Play like a Pro: Jason Somerville

Jason Somerville is first of seven at the $700 WCOOP Knockout final table when he gets sucked into a big pot with the second biggest stack…

Event: 2015 WCOOP $700 NLHE Knockout
Blinds: 50k/100K/12.5k
Stack: 4,535,541
Hand: Q♠-J♥

Jason Somerville has made the final table of the 2015 WCOOP $700 Progressive Super KO and he’s streaming the action to his loyal RunItUp legion on Twitch. There’s nearly $100k up top and he’s already locked up $15k in bounties. Even better, he’s also breaking his record for most concurrent viewers, peaking at an impressive 37,000 viewers, all willing a win.

Somerville has almost double the chips of the second place player, Mr.Bittar who has just over 2.5m. There are two players at the table with less than ten big blinds.

This hand shows what can happen on a final table when the stacks are all relatively shallow.

Preflop

Somerville gets dealt Q♠-J♥ and says he’s going to raise if it folds to him. As it is, Mr.Bittar min-raises UTG and Somerville decides to three-bet.

Somerville is representing strength by three-betting the UTG raiser but there are other dynamics in play too. Somerville is the only player that can bust Mr.Bittar and with two short stacks at the table it would be a disaster for his opponent to go to war unless he has a genuine hand.

The action folds back round to Mr.Bittar who tanks and then four-bets to 796k. This looks ultra-strong now but there’s a problem – Somerville is getting almost 5/1 on his call in position and Mr.Bittar has a $20k bounty on his head. Somerville isn’t thrilled with the call and acknowledges that Mr.Bittar could easily have Aces or Kings. ‘Let’s try and make two pair or a straight,’ Somerville says. ‘I don’t want to play a big pot against him here, but we’re priced in.’

Flop

4♥-A♦-6♥

It’s not a great flop for Somerville but he does pick up a backdoor flush draw and it makes it less likely that Mr.Bittar has Aces. Also, if he has Kings, this flop is going to slow him down.

Somerville says he has no intention of betting the flop, but when Mr.Bittar checks he suddenly wonders whether he might check-fold Kings. ‘I guess we have to try, huh?’ Somerville bets 478k. ‘I’m not thrilled… There’s a chance he’s going to check-shove with A-K.’ Mr.Bittar tanks and calls.

Turn

9♥

The 9♥ gives Somerville a flush draw and elicits another check from Mr. Bittar. Somerville checks it back saying, ‘Let’s hope for a Queen or a heart here. I did not want to play a 3m pot with Q-J offsuit here, but that is what we’re doing. I’m not going to try bluff shoving as he could have A-K or even Kings with a heart aren’t folding.’

River

2♥

Mr.Bittar checks again and Somerville doesn’t think he’s doing this with a big flush. He makes it almost 600k making the pot a juicy 3.2m.

‘If he shoves on the river, I guess I’d have to call as it’s only 600k more.’ Mr. Bittar shoves. ‘Oh god, I should have just checked. Wow, this hand has not been pleasant. I don’t think he’d check-shove without having the A♥. Maybe he thinks I can never have the A♥ and play this way? Ahhhh, 760k more… Do I win this hand one in eight times? Man, I doubt it.’ He pays him off to see the bad news. Mr.Bittar has Aces with the A♥.

The check on the river is brilliant. Knowing he has the nuts, Mr.Bittar has a better chance of getting a bet than a call. Somerville’s stack also means if he does bet he’s probably priced in to call a shove.

‘I could have just folded that hand preflop,’ says Somerville. ‘I didn’t need to get into that situation. Every street I talked myself into it.’

It left Somerville with less than 20 big blinds and although he won a decent pot the very next hand with A-K, it signalled the beginning of the end and he ended up finishing in sixth spot.

Did he do anything wrong? Not really. Keeping the pressure on is important on a final table and the hand just played out perfectly for Mr.Bittar, giving Somerville everything he thought he wanted. Checking the river would have been the better option though. There aren’t many worse hands that would make the call. Saying that, there aren’t many players capable of playing their hand so well. Mr.Bittar’s check on the river meant he got the absolute maximum from the hand.

You can follow Jason Somerville on Twitch at Twitch.TV/jcarverpoker.

And there’s more…

Jaime Staples also enjoyed a big score on Twitch, in the Hot $33 turbo on PokerStars. We join the action with 35 players left but it doesn’t take long to play down to the winner.

If you’ve never gone deep in a big tourney like this, it gives you a great insight into what you need to do to get your own big score.