Brazilian Triple Twistby Dennis Phillips | Published: Mar 27, '09 |
 
|
|---|
Here's a story I told the other night on my radio show, but if you missed it, it's an interesting tournament tactic I witnessed at the LAPT in Uruguay last week — the Brazilian Triple Twist. You might want to add it to your arsenal.
A young internet player (about 21 or 22 years old) pulled it off in the $1k event when we were down to about 15 or 16 players. He was under the gun plus one (two off the big blind) and short-stacked, with only about 10 big blinds in his stack, so he was in danger. After barely looking at his cards, he announced "all-in."
At that point, the other players assumed he had a premium hand, because if he had nothing — say, eight-five offsuit — he would have waited one or two more hands before pushing with any two cards. So now he's got them laying down hands they might otherwise play like middle pairs, giving him lots of fold equity, and if they call with two overcards, he still has a 30% shot at the pot. But everyone else folded, including me (mine was an easy decision, as I had nothing), so he picks up the blinds and antes, and was up to 13 big blinds.
In the next hand, he was under the gun, and did the same thing. Now the other players were faced with the same decision, and had to assume that even if he bluffed on the last hand, he must have something this time. Everyone folded, and he was up to 16 big blinds.
On the third hand, a middle position player raised 3x and got one caller. When it came back around to our hero in the big blind, he shoved again! He knew the caller didn't have a monster, or he would have re-raised. So, if the raiser only had a medium-strength hand, he might lay it down, too, again assuming that only a maniac would push a third time without anything but a real premium hand. Bingo, they both folded.
At the end of that hand, our lead character turned to a couple of friends on the rail and said, "Triple Twist!," I knew I had to talk to him about this. On a break, I asked each of the players what they had. The raiser said he had AJo, just the kind of on-the-fence hand that would lay it down in that spot. The ace-jack can't beat much more than a bluff and can only hope to be racing at best. And the smooth caller? He had a pair of nines. If his stack was short, it would have made sense to call, but the all-in move by the big blind would have cost the guy with nines more than 65% of his stack. If he was wrong, he'd be crippled at a crucial point in the tournament. With only the 3x raise invested, why risk his tournament life at this point hoping this maniac has two smaller cards or an underpair?
As for The Twister, he told he had Jack-Seven offsuit!! I laughed as he told me that he had to make the move at that point — shoving three times with any two cards — because if his stack got any shorter, he wouldn't have enough fold equity to get other players to lay their hands down. He's right.
His tactic allowed him to chip up to 25 big blinds and out of danger. That gave him enough room to play real poker again, and he ended up making the final table, finishing sixth overall (I managed my own short stack long enough to finish 10th).
Now I'm in Vegas for the Dream Team Poker event at Caesar's Palace this weekend. I'll report on that next week on my site, TheChipLeader.com, where you can always find podcasts of my radio show.
A young internet player (about 21 or 22 years old) pulled it off in the $1k event when we were down to about 15 or 16 players. He was under the gun plus one (two off the big blind) and short-stacked, with only about 10 big blinds in his stack, so he was in danger. After barely looking at his cards, he announced "all-in."
At that point, the other players assumed he had a premium hand, because if he had nothing — say, eight-five offsuit — he would have waited one or two more hands before pushing with any two cards. So now he's got them laying down hands they might otherwise play like middle pairs, giving him lots of fold equity, and if they call with two overcards, he still has a 30% shot at the pot. But everyone else folded, including me (mine was an easy decision, as I had nothing), so he picks up the blinds and antes, and was up to 13 big blinds.
In the next hand, he was under the gun, and did the same thing. Now the other players were faced with the same decision, and had to assume that even if he bluffed on the last hand, he must have something this time. Everyone folded, and he was up to 16 big blinds.
On the third hand, a middle position player raised 3x and got one caller. When it came back around to our hero in the big blind, he shoved again! He knew the caller didn't have a monster, or he would have re-raised. So, if the raiser only had a medium-strength hand, he might lay it down, too, again assuming that only a maniac would push a third time without anything but a real premium hand. Bingo, they both folded.
At the end of that hand, our lead character turned to a couple of friends on the rail and said, "Triple Twist!," I knew I had to talk to him about this. On a break, I asked each of the players what they had. The raiser said he had AJo, just the kind of on-the-fence hand that would lay it down in that spot. The ace-jack can't beat much more than a bluff and can only hope to be racing at best. And the smooth caller? He had a pair of nines. If his stack was short, it would have made sense to call, but the all-in move by the big blind would have cost the guy with nines more than 65% of his stack. If he was wrong, he'd be crippled at a crucial point in the tournament. With only the 3x raise invested, why risk his tournament life at this point hoping this maniac has two smaller cards or an underpair?
As for The Twister, he told he had Jack-Seven offsuit!! I laughed as he told me that he had to make the move at that point — shoving three times with any two cards — because if his stack got any shorter, he wouldn't have enough fold equity to get other players to lay their hands down. He's right.
His tactic allowed him to chip up to 25 big blinds and out of danger. That gave him enough room to play real poker again, and he ended up making the final table, finishing sixth overall (I managed my own short stack long enough to finish 10th).
Now I'm in Vegas for the Dream Team Poker event at Caesar's Palace this weekend. I'll report on that next week on my site, TheChipLeader.com, where you can always find podcasts of my radio show.