In the pre-solver era, I remember coaching a mostly six-max online cash game player who was dabbling in MTTs. They played a hand in an online MTT where UTG raised and they rejammed 18bbs next to act with A3 of clubs.1 I asked them why they played their hand that way, and they replied that they had seen me do something similar in a Run It Once video. I did not find the exact hand he was referring to, but my best guess was I did do something similar, but the details were all a little different— I was shorter stacked, I had a better suited ace, the raise was from a later position, maybe even all three. This hand has stuck with me because I think it’s a nice parable about why learning poker is so hard. You can learn about a basic play, such as bluff reraising all-in suited aces; you can understand why it’s a common play good players make; but then you need to execute, which means determining when versions of this play are winning and when they are losing.
Books could be written on when to go all-in preflop with A5s. If you want to always get these spots right, you need to be able to note every subtle detail in seemingly similar hands. The best players are adept at spotting the nuances in spots that are close but different. In last Monday’s post, I looked at a hand where I defended the BB with 15bbs vs. a deep-stacked HJ minraise and the flop came 753 flush draw. Today, I am looking at a hand where a deep-stacked button minraised, I defended the BB with 11bbs, and the flop came 753 flush draw. A short stack defends versus a minraise and hits a flop that’s good for their hand. The two BB strategies should look awfully similar, but the details— having 1.6x pot vs. having 2.4x pot, facing a button opening range instead of a HJ opening range— affect what the ideal strategy for both players are. If you can calibrate your strategy to these small differences, you will become the player correctly jamming A5s for 25bbs over a button raise, instead of being the punter jamming A2s for 16bbs UTG7 because you saw a top pro do something similar.
2022 PokerStars EPT Monte Carlo €100,000 Super High Roller
(8k/16k/16k) (SB/BB/BBA) 250k Starting Stack. 11 left 6 cash.
It folds to Adrian Mateos (1.65m/103BBs) who makes it 32k on the button, Laszlo Bujtas (700k/44bbs) folds in the SB, I (159k/10bbs) call in the BB` with K♠️7♦️.
Flop (88k) 7♣️5♦️3♦️: I check, Adrian bets 22k, I make it 50k, Adrian jams for my final 143k, I call and and am eliminated by his A♠️A♥️.
