Final Table Takedown: Maria Ho Takes Down WinStar Casino “No Juice” Event for a Six-Figure Score

Maria Ho is a professional poker player currently ranked fifth in the world among female players. She has amassed more than $1,500,000 in live tournament earnings which include 21 WSOP cashes, three WSOP final tables, four WPT cashes, and five other final table finishes on the professional tour. She is a published author, WinStar World Casino celebrity spokesperson, and television host. She is a Heartland Poker Tour final table commentator and has also appeared on the Emmy Award Winning TV show The Amazing Race.

Event 2013 WinStar Casino River Poker Series
Players 54
Entry $5,000
First Prize $101,220
Finish 1st

Hand No. 1
Key Concepts: Hand reading; developing ranges for opponents; blind versus blind play
Engel limps from the small blind. Ho raises to 27,000 holding A♦ 8♠.
Craig Tapscott: What is your read on Engel’s limp?
Maria Ho: When he limped into my big blind from the small blind I wasn’t too surprised. We had been playing three handed for a while by that point and he was doing a good job of mixing it up in small blind versus big blind situations and had both limped and raised when folded to us in the blinds. At this point I didn’t have much information to go on in terms of narrowing down his limping range from the small blind.
CT: Had he limped/reraised from the small blind at all at the final table?
MH: Not up to this point, so I felt pretty comfortable raising A-8 from the big blind. My hand is good enough to raise with and I am still getting worse hands that limp in from the small blind like A-x to call. I respect Ari’s game a lot and I think that most good players are limping in from the small blind with hands that are good enough to limp/call a raise because they play well postflop. In addition, they want to ensure being able to see a flop because if they open from the small blind with these marginal but playable hands and get three-bet then they may have to fold preflop.
CT: What types of hands are you referring to that the small blind might show up with?
MH: The hands I am talking about are hands like A-x hands, Broadway hands like K-10, Q-J, and one or two-gapped suited hands like Q-10 suited, J-9 suited, 10-8 suited and so on. I think if he had a terrible hand he would just fold pre. If he had a hand that doesn’t play too well out of position but is good enough to raise/fold, then he would probably just open. And if he had a huge hand he would just open as well, seeing as though I had the chip lead and was very aggressive all throughout the final table. 
Flop: A♠ 10♦ 5♣ (pot: 57,000)
Engel checks. Ho bets 23,000. Engel raises to 70,000. Ho calls.
CT: Now what type of hand range do you put him on?
MH: I thought that the flop was pretty dry and safe for my hand so I felt it was a pretty standard spot for me to continuation bet. When he check-raised me I immediately ran through his possible holdings. I know that sometimes good players will check-raise that board with a pretty polarized range, meaning either with air or some kind of Broadway gutter equity; because unless I had an ace in my hand it would be pretty hard to call in that spot unless I was floating. But I also kept in mind that Ari was fully capable of having a huge hand in that spot as well and check-raised me knowing that he would only get maximum value from his hand if he fast played it hoping that I had a hand good enough to call with.
CT: Did you have any intel on Engels’ game?
MH: We had just gone on dinner break an hour before this hand and I remember talking to a few pros about what they thought about Ari’s end game. The general consensus was that he was very aggressive and would especially turn up the pressure shorthanded. So Ari having air on this flop was a definite possibility for me.
Turn: 7♥ (pot: 197,000)
Engel bets 102,000.
MH: On the turn, when he bet a little over half pot, I actually took a good while to make a decision. I knew that if I called the turn I would be committed to calling most river bets. I was also aware that Ari’s sizing on the turn would make the pot size quite big so that if this hand got to the river I would end up having to call off quite a bit of my stack if he barrels the river. The turn was fairly innocuous for my hand, since I obviously didn’t want to see a king, queen, or jack, which are cards that would fill in Broadway draws from the flop. The truth is by then my gut was telling me to fold the turn.
CT: Why?
MH: I really felt that due to his sizing he had a big hand and was trying to extract value, but the only hand that really made sense for him to have was A-5. I think he would open from the small blind with bigger aces such as A-K all the way down to A-10. I also felt strongly that he would be open raising pocket tens and fives, and usually aces. Also if he did indeed flop a set, I believe that he would have just check-called the whole way down instead of giving me a chance to fold by check-raising. That gave him such a narrow value range in my mind and with what I was told about his capabilities during dinner break, I just decided to go against my instincts and look him up.
Ho calls.
River: 8♥ (pot: 401,000)
Engel bets 204,000. Ho calls. Engel reveals A♠ 5♦. Ho wins the pot of 809,000.
MH: Obviously the river made it easy for me, because if I didn’t think I was beat by the turn, the river only improved my hand. I didn’t see any value in raising the river at all as I didn’t think I would get called by worse. I was not all that surprised to see Ari turn up A-5 for flopped top and bottom two pair. I got lucky on that hand to catch a bigger two pair on the river and I think Ari played his hand very well. 
Hand No.2
Key Concepts: Heads-up play against a hyper-aggressive opponent
MH: Starting heads-up play I had about a 2.3-to-1 chip advantage over Sudwakarar. He had already shown himself to be very aggressive once we got to six-handed at the final table. At this point I was fairly certain that he would only amp up the aggression heads-up.
CT: At what point are we at with this hand during the heads-up battle?
MH: We had played about 15 or so hands heads-up. He was raising about 85 percent of his buttons and calling about 70 percent out of position against my button raise. He showed himself to be a competent player and was definitely looking to play postflop in position against me.
Sudwakarar raises to 30,000 from the button. Ho three-bets to 89,000 holding A♦ Q♥.
CT: A no brainer to raise here, correct?
MH: A-Q heads-up is obviously a fine hand to three-bet with and I basically fully three-timed it against him out of position, mainly because he had proven himself to be quite peely preflop in position.
CT: A clear value raise.
MH: Yes. I wanted to make him pay for calling so often preflop with inferior hands. I wasn’t surprised at all when he called. He had turned up some pretty so-so hands against my three-bets and open raises already such as: 10-3 offsuit, 8-4 offsuit, etcetera. He was loose enough that he could pretty much be calling his entire range there against my three-bet, except maybe the bottom 10 percent of hands.
Sudwakarar calls.
Flop: 9♦ 6♠ 5♦ (pot: 182,000)
Ho checks. Sudwakarar bets 74,000. Ho calls.
CT: What are your thoughts behind this check/call?
MH: I checked because this flop isn’t great for my hand because he could easily have a lot of hands that called my three-bet preflop that smashed this flop. However, I also knew there was a decent part of his range that also misses this flop as well such as K-10, K-J, Q-J, Q-10, J-10, etcetera. In order to pot control and not risk being raised out of the pot on the flop, and because there is a decent chance I still have the best hand, I decided to check-call.
Turn: 4♦ (pot: 316,000)
Ho checks. Sudwakarar moves all-in. Ho folds. Sudwakarar wins the pot of 316,000.
MH: I definitely had to fold to this almost pot-sized bet because I only had ace-high on a very wet board. I wasn’t getting the correct odds to call with the nut-flush draw with one card to come. It was a bit frustrating having to fold because I was hoping my call on the flop would slow him down on the turn, but he proved yet again that he was going to be relentlessly aggressive.
CT: Can you share some pointers on how to deal with such an aggressive opponent in a heads-up match such as this one?
MH: It really varies based on your stack sizes first and foremost. If you are over 40 big blinds, then I would be three-betting preflop primarily for value. You are expecting your opponent to be very aggressive postflop as well and will most likely try to take you off hands by barreling scare cards on later streets and, thus, one paired hands (even second or third pair) become really big. As for being in position, if he is three-betting a very high percentage, then you can mix in some limps with both big hands and marginal but playable hands. Also, you are going to have to loosen up the value range that you are willing to get it in versus an aggressive player preflop. The same applies for shorter stack sizes except the ranges get even wider at that point. ♠