POTD #61 Monte Carlo Monday: I Try to Beat Addamo at His Own Game

Do I succeed?

There is no current SHR regular whose play style generates more discussion than Michael Addamo; while he’s a very aggressive and tough player to play against, so are many people playing these stakes. He’s relentless and aggressive, and sometimes when you’re playing him, his strategy feels like a paradox. He’s overbluffing, but he always has it. He fastplays his value to compensate for his overbluffing, but he still has strong bluff-catchers when he takes passive lines. A classic Addamo hand occurred in the 2021 Super High Roller Bowl, where he stacked Daniel Negreanu for 300bbs in level 1. He defended the BB with 86 offsuit, the 975 flop checked through, an ace rolled off on the turn, and Addamo checkraised ~250% pot before shoving a board-pairing 5 river for ~250% pot as well. Mike’s line is not solver-approved; his turn size isn’t used, and when forced to raise that size, the river shove is too thin because Mike should be running into a full house reasonably often from Daniel. However, Daniel called with AK, a hand that should fold the turn and the river. Exploitatively, Mike played this hand perfectly. He’d take that early gift from Daniel and turn it into yet another trophy.

So what do I do when playing vs. Addamo? It depends (having a good hand is always nice). My general advice is, you try to play a version of your normal game. I am not going to consistently beat him at his own game. You don’t want to let him run you over, either, but the goal is to do well in a poker tournament, not own Addamo the way he’s owned you before. In POTD #17, I wrote about a hand where Addamo put in a little too much money value-betting with AT; today, I’m going to write about a hand where I put in a little too much money bluffing with A9.

2023 Triton Monte Carlo Main Event
Level 5 (1k/2.5/2.5k) (SB/BB/BBA)
HH: Triton App

It folds to Addamo (172k) in the CO who makes it 5.5k, I (198k) three bet 18k with A♣️9♥️, the blinds fold, he calls.

Flop (41k) J♣️5♠️4♣️: He checks, I bet 20k, he makes it 50k, I call.

Turn(141k) Q♦️: He checks I bet 24k, he calls.

River (189k) 7♣️: He checks, I shove for his remaining 80k, he folds.