Hello everyone! We continue our coverage of the WSOP Main Event. Unfortunately, Gus Hansen was knocked out on Day 1, but don’t worry – there are some real sharks on the bench for Team Winamax! Adrian Mateos is enjoying the best year of his already exceptional career. After winning the world’s richest series, Triton, in June, he entered the top 10 in tournament winnings – more than $47 million. At 30 years old, he is the youngest on this list of poker legends.
But even great players have their weaknesses. Cristiano Ronaldo has never won a world title, Federer has struggled against Nadal, and Mateos has never made it far in the WSOP Main Event. Will 2024 be an exception? It’s hard to predict, but so far Adrian has been doing well – he’s starting Level 5 with 125,000 chips, more than 200 blinds.
The first levels of the tournament went very well, I managed to double my starting stack. The Main Event holds a special place in my heart, I really want to show a decent result. My strategy in it is different from the one I usually use, since I don’t know most of the opponents at the tables.
Unlike high roller tournaments, knowledge of theory is not so important here. You can play much more creatively.
I think the players at my table feel a little uncomfortable because of the cameras. I don't think they're used to it. Maybe that's why they feel an involuntary extra respect for me.
I raise with T9s. The player on the button seems interested. He calls. We go to the flop together.
Flop (4,100):
My strategy out of position on this flop is to check more often. Considering I flopped second pair, checking is pretty obvious. Villain bets 1,500. Of course, I should call.
Turn (7,100):
The ace is a little more in my range. I decide to check. Good news – he checks back.
River (7,100):
My hand is not strong enough to take it. It's better to check and play according to the opponent. If he checks too, I'll most likely take the pot. If he bets, it could be a difficult decision.
He checks, I show my hand and win. I keep winning pots, that's always important. I have the biggest stack at the table right now. It's nice when no one can knock you out in one hand, it's calming.
My neighbor is limping from the small blind. He's a professional player, but I don't know much else about him. He has 33 big blinds, so my hand is best checked.
Flop (1,800):
Good flop. Villain checks. In my position, I can bet and check. I bet 600 chips – I don’t expect him to check-raise often. He calls.
Turn (3,000):
Good card. I can check here too, but I don't think it will induce many bluffs on the river, so I'll keep hitting. I bet 2,200. I get another call.
River (7,400):
And the river is fine. I think my top pair is good here, I can get another street of value. He has quite a bit , who limp and check the flop, and the low turn and river rarely give him second pair. Clearly a draw! I decide to bet 3/4 pot. I bet 5,400, and he reluctantly gives up. Good job, made a good fold.
Good hand, I open. Button calls. Small blind thinks for a while, then squeezes to 7,000. A squeeze against early position and the button from a player with 150 big blinds suggests a strong range. Still... AJs is pretty strong, stacks are very deep – I think a must call. Button folds, we're down to two.
Flop (16,500):
A good flop for a narrow range, the villain will often improve. He bets 5,100, a third of the pot. I don't even have a backdoor, just a gutshot. But I have position and depth, and if a ten falls, I can win a big pot! Borderline, but I think a call is OK. I call and root for the ten.
Turn (26,700):
Bad. I'll fold on the second barrel. However, he checks, which is good news for me. Now the question is, is it better to turn the hand into a bluff on the turn or to check and realize all the equity? The answer depends on the percentage of times he folds on the turn. In my estimation, he will fold rarely, so I choose to check.
River (26,700):
The flush hits and the opponent double-checks his cards. Players in this tournament tend to check the turn with hands that are definitely worth hitting, and so they come to the river with a much stronger range than they theoretically should. I wouldn't be surprised if he checked with or .
He bets 11,200 and I fold. It looks like I was right to hold off on bluffing the turn.
Early position player limps, hijack – looks like an amateur – makes a small raise. A pro would bet bigger. The sizing makes me feel like the hand is relatively weak. I call in the BB.
Flop (5,400):
The limper and I check, the hijack bets 2,000. With second pair I'll pay off one street. The limper quickly calls too.
Turn (11,400):
Hijack quickly grabs his chips and bets 6,500. The two calls on the flop don't faze him at all. It's time to get out of the pot. I fold, and my neighbor does the same.
Usually it's a fold, but here I have a good table, I can open wider than the theory recommends. This is one of my adjustments to the main – against opponents who are not used to this level, and in great depth I am ready to deviate from the optimal play. I make a raise to 1,300. Only the big blind calls.
Flop (3,500):
Flop for a frequent continuation bet. I bet 1,000. The opponent calls. He has about 38,000 chips in his stack.
Turn (5,500):
A very good turn. The opponent checks. I have an obvious draw – I am ahead very often, but the hand needs protection. I decide to continue with a bet of about 2/3 of the pot – 3,200. He calls.
River (11,900):
Great river. Totally blank card, I'm ahead very often. Gotta get some. He's got a lot , who won't throw the river. In general, with you should check-raise the flop quite aggressively, but that's not the norm here, so his range is more and A-high than the solver. I suspect he can call with all A-high, maybe even with And I have a lot of bluffs, and I need to pick up wide too. A This is not even a subtle addition, but a completely obvious one.
I bet 8,200. He thinks for a long time. If he check-raises, that's terrible news, but if he calls, I win. His posture shows he's hesitating and doesn't know what to do, so I don't expect a raise, it's more like a call or fold.
Calls! That's good. I win a decent pot – three streets! – with two pair. One of the biggest mistakes I see all the time at the WSOP is that people don't call very well. This was a really easy call, but even those are often missed. That's why the main is so profitable.
Mandatory raise. Hijack player calls. We're left with two.
Flop (4,100):
I have two good options – continuation bet and check, this time I check. He quickly checks after that.
Turn (4,100):
Very good card. I'll bet myself, since I'm unlikely to get enough bluffs from such a player with another check. I bet 2,500, but he quickly folds.
Hijack raises. He has about 100bb. It seems he should defend – I call.
Flop (3,900):
Second pair – I check-call, only making a very small bet. But he bets big, 3,000. According to theory, this sizing is a mistake. The correct bet here is a small bet with a significant portion of the range and check the rest. I take his sizing as an indicator of strength. However, my hand is too good to fold right away. I call.
Turn (9,900):
I catch third pair – not the most useful combination. I check. He bets 5,000. On a board with two flush draws, half the pot is a small bet. However, he was strong on the flop, and I think he will play tight against me. A rather borderline story. Perhaps I could throw away a six here, but I am afraid to fold 86o – there could be 77 or a flush draw, and he often does not bluff on the river. I call, but I do not really like the situation. Maybe folding with an eight is better.
River (19,900):
I check, and the opponent immediately turns over his cards – two jacks. With this hand, you definitely need to hit the river – this is another confirmation of what I said recently.
There's a lot of information to be gained from tells, sizings, and the speed of decision making in this tournament. I can basically just trust my gut instinct.
Sixes are a clear open from the cutoff. Both blinds call.
Flop (4,500):
Against two players on this flop I want to make a small c-bet with a high frequency. My hand needs protection, so checking is not very good, it is better to bet and enjoy the folds.
I bet 1,100. The small blind calls, the BB folds.
Turn (6,700):
He checks. There is no more draw, I check after him.
River (6,700):
A fantastic river. Its main advantage is that the small blind has quite a few in his range. , and he won't fold a straight. I have to overbet. A strong player in his position might fold an ace to an overbet, but I don't know this guy. Okay, compromise – I'll bet close to the pot, 6,200.
He shakes his head and throws it out pretty quickly. – a great fold with a set. I have very few bluffs in this line.
An Asian player, his face almost completely hidden by a mask and a cap, raises. My hand should theoretically be folded, but since I have a special approach to the main, I allow myself to enter preflop games more often with deep stacks. The opponent has 100 blinds, and I think my call with K5s will show a plus. The big blind also calls.
Flop (4,800):
BB checks, raiser checks too. I prefer to bet with my hand. I start with a small sizing of 1,500. BB folds, the masked player calls.
Turn (7,800):
This card helps his range a lot – I would almost always check the flop, so he has a lot more trips. He checks. I shouldn't bet this much on this card, but my hand certainly wants to barrel. I still choose to check.
River (7,800):
Four cards to a straight with a ten. I come to the river with the worst possible hand in the range with which I call a raise from early position on the hijack and bet the flop. Let's see what the villain does. If he bets, I have a simple fold.
He checks, and I have to consider a bluff. My range here is strictly straights. Villain will call the river with overpairs, so my should check, and full houses would bet the turn. With a straight I would bet big.
Well, I'll try to represent a straight. I bet almost the pot – 7,700. The opponent quickly folds. He has a lot of automatic folds – , and other hands that agreed to see the turn for a small price. These hands alone might be enough to justify my bluff, but I'll probably knock out some pairs, too.
Stack 143,000 – slowly climbing up.
It's a very long tournament, and people get impatient from time to time. One player pushed towards the end of the level in great depth and moved my neighbor on the right. And to win, you need to play for ten whole days! We have only finished the first one. On the second day, I will have a big stack – the adventure continues!
I pack my chips as quickly as possible to be the first to get to the parking lot – there are about four thousand people in the hall now, and when they all start leaving, you can get stuck at the exit for a long time.
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