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14/01/2012 PKR Raise Your Game HUGS: Devilfish vs Tabatabi

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HUGS: Devilfish vs Tabatabi

Mark Stuart analyses an unusual hand between Dave Devilfish Ulliott and
John Tabatabai in the 2009 PKR Heads Up Grand Slam

By Mark Stuart on Thursday 1 Apr 2010 09:00

Part of the following series: Heads-up masterclass, Learn from the pros

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It s the battle of the Brits in the first round of the PKR Heads Up Grand
Slam, as old-school pro Devilfish faces online whiz kid John Tabatabai

The first-round HUGS match between Dave Devilfish Ulliott and John
Tabatabai saw both players take some unusual lines on different streets, but
there s one hand in particular that stands out. It occurred early in the match
with the blinds at 50/100. (The hand starts at 4m30s.)

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14/01/2012 PKR Raise Your Game HUGS: Devilfish vs Tabatabi

Tabatabai is on the button with 5s-8s, and makes a fairly standard min-raise to
200. Devilfish reraises to 700 holding Ks-7d. Tabatabai thinks and then calls.
The flop comes down 7c-Qs-Ac and Devilfish makes a continuation bet of
1,000 with his bottom pair. Tabatabai makes a pretty quick call with just Eight-
high, presumably sensing weakness in Devilfish and therefore deciding to
float him.

The turn brings the 6d and Devilfish quickly checks. Tabatabai, who has now
picked up an open-ended straight draw, checks behind. The river is the 9d,
completing Tabatabai s straight, and leaving Devilfish with just fourth pair. He
checks once more, and after a bit of speech play between the two Tabatabai
makes a big all-in overbet, shoving 11,225 chips into the pot of 3,400.

The move totally confuses Devilfish and he says as much out loud to
Tabatabai: What could you have that you wanna go all-in with? Eventually
though, realising that it is for his tournament life, Devilfish makes a reluctant
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14/01/2012 PKR Raise Your Game HUGS: Devilfish vs Tabatabi

fold. Let s try to understand why he nearly made the call.

Loo ening p
With the blinds still small, Tabatabai makes a standard mini-raise with suited
two-gappers. Devilfish make a slightly over-aggressive reraise with K-7 and
Tabatabai – knowing he has position postflop – decides to call. There is
definitely a case for Devilfish just calling the min-raise preflop, but he does
have the best hand and probably thinks he will take the pot down straight away,
so the three-bet is okay too. Tabatabai should probably fold to the large
reraise, but as he has position and a hand with deceptive qualities, his call isn t
terrible.

Then the action starts to heat up, with Devilfish making a standard c-bet on a
flop which looks to have hit his three-betting range smack in the face.
Tabatabai, however, is having none of it. He obviously smells weakness and
floats Devilfish with his Eight-high. This is actually a poor board for Tabatabai
to float on, because he has so little equity at this point and Devilfish has told a
convincing story of strength so far. If the flop had have come, say, Jack-high,
the Welshman would have more reason to make this risky play.

T ning poin
As it is Devilfish doesn t have much and checks the 6d turn. At this point it s
clear he s expecting Tabatabai to bet and will probably give up on the hand.
But Tabatabai checks behind. This is a very odd line to take, because, having
floated on the flop and picked up eight outs with a straight draw, he should
really now bet about two-thirds pot. Unless Devilfish is getting super-tricky, this
is Tabatabai s best opportunity to take the pot down. Devilfish spots his
mistake, too, saying to Tabatabai, You re not supposed to take one off there,
bro. Even if Devilfish calls, Tabatabai still has eight outs and could fire another
bluff on the river if he misses.

Ri e aid
The 9d river fills Tabatabai s straight and as Devilfish thinks about whether to
bet or not Tabatabai says, Everything is out there now. Devilfish agrees and
maybe that comment stops him from betting, as he raps his knuckles one
more time. Devilfish seems unsure of what Tabatabai could have but remarks
about whether he might take a stab at it with a missed flush draw. The
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14/01/2012 PKR Raise Your Game HUGS: Devilfish vs Tabatabi

comment provokes Tabatabai to announce all-in – a huge overbet of more

than three times the pot.

Devilfish jokingly says that he must have missed his flush then, and starts
running through the hands Tabatabai wouldn t do this with – a pair of Queens,
a pair of Aces and so on. He s right, too. Tabatabai s all-in is incredibly
polarising – he either has the nuts or nothing. It s virtually impossible, however,
for Devilfish to put him on 5-8 (why would he call the c-bet on the flop with that
hand?) and the veteran pro says if it were a cash game he would have called
almost straight away. But this is another reason why it s a poor bet from
Tabatabai – cash games are one thing but why would Devilfish risk his
tournament on an ambitious call with one pair?

Final anal sis

Eventually, after folding, Devilfish says the all-in is such a bad bet , and maybe
in hindsight Tabatabai would agree. As Luke Schwartz says on the
commentary, it s a desperate move, one that aims to look like a big bluff, but in
a spot where there are so few hands that Devilfish can call with. Having
checked the turn and river and seeing the flush draw miss, Devilfish probably
isn t going to show up with an Ace or two pair and make the call.

Tabatabai would have done much better to bet somewhere between half to
two-thirds pot on the river. Because his story doesn t ring true after he fails to
bet the turn, a moderate bet may have elicited a curiosity call from Devilfish,
perhaps believing he will snap off a bluff.

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