October 17, 2025 • 24 mins
Clayton Fletcher (@claytoncomic) raves about Sylvain Loosli and his user-friendly coaching style. He does not rave about the Tampa Hard Rock. This week's hand history review comes from a $500 Deepstack bracelet event he played on WSOP.COM
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_02 (00:04):
Welcome to the Tournament Poker Edge Podcast.
Brought to you by TournamentPoker Edge.com, the only podcast
dedicated exclusively to pokertournament strategy.
Here's your host, ClaytonFletcher.
SPEAKER_00 (00:18):
Hello once again, everybody, and welcome to the
Tournament Poker Edge Podcast,presented by DoctorCoaching.com.
My name is Clayton Fletcher, andI am in safe, tranquillo, New
York City.
Happy to be bringing you yetanother episode of the world's
(00:39):
longest running poker strategypodcast.
Yes, I'm back from Tampa,Florida.
I had such a great time atSidesplitters Comedy Club in the
old movie theater.
It was so much fun.
It's my second time doing thatgig.
And I even got to venture onover to the Hard Rock in Tampa
(01:02):
and play a little bit of a 1-3no limit, but this had a twist.
The minimum buy-in was$400, andyou had a$10 straddle and a$40
restraddle that nobody ever did.
Of course, the straddles areoptional, but yeah, it's
basically just a 1-3 deep stackgame.
Now, this was my first time everplaying at the Tampa Hard Rock,
(01:25):
and I gotta say I wasn't thatimpressed.
I mean, it is a beautifulproperty.
There's lots of what you wouldexpect from a Hard Rock
memorabilia, like I saw an AlexVan Halen drum kit.
I saw something Janice Joplinwore once, and you know, on and
on.
Lots of cool, like sort of Hallof Fame type of stuff.
(01:46):
But just the poker room itselfisn't very inviting.
There's kind of a lot ofdisarray, like a lot of yelling,
like the supervisor yelling atthe dealers, like just telling
them stuff like uh you go totable 17 and things like that.
It just doesn't feel like apeaceful and relaxed place to
play poker.
It felt like there was a lot ofcommotion, and it was only like
(02:09):
a Thursday night.
It's not like I was there at areally busy time or anything
like that.
And yeah, just a lot of thedealers were kind of gruff and
rude, kind of insulting theplayers, I guess in a fun-loving
question mark sort of way, butit just didn't feel like, you
know, as a person visiting forthe first time, and we've seen
(02:31):
this with other cities that I'vegone to, where the dealers just
kind of make you feel likeyou're not part of the club.
And of course, the other playersare happy to make you feel that
way as well.
Why would you want the outsider,the stranger in a strange land
to feel comfortable on your hometurf?
But that's where we really needfloor supervisors, poker room
(02:53):
managers, and especially dealersto kind of bridge that gap and
make someone who is not aregular possibly become one.
You guys don't know that I don'tlive in Tampa.
Maybe I just moved to the areaand I'm playing poker there for
the first time.
You probably shouldn't alienateme if you want to continue to
(03:15):
grow your player pool.
So, yeah, just kind of a generallack of professionalism, I would
say.
But a beautiful property, a verynice, very large poker room, and
it just seems like maybe theydon't have any competition, I'm
guessing, in the immediate areabecause they weren't really
trying that hard.
It was kind of like we're theonly game in town, take it or
(03:38):
leave it, kind of vibes inthere.
And before you assume that I hadbad luck, let me tell you, I
actually won$840 in about threehours.
So no sour grapes herewhatsoever.
It was just a far cry.
I've recently been playing inCanada.
I was up in Montreal at theplayground, and everything was
(03:58):
so nice, and everyone was soprofessional, and I just felt
very welcomed.
Uh, by the way, the bad beatjackpot just hit a few days ago
up there in Montreal, and it was1.6 million Canadian dollars,
which is over 1 million US.
And wow, wow, that's just somuch money.
(04:19):
When I was there two weeks ago,everyone was actually talking
about how high the jackpot wasgetting and everything.
But yeah, uh wow, it hit at 1.6million almost, and the winning
hand was a nine eight of clubson a board of seven of clubs,
five of clubs, deuce ofdiamonds, and the other guy, of
course, had the four tray ofclubs, and then the seven of
(04:43):
clubs on the turn gave the topjackpot prize to the bottom end
of the straight flush.
So, really perfect run outthere, and best of all, it was a
one-two no-limit game.
So these guys are buying in forlike a hundred bucks or two
hundred bucks, and he ends upwinning over a million and a
half dollars.
It's really cool when thingslike this happen.
(05:06):
So, congrats to everyone thatwas in the room that night when
that bad beat jackpot finallyhit.
But yeah, my tour, my mini touris over.
I am now back in beautiful NewYork, and I didn't play that
much this week, but I've beenspending a lot of time studying
with joccoaching.com.
(05:26):
I actually participated in alive coaching session.
So you've got a coach and you'vegot the actual player who played
the hands, and then the rest ofus are in the chat, almost like
what we do on Twitch, buteveryone's discussing the hand.
And the player was none otherthan Cindy Speyer, who was
(05:46):
playing in a World Series ofPoker Circuit event, actually,
the seniors event in PompanoBeach earlier this year, and
they also reviewed hands fromtwo other circuit events that
Cindy played in this year, andspoiler alert, she won all three
of these events.
So that right there isunbelievable.
(06:08):
It's only October, and thisperson has won three circuit
rings already this year.
But the cool part for me was shewas working with Sylvan Loosely,
who is a French player that I'mactually friends with, and he
was her coach onjoccacoaching.com.
Sylvan has eight million dollarsin live earnings, including the
(06:30):
2019 World Series main eventfinal table, where he got fourth
place, and he's also got plentyof EPT scores, final tables,
high rollers, you name it.
This guy is the real deal.
He's quite a crusher, and he'salso very good at explaining
concepts and asking the rightquestions to try to understand
(06:53):
where the student is at in herdevelopment so that he can help
take her from where she is nowto the next level.
As I mentioned, I know himpersonally, but I've never seen
his coaching style before, andit was really cool to watch
that.
And I even chimed in with a fewquestions of my own.
I love the chat feature becauseyou're watching a coaching
(07:15):
session, but you're also able toengage.
And another thing that was coolis I got to see Sylvan using GTO
Wizard, incorporating that intothe coaching.
Like you're playing in a seniorsevent, so we're obviously not
going to be looking to play aGTO style because we're going to
try to exploit the old guys,right?
So it's not exactly the same,but we still start with a
(07:37):
theory, and then we know whatwe're deviating from, in what
way to deviate, and how far todeviate.
So he called up the solver onthe screen, and it was really
fun to watch him explain toCindy how we deviate from the
GTO strategy when we're playingagainst highly exploitable
opponents.
(07:58):
So, yeah, it was just reallycool and to see how a
world-class player and coachwould incorporate GTO Wizard
into the coaching.
It was especially fun to do soin real time.
Now, if you're listening to thispodcast, you're probably pretty
serious yourself about gettinggood at poker.
(08:18):
Now, I can't promise you guysare gonna win three rings in one
year or anything like that, butI can tell you that Jocka
Coaching is improving my gametremendously.
You can click the link in thedescription of this podcast
episode and give it a try forfree for a full week, and then
you'll save 20% using the onlypromo code that is available for
(08:41):
this website anywhere thismonth.
The only place you can get adiscount on Jocka coaching in
October is by using our promocode TPE.
Alright, let's review lastweek's strategy hand one more
time, and this time we're gonnasee what GTO Wizard would do in
my shoes.
Uh, just a reminder, it's a$55WSOP online mystery bounty
(09:06):
tournament.
This hand was kind of early,still about an hour left in late
reg.
Blinds are 200, 400, we've got24,000 when the average is
20,000.
Starting stack of 10,000, so Iguess it's not that early after
all.
But yeah, we had 60 big blinds,and the bounties don't kick in
for another hour and a half.
(09:27):
We open under the gun to 800with the Queen of Spades, Queen
of Hearts, and only the overalltournament chip leader calls
with 50k in his stack, andobviously the solver doesn't
mind me opening queens under thegun at this or any other table.
So let's go to the flop 2550 inthe pot.
(09:49):
Flop comes ace 109 rainbow, andI go for a check, and villain
bets 900.
We call.
So GTO Wizard does bet this mostof the time.
55% of the time, we're supposedto bet 600.
Even though the caller is inposition, it's not a hard and
fast rule that we never bet whenwe are out of position as the
(10:13):
pre-flop razor on the flop.
But what we want to do is wejust bet a lot less often than
when we are in position.
So, for example, in this spot,we're going to bet some amount,
75% of the time, usually 600,about a blind and a half, right?
But we have other sizing aswell.
(10:34):
But if we had gotten called byjust say the big blind, and then
we'd have position, we actuallysee bet 95% of the time.
So it goes from 75 to 95.
So we do check 25 of the time,even with the ace high flop
here, which is what I did.
So my play, although it's notstandard, it is GTO wizard
(10:59):
approved.
So now facing the bet of 900, aswe did, it's never a check
raise, and obviously, we're notgoing to fold a hand this strong
just yet.
It's a pure call, 100% call withPocket Queens.
So now with 4350 in the middle,the turn comes the Jack of
Diamonds, and we checked thiscard, and villain checked
(11:23):
behind.
Solver has no issues with ourdecision to check the turn.
In fact, we never bet this cardin this situation.
So now the river, still 4350 inthe middle.
The river comes the six ofhearts, which really doesn't
change anything.
And I go for the check raisehere, guys.
(11:44):
I checked opponent put in 2900into 4350, and I check raise big
to 16,500, essentially turningmy queens into a bluff.
And I was so proud of this play.
You know, I talked last weekabout having those blockers
where he can't have the nutsvery often because I have the
(12:06):
queens.
You guys want to know something?
GTO Wizard literally never checkraises this river with pocket
queens.
I guess I know nothing aboutpoker because I was really
patting myself on the back lastweek and I couldn't wait to run
this hand through the solver.
But it turns out we actuallydonk lead on the river.
(12:29):
So we check, call the flop,check, check the turn, and then
we're supposed to bet 38% of thetime, various sizes, mostly
large.
Unbelievable.
We never are supposed to checkraise.
So when we check and we facethis bet, we actually are
supposed to call with pocketqueens 98% of the time and only
(12:51):
fold 2%.
We don't check raise despite theamazing blockage that we've got
going on.
We do have a check raisingrange, we just don't put pocket
queens into it.
I suppose that could be becauseour showdown equity is too
strong, so we prefer to playthis as a bluff catcher.
(13:14):
I don't know.
I I'm really a bit lost here,but our check raising range
includes sets like pocket jacks,pocket nines, and of course,
when we have the actual nutsking queen, we check raise with
that quite a bit.
We also do it as a bluff withKing Jack and Queen Jack some
(13:34):
percentage of the time, but wow,wow, we never do it with the
pocket queens.
And also, by the way, you guysmight remember I left myself
like 15 big blinds behind afterstarting the hand with 60 big
blind in my stack.
The solver never wants to dothat either.
When we check raise, it's alwaysa shove.
(13:54):
And I suppose that's because weare doing it with the nuts so
much.
And obviously, even if it'srarely called, which I have a
feeling it would be rarelycalled, the way this hand was
actually played in real life,even if that's the case, we
still profit more over the longrun by putting the whole stack
in when we know we finally havethe hand completely locked up.
(14:16):
I thought I had a perfectcandidate to check Gray's Bluff
on the river.
I was proud of myself, but no,no, sir.
We made what we call inSolverland a blunder.
And I actually learned somethingevery single time I run a hand
through GTO Wizard, and Iactually have a great deal for
(14:36):
you guys there too.
Click the link in thedescription, and you can get 24
hours, unlimited access to allof GTO Wizard's features.
And then when you're ready tobuy, you'll save 10%.
Because you clicked our link.
That's our affiliate link, whichis gtowizard.com slash P slash T
(14:57):
P E.
Alright, guys, I'm ready to do anew hand.
This is also from that same tripto beautiful Williamsport,
Pennsylvania, home of the LittleLeague World Series.
I played in a$500 deep stackbracelet event online, and I was
(15:17):
absolutely crushing the table.
I had 75k when the average was55k.
Nobody at my table had morechips than I had.
It was early on, 200-400 with a400 big blind ante.
So we're almost at 200 bigblinds, and it's not called a
deep stack event for nothing.
This tournament you start with50k.
(15:39):
So it's deep.
We were cruising along.
We had a top 20 stack with 300plus players already registered,
still over three hours remainingin late registration.
One fold to me, and I've got theace of spades queen of hearts.
I decide to open to 800.
I know the solver's gonna wantto do like 900 or 1000.
(16:02):
I don't think it makes that muchdifference.
We're not gonna belabor that,but it's worth mentioning.
The deeper you are, the biggeryour opening bet should be.
But I just min-raised as I willin this spot with my entire
opening range.
Only the button calls, and he'sbeen very active, loose, and
aggressive.
Now there's 2900 in the middle,and the flop comes Queen of
(16:25):
Diamonds, Eight of Diamonds,Deuce of Spades, Queen Eight
Deuce with two diamonds.
We've got ace queen, top pear,top kicker, and no diamond.
I decide to check, as you guysknow by now, when I'm out of
position as the pre-flop razor,I very often check to my
(16:45):
opponents, and this hand is noexception.
I checked villain bets 1450,about half the pot, which by
today's modern standards isactually a fairly large bet
sizing.
I certainly think his rangecould include a lot of draws,
maybe a hand like Jack 10 orJack 9 or 10-9, possibly with a
(17:08):
diamond or even two diamonds,which would actually give
Villain a straight flush draw.
So yeah, I think a lot of hisbetting range will be with a
draw or a semi-bluff of somesort.
So yeah, we can check Rays, butI decided just to call and see
how things shake out.
I made the call and now with5800 in the middle, the turn
(17:31):
comes the five of hearts.
So our board is now queen ofdiamonds, eight of diamonds,
deuce of spades, five of hearts.
I check once more, you know, lethim bet again.
Maybe he's got a queen, and Ican beat that.
Maybe he's going to keepsemi-bluffing with a draw.
I'm ahead of that too.
The only thing I'm worried aboutis if he happened to flop a set
(17:54):
of eights or deuces.
I really don't think villain isgoing to have like queen eight
or queen deuce, right?
These are not the kind of handspeople make calls with, even on
the button.
Remember, I raised from underthe gun, well, actually second
position, under the gun plusone.
But yeah, it's highly unlikelythat he's got any type of
(18:14):
two-pair.
And some guys will slow playpocket aces once in a while,
which is weird, especially atthis stack depth.
I mean, we've both got over ahundred big blinds.
I don't really think you seevery much slow playing, right?
He should be trying to three betme and try to get it all in
against my kings with that hand.
(18:35):
So I'm not really putting toomuch weight on the possibility
that he's got a better one-pairhand than I have.
So it's really just a set ofeights or a set of deuces that
I'm concerned about.
In other words, not that much.
So on this Five of Hearts turn,I check once more, and this time
(18:56):
he does bet again, and he betsbig 5,100 into the 5,800 pot.
And now I was worried.
You know, you just don't seepeople blasting this much.
I mean, this guy had been looseand aggressive, but the sizing
concerned me.
It felt like I could really beup against a set.
(19:17):
The problem is he's a goodenough player that he could fire
big on the turn with one ofthose draws.
You know, I feel like Jack 10 ofdiamonds is a big part of his
range for betting half pot onthe flop and then firing big
again on the turn because hejust has so many outs, but he
(19:37):
doesn't really mind if I foldeither.
However, I couldn't help butnotice how large and polarizing
this bet was.
Like he's either got a verystrong draw or he's got a very
strong hand.
Like pocket eights, pocketdeuces, that's what we're
worried about.
And I was streaming this handand all the hands I played in
(19:58):
Williamsport on my Twitchchannel, which is twitch.tv
slash Clayton Comic.
And I was saying out loud, I'monly worried about these two
hands, eights and deuces, thatflopped a set on me.
I mean, suppose he could maybeturn a set with the fives, but
(20:18):
I'm not gonna worry abouteverything, right?
But the point is when he bombsthe turn, he doesn't have like
queen ten.
He's not representing one pairanymore.
He's representing somethingbigger with this polarized
sizing.
But I still I have ace queen,and I've kind of
underrepresented my hand bychecking it twice.
So I think I'm sort of compelledto call, but I certainly didn't
(20:41):
like it.
I made the call, and now with16,000 in the middle, the river
comes the Jack of Spades for afinal board of Queen of
Diamonds, Eight of Diamonds,Deuce of Spades, Five of Hearts,
Jack of Spades, and I check itone more time, and now villain
fires again 12,000 chips intothe 16,000 chip pot, and I just
(21:06):
felt sick because now even the10 9 of diamonds got there.
If that's a hand he can have,which I think it is, so that's
one more hand for me to worryabout.
Still, the way I've played it,can we really fold a hand as
strong as Ace Queen against acompetent, aggressive, loose
opponent?
(21:27):
I really didn't know what to do.
I took my time, I went into mytime bank, and eventually I made
the call, and then villainturned over the deuce of hearts,
deuce of clubs, and just likethat, we lost about a quarter of
our stack in a spot where wejust felt like we needed to call
(21:49):
because of the way we played thehand.
Did I outplay myself here, guys?
Is it better just to fold thatriver?
I mean, is he triple barrelingas a bluff?
Or did he get there or was hethere all along?
I don't know.
It just I'm not getting a greatprice.
I only have one pair.
This pot is way too big for onepair, and I couldn't get away
(22:12):
from Ace Queen, and that'll doit for this episode.
Guys, check outJocakoaching.com.
That's J A K A.
Actually, just click the link inthe description to make sure you
get your 20% discount and sevendays free.
And for everyone here atTournament Poker Edge, I'm
Clayton Fletcher.
(22:32):
Thank you so much for listening.
Welcome to the Tournament Poker Edge Podcast.
Brought to you by TournamentPoker Edge.com, the only podcast
dedicated exclusively to pokertournament strategy.
Here's your host, ClaytonFletcher.
SPEAKER_00 (00:18):
Hello once again, everybody, and welcome to the
Tournament Poker Edge Podcast,presented by DoctorCoaching.com.
My name is Clayton Fletcher, andI am in safe, tranquillo, New
York City.
Happy to be bringing you yetanother episode of the world's
(00:39):
longest running poker strategypodcast.
Yes, I'm back from Tampa,Florida.
I had such a great time atSidesplitters Comedy Club in the
old movie theater.
It was so much fun.
It's my second time doing thatgig.
And I even got to venture onover to the Hard Rock in Tampa
(01:02):
and play a little bit of a 1-3no limit, but this had a twist.
The minimum buy-in was$400, andyou had a$10 straddle and a$40
restraddle that nobody ever did.
Of course, the straddles areoptional, but yeah, it's
basically just a 1-3 deep stackgame.
Now, this was my first time everplaying at the Tampa Hard Rock,
(01:25):
and I gotta say I wasn't thatimpressed.
I mean, it is a beautifulproperty.
There's lots of what you wouldexpect from a Hard Rock
memorabilia, like I saw an AlexVan Halen drum kit.
I saw something Janice Joplinwore once, and you know, on and
on.
Lots of cool, like sort of Hallof Fame type of stuff.
(01:46):
But just the poker room itselfisn't very inviting.
There's kind of a lot ofdisarray, like a lot of yelling,
like the supervisor yelling atthe dealers, like just telling
them stuff like uh you go totable 17 and things like that.
It just doesn't feel like apeaceful and relaxed place to
play poker.
It felt like there was a lot ofcommotion, and it was only like
(02:09):
a Thursday night.
It's not like I was there at areally busy time or anything
like that.
And yeah, just a lot of thedealers were kind of gruff and
rude, kind of insulting theplayers, I guess in a fun-loving
question mark sort of way, butit just didn't feel like, you
know, as a person visiting forthe first time, and we've seen
(02:31):
this with other cities that I'vegone to, where the dealers just
kind of make you feel likeyou're not part of the club.
And of course, the other playersare happy to make you feel that
way as well.
Why would you want the outsider,the stranger in a strange land
to feel comfortable on your hometurf?
But that's where we really needfloor supervisors, poker room
(02:53):
managers, and especially dealersto kind of bridge that gap and
make someone who is not aregular possibly become one.
You guys don't know that I don'tlive in Tampa.
Maybe I just moved to the areaand I'm playing poker there for
the first time.
You probably shouldn't alienateme if you want to continue to
(03:15):
grow your player pool.
So, yeah, just kind of a generallack of professionalism, I would
say.
But a beautiful property, a verynice, very large poker room, and
it just seems like maybe theydon't have any competition, I'm
guessing, in the immediate areabecause they weren't really
trying that hard.
It was kind of like we're theonly game in town, take it or
(03:38):
leave it, kind of vibes inthere.
And before you assume that I hadbad luck, let me tell you, I
actually won$840 in about threehours.
So no sour grapes herewhatsoever.
It was just a far cry.
I've recently been playing inCanada.
I was up in Montreal at theplayground, and everything was
(03:58):
so nice, and everyone was soprofessional, and I just felt
very welcomed.
Uh, by the way, the bad beatjackpot just hit a few days ago
up there in Montreal, and it was1.6 million Canadian dollars,
which is over 1 million US.
And wow, wow, that's just somuch money.
(04:19):
When I was there two weeks ago,everyone was actually talking
about how high the jackpot wasgetting and everything.
But yeah, uh wow, it hit at 1.6million almost, and the winning
hand was a nine eight of clubson a board of seven of clubs,
five of clubs, deuce ofdiamonds, and the other guy, of
course, had the four tray ofclubs, and then the seven of
(04:43):
clubs on the turn gave the topjackpot prize to the bottom end
of the straight flush.
So, really perfect run outthere, and best of all, it was a
one-two no-limit game.
So these guys are buying in forlike a hundred bucks or two
hundred bucks, and he ends upwinning over a million and a
half dollars.
It's really cool when thingslike this happen.
(05:06):
So, congrats to everyone thatwas in the room that night when
that bad beat jackpot finallyhit.
But yeah, my tour, my mini touris over.
I am now back in beautiful NewYork, and I didn't play that
much this week, but I've beenspending a lot of time studying
with joccoaching.com.
(05:26):
I actually participated in alive coaching session.
So you've got a coach and you'vegot the actual player who played
the hands, and then the rest ofus are in the chat, almost like
what we do on Twitch, buteveryone's discussing the hand.
And the player was none otherthan Cindy Speyer, who was
(05:46):
playing in a World Series ofPoker Circuit event, actually,
the seniors event in PompanoBeach earlier this year, and
they also reviewed hands fromtwo other circuit events that
Cindy played in this year, andspoiler alert, she won all three
of these events.
So that right there isunbelievable.
(06:08):
It's only October, and thisperson has won three circuit
rings already this year.
But the cool part for me was shewas working with Sylvan Loosely,
who is a French player that I'mactually friends with, and he
was her coach onjoccacoaching.com.
Sylvan has eight million dollarsin live earnings, including the
(06:30):
2019 World Series main eventfinal table, where he got fourth
place, and he's also got plentyof EPT scores, final tables,
high rollers, you name it.
This guy is the real deal.
He's quite a crusher, and he'salso very good at explaining
concepts and asking the rightquestions to try to understand
(06:53):
where the student is at in herdevelopment so that he can help
take her from where she is nowto the next level.
As I mentioned, I know himpersonally, but I've never seen
his coaching style before, andit was really cool to watch
that.
And I even chimed in with a fewquestions of my own.
I love the chat feature becauseyou're watching a coaching
(07:15):
session, but you're also able toengage.
And another thing that was coolis I got to see Sylvan using GTO
Wizard, incorporating that intothe coaching.
Like you're playing in a seniorsevent, so we're obviously not
going to be looking to play aGTO style because we're going to
try to exploit the old guys,right?
So it's not exactly the same,but we still start with a
(07:37):
theory, and then we know whatwe're deviating from, in what
way to deviate, and how far todeviate.
So he called up the solver onthe screen, and it was really
fun to watch him explain toCindy how we deviate from the
GTO strategy when we're playingagainst highly exploitable
opponents.
(07:58):
So, yeah, it was just reallycool and to see how a
world-class player and coachwould incorporate GTO Wizard
into the coaching.
It was especially fun to do soin real time.
Now, if you're listening to thispodcast, you're probably pretty
serious yourself about gettinggood at poker.
(08:18):
Now, I can't promise you guysare gonna win three rings in one
year or anything like that, butI can tell you that Jocka
Coaching is improving my gametremendously.
You can click the link in thedescription of this podcast
episode and give it a try forfree for a full week, and then
you'll save 20% using the onlypromo code that is available for
(08:41):
this website anywhere thismonth.
The only place you can get adiscount on Jocka coaching in
October is by using our promocode TPE.
Alright, let's review lastweek's strategy hand one more
time, and this time we're gonnasee what GTO Wizard would do in
my shoes.
Uh, just a reminder, it's a$55WSOP online mystery bounty
(09:06):
tournament.
This hand was kind of early,still about an hour left in late
reg.
Blinds are 200, 400, we've got24,000 when the average is
20,000.
Starting stack of 10,000, so Iguess it's not that early after
all.
But yeah, we had 60 big blinds,and the bounties don't kick in
for another hour and a half.
(09:27):
We open under the gun to 800with the Queen of Spades, Queen
of Hearts, and only the overalltournament chip leader calls
with 50k in his stack, andobviously the solver doesn't
mind me opening queens under thegun at this or any other table.
So let's go to the flop 2550 inthe pot.
(09:49):
Flop comes ace 109 rainbow, andI go for a check, and villain
bets 900.
We call.
So GTO Wizard does bet this mostof the time.
55% of the time, we're supposedto bet 600.
Even though the caller is inposition, it's not a hard and
fast rule that we never bet whenwe are out of position as the
(10:13):
pre-flop razor on the flop.
But what we want to do is wejust bet a lot less often than
when we are in position.
So, for example, in this spot,we're going to bet some amount,
75% of the time, usually 600,about a blind and a half, right?
But we have other sizing aswell.
(10:34):
But if we had gotten called byjust say the big blind, and then
we'd have position, we actuallysee bet 95% of the time.
So it goes from 75 to 95.
So we do check 25 of the time,even with the ace high flop
here, which is what I did.
So my play, although it's notstandard, it is GTO wizard
(10:59):
approved.
So now facing the bet of 900, aswe did, it's never a check
raise, and obviously, we're notgoing to fold a hand this strong
just yet.
It's a pure call, 100% call withPocket Queens.
So now with 4350 in the middle,the turn comes the Jack of
Diamonds, and we checked thiscard, and villain checked
(11:23):
behind.
Solver has no issues with ourdecision to check the turn.
In fact, we never bet this cardin this situation.
So now the river, still 4350 inthe middle.
The river comes the six ofhearts, which really doesn't
change anything.
And I go for the check raisehere, guys.
(11:44):
I checked opponent put in 2900into 4350, and I check raise big
to 16,500, essentially turningmy queens into a bluff.
And I was so proud of this play.
You know, I talked last weekabout having those blockers
where he can't have the nutsvery often because I have the
(12:06):
queens.
You guys want to know something?
GTO Wizard literally never checkraises this river with pocket
queens.
I guess I know nothing aboutpoker because I was really
patting myself on the back lastweek and I couldn't wait to run
this hand through the solver.
But it turns out we actuallydonk lead on the river.
(12:29):
So we check, call the flop,check, check the turn, and then
we're supposed to bet 38% of thetime, various sizes, mostly
large.
Unbelievable.
We never are supposed to checkraise.
So when we check and we facethis bet, we actually are
supposed to call with pocketqueens 98% of the time and only
(12:51):
fold 2%.
We don't check raise despite theamazing blockage that we've got
going on.
We do have a check raisingrange, we just don't put pocket
queens into it.
I suppose that could be becauseour showdown equity is too
strong, so we prefer to playthis as a bluff catcher.
(13:14):
I don't know.
I I'm really a bit lost here,but our check raising range
includes sets like pocket jacks,pocket nines, and of course,
when we have the actual nutsking queen, we check raise with
that quite a bit.
We also do it as a bluff withKing Jack and Queen Jack some
(13:34):
percentage of the time, but wow,wow, we never do it with the
pocket queens.
And also, by the way, you guysmight remember I left myself
like 15 big blinds behind afterstarting the hand with 60 big
blind in my stack.
The solver never wants to dothat either.
When we check raise, it's alwaysa shove.
(13:54):
And I suppose that's because weare doing it with the nuts so
much.
And obviously, even if it'srarely called, which I have a
feeling it would be rarelycalled, the way this hand was
actually played in real life,even if that's the case, we
still profit more over the longrun by putting the whole stack
in when we know we finally havethe hand completely locked up.
(14:16):
I thought I had a perfectcandidate to check Gray's Bluff
on the river.
I was proud of myself, but no,no, sir.
We made what we call inSolverland a blunder.
And I actually learned somethingevery single time I run a hand
through GTO Wizard, and Iactually have a great deal for
(14:36):
you guys there too.
Click the link in thedescription, and you can get 24
hours, unlimited access to allof GTO Wizard's features.
And then when you're ready tobuy, you'll save 10%.
Because you clicked our link.
That's our affiliate link, whichis gtowizard.com slash P slash T
(14:57):
P E.
Alright, guys, I'm ready to do anew hand.
This is also from that same tripto beautiful Williamsport,
Pennsylvania, home of the LittleLeague World Series.
I played in a$500 deep stackbracelet event online, and I was
(15:17):
absolutely crushing the table.
I had 75k when the average was55k.
Nobody at my table had morechips than I had.
It was early on, 200-400 with a400 big blind ante.
So we're almost at 200 bigblinds, and it's not called a
deep stack event for nothing.
This tournament you start with50k.
(15:39):
So it's deep.
We were cruising along.
We had a top 20 stack with 300plus players already registered,
still over three hours remainingin late registration.
One fold to me, and I've got theace of spades queen of hearts.
I decide to open to 800.
I know the solver's gonna wantto do like 900 or 1000.
(16:02):
I don't think it makes that muchdifference.
We're not gonna belabor that,but it's worth mentioning.
The deeper you are, the biggeryour opening bet should be.
But I just min-raised as I willin this spot with my entire
opening range.
Only the button calls, and he'sbeen very active, loose, and
aggressive.
Now there's 2900 in the middle,and the flop comes Queen of
(16:25):
Diamonds, Eight of Diamonds,Deuce of Spades, Queen Eight
Deuce with two diamonds.
We've got ace queen, top pear,top kicker, and no diamond.
I decide to check, as you guysknow by now, when I'm out of
position as the pre-flop razor,I very often check to my
(16:45):
opponents, and this hand is noexception.
I checked villain bets 1450,about half the pot, which by
today's modern standards isactually a fairly large bet
sizing.
I certainly think his rangecould include a lot of draws,
maybe a hand like Jack 10 orJack 9 or 10-9, possibly with a
(17:08):
diamond or even two diamonds,which would actually give
Villain a straight flush draw.
So yeah, I think a lot of hisbetting range will be with a
draw or a semi-bluff of somesort.
So yeah, we can check Rays, butI decided just to call and see
how things shake out.
I made the call and now with5800 in the middle, the turn
(17:31):
comes the five of hearts.
So our board is now queen ofdiamonds, eight of diamonds,
deuce of spades, five of hearts.
I check once more, you know, lethim bet again.
Maybe he's got a queen, and Ican beat that.
Maybe he's going to keepsemi-bluffing with a draw.
I'm ahead of that too.
The only thing I'm worried aboutis if he happened to flop a set
(17:54):
of eights or deuces.
I really don't think villain isgoing to have like queen eight
or queen deuce, right?
These are not the kind of handspeople make calls with, even on
the button.
Remember, I raised from underthe gun, well, actually second
position, under the gun plusone.
But yeah, it's highly unlikelythat he's got any type of
(18:14):
two-pair.
And some guys will slow playpocket aces once in a while,
which is weird, especially atthis stack depth.
I mean, we've both got over ahundred big blinds.
I don't really think you seevery much slow playing, right?
He should be trying to three betme and try to get it all in
against my kings with that hand.
(18:35):
So I'm not really putting toomuch weight on the possibility
that he's got a better one-pairhand than I have.
So it's really just a set ofeights or a set of deuces that
I'm concerned about.
In other words, not that much.
So on this Five of Hearts turn,I check once more, and this time
(18:56):
he does bet again, and he betsbig 5,100 into the 5,800 pot.
And now I was worried.
You know, you just don't seepeople blasting this much.
I mean, this guy had been looseand aggressive, but the sizing
concerned me.
It felt like I could really beup against a set.
(19:17):
The problem is he's a goodenough player that he could fire
big on the turn with one ofthose draws.
You know, I feel like Jack 10 ofdiamonds is a big part of his
range for betting half pot onthe flop and then firing big
again on the turn because hejust has so many outs, but he
(19:37):
doesn't really mind if I foldeither.
However, I couldn't help butnotice how large and polarizing
this bet was.
Like he's either got a verystrong draw or he's got a very
strong hand.
Like pocket eights, pocketdeuces, that's what we're
worried about.
And I was streaming this handand all the hands I played in
(19:58):
Williamsport on my Twitchchannel, which is twitch.tv
slash Clayton Comic.
And I was saying out loud, I'monly worried about these two
hands, eights and deuces, thatflopped a set on me.
I mean, suppose he could maybeturn a set with the fives, but
(20:18):
I'm not gonna worry abouteverything, right?
But the point is when he bombsthe turn, he doesn't have like
queen ten.
He's not representing one pairanymore.
He's representing somethingbigger with this polarized
sizing.
But I still I have ace queen,and I've kind of
underrepresented my hand bychecking it twice.
So I think I'm sort of compelledto call, but I certainly didn't
(20:41):
like it.
I made the call, and now with16,000 in the middle, the river
comes the Jack of Spades for afinal board of Queen of
Diamonds, Eight of Diamonds,Deuce of Spades, Five of Hearts,
Jack of Spades, and I check itone more time, and now villain
fires again 12,000 chips intothe 16,000 chip pot, and I just
(21:06):
felt sick because now even the10 9 of diamonds got there.
If that's a hand he can have,which I think it is, so that's
one more hand for me to worryabout.
Still, the way I've played it,can we really fold a hand as
strong as Ace Queen against acompetent, aggressive, loose
opponent?
(21:27):
I really didn't know what to do.
I took my time, I went into mytime bank, and eventually I made
the call, and then villainturned over the deuce of hearts,
deuce of clubs, and just likethat, we lost about a quarter of
our stack in a spot where wejust felt like we needed to call
(21:49):
because of the way we played thehand.
Did I outplay myself here, guys?
Is it better just to fold thatriver?
I mean, is he triple barrelingas a bluff?
Or did he get there or was hethere all along?
I don't know.
It just I'm not getting a greatprice.
I only have one pair.
This pot is way too big for onepair, and I couldn't get away
(22:12):
from Ace Queen, and that'll doit for this episode.
Guys, check outJocakoaching.com.
That's J A K A.
Actually, just click the link inthe description to make sure you
get your 20% discount and sevendays free.
And for everyone here atTournament Poker Edge, I'm
Clayton Fletcher.
(22:32):
Thank you so much for listening.
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