil if he chooses to. But it’s still a tough flop for him to do it with. He’s got to have the right hand.

SS: Mclean flopped trips and opted to check-call. I remember a lot of players taking the check-raise, bar-rel off line with big hands in this spot. Like Phil’s small continuation bet, was Mclean ahead of the curve by just calling?

DL: Mclean is defi-nitely ahead of the curve by just calling. Because at this point in the poker metagame, people aren’t finding all the bluffs. If people are bluffing enough, that really weights the check-raise towards value. So it will be much harder for him to extract value, especially from a player like Phil, who is definitely capable of making some big folds. But he’ll also make some thin value bets if you give him a chance.

�e other thing is that since Phil covers Mclean

and we are at the final table, Mclean is incentivized to keep pots small in general. If Mclean didn’t three-bet with a middle pair of some sort, he is going to want to just be calling on the flop and he’ll want to balance that out with his Q-X hold-ings.

SS: Mclean checks the turn and Phil bets. According to the updates from the event, there was some banter between the two while Mclean was mak-ing his decision. I wanted to get your take on the absence of table talk in modern tournaments. I don’t want to turn this into a debate about live tells, but why aren’t there more little quips between players while they are in the hand?

DL: I think it’s because people just stopped responding. So many play-ers play in a robotic fashion, at least at the higher stakes. �ey are much less com-fortable with table talk and more worried about giv-ing things away. I think it kind of dampened that in-game talking. Because once someone stops responding,

you’re just firing off ques-tions at a blank nothing. You’re just going to stop.

Someone like me, I enjoy talking at the table a lot, but I understand that I’m probably giving some-thing up. I have a really difficult time doing those two things at once.

SS: In that sense, if you’re worried about giving something off, there defi-nitely are tells. But the way that poker has evolved, it’s just become a game where players have become good at masking them.

DL: Exactly. Hence the Christoph Vogelsangs of the world. Wearing scarves and glasses, you know? It’s the extreme on the other side.

SS: Again, I wanted to ask about the turn sizing. I would’ve thought, from a modern theoretical stand-point, that Phil’s bet would be larger. Is this a unique hand for him to bet one-third on the flop and one-third on the turn?

DL: Yes. He is the cover-ing player, so he wants to put Mclean in a spot where he is forced to leverage his

“People started trending towards smaller sizes because everybody was under-defending against it. You could really go small and people would still just fold anyway, even getting a good price. The other reason is that some people started ramping up three-bet aggression. If you open smaller, you are going to be able to peel [more often], especially if you’re calling in position. And you’ll have deeper effective stacks post-flop, as far as stack-to-pot ratio goes.”

Phil Hellmuth Mclean Karr


CARDPLAYER.COM 24

THE INSIDE STRAIGHT - Final Table Takedown

stack all in on the river. And with a small bet, it’s just not as easy to do that. Unless he’s going to just overbet all in on the river. It’s not like he needs to bet huge, but I think it should be something around half-pot or something like that.

SS: Does the smaller bet size get anything to fold? Or is he basically going to the river against the same range that continued on the flop?

DL: He might get Mclean to fold a deuce. I’m not say-ing Mclean should fold a deuce. Maybe some ace-highs that would continue might fold. But otherwise no. �ere shouldn’t be a lot of things that fold.

SS: Mclean check-calls the turn and checks the river. Phil bets again. At this point, to raise preflop and triple barrel on this board, what value hands is he credibly representing?

DL: �ere’s a bunch of hands. Phil could value bet a hand as weak as a

king here. It’s kind of weird because at this point, I don’t expect Mclean to have gotten through two barrels with some of his floats like K-J suited or K-10 suited, unless he turned a flush draw.

But Phil could have a king, aces, J-10, and obvi-ously all of the super strong hands like trip queens, deuces full, and the rest of those. With that size, he’s got a few hands that can really put some pressure on Mclean.

SS: Mclean calls and Phil just announces he has nothing and ends up muck-ing his hand when Mclean shows trips. I don’t see many natural bluffs on this board, except maybe A� X�. So I’m going to make an assumption that Phil triple barreled with a no-equity hand, a la Vanessa Selbst circa 2008. Why don’t we see more of that anymore?

DL: We don’t really see it as much now because the

trend was that mostly peo-ple are betting with equity. But in ICM situations espe-cially, there are a lot of spots where guys will blast off with hands that have no equity, but that will use blockers in a certain way.

A hand like A-8 would be an okay bluff there because it isn’t going to showdown and win enough. And if Mclean found some floats that turned a flush draw, then Phil can bet and get auto-folds from those, which he does have some showdown value against. But the eight acts as some-what of a blocker against the nine. You get some of these weird no-equity spots that come up, but they are just kind of hard to find and it’s really only the best players that use them cor-rectly.

We’ll still see these spots in the World Series of Poker main event where there are random people blasting off for no reason. If you’re watching a World Poker Tour final table with a bunch of mid- and high-stakes regs, you probably won’t see that play much, but if you’re watching a $100,000 final table with some of the best players in the world playing against each other, you’ll definitely see some of that.

Strategy kind of goes in circles.

SS: �e last thing I wanted to ask you about was the ICM situation that these players were in at the time. �e payouts were $878,000 for first and $117,000 for sixth, while the runner-up would take home $521,000. How have the payouts changed over the years?

DL: I actually think it’s better the old way, but for sure it has shifted. It has shifted so that there is less up top for the most part. �e year that I won the Five Diamond was a really good example. It was some-

thing like $1.6 million for first and it was the largest field of all-time. But the year before it was $2.1 mil-lion for first with a smaller field.

�ey did a giant shift in the payouts and that is the kind of thing that ben-efits operators, especially in online tournaments where they want people to keep liquidity online, and it also benefits satellite tourna-ments. So I think that’s why we are seeing that shift in the payout. �ey are say-ing that it is worth more for them to pay more people than it is to have this super sexy first-place prize.

SS: Overall, has there been an appropriate shift in the way players attack late-game ICM spots with the shift in the payouts?

DL: I think that Phil would still be less incen-tivized to [apply pressure]. For him, it’s not like he is looking at the difference between moving up one spot. He’s looking at the difference between sixth and first. It’s still a signifi-cant amount of buy-ins.

A good way to look at ICM isn’t necessarily the dollar amount, but the number of buy-ins it is. If fifth place is something like $200,000, that’s still about ten buy-ins which is pretty significant. �at’s kind of the way you have to think about it, especially for peo-ple who are playing tourna-ments where the money up top isn’t as mind blowing and life changing. You still need to think about how many buy-ins it is.

The Result: Hellmuth was eliminated in sixth place, earning $117,000 after his pocket queens were cracked by Andy Seth’s A-J with an ace on the river. Karr used this early pot to build his stack, ultimately beat-ing Seth heads-up to win the title and the $878,500 first-place prize. �

VOLUME 34 / ISSUE 1


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Poker Stories Podcast

Poker Stories is a long-form audio podcast series that features casual interviews with some of the game’s best players and personalities. Each episode highlights a well-known member of the poker world and dives deep into their favorite tales both on and off the felt.

Download it directly to your device from any number of mobile apps, such as Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Play, or Spotify. Catch up on past episodes featuring notables such as Doyle Brunson, Antonio Esfandiari, Daniel Negreanu, Jennifer Harman, Justin Bonomo, Nick Schulman, Barry Greenstein, Michael Mizrachi, Bryn Kenney, Mike Sexton, Maria Ho, and many more.

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CARDPLAYER.COM 26

Strategies, ANALYSIS & Commentary

VOLUME 34 / ISSUE 1

I recently had to deal with multiple cold four-bets in a tough $10,000 buy-in tournament. My table was fairly aggressive, so I was doing a decent amount of three-betting (re-raising) when I was in position while playing a some-what tight strategy from out of position.

When you are playing a large buy-in event, you need to make a point to take advantage of your position as much as possible while making sure you don’t get too abused when you are out of position.

A hand came up where a strong, loose aggressive oppo-nent raised from the hijack seat to 4,000 out of his 100,000 stack at 800-1,600. I three-bet to 11,000 with 9� 7� from the button and then another strong loose aggressive player four-bet to 28,000 from the big blind. I didn’t think much of this hand and quickly folded.

An orbit later, the same initial raiser raised from the but-ton to 4,000 and I made it 12,800 out of my 90,000 stack from the small blind with A� J�. Calling in this situation is also a viable play because if you get four-bet, you will be in a tricky spot. � at said, because I was three-betting so often, I was fairly confi dent I could profi tably get all-in for 90,000 against this opponent if he decided to four-bet. I know that may seem loose to some readers, but that was the dynamic we had.

To my surprise, a strong, fairly tight aggressive player in the big blind four-bet to 26,000. Given the four-bettor plays at a world-class level, I thought he could easily real-ize the initial raiser was raising the button a ton and that I would combat this with a ton of three-bets.

I was getting around 2.5:1 pot odds, so calling should always be considered. � e problem is that I would be out of position and would face a lot of diffi cult post-fl op situations, especially when I fail to connect with the board. Folding would certainly be fi ne if I assume he is never or rarely bluffi ng, as A� J� has around 32 percent equity against a range of 10-10+ and A-Q+.

I imagine his calling range if I decided to go all-in would be 10-10 or better and A-Q or better. If I thought he was four-betting with something like 7-7+, A-9+, K-Q, K-J suit-ed+, and various suited connectors, he will fold to my all-in with around 66 percent of the hands he is four-betting.

It should be noted that all players will four-bet bluff with diff erent ranges. For simplicity though, this range will suffi ce. Knowing that, I can use the following equation to fi gure out my equity.

Profi t = (percent both players fold)(pot I win) + (percent four-bettor calls)(equity in pot – amount put in pot) + (percent four-better folds and initial raiser calls)(equity in pot – amount in pot)

For simplicity, let’s assume the initial raiser will only call around 8 percent of the time. Let’s also ignore the rare times they both call. I know my equity in the pot because I roughly know his calling range and how well A� J� does against it.

So, I have….61(46,800) + (.33)(60,160-90,000) – .08(68,480 –

90,000) = 28,548 – 9,847 – 1,721 = 16,980

� is means I will win 16,980 every time I fi ve-bet all-in, assuming all the assumptions I made are correct. � is is a huge amount of profi t, especially since I am only playing 800-1,600.

If the four-bettor is playing with a tighter range, the equation would look much diff erent, as I will no longer have much fold equity:

.2(46,800) + .71(60,160 – 90,000) – .08(68,480 – 90,000) = 9,360 – 21,186 – 1,721 = -13,547

� is means when he is rarely four-bet bluffi ng, I am in bad shape. All I have to do now is guess how often he is four-betting with a wide range and how often he is four-betting with a tight range. If I think he will have a wide range around 25 percent of the time and a tight range 75 percent of the time, I end up with:

.25(16,980) + .75(-13,547) = 4,245 – 10,160 = -5,915If instead I thought he had a wide range more often,

the four-bet would be profi table. � ere is a lot of guesswork involved in poker. In this spot, I need to guess what his four-betting range is and then guess how often he will have each potential range. � is is why it is so important to know your opponent’s strategy. If you think he will only four-bet with the nuts, you have an easy fold. If you think he will bluff often, you have an easy all-in.

All of this being said, I decided to go all-in. He called with A-Q and I was out. After looking at the math, I think I should have folded and waited for a better spot. Analyzing your play away from the table is something everyone should do. If you would like an extensive lesson on this topic and many others, pick up my book Mastering Small Stakes No-Limit Hold’em. �

Jonathan Little is a two-time WPT champion with more than $7 million in live tournament earnings, best-selling author of 15 educational poker books, and 2019 GPI Poker Personality of the Year. If you want to increase your poker skills and learn to crush the games, check out

his training site at PokerCoaching.com/cardplayer.

HOW TO DEAL WITH COLD FOUR-BETSBy Jonathan Little

There is a lot of guesswork in-volved in poker. In this spot, I need to guess what his four-betting range is and then guess how often he will have each potential range. This is why it is so important to know your opponent’s strategy. If you think he will only four-bet with the nuts, you have an easy fold. If you think he will bluff often, you have an easy all-in.

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In badugi, as is the case in most draw games, whenever we are a card ahead of our opponent heading into a draw, we mostly have an automatic bet on the next street, even when we have not improved.

If we are pat and our opponent is drawing, betting is clear, and if we have a one-card draw (i.e. three-card badu-gi) we should also tend to bet against an opponent draw-ing two. While there is some possible merit to checking an unimproved, rough, one-card draw versus a two-card draw, this situation is close, and all things considered we can’t go that wrong betting whenever we are a card ahead.

Betting The Superior Three-Card BadugiIn a battle of one-card draws if it’s highly probable we

held the best hand going into the draw, we should also tend to bet the next street regardless if we improved or not. On any particular draw there is only around a 20-per-cent chance an opponent drawing one has made a badugi, thus we are still a sizeable equity favorite even when we brick.

For example, suppose we hold A� 2� 3� and drew one on the first draw, as did our opponent. If our opponent fails to improve, we are an approximate 70-percent favor-ite with two draws to go. Getting raised when our opponent has made a badugi isn’t a big fear as we have an easy call with implied odds on our side.

On the turn our advantage is greater because when our opponent fails to improve, we are around an 80-percent favorite with one draw to go. If the villain has made a badugi, his median holding will be an eight or nine, and against this range we have approximately 10 percent equity. So we are betting the turn holding around 66 percent equity (80%*80% + 20%*10%) which is clearly enough even after factoring in potential check-raises that we may face.

Overall, our situation is better when our opponent does not check-raise weak badugis, and of course he may fold unimproved which would be a good result. Occasionally, an aggressive player may elect to check-raise and pat as a bluff, a play we will examine below.

Getting Check-Raised With A Strong DrawSuppose a loose-aggressive player opens from the cutoff

and we three-bet from the button with A� 2� 5�. �e vil-lain calls and draws one, as do we. Given the range that an aggressive player will open from the cutoff, our three-card badugi is a big favorite to be the best hand so we should remain aggressive.

We fail to improve on the first two draws and unfor-tunately get check-raised on the turn. As previously dis-

cussed, assuming villain has the badugi he is representing we are in bad shape with 10 percent equity, give or take.

However, the pot is quite sizeable and we are getting 7.75 to 1 odds to call the raise, meaning we only require around 11 percent equity to continue. We can usually make up the slim equity shortfall on the river because with a strong draw and position we hold the betting advantage on the last street.

When we hit gin, we can possibly get in a raise, and if our opponent checks, his range is usually capped to weak-er badugis, thus we can value bet somewhat aggressively and get called due to the bloated pot. In addition, folding on the turn for one bet is dangerous as it may entice play-ers to take shots at us in the future.

If we call the check-raise and fail to improve, should we consider calling on the end? If you are up against a

tight, ABC player you can definitely find a fold, however, against a loose-aggressive player we need to consider the play of the hand and the mathematics involved from his viewpoint.

Suppose the villain had opened from the cutoff with a 5� 6� 8�; not a powerhouse but still a standard open from that position. Our three-bet from the button indi-cates that we have a good three-card badugi; however it could be a five, a six, or even a smooth seven and not necessarily a premium holding.

When the villain has not improved, calling on the turn isn’t a great option as his equity situation is quite bad and he also has reverse implied odds. Remember, after the sec-ond draw he doesn’t yet know whether or not we are pat, and if we have made a badugi he could easily be drawing dead. And even when we are not pat, he has to think there is little chance to win by reducing his incomplete.

However, he has another option other than folding,

In a battle of one-card draws, if it’s highly probable we held the best hand going into the draw, we should also tend to bet the next street regardless if we improved or not. On any particular draw there is only around a 20-percent chance an opponent drawing one has made a badugi, thus we are still a sizeable equity favorite even when we brick.

BADUGI: PLAYING THE PROBABLE BEST HAND IN THE MIDDLE ROUNDSBy Kevin Haney

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and that is to make a move at the pot by check-raising and patting as a bluff . If he has the play in his arsenal it would be a good time to do it especially if he has paired along the way. He’s at the bottom of his range and we don’t neces-sarily have a premium three-card badugi that we may feel obligated to showdown regardless.

So how often does our opponent need us to fold on the river in order for the play to be profi table? Most often when taking this line he is risking three big bets in an attempt to win 6.75. Two big bets go in with the turn check-raise followed up with a river bet and the potential reward is the 6.75 big bets in the middle after we call the turn.

Under this risk-reward proposition, the play only needs to work around 31 percent of the time to be profi table, indicating we need to call down with at least 69 percent of our holdings to defend against it. It actually needs to work less often than that as sometimes he will run into a very strong badugi and get three-bet on the turn. In this event, the villain will often waive the white fl ag and fold to only lose two big bets.

� is success rate isn’t that high of a hurdle to clear con-sidering we will only make a badugi around 38 percent of the time over the course of the last two draws. � erefore, against a very loose aggressive player we would be correct to show down the A-2-5 as it quite far up in our range.

� ere are only a few combinations of three card badu-gis better than A-2-5 (A-2-3, A-2-4, A-3-4, and 2-3-4) and many other worse fi ves, sixes, and sevens that we likely would have played in the same manner. Once again, this call would be incorrect against a tight, ABC player and we can exploit his straight-forward play by folding.

However, not every situation is the same and we should be less apt to call the river if both of our ranges were stronger. For example, if villain had instead opened from under-the-gun and we originally reraised from the hijack, the range of both our three-card badugis would be much stronger. � is means he is much less likely to have a three-card badugi that he would turn into a snow, and he should also realize we are more likely to hold a premium draw that most players will showdown no matter what happens in the hand.

Playing Pat BadugisWith a badugi, we are always going to bet against an

opponent that is still drawing. When we are dealt a badugi from the onset our overall range isn’t that strong, however, if we are playing correctly before the fi rst draw our range will be stronger than the average player.

So what happens when we get raised along the way with a mediocre or weak badugi? � is is a very diffi cult situation to deal with and impossible to answer without the context of the session, the play of the hand, and the aggression level of your opponents taken into account.

When you are out-of-position and your opponent raises, sometimes it is a test to see if you will break. We can only consider folding immediately to this raise against only the most passive and straightforward of players. Correspondingly, if we are in-position and get check-raised, our opponent’s hand has a much greater chance of being legit.

We should also consider the strength of our badugi rel-ative to the position from which we opened. For example, if we had opened a ten badugi from early position in a full game this hand is towards the bottom of our range, how-ever, if we had opened this identical hand from the button this same holding would be quite high in our range. In the absence of more relevant information, we should tend to fold when we are at or near the bottom of our range and tend to showdown when we are much higher up.

In the next issue we will examine situations where we know, or at least think it’s highly probable that we hold the second-best hand and need to chase.

Kevin Haney is a former actuary of MetLife but left the corporate job to focus on his passions for poker and fitness. He is co-owner of Elite Fitness Club in Oceanport, NJ and is a certi-fied personal trainer. With regards to poker he got his start way back in 2003 and particularly

enjoys taking new players interested in mixed games under his wing and quickly making them proficient in all variants. If interested in learning more, playing mixed games online, or just saying hello he can be reached at [email protected].

This Is Not The Main Event You Are Looking ForBy Gavin Griffi n

December, the month when we escape the harsh winters of the mid-west and Northern Europe to fl ock to the relative warmth of the desert of Las Vegas, Nevada to play the World Series of Poker main event. Wait, do I have that wrong?

� e pandemic of 2020 has wreaked absolute havoc on our calen-dar. Spring Break was cancelled, the Fourth of July was an in-home aff air, and � anksgiving was a mess.

The gambling calendar was also thrown into upheaval. March Madness was outright cancelled, � e Masters was delayed half a year to November. � e NBA had to play in a bubble. � e MLB season was marred by a mess of positive tests and postponements, and the NFL season has been more of the same. And, of course, the annual Las Vegas summer series known to poker fans all around the globe as the World Series of Poker,

was moved online. It’s that WSOP online thing that

I’m interested in talking about right now.

As far as I knew, we had already crowned a WSOP main event cham-pion in 2020. His name is Stoyan Madanzhiev, and he won $3.9 million for beating a massive fi eld of 5,802 players. � e tournament, which had a $5,000 buy-in and re-entry for-mat, generated a record-breaking

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$27,559,500 prize pool.All that being said, I’m not sure

that many people are going to be thinking about him next year. His win is destined to be another casualty of this bizarro year.

You might ask yourself how a WSOP main event winner could be forgotten? We remember winners like Pius Heinz, who has been mostly absent from poker since his triumph, and guys like Russ Hamilton, who has been disgraced as a cheater and pariah in the poker community. Good or bad, skilled or not, the win-

ner of the main event is permanently inscribed in the annals of poker his-tory.

Unfortunately for Stoyan, this year, we’re going to have a second main event. Even though the tourna-ment’s single-entry format and steep-er $10,000 buy-in will likely result in a much smaller prize pool, given its small live component, it may be regarded as the one to remember in future years.

�e format, in true 2020 fashion, is odd. Two separate online events, one on WSOP.com in the United

States and one on GGPoker.com in Europe, will play down to separate final tables. �ose final tables will play out live, one at �e Rio in Las Vegas, and the other at King’s Casino Rozvadov. Finally, the winners of each event will play heads up at the Rio for an added $1 million prize and the official title of WSOP main event champion.

�ere are a lot of firsts here. You have the first hybrid main event champion, and the first champion to have money added to his prize (Hamilton won his weight in silver).

WHY THEN, DO I FEEL SO NEGATIVE ABOUT THIS SECOND MAIN EVENT? I GUESS BECAUSE I FEEL LIKE THE RIGHTFUL MAIN EVENT CHAMPION IS HAVING HIS TITLE TAKEN FROM HIM. OR PERHAPS IT’S BECAUSE THE TOURNAMENT IS CLEARLY A LAST-MINUTE CASH GRAB BY THE WSOP, NOT THAT THAT IS ANYTHING NEW. MAYBE THE WEIRD FORMAT JUST BOTHERS THE POKER TRADITIONALIST IN ME?

NOTE: WINNING PERCENTAGES DO NOT INCLUDE TIES. ODDS PROVIDED BY CARDPLAYER.COM/POKER-TOOLS/ODDS-CALCULATOR/TEXAS-HOLDEM

AnalysisTOURNAMENT HAND MATCHUP � e fi nal table of the 2020 European Poker Tour Online $5,200 no-limit hold’em main event featured a number of players with prior success on tournament poker’s big-gest stages. � is hand features a clash between World Series of Poker bracelet winner and Super High Roller Bowl Russia champion Timothy Adams and Viacheslav Buldygin, an accomplished Russian player who fi nished second in the €100,000 buy-in super high roller at the 2017 PokerStars Championship Monte Carlo for more than $1.4 million. Buldygin began the hand as the chip leader and opened the action with a min-raise with K-2 suited. Only Adams called, defending a suited one-gapper from the big blind. Adams fl opped a nine-high fl ush draw and checked. Buldygin made a continuation bet of around half of the size of the pot and Adams just called. One reason Adams might have decided against check-raising in this spot is that the fl op should often connect with the under-the-gun raising range of his opponent. Another might be that Adams began the hand in third chip position among the fi nal six, with over 80 big blinds, while Enio Bozzano sat as the clear short stack with just under 30 big blinds. Given that stack dynamic, playing a big pot from out of position against the chip leader is far from ideal. � e turn put a second possible fl ush draw on the board and Adams checked again. Buldygin checked behind and the 6� completed the board. Adams had taken a cautious approach in the early goings of the hand, but in the end he’d arrived at the river with just nine high, which was extremely unlikely to win at show-down. Buldygin had also checked back the turn despite a perceived range advantage and a draw-heavy board. Adams fi red out a healthy bet of 4,251,000 into the pot of 7,350,000 and drew a quick fold from his opponent. He chipped up to second place on the leaderboard, narrow-ing the gap between himself and Buldygin.

K

K

2

2

9

9

7

7

A

A

Q

Q

10

10

6

6

5

5

Adams checked, and Buldygin bet 1,837,500. Adams called.

Adams checked, and Buldygin checked.

Adams bet 4,251,000, and Buldygin folded.

With six players remaining and blinds of 350,000-700,000 and an ante of 87,500, Viacheslav Buldygin raised to 1,400,000 from under the gun.

Timothy Adams called from the big blind.

ANALYSIS

Viacheslav Buldygin77,762,536 Chips

Timothy Adams58,200,580 Chips

Winning PercentageBefore Flop: 54.0%

After Flop: 45.0%After Turn: 66.0%

Winning PercentageBefore Flop: 46.0%After Flop: 55.0%After Tur

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