Fausto Valdez kicked off his 2026 campaign with a win at the L.A. Poker Classic, taking down the $400 six-max event for $7,110.
Just days later, he found himself with a much larger payout, banking $252,840 in the $1,200 no-limit event while topping a huge field of 1,444 players. If that wasn’t enough, he returned to the Commerce two weeks later and also won the $1,100 six-max event, pocketing another $13,990.
It was his third Remington trophy of the series, and his fourth overall having also won the $400 opener in 2025 for $68,945. Valdez now has more than $1.5 million in career tournament earnings.
Valdez has also established himself as a respected poker coach. He currently makes content for Jaka Coaching, and has taken on more than 400 students and counting.
It’s been a long road for the New York City native, who first picked up the game as a cure for boredom before realizing it could replace his 9-to-5 job. He started off as a low-stakes cash game grinder before moving up to the bigger games and then focused on tournaments.
Card Player caught up with Valdez recently to talk about the biggest of his three wins in Los Angeles, breaking down some key hands he played en route to victory.
Event: LA Poker Classic $1,200 No-Limit Hold’em
Buy-In: $1,200
Entrants: 1,444
Prize Pool: $1,516,200
First-Place Prize: $252,840
Craig Tapscott: I’m curious. What are a few of the things you see less experienced players struggle with at a final table?
Fausto Valdez: Most players don’t understand exactly how ICM impacts their strategy, and they stick to close to their original early game, which is a disaster when pay jumps are involved.
CT: Flip it for me and share what are a few key elements are that even very experienced players struggle with at a final table?
FV: With experienced players, it is mostly mental and not being present in the situation at hand. Also, the unwillingness to risk it all when needed.
CT: What was your mindset and your overall plan of attack coming into the final table?
FV: I was mostly focused on adapting to different scenarios, especially in the beginning, when there was the shortest and largest stack sitting to my right.
Hand No. 1
Stacks: Fausto Valdez – 6,400,000 (16 BB) Erick Ordonez – 18,800,000 (47 BB)
Blinds: 200,000-400,000 with a 400,000 big blind ante
Players: 9
CT: Set the stage for this hand, Fausto.
Ordonez raised to 800,000 from UTG+1. Valdez called from the big blind with K♥10♠.
FLOP: A♦K♦7♥
FV: At this point, I didn’t think Erick was necessarily opening super wide, and he might have just gained the chip lead at this point, so nothing was indicative that he was going crazy.
And by the way, he is one of my students. So, I just treated his opening as sort of normal coming from UTG, which should be a solid range.
As for me, I think this hand is borderline, but enough to defend.
CT: What makes it borderline in this scenario?
FV: The reason its borderline is that most stacks are pretty close. I was semi-close to an average stack, and we had a short stack at the table. All of that makes me selective in general, since I have a value stack relative to the average.
I think it’s enough of a hand to defend, given the variables.
Ordonez bet 900,000.
CT: What do you make of the bet sizing on his continuation bet?
FV: Well, Erick ended up sizing up on a very favorable flop for him in general. And given that I didn’t think he was opening super wide thus far, I think he has a reasonable condensed range on a very favorable flop.
CT: What were the deciding factors to continue that you would be mulling over on this flop?
FV: If this were earlier in the tournament, when I’m not under ICM pressure, I would just defend, given I have enough equity to defend and play future streets.
But now I’m in a situation where I need extra equity (risk premium) given the ICM variables I listed earlier. So, I’m looking for extra backup/backdoors with my hand, which I simply didn’t have.
CT: What else stood out?
FV: I would say that if this weren’t such an extremely good flop for him like K-7-2, I would have continued, but the ace changes things a lot.
For all those reasons, I decided that too many things were against me, and I simply let it go right on the flop.
Valdez folded, and Ordonez won the pot of 2,200,000.
FV: I think this fold highlights the importance of necessary adjustments given extreme ICM situations that don’t present themselves earlier in the tournament, where you’re more free to play.
And these adjustments make such a big difference in deep runs vs not. Preserving your chips but being willing to attack, which I did through this final table, is so important.
I found out later that Erick had A♣10♣.
Hand No. 2
Stacks: Fausto Valdez – 12,310,000 (20 BB) Duey Duong – 8,700,000 (14 BB)
Blinds: 300,000-600,000 with a 400,000 big blind ante
Players: 6
FV: At this point, six-handed, I’ve gained some chips. I was dealt K-10 offsuit in late position.
I looked behind me and at the player in the big blind. What I noticed is that they were all similar and above average, so I shouldn’t get too out of hand.
CT: But your hand is worth a raise short-handed, correct?
FV: Yes. My hand in this situation was more than enough and gave me the green light. Although I was aware that Duey in the big blind had been willing to battle and play throughout the final table so far. We already have a history of battling, and he is definitely capable of playing back at me.
CT: Did you have any skirmishes during this tournament?
FV: There is an extra backstory to my thoughts here. Throughout day 2, he defended his big blind very aggressively, check-raising or floating against me. This went through my head for the upcoming action.
Valdez raised from the cutoff to 1,200,000 with K♥10♣. Duong called from the big blind.
FLOP: Q♦J♠7♦
Duong checked.
FV: Duey checked to me, and I started thinking of actually checking back.
CT: Why was that your initial take?
FV: Because even though this is more of a flop for me, remember, Duey is very willing to play back at me, even at a final table. I believe ICM perhaps doesn’t exist too much between us.
And another factor was I didn’t have a diamond in my hand, so if we were going to potentially play a big pot, you prefer something that can be more nutted and not draw so dirty, especially at a final table. However, I remembered that there was a very short stack present, and I covered Duey.
I decided that if he was to mess around, he will have enough general bluffs in his potential check-raise range, that I could jam against it with reasonable equity and an overcard. And I wanted to leverage the extreme short stack against him.
Valdez bet 800,000.
FV: I went ahead and made a c-bet, fully expecting to get check-raised, as he often did versus me prior to the final table.
Duong check-raised to 2,000,000, and Valdez moved all-in. Duong called and revealed K♦6♦.
FV: And as expected, he did check-raise. I already had my plan in place to jam, which I proceeded to do. Duey had a very reasonable hand and ended up calling it off.
Luckily, I held in a weird situation where I was actually ahead with a draw, but not by much.
TURN: 2♣ RIVER: 9♣
Valdez won the pot of 17,100,000.
You can follow Valdez on Twitter/X @faustovaldez and on Instagram @fausto_valdez. Visit Jaka Coaching and use the code ‘Fausto15’ to receive a 15% discount on your initial training.
Photos – Commerce Casino
