EPT Kiev Lessons

I have just spent four days in the Ukraine. Kiev to be specific. First, before we get to the poker, a quick word about the women. Simply put: wow. People told me about this, but I didn’t fully comprehend what they were saying until I saw for myself. But I’ll save these stories for another time and place. It may not sound like it, but I was there for the EPT and was able to see several very interesting hands. Here are a few that stood out – they carry some salutary lessons for us all.

HAND 1 | POT CONTROL AND SURVIVAL

Alex Fitzgerald shows great restraint in this hand. Alex is a very talented poker player and at the tender age of 21 has seemingly taken the poker world by storm. I was able to watch him at the featured table for a while and was quite impressed with his play. No hand impressed me more than this one, even though he lost the pot.

Maxim Lykov raised pre-flop, which he was doing frequently, and Fitzgerald called. Fitzgerald had just started to build his stack back up, but was still covered by Lykov, who was either the chip leader or very close to it. The flop came 7c-8s-9d and the turn was the 7d. This is where most of the action played out. Fitzgerald had turned trip sevens and the pot started to grow quite big, but after being raised he decided to keep the pot small and call.

The river was irrelevant and Lykov bet. Fitzgerald only called and lost the pot when Lykov showed J-10 for a flopped straight. Fitzgerald spoke about this hand after he got knocked out and admitted that he probably should have been eliminated on this hand. On the turn, a very dangerous board would prompt most people to play their trip sevens hard and fast. Fitzgerald sensed that something was amiss and played the hand a bit more cautiously, saving his tournament life.

HAND 2 | HOW TO OVERPLAY ONE PAIR:

In this hand Maxim Lykov made it 40,000 from under the gun and Alexey Maslov called in the big blind. Both players checked the flop of Ac-5c-9s. On the Jd turn Lykov bet 52,000 after Maslov checked. Maslov made it 170,000, Lykov re-raised all-in and Maslov called with As-8s.
Without even looking at what Lykov had, you have to hate Maslov’s play in this spot. He will almost never get a better hand to fold when he check-raises and will almost certainly get worse hands to fold. Maslov’s hand is the exact kind of hand with which you want to be controlling the pot size.

Because of the flush and straight draws on the board, I believe it is unlikely that Lykov is ever folding an Ace in this spot, and Maslov’s kicker barely even plays. Maslov played a solid tournament, but made a couple of crucial mistakes during this hand which cost him his tournament life. Such is the nature of no-limit tournaments – you can play well for hours, even days, and then make one mistake and you’re out. As for Lykov, he did have the better hand: A-J for two pair.

HAND 3 | CAN YOU FOLD KINGS PRE-FLOP?

I’ll start this off by saying you should almost never fold Kings pre-flop in a tournament. The times you are incorrect will more than make up for the rare times you are correct. Having said that, this was a case where folding Kings pre-flop may have been the prudent decision. It was on the final table, with eight players remaining, and a player in early position who was fairly tight had raised.

Alexander Dovzhenko re-raised. I had the privilege of watching him play for quite some time and, based on his play, I had him on Jacks or better, or maybe A-K. Now the action was on the big blind and Vadim Markushevski re-reraised to 500,000. It was a monster re-raise and because of the players involved and their respective positions, it was almost impossible to think he had anything worse than Queens. I suppose he could have been making a move, but it certainly didn’t look that way.

The original raiser folded and now it was back to Dovzhenko, who went into the tank before moving all-in for just under two million chips. Now, it seemed quite obvious that he had to have K-K or A-A. Nothing else made sense. Vadim Markushevski had a decision to make. He started the pot with about 1.8 million chips and was already in for 500k. Could he get away from his Kings? I think the answer is yes, for a few reasons.

1 He and his opponent were deep enough for him to get the information he needed to find out where he was, yet at the same time he wasn’t pot-committed. Less than 33% of his stack was in the pot and to most objective observers it seemed fairly obvious that Kings could be vulnerable in this spot.

2 Eight players still remained at the final table and there were four or five short stacks. If he folds in this spot, it’s a cinch to make the top five. If things turn around for him, he could even win it. I’m not one to make decisions based on money – to me, a poker decision is either right or wrong, regardless of the money involved – but when you’re at a final table you have to factor the payouts into your decisions. Getting all of your chips in as a 4/1 dog and then getting knocked out in eighth place when you’re second in chips would be a disaster.

3 His opponent was transparent. I believe if he had been a bit more observant, he would have seen it clearly.