damian salas wins 2020’s $10,000 buy-in main event · 2021. 1. 21. · damian salas wins 2020’s...

www.CardPlayer.com Vol. 34/No. 3January 27, 2021

Shifts In Poker Strategy

With Ping Liu

Bet Sizing For Premium

Pocket Pairs

Kentucky Wins $1.3 Billion

Lawsuit Against PokerStars

DAMIAN SALAS WINS 2020’S EXTRAORDINARY WORLD SERIES OF POKER $10,000 BUY-IN MAIN EVENT

FIRST-EVER ARGENTINIAN WORLD CHAMPION TRIUMPHS IN EVENT MARRED BY DELAYS AND PLAYER DISQUALIFICATIONS

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Table of Contents - Card Player Vol. 34/No. 3

CARDPLAYER.COM VOLUME 34 / ISSUE 3

Features18

Damian Salas Wins 2020’s Extraordinary World Series of Poker $10,000 Buy-In

Main EventBy Erik Fast

22Shifts In Poker Strategy With Ping Liu

Poker Pros Revisit Hands From The Past To Show How The Game Has Changed

By Steve Schult

The Inside Straight8

Poker News Recap

12Player Of The Year Update

By Erik Fast

16 Head Games: Proper Bet Sizing With

Premium Pocket PairsBy Craig Tapscott

Strategies, Analysis & Commentary

26What Will We Remember About The 2020

WSOP Main Event?By Gavin Griffin

27WWFD?

By Greg Raymer

28How I Got Banned For Life From The

Golden NuggetBy Houston Curtis

30Discovering LeaksBy Nathan Gamble

31Transitioning From Live To Online Poker

By Jonathan Little

Also In this Issue6

About Us

33Tournament Schedules

34Poker Leaderboards

Tournament Hand Matchups

16Michael Deinlein vs. Anton Siden

27Samuel Vousden vs. Luc Van Der Beek

29Manuel Ruivo vs. William Kassouf

32Manuel Ruivo vs. Samuel Vousden

18 22

16

Cov

er ©

WSO

P.co

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AS GRUDGE MATCH HITS HALFWAY MARK, DANIEL NEGREANU PUTS A DENT IN DOUG POLK’S LEAD

By Steve Schult

After being down nearly seven-fi gures to Doug Polk, Poker Hall of Famer Daniel Negreanu won several buy-ins over the last few sessions of their high-stakes grudge match to fi n-ish the year down slightly more than $770,000 as their high-stakes grudge match reaches its halfway point.

Polk had been up more than $957,000 through 9,950 hands head-ing into one of their mid-December sessions. Up to that point, the gen-eral consensus was that Negreanu was running poorly, having been on the wrong end of several coolers. Even Polk admitted as much.

But Negreanu won $143,642 over 834 hands in a marathon session to cut Polk’s lead to just over 20 buy-ins. After Negreanu’s victory, the duo took some time off to play the online portion of the $10,000 World Series of Poker main event, but came back in late December to play three more sessions before the year’s end.

� e six-time WSOP bracelet win-ner won another $117,962 on Dec. 21 to bring the defi cit below $700,000, but Polk won nearly all of that back in their penultimate session on Dec. 23. After a break for the holidays, Polk and Negreanu played one fi nal session on Dec. 28.

Negreanu won roughly a buy-in of $40,000 in the fi nal session of 2020 before stopping exactly at hand no. 12,500. � rough the halfway point of their 25,000-hand match of $200-$400 heads-up no-limit hold’em, Polk

now offi cially leads by $770,254. “We kind of thought it made sense

to stop at the halfway point and readjust, see if we want to continue playing or not.” said Negreanu after the match. “It’s kind of a good time because our next match isn’t until Jan. 4 and we can decide, will the match continue?”

According to the agreed-upon terms of the match, the player who is down at the halfway point has the option to quit. With Negreanu down slightly more than 19 buy-ins, he has the right to stop playing and cut his losses, if he wants.

When asked if he was going to keep going, however, Negreanu seemed optimistic and made it look like the show would go on.

“It’s [like] a football game at the

half. If you were down 49-0 against a really good team, you might go ‘You know what, guys? Let’s pack it in for the second half. Let’s not get out there. Let’s go have some beers.’ But I don’t think it’s quite that bad,” said Negreanu. “It’s 19-0. He’s up 19 points. � ree touchdowns is what I need, and that’s essentially what three big winning sessions could look like. If you play longer sessions, you can win 10, 12, 15 buy-ins, especially as the stacks get deeper. I’m going to have to run really hot to win the match, but he did that in the fi rst half. As the match went longer, I started playing better and better. � e version of me today is not the same version of me in the fi rst week.”

In a tweet promoting a stream of the match, Polk also made it seem like

Doug Polk Daniel Negreanu

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KENTUCKY WINS $1.3 BILLION LAWSUIT AGAINST POKERSTARS By Steve Schult

the pair would be playing more heads-up poker in 2021.

“We will be hitting the 12,500-hand mark today. Will DNegs tap out? Tune in to find out!” tweeted Polk.

But in a follow-up post of the thread, Polk simply wrote, “No, he won’t.”

Despite Negreanu winning a buy-in back in their most recent session, Polk was in the driver’s seat for nearly

all of it, winning more than three buy-ins before running a couple massive, unsuccessful bluffs.

With $20,000 in the middle, and the board reading A� J� 9� 7� 4�, Negreanu checked and Polk moved all in for about $60,000 with 8� 2�. Negreanu quickly called and showed the nut straight to take one of the biggest pots of the match. He won a few more pots and ended the day in

the green. �e bluff caught the attention

of four-time bracelet winner Shaun Deeb, who needled Polk that the play must have been a setup to keep Negreanu playing the second half of the match.

“Nice to see [Doug] punting today to make sure Daniel has a winning ses-sion and doesn’t quit at 12,500 hands,” tweeted Deeb. �

On Dec. 17, the Kentucky Supreme Court reinstated a 2015 ruling from a Franklin Circuit Court, ordering PokerStars to pay roughly $1.3 billion to the state.

�e suit was originally filed in 2010 by Kentucky Justice and Public Safety Cabinet J. Michael Brown, who now serves as Gov. Andy Beshear’s executive cabinet sec-retary, for $290 million against the online poker site. �e suit claimed that the site was operating illegally inside the state’s borders and that 34,000 residents deposited on the site and lost nearly $300 million.

Franklin Circuit Court Judge �omas Wingate ruled in favor of the state in 2015. After the state requested trebled damages, Wingate ruled that the site owed the Kentucky government $870 million.

�e Stars Group (TSG) appealed the ruling, and in 2018, a Kentucky Court of Appeals reversed Wingate’s decision. In Kentucky, anyone can sue “winners” to recover lost wages in a game of chance, but the court ruled that the state itself can’t sue on behalf of its citi-zens.

State officials decided to re-appeal the case and took it to the Supreme Court, where they received a 5-4 ruling in their favor �ursday. �e court agreed with the origi-nal ruling from Wingate and determined that PokerStars is on the hook for the $870 million. After the state asked for an additional 12% in interest payments, the total fine came to $1.3 billion.

Although Beshear himself called on lawmakers to pass internet gambling legislation earlier this year, he called the actions of PokerStars “irresponsible” following the ruling.

“�is will never be enough to make up for the damage to Kentucky families and to the state from their years of irresponsible and criminal actions, but this is a good day for Kentucky,” said Beshear.

His pro-gambling stance was a cornerstone of the 2019 Gubernatorial race as he promised to bring brick-and-mortar casinos to the state, while former Gov. Matt Bevin made wild claims about nightly suicides occurring at casinos. Since Beshear’s victory, however, there hasn’t been any progress on gambling legislation.

Once the court order is finalized, the state will pursue payment from PokerStars. �e site is expected to pursue other legal options, but acknowledged to investors that it would have to pay at least some part of the massive fine. Such a blow could have crippled previous ownership groups of the company, but Flutter Entertainment, the parent company that purchased TSG in May of 2020, has the revenue to survive the hit. Flutter reported revenue of $2.9 billion in 2019, while TSG earned $2.5 billion.

PokerStars operated in the U.S. in what many would describe as a legal grey area following the 2006 passage of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act. It left the market in the wake of Black Friday but returned in a limited fashion in 2016 after receiving a license to operate an online poker site in New Jersey. �e company expanded into Pennsylvania’s recently legalized market in 2019, and was approved by the Michigan Gaming Control Board in December. �

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VOLUME 34 / ISSUE 3CARDPLAYER.COM 10

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

Nebraska Casinos To Launch In Late 2021By Steve Schult

Expanded gambling will launch in Nebraska in late 2021 with full-scale casino gambling scheduled to launch in early 2022, according to one of the largest operators in the state.

Ho-Chunk, Inc., the incorporated version of the Ho-Chunk tribe, which operates three existing horse rac-ing tracks in the state, announced that it has launched a separate division of the company to operate the new casino.

�e Wisconsin-based tribe, which runs several casinos in its home state, created WarHorse Gaming, LLC to run casino-style gaming in the Cornhusker State, according to a report from a Nebraska NBC affiliate.

WarHorse Gaming, LLC will oversee operations at Horsemen’s Park in Omaha, Lincoln Racecourse in Lincoln and Atokad in South Sioux City. WarHorse management began the initial planning stages and told the local media its anticipated time frame for the rollout of casino gaming.

“�is is an exciting time for Nebraskans,” said WarHorse Gaming Executive Director Brian Chamberlain in a statement. “Our team is working tirelessly to bring first-class gaming and entertainment to the state. �ough there is still a great deal of work to be done, we’re excited for the chance to bring a new industry to the state, and with it, an entirely new source of tax revenue and career opportunities.”

�e measures will bring poker to Nebraska for the first time in state history. Poker players were forced to travel to neighboring states to play in legal, regulated live games. Iowa was a popular destination as there was a Caesars-owned property near the Nebraska-Iowa border in Council Bluffs, which was home to a World Series of Poker Circuit stop every year.

Last month, voters in Nebraska were one of five states that overwhelmingly supported expanded gaming initia-tives in their state. With November’s results, Nebraskans decided that casino-style gambling could come to horse racing tracks, which were already legal.

�ere were three separate initiatives regarding casino gaming on the ballot. One would amend the state constitu-tion to allow gambling and the other two dealt with how the tax revenue would be distributed.

Despite all three passing with a 64% majority on Election Day, it was a bumpy road to get there. After a pro-gambling group that was backed by the Ho-Chunk tribe got enough signatures to get the issue on the ballot, the Secretary of State refused to put it on the ballot, citing confusing language.

�e issue was brought before the state’s Supreme Court, which voted 4-3 in favor of allowing the initiatives on the ballot in November, ultimately allowing the people of the state to bring poker rooms and other casino games to their home state. �

BEN GREENWELL WINS INAUGURAL WORLD COLLEGE POKER FALL BRAWL TOURNAMENTBy Card Player News Team

Ben Greenwell has won the inaugural World College Poker Fall Brawl event. �e 22-year-old Ohio State University student defeated a field of 1,000 entries in the free-to-play tournament, which was held on the PokerBROS social gaming platform. �e actuarial science student was awarded a championship belt, a custom PokerBROS avatar, a six-day hotel stay in Cancun, Mazatlan, or Puerto Vallarta, and a private lesson with WPT champion Jonathan Little as part of his first-place prize package.

�e final table took place on Saturday, Dec. 12, with poker professional, coach, and author Alex Fitzgerald and comedian and poker player Clayton Fletcher hosting the action. A full replay of the final table can be viewed at the World College Poker YouTube page.

Greenwell rivered a straight against the flopped top set of Ben ‘spartan1122’ Fisher to take a nearly 5:1 lead into the final showdown against Vanessa ‘Hernandezhh1’ Hernandez, a full-time mom and student at Midland College in Texas.

In the final hand of the event, Hernandez raised from the button with A� 7� and Greenwell three-bet to 9,600 with the K� 8� from the big blind. Hernandez called and the flop came down 8� 7� 6�. Greenwell bet and Hernandez raised. Greenwell moved all-in and Hernandez made the call. �e 9� and Q� kept Greenwell in the lead, securing him the title.

Here are the results from the final table:Place Name Age School

1 Ben ‘OSUNutz’ Greenwell 22 Ohio State University

2 Vanessa ‘Hernandezhh1’ Hernandez

26 Midland College

3 Ben ‘spartan1122’ Fisher 35 Arizona State University

4 Ryan ‘rtc1755’ Clark 24 Sacramento State University

5 Blake ‘blaclaire23’ LaClaire 20 University of Arizona

6 Chris ‘FoldsNuts’ Pagel 21 University of Colorado at Colorado Springs

7 Jesse ‘JesseKim7’ Kim 18 Montclair State University

8 John ‘jpitts10’ Pitts 22 University of Tennessee at Knoxville

�e next WCP event is scheduled for March of 2021 and registration is now open. �e tournament is free to play for any college or university student with valid ID 18 years or older. Sign up at www.WorldCollegePoker.com. �

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MAJOR ONLINE SPORTSBOOK BEGINS GRADING U.S. ELECTION BETSBy Card Player News Team

One of the world’s largest online gambling sites has fi nally started pay-ing out the winning bets it took on the U.S. Presidential Election.

According to a report from Newsweek, London-based Betfair began grading and paying its election bets on Dec. 15, a day after the Electoral College members offi cially cast their ballots to give for-mer Vice President Joe Biden a 306-232 victory over President Donald Trump.

“� e next President market rules stipulated that we would settle the market on the candidate that had the most projected Electoral College votes,” said the company in a state-ment. “Following the Electoral College votes being cast, that candi-date is clearly Joe Biden. � anks for your patience.”

Shortly after the election, it was

reported that most online sports-books were delaying payout while the ballots were still being count-ed. Following a 2016 blunder when Dublin-based Paddy Power paid out nearly seven-fi gures to those who bet on Hillary Clinton, books were care-ful not to make the same mistake.

BetFair stated publicly that it would not grade the bets until there was a clear winner. With razor thin margins in several states, counting that went on for days after the elec-tion, and a handful of lawsuits fi led by the Trump campaign contesting the results, the bookmaker opted to wait until it was certifi ed by the Electoral College.

All of Trump’s attempts at a win through the court system had been thrown out by the time the book began paying bets. Most recently, the Texas GOP led a lawsuit to con-

test the results in several key battle-ground states, all of which were won by Biden. � e Supreme Court threw the case out, claiming there wasn’t enough evidence to hear the case.

Just before the election, there was $337 million bet on the election, with $170 million wagered on Biden and $156 million on Trump. � e largest bet was a man in the U.K. who bet $1.29 million on Biden to win.

While American sportsbooks are prohibited from taking bets on the election, off shore books were taking bets, and many in the poker world were willing to use lines set by the books to wager against one another. Because the odds swung so wildly in both directions on election night, some savvy bettors were able to lock up essentially risk-free profi ts by bet-ting both sides at the right time. �

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Place Player Points Final Tables POY Earnings

1 Vincent Wan 2,280 1 $909,420

2 Cary Katz 2,195 9 $2,449,943

3 Tai Hoang 2,188 2 $953,675

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

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

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

7 Aaron Van Blarcum 1,920 9 $1,856,381

8 Alex Foxen 1,897 8 $1,733,059

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

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

11 Brian Altman 1,848 3 $542,866

12 Trung Pham 1,813 7 $277,746

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

14 Pablo Silva 1,800 1 $1,000,000

15 Ricardo Eyzaguirre 1,785 6 $415,575

16 Christian Rudolph 1,750 1 $620,000

17 James Romero 1,736 2 $745,000

18 Erik Seidel 1,686 5 $669,649

19 Eric Afriat 1,680 1 $394,120

20 Benjamin Winsor 1,636 4 $295,054

MAXWELL YOUNG WINS SHR TAMPA WINTER POKER OPEN MAIN EVENT

The Seminole Hard Rock Tampa Winter Poker Open $1,700 buy-in no-limit hold’em main event featured a $200,000 guarantee. That figure was blown away by over a million dollars when 779 entries were made in the event, building a final prize pool of $1,207,450. That sum was paid out among the top 78 finishers in this event, with the lion’s share going to eventual champion Maxwell Young. The six-time WSOP Circuit gold ring winner earned $226,510 and 912 POY points after emerging victorious. This was his first POY-qualified score of the year, but it alone was enough to see him surge into a seven-way tie for 90th place in the rankings.

AARON VAN BLARCUM MAKES HIS NINTH FINAL TABLE OF 2020Aaron Van Blarcum exploded on the live tournament scene in 2019. The Dallas native

took down the World Poker Tour Legends of Poker main event at the Bicycle Hotel & Casino in the fall and then jumped right into the highest stakes tournaments in the world. He now has more than $4.4 million in career cashes and is proving that he is far from a flash in the pan. Van Blarcum has made nine POY-qualified final tables in 2020, with his most recent deep run being an eighth-place finish in the $1,000 buy-in event at the Bally’s Main Event Mania series. He earned $1,859 and 24 POY points for his deep run in that event. Van Blarcum kicked his year off with a trio of final tables

Maxwell Young

Aaron Van Blarcum

THE INSIDE STRAIGHT - Player of the yearAs of

12-29-2020

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in high roller events in Australia, cashing for seven figures along the way. He then went on a cashing spree in the spring, making five final tables during the month of March to add another $750,000 in earnings to his résumé. With his most recent deep run, Van Blarcum has increased his point total for the year to 1,920, which is good for seventh place in the overall POY race standings. He has cashed for more than $1.8 million in POY-qualified events so far this year.

ALEX FOXEN CLIMBS INTO EIGHTH PLACE WITH FLURRY OF SCORES IN WYNN HIGH ROLLERS

The Wynn Poker Room in Las Vegas hosted a series of ten high roller events throughout the month of December, each with a buy-in of $10,000. World Poker Tour winner and 2019 POY race runner-up Alex Foxen made the money in half of the events held during the series, cashing for $354,500 in total along the way. Foxen tallied one victory, three runner-up finishes, and one fourth-place showing throughout the high-stakes festival. Only two of the five events that he cashed in qualified for POY points however, as several of them failed to meet the minimum requirements for field size or total prize pool. The two POY-qualified scores he secured during the month of December were enough to see him climb into eighth place in the overall rankings, with 1,897 points and over $1.7 million in POY-qualified earnings on the year.

TRUNG PHAM MOVES INTO 12TH PLACE WITH SEVENTH FINAL-TABLE FINISH OF THE YEAR

Trung Pham was able to leapfrog Michael Addamo and Pablo Silva in the 2020 POY race standings with the 19 points he earned as the eighth-place finisher in a $400 buy-in no-limit hold’em event held at the Seminole Hard Rock Tampa Winter Poker Open. The tournament attracted 155 entries to create a $51,150 prize pool. Pham took home $1,688 as the eighth-place finisher. This was his seventh POY-qualified final table of the year. With 1,813 total points and $277,746 in year-to-date earnings, Pham now sits in 12th place on the POY leaderboard. He has won two titles in 2020. He took down a $300 buy-in event at the Million Dollar Heater series at the Beau Rivage Resort & Casino in January for $13,847 and 125 points. In February he won a $360 buy-in event at the Wynn Spring Classic for another $11,703 and 125 points. His largest score of

the year came when he finished second in the $1,700 World Series of Poker Circuit Rio Las Vegas main event for $129,305 and 760 points.

WILLIAM FIREBAUGH DEFEATS NICHOLAS PUPILLO HEADS-UP IN INAUGURAL BENNY BINION SHOOTOUT EVENT

The first-ever Benny Binion Shootout event was held in mid-December at the South Point Poker Room. The $2,050 buy-in no-limit hold’em event attracted 128 entries to build a $256,000 prize pool, which was paid out among the top 16 finishers. The largest share was ultimately awarded to William Firebaugh, who defeated deco-rated tournament poker professional Nicholas Pupillo heads-up to secure the title, the top prize of $100,000, and 264 POY points. This was Firebaugh’s third recorded live tournament win, and his first score of six-figures or higher. His biggest previous pay-day came when he took down the 2019 WSOP Circuit Horseshoe Tunica $600 big-blind ante event for $36,219 and a gold ring. Firebaugh now has $373,530 in career tourna-ment earnings to his name. Pupillo took home $50,000 and 220 points as the second-place finisher. This was his seventh POY-qualified final-table finish of the year. With $249,732 in year-to-date earnings and 1,139 in total points, Pupillo now sits in 53rd place in the overall rankings. The score increased Pupillo’s lifetime earnings to $3.35 million.

Alex Foxen

Trung Pham

Nicholas Pupillo

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THE INSIDE STRAIGHT - Head Games

VOLUME 34 / ISSUE 3

HEAD GAMES Proper Bet Sizing With Premium Pocket Pairs

By Craig Tapscott

The Pros: A lex Fitzgerald, Jonathan Little, and Ryan Laplante

Craig Tapscott: When you have a big hand preflop (aces, kings, or queens) in late position and a player has already opened UTG+1 at a full table, what are the variables that determine what your bet sizing will be when and if you raise?

Alex Fitzgerald: If I’ve got an extremely loose player behind me who is calling down big bets with any pair, then I’ll definitely consider calling preflop. If that loose recre-ational player is in the big blind, then I’m even more inclined to smooth call. �ey will likely call with close to anything while in the big blind and getting a discount. While multi-way pots are messier, I’d prefer a multi-way pot with one guy who will pay off with

any pair as opposed to a slightly bigger heads-up pot with one great player. If the initial opener is fan-tastic post-flop, he’s prob-ably not going to give me a ton of money anyway if I three-bet him, so that is also a time I will consider flatting.

�at said, the vast majority of the time I will three-bet. I find Americans love to call three-bets out of position with anything they opened, so I love tak-ing advantage of that. You want them to put as much money in the middle as possible, obviously. �e art form is figuring out who can’t fold preflop. Typically, people who are always limping, cold call-ing, raising, and trying to see flops are the types of people who get really touchy when you try to deny them a flop they want

to see. You might know 4-6 suited is a fold, but they don’t. �ey really want to see that flop with their high VPIP (Voluntarily Put $ in Pot). So, in that case, you can even pump it to 3.5 times their opening bet, because they’ll still call you. With regs who are comfortable folding pre-flop, you can shade the bet down a little smaller.

Jonathan Little: �e main concerns when you have a hand you want to poten-tially three-bet are the initial raiser’s range, and the stack depths. As stacks get shorter, there is usually some merit to calling with aces, and perhaps kings, because you really want to get value from those hands, and calling allows you to call with a slightly wider range of hands that flop well, like 9-8 suited.

As stacks get deeper

though, you should almost always three-bet with your best hands because you want to build the pot and extract value. You typically want to three-bet to about 2.5 times the initial raise when you are in position and to about 3.5 times when you are out of posi-tion. If someone raises to 500 and you are in posi-tion, make it 1,250. If you are out of position, make it 1,750. As stacks get really deep, perhaps 100 big blinds or more, you can instead three-bet to 3x in position and 4x out of position.

Ryan Laplante: When playing a tournament, you will generally be between 40-80 big blinds deep in this type of situation. When considering what to three-bet, and the size, we need to think about three main factors.

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What is their opening range, how deep are the effective stacks, and are we in position or out of posi-tion? Let’s say we are 60 big blinds deep, and we are up against an early posi-tion raise. So, their range should be somewhat tight (8-18% of top tier hands depending on the player). Because of that and how deep we are, we need to make our three-bet size somewhat large.

A general rule of thumb to follow against a single raise with no callers is that 2.5x equals tiny, 3x equals small, 3.5x equals medium, 4x equals large, and 5x equals very large. Where x equals their open bet size.

So in this situation, I would three-bet to 3.5x or 4x their opening bet and do so with a range of 10-10+/A-Q+ for the most part and might mix in some bluffs like A-5 suited, K-9 suited, or J-9 suited. Now, if we were in the small blind or big blind I would three-bet to 4.5x. So, if they opened to 2,000, and we were in cut-off I’d three-bet to 7,000, while if we were in the small blind, I’d three-bet to 9,000 or even 10,000.

Craig Tapscott: Please breakdown your thoughts on how you determine bet sizing on the flop with

an overpair heads-up, including all various dif-ferent board texture con-siderations. After you are called on the flop, how is your sizing on the turn or river determined versus one player that you have position on?

Alex Fitzgerald: I tend to focus on games where I know people are play-ing their hand, not my hand. If I’m ever playing a player who is effectively ranging me, then I have to ask myself why I’m in that game. Because there’s always looser money out there and I’ve discovered over time that 90% of my job is game selection.

In the games I like to play, I look at the board and I ask myself what the chances are my guy has a pair. If the flop is J� 9� 7�, for example, that is a board where my oppo-nent has a ton of pairs and draws with their three-bet calling range. On that kind of board, I’ll blast it, because most of the peo-ple I play with can’t raise without two pair or better. Occasionally, they’ll raise a big combination draw, but I’ll let them get away with that. It’s fairly basic what they do, as usually with a draw or pair they call, if they have better, they raise, and if they

bricked, they fold. After they call, I judge the turn and river cards and go for the kill with big bets.

If I know the guy can’t fold top pair and that’s his most likely holding, I’ll overbet. You trap them this way. Most guys can’t fold a pair of any kind to just one continuation bet. Most guys can’t fold a pair they liked after investing huge on that flop. If they only called a 33% pot-sized bet after you 2.2x three-bet their open, they could get away, but if you play it like this you get the bad regs and recreational play-ers trapped. �e draw miss-es and you bomb again. �ey’re not going anywhere with that much money in the middle because they feel committed. If the board comes J-5-5 however, that’s a super hit or miss board so you’re going to have to cajole them with a different bet.

Jonathan Little: On the flop, you pretty much always want to bet with your best made hands and draws. And as the board is better for your range, you should bet with an even wider range of hands including your marginal made hands and junky hands.

When you are betting less often (usually when

the board is excellent for your opponent’s range or when the board is very coordinated), you should typically bet using a large size of about 75% pot. When the board is unco-ordinated, you should bet more often, usually using a smaller size of about 33% pot. You should also tend to bet smaller when the board is uncoordinat-ed but you lack the nut advantage, such as when you raise from UTG and the big blind calls on J-6-6. �ere, you have a big range advantage, but you completely lack the nut advantage because you have almost no trips in your range whereas your opponent has some. �is should lead to you betting a tiny amount, about one big blind. After you bet the flop and get called, you should usually continue betting the turn and river with most of your best made hands and draws, again betting somewhat large due to betting some-what infrequently.

Ryan Laplante: Our flop continuation bet size will be based generally on how dynamic the board is. �e more dynamic the board, the larger our c-bet (con-tinuation bet) size and more frequently we might have to check back our ace

Alexander Fitzgerald Jonathan Little


THE INSIDE STRAIGHT - Head Games

VOLUME 34 / ISSUE 3CARDPLAYER.COM 16

highs, while the more stat-ic the board the smaller we c-bet and the more often we c-bet.

Static boards, like 7� 6� 5�, are difficult for the best hand possible to change. With dynamic boards, like Q� 9� 5�, it’s easy for the best hand possible to change. Let’s say I had K�

K�, and we are 60,000 deep, and I had three-bet to 7,000 from the cutoff against an early position raise, and they called. �e pot now is 16,500, and the stacks have 53,000 behind. On the static flop of 7� 6� 5�, I would c-bet 25-30% of the pot, or 3,500 to 5,000. But on a dynamic Q� 9�

Ryan Laplante 5� flop, I’d c-bet 50-75% pot, or 8,000-12,000.

What we do on the turn will be largely based on whether the turn is a good card for our range to bar-rel, or if it is a better card for them. On each of these boards I will be very likely to bet the turn with jacks plus, and more apt to check pocket tens down. Any time you are considering what type of decisions to make preflop you need to consider your opponent’s range, stack depths, and your position, as that will heavily dictate both bet sizes to pick and how to build your range for bluffs and for value. �

Alexander Fitzgerald is a former commercial fisherman and freelance writer who became a professional poker player in 2006. He writes a daily strategic poker newsletter at www.PokerHeadRush.com for real

working-class people who want to learn poker. He is the author of Exploitative Play In Live Poker, as well as The Myth Of Poker Talent.

Jonathan Little is a professional poker player with more than $7 million in live tournament earnings, including two World Poker Tour titles. He is the author of 15 best-selling poker books, and the 2019 GPI Poker Personality of the Year award winner. Sign up a free account today at his training site www.PokerCoaching.com/CardPlayer.

Ryan Laplante has been a professional poker player for more than a decade and has more than $5.5 million in combined live and online tournament earnings. He has made eight WSOP final tables, and earned a bracelet by taking down the $500 buy-in PLO event in 2016. If you want to learn from him, you can do so easily and affordably through his website www.LearnProPoker.com.

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

AnalysisTOURNAMENT HAND MATCHUP Like so many other live poker tournament festivals before it in 2020, the Irish Poker Masters series moved online this year. � e centerpiece of the whole aff air was the €1,100 buy-in no-limit hold’em main event. � e tournament attracted a fi eld of 1,341 entries, creating a prize pool of €1,341,000. � e fi nal seven players had all locked up at least a €27,433 payday by the time this wild hand arose. Germany’s Michael Deinlein looked down at a suited A-2 and raised when it folded to him in late position. Swedish player Anton Siden was second in chips at the time and defended his big blind with 7-6 off suit. Both players picked up gutshot straight draws on the fl op, with both needing a four. Siden checked and Deinlein made a small continuation bet of 1,330,000 into the pot of 4,042,500 with his ace high, gutshot draw and possible backdoor nut fl ush draw. Siden opted to use his inside straight draw as a semi-bluff and check-raised. Deinlein called and Siden hit his money card on the turn, with the 4� giving both players straights. Deinlein had hit what must have seemed like one of the best cards possible after facing a check-raise on the fl op. Instead, he called Siden’s healthy turn bet of 6,965,525 into the 13,142,500 pot drawing stone dead. � e K� on the river paired the board and completed a backdoor fl ush draw. Deinlein had less than a pot-sized bet remaining in his stack, which he called off when Siden moved all-in on the river. Deinlein fi nished in seventh place, earning €27,433 for his deep run in this event, while Siden surged into the chip lead.

A

A

2

2

7

7

6

6

K

K

5

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3

3

K

K

4

4

Siden checked, and Deinlein bet 1,330,000. Siden check-raised to 4,550,000, and Deinlein called.

Siden bet 6,965,525, and Deinlein called.

Siden moved all-in for 47,313,070. Deinlein called all-in for 20,317,335.

With seven players remaining and blinds of 350,000-700,000 and an ante of 87,500, Michael Deinlein raised to 1,540,000 from the cutoff .

Anton Siden called from the big blind.

2020 Irish Poker Masters Online €1,100 No-Limit Hold’em Main Event

ANALYSIS

Michael Deinlein33,460,360 Chips

Anton Siden60,456,095 Chips

Winning PercentageBefore Flop: 56.0%

After Flop: 62.0%After Turn: 0.0%

Winning PercentageBefore Flop: 44.0%After Flop: 38.0%After Turn: 100.0%

FLOP

PREFLOP

TURN

RIVE

R


www.CardPlayer.com/poker-podcasts

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.

CP_Brand_40_Podcast.indd 3 12/15/20 11:44 AM

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DAMIAN SALAS WINS 2020’S EXTRAORDINARY WORLD SERIES OF POKER $10,000 BUY-IN MAIN EVENT

FIRST-EVER ARGENTINIAN WORLD CHAMPION TRIUMPHS IN EVENT MARRED BY DELAYS AND PLAYER DISQUALIFICATIONS

By Erik Fast

Ever since the second annual World Series of Poker in 1971, the game’s world championship has been decided by a $10,000 buy-in no-limit hold‘em freezeout tournament. �e 2020 World Series of Poker main event did techni-cally check all of those boxes, but like most of what happened in 2020, it was far from typical.

In the end, Damian Salas emerged victorious with the championship bracelet and more than $2.5 million in total prize money. �e 45-year-old poker pro from Chascomús, Argentina became the first from his country to become poker’s world champion, after having fallen just a few places short of doing so when he finished seventh in the 2017 main event.

Salas’ road to the title was different than any world champion before him. Here is a look at how this unique and often controversial tournament played out.

WSOP Postpones, Reschedules, And Improvises In Response To COVID-19 Outbreak

On April 20, WSOP organizers offi-cially announced the postponement of this year’s planned live series that was slated to award a record 101 gold brace-lets due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. �e WSOP indicated that they hoped to reschedule some form of the live and in-person series in the fall, but everything remained up in the air. With all of the uncertainty surround-ing the coronavirus outbreak, many in the poker community speculated, and even bet on whether or not there would be any version of the series held in 2020.

“We are committed to running the World Series of Poker this year but need additional time to proceed on our traditional scale while prioritizing guest and staff well-being,” said WSOP Executive Director Ty Stewart in the press release announcing the postpone-ment of the live series. “In the interim, official WSOP competitions are expect-ed to be played online this summer.”

�e first ever WSOP Online was indeed announced in early June. A

total of 85 gold bracelets were ulti-mately awarded between July 1 and Sept. 6, with $174.5 million in prize money paid out throughout the series. Bulgarian poker pro Stoyan Madanzhiev captured the title in the WSOP Online $5,000 buy-in main event, earning $3,904,686. �e mas-sive payday represented the lion’s share of the $27,559,500 prize pool, which represented the largest prize pool in online poker history. �e 29-year-old defeated a field of 5,802 players in the tournament to secure the champion-ship bracelet.

It seemed likely that the WSOP Online would be the only series award-ing bracelets in 2020, as no plans for any live series had been announced with roughly seven weeks remaining in the year. In fact, Card Player reached out to the WSOP in late October, but heard no response. Much of the media relations staff was furloughed in the early months of the pandemic and subsequently let go. On Nov. 13, how-ever, tournament organizers suddenly revealed plans for a hybrid live and online $10,000 no-limit hold’em main event to close out the year.

�is tournament would be unlike any main event before it. �e new-look format essentially featured the concur-rent running of two tournaments, a US-facing ‘Domestic Tournament’ and an ‘International Tournament,’ both of which would begin online and play until their final tables were set. �e remaining players would then play out those final tables live and in-person at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas and the King’s Casino Rozvadov in the Czech Republic, with the two champions of those events meeting in a final heads-up showdown for the championship bracelet and an added $1 million prize at the Rio.

�e last-minute announcement drew some protests from many players, including Madanzhiev himself, who ©

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018_CoverStory.indd 18 1/5/21 12:32 PM


disagreed with the marketing of this newly-revealed event as the ‘WSOP main event,’ when the tournament he had won just a month prior was also described that way.

“Looking back, If I had known I wasn’t playing the ‘actual’ [WSOP], I probably wouldn’t have re-entered, or maybe even played. It worked well for me, but I wonder how many others fell for this false advertising trap?” said Madanzhiev in a Twitter post.

“�ere must be a world champion in 2020,” said Stewart in the press release announcing the new hybrid event. “Poker’s history is too impor-tant. It’s a unique format for the main event, but this is a unique year.”

WSOP bracelet winner and high-stakes tournament regular Sam Greenwood responded in a social media post, stating, “�ere is. His name is Stoyan Madanzhiev.”

�e event would kick off just over two weeks after it was first announced. While much of the focus on the event began to drift to the chip counts and big hands that normally occupy the poker communities’ attention during a marquee event such as this, there were still a number of controversial develop-ments waiting in the wings.

Salas Triumphs In WSOP International Tournament

�e ‘International Tournament’ segment of this event kicked off with the first of three starting flights on Nov. 29 on online poker site GGPoker. A total of 246 entries were made before registration closed for the day. �e second and third starting flights were held on Dec. 5 and 6, adding another 171 and 257 players to bring the total to 674 entries by the time registration closed. As a result, the sub-tournament built a final prize pool of $6,470,400 to be distributed among the top 80 finishers.

Just 179 players survived the three starting flights to make day 2, which

would see the field narrowed down to a final table of nine players over the course of ten hours of online action. With just nine competitors left, play was halted for a week to allow time for the remaining players to make their way to King’s Casino in the Czech Republic to play out the final table in person.

�e final nine were meant to recon-vene on Tuesday, Dec. 15 at the recent site of the WSOP Europe, but in the end only eight players showed up. According to the official WSOP live updates, China’s Peiyuan Sun declined to make the trip to Rozvadov, report-edly citing travel safety concerns. Based on the published rules for the event, Sun was disqualified, his chips were removed from play, and he was subsequently awarded the ninth-place payout of $75,360.

�e other eight players were required to wear facial coverings at the table and were tested for COVID-19 prior to the start of play. Everyone that made the trip tested negative, and cards were soon in the air. Brazil’s Brunno Botteon came into the day as the chip leader. Botteon had a breakout summer at the WSOP Online, making three final tables in as many weeks to cash for more than $1 million. He finished runner-up in a $500 buy-in limit hold’em event for $41,855, and then four days later placed sixth in the $25,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em high roller for $388,827. Just a week later he made it down to the final in the $25,000 buy-in heads-up no-limit hold’em event, but lost to Fedor Holz. He added another $622,300 for that runner-up showing.

2017 WSOP main event seventh-place finisher Damian Salas sat in third chip position to start the day. Salas was just three years removed from navigat-ing his way through a field of 7,221 in the big dance, only to fall a few spots shy of becoming the first-ever poker

Stoyan Madanzhievworld champion from his home coun-try of Argentina. He got off to a better start at the final table this time around, knocking out Hannes Speiser in eighth ($109,982) and Stoyan Obreshkov in seventh ($160,512) to move within strik-ing distance of the chip lead.

Like Salas, Manuel Ruivo had some prior experience playing for seven-figures top prizes. �e Portuguese player earned more than $2.3 million as the winner of the 2018 partypoker MILLIONS Online $5,300 buy-in main event, which drew a massive field of 4,367 entries. Ruivo started the day as the second largest stack, and he kept pace with the surg-ing Salas and Botteon by knocking out Dominykas Mikolaitis in sixth place ($234,255) and Marco Streda in fifth place ($341,879). In the latter elimina-tion, Ruivo’s pocket aces held against the A-K of Streda after all of the chips went in preflop.

Salas was able to overtake the lead during short-handed play, and he extended it even further as the final four battled it out. He held more than three times as many chips as the next largest stack by the time the remaining players took their dinner break. Botteon was able to close the gap somewhat by eliminating Ramon Miquel Munoz in fourth place ($498,947). �e short stack got his last few blinds in with A-6 and was unable to outrun the pocket threes of Botteon, who flopped a set and turned a full house.

Ruivo took his stand against the chip leader after the pair took a flop of 9� 4� 2�. Salas checked from out of position and Ruivo bet 750,000. Salas check-raised to 5,000,000. Ruivo only had around 6,000,000 in total, and he announced that he was all-in. Salas called and revealed the 10� 7� for a flush draw. Ruivo held 9� 4� for two pair. �e 8� on the turn gave Salas more outs with an open-ended straight draw, and the 5� on the river completed his flush, eliminating Ruivo in third place ($728,177).

With that, Salas took roughly a 5:3 chip lead into heads-up play against Botteon. �e Brazilian was able to take back the lead in the early going, but Salas regained the advantage and never gave it up again. By the time the final hand was dealt, he held a nearly 3:1 lead.

Salas limped in from the button with K� 8� and Botteon checked his option holding 7� 3�. �e flop came down K� 4� 2� and Botteon checked. Salas checked behind with his top pair

Damian Salas

018_CoverStory.indd 19 1/5/21 7:24 AM


and the turn brought the 6� to give Botteon a flush draw and outs to a straight. He checked and Salas bet 1,000,000. Botteon check-raised to 2,800,000. Salas called and the river brought the 8�. Botteon had missed, but he elected to move all-in as a bluff for around 6.6 million.

Salas thought it over before making the call with his kings and eights to secure the pot and the title. Botteon earned $1,062,723 as the runner-up finisher, while Salas earned $1,550,669 and set up a date with the eventual winner of the ‘Domestic Tournament’ in Las Vegas.

Joseph Hebert Wins #ForLinda In WSOP Domestic Tournament

�e ‘Domestic Tournament’ fea-tured just one starting day on Sunday, Dec. 13. �e US-facing segment of this unique event got underway on WSOP.com just two days prior to the ‘International Tournament’ final table. By the time the registration was offi-cially closed there had been 705 entries made, creating a final prize pool of $6,768,000, the largest ever on a regu-lated online poker site in the United States.

�e top 105 finishers cashed in this segment of the event, with the money bubble bursting late in the first day’s play. After 12 hours of action, three-time bracelet winner Upeshka De Silva held the chip lead with 71 players remaining heading into day 2 action.

It took around seven hours to fur-ther narrow the field down to the final table of nine. When the dust settled it was 38-year-old Louisiana native Joseph Hebert who bagged up the chip lead. His 13,052,534-stack was nearly 2.5 times larger than the next-biggest stack at the table and represented more than 30 percent of the total chips in play.

Like the ‘International Tournament,’ this event also saw the final nine travel

to play out the business end of the event live and in-person. �e players made their way to Las Vegas in order to play down to a winner on Monday, Dec. 28 at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino. Unfortunately, like its international counterpart, this final table would also only see eight players take a seat.

Less than a day before play was set to resume it was reported that De Silva was being disqualified from the event due to testing positive for COVID-19. De Silva claimed in social media posts to have been quarantining since Dec. 10 in preparation for the final table, but had tested positive on both Dec. 20 and Dec. 27, with a negative test result returned in between.

Although De Silva was to enter the final table among the short stacks, he was by far the most accomplished player remaining in the tournament. �e Sri Lanka-born and Texas-raised pro has just shy of $3.1 million in tournament earnings, with all of his three bracelet wins coming in no-lim-it hold’em events. He was ultimately awarded ninth-place money ($98,813) as a result of his disqualification.

De Silva’s stack was officially removed from play, which meant that only eight players converged on the final table stage to battle it out in front of ESPN’s cameras. Gershon Distenfeld began the day in sixth chip position but got off to a slow start. He lost a considerable chunk of his stack just a few hands into the action when he ran pocket tens into the pocket queens of short stack Harrison Dobin. Just a couple of hands later, he got the last of his stack in with K� J� against the pocket queens of Ron Jenkins. Distenfeld failed to improve and was eliminated in eighth place ($125,885). Incredibly, he intends to donate all of his prize money to charitable causes. �e 44-year-old works in finance and has been committed to philanthropic works for years.

“�ere is a parallel to investing. You don’t blindly invest in companies, [and] you also don’t blindly invest in a charity. You have to do your research. My wife and I have been very fortu-nate to be blessed with resources. We have spent our time, not only donating money but also getting involved in charities and getting our hands dirty. We didn’t have to start from scratch, as we decided to give to charities that we have been involved with for a long time,” said Distenfeld after being elimi-nated. “We are in a pandemic now and the need is greater than ever.”

Seven-handed action continued for more than two-and-a-half hours. Shawn Stroke was the next to fall. �e 31-year-old Long Island-native came into the day in second chip position but fell to the bottom of the leaderboard during the early hours of play. He got his last chips in preflop with pocket threes, only to have Harrison Dobin three-bet all-in over the top with A-K and Jenkins call all-in behind with pocket queens. Jenkins’ big pair held up through the river and Stroke was eliminated in seventh place ($163,786). Dobin was left with just four big blinds after the hand and was elimi-nated shortly thereafter in sixth place ($215,222), while Jenkins surged up the chip counts.

Hebert continued to accumulate chips by knocking out 25-year-old Wisconsin-based mathematics doc-toral candidate Ye Yuan in fifth place ($286,963). �e final four battled it out for more than half an hour before the next elimination took place. In a battle of the blinds, Jenkins shoved all-in from the small blind with A� J� and Ryan Hagerty called from the big blind with A� 8�. Both players paired their live cards on the flop, but the 28-year-old received no further help and was sent home in fourth place ($387,130), picking up the largest score of his career.

Upeshka De Silva Gershon Distenfeld

Joseph Hebert

018_CoverStory.indd 20 1/5/21 12:32 PM


Just six hands after Hagerty was eliminated, his sometimes-roommate on the live tournament circuit Michael Cannon joined him on the rail. Cannon three-bet all-in over the button min-raise of Hebert holding K� Q�. Hebert quickly called the shove of around 16 big blinds with pocket aces. A clean runout saw the 29-year-old former pro-fessional video game player knocked out in third place ($529,258).

With that, Hebert took just over a 2:1 chip lead into heads-up play against Jenkins, who had begun the day as the second-shortest stack with just 17 big blinds. Jenkins had accumulated a decent amount of experience on the felt, with nearly $400,000 in prior live tournament cashes to his name.

A cooler decided things on the very first hand of heads-up play. Hebert raised the button with A� Q� and Jenkins three-bet to 2,300,000 with pocket queens. Hebert four-bet all-in and Jenkins eagerly called off the last of his chips. He was ahead preflop with his pocket queens, but an A� K� 7� 4� 8� runout secured the pot and the title for Hebert. Jenkins earned $1,002,340 as the runner-up finisher.

�e $1,553,256 win nearly tripled Hebert’s lifetime live tournament earn-ings. His largest score prior to this victo-ry was $140,932, which he earned as the runner-up in the 2013 WSOP Circuit Harrah’s New Orleans main event.

Hebert dedicated the win to his late mother, Linda, who passed away earlier this year due to a pulmonary embolism. His last text conversation with his moth-er had been about his dream of win-ning a WSOP bracelet. He created the hashtag ‘#ForLinda’ online to help rally his friends and family around his efforts

to win this event in his mother’s name.“I am just so excited!” said Hebert

at the start of his post-win press confer-ence. He went on to say, “I’m going to take this all in. Winning this tourna-ment was my ultimate goal, for my mom, but having the freeroll is just another bonus. I’m just going to take my time and figure out what to do about that, and go from there.”

Salas Wins Lengthy Final Showdown To Secure Title

Hebert and Salas were supposed to begin their final showdown just two days later, but 2020 wasn’t finished with throwing curveballs. A report sur-faced on the morning of the ‘Domestic Tournament’ final table that Salas was initially denied entry into the United States because he had been in Europe less than 15 days prior, having had to travel there in order to compete at the ‘International Tournament’ final table.

While the initial report was never officially confirmed by the WSOP, the live updates posted on their website did announce that the final heads-up battle that was originally scheduled for the night of Dec. 30 had been instead moved to Sunday, Jan. 3.

�e final two players took their seats with 500 big blinds each to start as they battled for the championship bracelet and the $1 million in added prize money that was on the line.

“We have a great battle ahead of us, Joseph and I, and of course I am going to enjoy it,” said Salas via an interpreter. “I am privileged to be able to be here again, at the final stage of the sport that I am so passionate about.”

�e early action saw both play-ers hold a small lead for some time. Hebert was able to swing the advantage

his way, building a 3:1 advantage by winning one of the largest pots of the night. He extended that lead to roughly 9:1 before Salas found a double up. Although fighting with a stack disad-vantage for quite some time, Salas was able to survive a handful of all-ins to prolong the match.

After 153 hands, the two players found themselves more or less back to even. Every pot became important with the stacks so shallow. By the time the final hand of the event was dealt it was Salas who held the advantage.

In the 173rd hand of the match, Hebert looked down at A� Q� on the button and moved all-in for just shy of eight big blinds. Salas called with K� J� for the majority of his stack. �e board came down K� 8� 5� 5� K�, giving Salas kings full to secure the pot and the title. He earned the champion-ship gold bracelet, becoming the first main event champion from his home country of Argentina.

Salas added $1 million to his earnings from the ‘International Tournament,’ bringing his total score to $2,550,969. He now has more than $5.7 million in career tournament earn-ings to his name.

“I don’t play for the money, I play because of the challenge, because of my love of poker,” said Salas. “I play to be better every time, to compete. I am very proud of myself to earn this achievement.”

When asked about the volatile swings during his final match with Hebert, Salas replied, “�at is part of the magic of poker. It is pure adrena-line. It is a rollercoaster that you face down in a moment. �at is why poker is so good and so beautiful. What hap-pened at the table today was simply poker in its pure essence. I have worked a lot to accept the good times that poker can give you, and the bad moments, too.”

Salas also realizes what an opportu-nity this is to grow the sport of poker in Argentina. Past international world champions have used their notoriety to help spark poker interest in their home countries.

“I think this performance will help Latin American poker, and will also help a lot for Argentinian poker. �at makes me feel very happy. I don’t know what this moment will have as far as an impact there. I wish that all Latin American countries could start to see poker as a mental sport, which is what it is.” �

018_CoverStory.indd 21 1/5/21 7:24 AM

CARDPLAYER.COM 22

THE INSIDE STRAIGHT - poker Strategy

VOLUME 34 / ISSUE 3

Blinds – 40,000 – 80,000 with a 5,000 ante Players Remaining: 6

Roy Winston5,355,000

Mark Weitzman1,750,000

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The Hand

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

By Steve Schult

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 strat-egy surrounding the game has evolved at a pace never before seen. 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.

Chicago native and Southern California resident Ping Liu has been playing long enough to see most of these changes. With his first significant cash as a pro com-ing back in 2011 and experience playing online before that, Liu emerged as a true force in 2018 as a contender for the World Poker Tour Player of the Year title. Not only did he finish fourth in the Five Diamond World Poker Classic for $599,147, but he also took fourth in the Rolling Thunder main event for another $97,510, and fifth in the bestbet Bounty Scramble for another $73,734.

Last year, Liu picked up a win at the LA Poker Classic, while also final tabling the $10,000 super turbo bounty event at the WSOP and finishing third in the WSOP Circuit Planet Hollywood main event. He now has $2.1 million in career tournament earnings, and is currently accepting students for poker coaching and can found on Twitter @PingDotCom.

Liu sat down with Card Player to break down a couple hands from the 2007 WPT Borgata Poker Open main event final table, which featured Mike Matusow, Eugene Todd, Mark Weitzman, Haralabos Voulgaris, and eventual winner Roy Winston.

The Action: Roy Winston raised to 230,000 on the button and Mark Weitzman called out of the big blind. On the fl op, Weitzman led out for 400,000 and Winston raised to 1,400,000. Weitzman folded.

Steve Schult: Before we even get into the hand itself, the fi rst thing I noticed is the ante size. � e blinds are 40,000-80,000, but the ante is just 5,000, meaning there is 30,000 in the middle in antes at the six-handed fi nal table. Nearly all poker tourna-

ments now use the big blind ante, which would put 80,000 in antes in the middle. So how should the ante size dictate your pre-fl op hand selection?

Ping Liu: It’s pretty sim-ple, intuitively, that if there is less dead money in the pot prefl op, then you have less to win by raising and trying to steal the blinds. � erefore, you are less incentivized to voluntarily put money in the pot, and because of that, you will be opening slightly tighter ranges.

SS: Should it aff ect how large or small you raise? In this hand, Winston raises on the button to 230,000 and nowadays you would see something between 160,000 and 200,000 in this spot.

PL: If there is less money in the middle, your raise

size should go down as well. If there is less in the middle, and you’re still rais-ing three times the blind, you’re risking more to win less. So, it’s kind of similar prefl op where you can just think of what you’re raising by a percentage of the pot.

Let’s say you were in a cash game and the blinds were $1-$2 and you’re rais-ing 2.5 big blinds to $5. � at is 62.5% of the pot. And obviously with more dead money in the middle, 60% of the pot gets bigger and bigger eff ectively. � e bigger the antes, the more you should be raising pre-fl op, because you stand to win more if you take the blinds down right away.

� at being said, back in the day, people really did raise close to 3x as the stan-dard and I’m not really sure why that was. And I think

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over the years, preflop raise sizes just started getting smaller and smaller all the way down to just a min-raise, which I think started happening around 2014.

SS: Winston raises to 230,000 and Mark Weitzman calls out of the big blind. Weitzman started the hand with 1.75 million, or about 23 big blinds. I remember a man-tra from this time period with regard to stack sizes which generally said that with around 10 big blinds you should be open-shov-ing and with about 20, you should find spots to just three-bet shove your stack. Should Weitzman have much of a flatting range?

PL: �e first thing is that you’re right that 13 years ago, people usually played 20-big blind stacks a lot more like you described. �ey would just shove over an open. But over the years, [we have realized] there is still a lot more play any-where between 10- and 20-big blind stacks. You can flat and take your hand post-flop.

But that is also a func-tion of what we were talk-ing about before. If some-one is min-raising, and you have 20 big blinds in the big blind, you can still defend and have a decent amount of playability. But when people are opening to 3x, and now you have

to call two additional big blinds instead of one, it does make a big difference.

Once they start tripling the blind, your risk/reward for just shoving becomes a lot better. If they fold pre to your jam, you’re going to win another big blind plus what’s in the middle. I think there has been more play post-flop recently at the shorter stack sizes, but that’s also a function of the raise sizes preflop going down.

SS: Weitzman calls and the flop comes jack-high with two clubs. He then donk-bets (betting from out of position into the aggressor) for 400,000. Can you explain the ratio-nale of why you would want to donk-bet?

PL: �e rationale behind donk-betting is that you connected with that par-ticular flop stronger than your opponent did. You’re saying that you have the range advantage on that board. Usually, if someone is the preflop raiser, you are going to have the strongest hands in your range. You’ll have A-A, K-K, Q-Q, A-K. And if you just flat the raise preflop, then those hands aren’t going to be present in your range because you most likely would’ve put in a three-bet.

So very often, the play-er who defends from the big blind, won’t have a big

hand. Because the top of their range isn’t going to be present. �ere are certain, pretty specific board tex-tures, where the big blind theoretically could have a range advantage, but those are going to be on the lower board textures.

Something like 4-5-6 with a flush draw. �at’s a board where it is more theoretically optimal to construct a donk-leading range out of the big blind, because you’ll have a lot more of the 4-5’s, the 4-6’s, the 5-6’s, and also more straight combos than the button. �e button proba-bly isn’t raising 4-6 offsuit, but from the big blind, you could defend it.

In terms of what I actu-ally think he’s doing here, I would guess that he just has a hand that he is look-ing to go with at this point. He’s just trying to protect it and take the pot down right away.

SS: How have you seen the donk-bet strategy change throughout the years? Is there more or less of it now than when you started posting results a decade ago?

PL: I do think the amount of donk-betting has gone down over the years quite substantially. Most moderately studied players know that when you defend out of the big blind, the most common

play is to check to the pre-flop raiser and then react accordingly.

�at’s something that all the solvers have proven. Checking your range is going to be the best play. Back then in the pre-solver era, people didn’t under-stand how ranges interact-ed and they just started donking on boards where they shouldn’t have a lead-ing range on it.

�e main problem with doing that is it turns your hand face up. Let’s say you’re playing with a rela-tively weak player and they donk on this board and you have nothing, so you just fold. �en the next time you play a hand with them and you get a similar board texture, and now they check. Because you know they have a donking range and they put their strong hands in it, their checking range becomes unprotected. Every time they check, you can just c-bet (continuation bet) everything and expect to get a lot of folds because their range will be signifi-cantly weaker.

SS: Weitzman had 14 big blinds behind, and there was another player with about 18 big blinds. Is this a good spot for Winston to apply ICM (Independent Chip Model) pressure or does he usually have a hand here?

Haralabos VoulgarisMark WeitzmanRoy Winston


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PL: I think he has to have some equity. He can’t just do it with air because I think the big blind is show-ing a signifi cant amount of strength by donking so

big on this board without much behind. He shouldn’t expect him to lead this big and fold. More likely than not, he’s got a strong top pair.

Blinds – 40,000 – 80,000 with a 5,000 ante Players Remaining: 6

Q

Q

J

J

2

2

2

2

Haralabos Voulgaris 2,560,000

Mark Weitzman 1,550,000

K

K

J

J

7

7

A

A

9

9

The Hand

The Action: � e action folded to Haralbos Voulgaris, who completed the small blind. Weitzman checked his option from the big blind. Both play-ers checked the fl op and Voulgaris bet 155,000 on the turn. Weitzman called. Both players checked the river and Weitzman won the pot at showdown.

SS: Action folds to Haralabos in the small blind, who completes. Open limping is still some-what prevalent in today’s game, but what were the

types of hands you would generally see people limp with?

PL: Open limping is def-initely part of a pretty via-ble prefl op strategy, even in 2020. And you’re going to see it a lot more once you get to a sub-20 big blind stack depth. You can have some open limps from the cutoff with like 15 big blinds or so. And the same thing for the button.

But specifically, in this spot, blind vs. blind, the optimal strategy does include a lot of limps from

the small blind. Especially with an ante in the pot, the small blind is getting such a good immediate price to complete, they really are going to be incentivized to play a lot of their hands. And because their ranges are going to be so wide, often times, the small blind will often play a limp-only strategy and then respond accordingly if the big blind does choose to raise.

SS: Weitzman checks his option and the fl op is A-K-J with two hearts. Both players check and the 9� comes on the turn. Voulgaris decides to take a pot-sized stab with his deuces. I remember a limp-stab strategy being imple-mented in these spots. Is this just a delayed limp-stab?

PL: With deuces, now-adays, the standard play prefl op would be just to shove when the big blind has 20 big blinds and you cover him. � e low pocket pairs don’t play particular-ly well post-fl op, especially against the big blind.

As played, most play-ers would take a stab right away with deuces on the fl op. On an A-K-J board texture, when the big blind checks back, he is going to be really capped and not have any of the strong hands in his range. � ose are the hands he would’ve raised or shoved prefl op.

It’s unlikely that the big blind has an ace in his hand, whereas the small blind can still have some of the stronger hands in his range that was going for a limp-raise. It’s a better board texture for the small blind, so I think the better play would be to stab the fl op. Even just for one big blind would be fi ne. If the big blind has two unders, they aren’t going to con-tinue regardless of what size he chooses.

When we get to the turn, he’s probably think-

ing the same thing. � e big blind probably doesn’t have that much, and he’s just going to bet his hand and deny some equity. I think the pot-sizing is not super eff ective. What he’s trying to get him to do is get him to fold an air hand, win the pot right away, and protect his low pair. But since the pot is slightly more than two big blinds, then all he needs to do is bet the minimum.

� e big blind will fold something like 7-5 off -suit, or whatever rags he has. And if the big blind does have a pair, he won’t fold regardless of wheth-er Haralabos bet one big blind or full pot.

SS: I know you’re specu-lating here, but do you think Haralabos was plan-ning to limp-shove on Weitzman prefl op?

PL: I think it should just be a shove every time, so I’m not sure. From the small blind, there is a lot more limping, but the deeper you are, with more antes in the middle, the more you should play a limp-only strategy because you’re going to be playing out of position and deep-stacked.

� e shorter and shorter you get, the more open raising or open shoving you are going to see. At the 20-big blind stack depth, there is a signifi cant por-tion of your range that is going to want to open shove prefl op, and the most prevalent part of that range is going to be the small pocket pairs and low, off suit aces that don’t play well post-fl op. And even some low suited aces could shove prefl op. You could shove some suited connec-tors for balance. He will have some limping in his range and will have raise-calls in his range and some raise-folds. � e shallower you get, the more options you want to have from the

Ping Liu

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small blind. SS: Weitzman actually

had Q-J offsuit. Should he be raising? What do you think about his option check preflop?

PL: Did you say he was the shortest stack at this point?

SS: At this point, he is the second-shortest stack. �ere was one player at the table who had about seven big blinds.

PL: Given that there is a significant amount of ICM consideration because he’s going to get a pretty big pay jump if he just folds and lets the other guy bust, that would make me want to check back his hand a little bit more often.

He could just shove over the limp. And if he knows that Haralabos is going to limp something like 2-2, then I really like

shoving as well, because you’re probably going to get him to fold some stuff that he shouldn’t. I think his two options are either to check back or shove.

I don’t think raising is a good strategy because I think there is a portion of Haralabos’ range that will be limp-shoving, and I think 2-2 would be part of that range. You don’t want to raise something like 3x and then face a shove.

SS: Weitzman called the turn bet and both players checked the river.

PL: I think the river action is pretty standard at this point, but it just sort of goes back to what I said about the turn. Haralabos didn’t need to bet so big on the turn because he would’ve accomplished what he was trying to with a one big blind bet. When he does bet turn and check river, it does seem like his plan was to just take

the pot down right away. Weitzman played his hand totally fine.

The Result: Weitzman finished fourth, taking home a payday worth $380,240. Voulgaris was able to outlast him by one spot, earning $434,560 for third place. It was also just one spot shy of Voulgaris’ career best, when he finished runner up in the 2005 WPT LA Poker Classic main event. Winston went on to win the tournament and secure the $1,575,280 first-place prize. �e doctor-turned-poker-enthusiast made a deep run in that year’s WSOP main event, finish-ing 26th for $333,490, and also won a preliminary event at the Five Diamond World Poker Classic for another $230,365, but mostly abandoned the tournament circuit after 2010. �

Roy Winston Wins Borgata Poker Open


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VOLUME 34 / ISSUE 3

WHAT WILL WE REMEMBER ABOUT THE 2020 WSOP MAIN EVENT?By Gavin Griffi n

I guess I could have pre-written this col-umn. Just hours before one of the now-three World Series of Poker main event fi nal tables, a player was disqualifi ed for testing positive for COVID-19.

Whatever the actual chances are of some-one testing positive for a disease that’s been at the heart of so much misery and pain for the year 2020, it felt to me like this was inevitable. Having people play in a tournament online and then fl y to Las Vegas for the live fi nal table in the midst of a pandemic was inviting disaster.

In fact, I said as much just a few weeks ago. (Vol. 34 Issue 1: � is Is Not � e Main Event You’re Looking For)

“Off ering a tournament like this where play-ers will have to travel to play in it, during the worst days of the pandemic, is a cynical and irresponsible move by those in charge at the WSOP and, even though I live only a four-hour drive from Las Vegas and have a safe place to play, I will not be participating in this event. I just don’t feel comfortable supporting it.”

� ere has been a lot of discussion on the internet about what should have been done by the WSOP after someone tested positive, including many suggestions that would not have been so harsh. But for all of the discussion, everyone who played in the tournament knew exactly what would happen if they made the fi nal table and subsequently con-tracted coronavirus. It was stated right in the tournament’s FAQ that “any player who tests positive for COVID-19 prior to the start of fi nal table play will be disqualifi ed and receive the minimum fi nal table payout.”

Everyone who decided to play in this event was aware of the risks associated with playing it and agreed to be dis-qualifi ed if they made the fi nal table and tested positive. � e player who tested positive, Upeshka De Silva, received the ninth-place payout of $98,813.

De Silva was supposed to come into the fi nal table with the eighth-most chips and is, therefore, not losing much theoretical value. However, the fact that it was De Silva who was disqualifi ed is an interesting wrinkle. He is by far, the most successful tournament player of those who made the fi nal table, with fi ve times more earnings than his opponents and three WSOP bracelets already to his name.

� e really unfortunate thing about this story, other than Upeshka getting a disease that may have long-term eff ects on his health, is that I’m now more than halfway through this column and I still haven’t mentioned the winner of the tournament, Joseph Hebert.

It’s often said that nobody remembers the runner-up in major sports competitions. � is is a situation where we might not even be able to recall the winner.

“I really hope that we remember Hebert’s accomplish-ment, but after losing heads-up to Salas, will we remember Hebert, or the fact that De Silva was disqualifi ed? For that matter, will we remember Salas’ win, or Peiyuan Sun, the Chinese poker player who opted to not travel to the Czech

Republic for the international main event fi nal table? Or what about Stoyan Madanzhiev, who won $3.9 million in the fi rst WSOP main event of 2020, held this summer online?”

“(In fact, since Salas’ entry into the U.S. was delayed and the heads-up match was played in January of 2021, do we even consider him a 2020 champion?)

� e sad fact is that there is a terrifi c story in each one of these people that made one of the fi nal tables, as the people who produce the WSOP broadcasts so often prove. � e best story this year might be Gershon Distenfeld, who had just $10,375 in tournament earnings going into the fi nal table but still pledged to donate all of his net winnings from his $125,885 eighth-place fi nish to charity. I hope that his story, and all of the interesting stories from the tournament, don’t get overshadowed by the coronavirus disqualifi cation, but I have my doubts.

With a clear mind, and pure understanding of what they were getting into, each of the 705 entrants to the US main event and 674 entrants to the international main event put up their $10,000 buy-in and agreed to the terms and condi-tions surrounding this most unusual of main events. Now that the seemingly inevitable has come to fruition, there is nothing to do but accept the consequences therein.

I hope it leads to some introspection on the parts of poker players with regards to how much power they hold in the poker world. And although I think it’s less likely, perhaps some introspection on the part of those operators that con-tinue to put profi t over the concerns of the players.

So, while it’s still fresh in our minds. Please join me in wishing congratulations to Stoyan Madanzhiev, Joseph Hebert, and Damian Salas, the joint-winners of the 2020 WSOP main event. �

Gavin Griffin was the first poker player to capture a World Series of Poker, European Poker Tour and World Poker Tour title and has amassed nearly $5 million in lifetime tournament winnings. Griffin is sponsored by HeroPoker.com. You can follow him on Twitter @NHGG ©

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WWFD?By Greg Raymer

Often enough, we get lost in a hand, and are very unsure what to do. When facing a decision for a lot of chips, emo-tions can start to kick in and hinder us in making the smart-est decision. In those moments, one thing I recommend for my students is a technique to take themselves out of the equation for a moment, and thereby help themselves make the best decision.

We’re all familiar with the common term ‘WWJD,’ or ‘What Would Jesus Do?’ It is a technique used by some Christians to help themselves make life decisions with sig-nifi cant moral implications. Instead of fi guring out what you should do, you try to fi gure out what this other person, whom you trust, would do if they were in your position.

� is technique can frequently work very well to remove your emotions from the decision. I discuss this technique in Chapter 32 of my book, FossilMan’s Winning Tournament Strategies. � e title of this chapter is ‘Emotional Concerns,’ and this is just one of the things I discuss. However, for many stu-dents, this is the best method for avoiding emotional mistakes.

Although it may sound a little silly to ask yourself “What Would FossilMan Do?,” that is what I recommend to my students. Facing a tough decision, they should step back, and imagine they were talking to me about this hand. Maybe it is during a private lesson, or maybe they’ve just read my book.

But they step back, pretend they have told me about the situ-ation, and now imagine what I would tell them to do.

� en, just do it! Of course, it need not be WWFD, as you can replace me

with anybody whom you trust to give you good poker advice. If you have a friend with whom you talk strategy regularly, put them in your mind instead. Or, what might work better, is to instead imagine that your poker buddy has come to you for advice. Imagine they have described this situation they were in, and are asking you for help. Now, just follow your own advice.

I think many of you will be surprised at how well this technique can work. Instead of thinking about what you want to do now, which includes the entire emotional situa-tion you are in, you are instead thinking about the advice you might receive from me, or advice you might give to a friend. Next time you face a big decision, are having doubts about what to do, and are feeling emotional about the decision, give this technique a trial run, and see how it goes. I can’t guarantee you will make the best decision, but I can promise you this will increase the chances of your making the smart-est decision possible.

Have fun, and play smart! �

Greg Raymer is the 2004 WSOP world champion, winner of numerous major titles, and has more than $7 million in earnings. He recently authored “FossilMan’s Winning Tournament Strategies,” available from D&B Publishing, Amazon, and other retailers. He is sponsored by Blue Shark Optics,

YouStake, and ShareMyPair. To contact Greg please tweet at him using @FossilMan or go to www.FossilManPoker.com.

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

AnalysisTOURNAMENT HAND MATCHUP Finnish poker pro Samuel Vousden has become one of the most successful online tournament players in the world in recent years. In this hand Vousden unleashed calculated bet sizings to help extract the maximum from his opponent. � e action began with Vousden min-raising from the cutoff with pocket kings. Dutch player Luc Van Der Beek called from the small blind with A-10 off suit. � e fl op brought a paired board with two diamonds and Van Der Beek elected to check-call with his ace-high, which could very well have been the best hand given that Vousden should have a fairly wide range when opening from the cutoff . Vousden’s continuation bet was small, just 1,520,000 into the pot of 4,600,000. � is smaller sizing helps keep weaker hands like Van Der Beek’s in the pot, allowing Vousden to put him in tough spots on later str

damian salas wins 2020’s $10,000 buy-in main event · 2021. 1. 21. · damian salas wins 2020’s...

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