Scott “dorinvandy” Dorin might not be a familiar name in the poker community. But that’s about to change.
Dorin earned $617,925 by winning Event 5 of the PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker on September 7, a $10K buy-in that attracted some of the biggest superstars in the game. Dorin outlasted a handful of big names at the final table, including WPT champion Jonathan Little, EPT champion Glen Chorny and 2003 WSOP Main Event winner Chris Moneymaker. Scott took the chip lead with two tables remaining and steamrolled through the final table to pick up his first WCOOP bracelet.
At the tender age of 22, Dorin already has over $1 million in online tournament winnings. But he spends most of his time playing cash games in the center of the poker universe. “I played almost exclusively cash games, which is how I built up my roll,” Dorin told PokerNewsDaily. “I live in Las Vegas now and play a lot of live cash games. I play mostly just bigger buy-in well-structured tournaments.”
Dorin took some time with us to go over a crucial hand at the final table of his WCOOP victory. With an overwhelming chip lead, he got involved in a pot with a well known pro that proved to be “the” hand of the tournament.
Hand Setup:
Seat 1: 697,455 chips
Seat 2: 673,661 chips
Seat 4: 713,760 chips
Seat 5: 307,990 chips
Seat 6 (Villain): 1,925,764 chips
Seat 7 (dorinvandy): 3,237,495 in chips
Seat 8: 468,875 chips
Blinds are 10,000/20,000 with a 2,000 ante
PokerNewsDaily: First, can you break down the table dynamics and your history playing with Villain? Also, what is your image like at this point, especially with the chip lead at a major final table?
Scott Dorin: (Villain) and I had played just a little bit prior to this (one particular occasion live.) I am not sure if he knew who I was or not; he definitely was aware that I was the chip leader and was playing an aggressive style. We had already played a couple hands at the final table leading up to this hand. We had deep effective stacks so I had flatted him a couple times trying to play pots with him in position. While he certainly didn’t want to have to play for all his chips against me, he probably realized that I may force him to do just that. He is a huge winner at high stakes tournaments so he wasn’t playing scared money.
Cards are dealt:
dorinvandy raises 30,000 to 50,000 with 5d 4d
Seat 8 folds
Seat 1 folds
Seat 2 folds
Seat 4 folds
Seat 5 folds
Seat 6 (Villain) calls 30,000
PND: You open under the gun for 2.5 times the blinds with 5d 4d. Is this a play often used in your arsenal or is it completely dependent on the situation?
SD: Opening a suited connector under the gun in a seven-handed game with the chip lead is pretty standard for me — especially with average stack being well over 40 big blinds.
PND: It folds around to Villain in the big blind, who flat calls. How loosely do you think he’s calling here with the second-biggest stack at the table?
SD: Villain is aware that I am opening a fairly wide range in this position so he will be defending a fairly wide range especially because he only has to call another 1.5 big blinds. I expect him to be defending all pocket pairs and suited connectors, as well as suited aces and most Broadway hands.
Flop: 4s 2c 5c
Villain bets 72,000
PND: Great flop for you, but your opponent leads out for a little less than 3/4 pot. Is this a steal attempt? What’s your thought process at this point?
SD: Leading into the preflop raiser for value or as a bluff is becoming a more and more common line deep in MTTs. On this particular flop I actually suspect value weighted more heavily than a bluff. This is because I don’t think he can expect a lot of folds from me here because I would be floating this flop with my big aces because I would have a gutshot as well as my high card value. I don’t have too much information yet but I think his range is most heavily weighted toward good draws, sets, and one pair hands at this point. Therefore I need to put in a raise here to extract value.
Flop: 4s 2c 5c
Villain bets 72,000
dorinvandy raises to 240,000
Villain calls
PND: You put in a raise and he calls after taking some time. Were you able to put him on a range of holdings? How to you plan to proceed on the turn?
SD: I didn’t really expect him to fold a lot of his hands to my raise on the flop seeing as I thought his range is mostly value. So I can’t really narrow his range down too much from his call except remove most of his air. I certainly plan on betting most turns. Bad turns would be A, 2, 3, 6, or club.
Turn: Qd
Villain checks
dorinvandy bets 420,000
PND: He slows down by checking and you bet close to 2/3 pot. Are you expecting a fold? How do you counter if he check-raises?
SD: I turn a great card, offsuit queen, and expect him to check almost his entire range to me on the turn. At this point I am treating my hand like the nuts. If he has me beat at this point he is going to win a huge pot off of me; so I definitely have to bet here for value and to protect my hand. The important thing to keep in mind with bet sizing on the turn is to size your bet so you will have the desired stack to pot ratio (SPR) left on the river if he calls on the turn. The desired SPR on the river in this spot is .8. The effective SPR on the turn is 2.6. With a little simple math you can figure out that a turn bet of 7/10 the size of the pot will yield a .8 SPR on the river.
Turn: Qd
Villain checks
dorinvandy bets 420,000
Villain calls 420,000
PND: Villain takes several moments before calling again. Are you able to tighten his range at all now? What cards are you hoping to avoid on the river?
SD: I can tighten his range up a little bit at this point. I can remove weak draws and weak one-pair hands from his range now. I can half weigh very strong combo draws such as pair plus flush draw or straight draw plus flush draw now because I think he will check raise me all in with these hands about half of the time on the turn. I think hands such as 34, 35, 56, 46, A2, A4, A5, and 66-JJ are all viable holdings.
River: Ts
Villain checks
Dorinvandy moves all in for 2,525,495
PND: Villain quickly checks again and you move all in, putting him to a decision for the rest of his chips. Was this play an attempt to look weak? How confident are you that your hand is good, and what kinds of hands do you expect him to look you up with?
SD: Fortunately I catch a blank on the river. The only hands that draw out on me are TT and QTcc and I think it’s pretty unlikely he slow played a hand down to the river that beats my hand. Keep in mind he knows I am an aggressive player and am willing to push him around with my stack. He would have to put me on a bluff to call me with a one pair hand but since he will be getting around 2.2:1 on a call, I think it is possible.
River: Ts
Villain checks
Dorinvandy moves all in for 2,525,495
Villain calls
Hands Revealed:
BOARD: 4s 2c 5c Qd Ts
dorinvandy shows 5d 4d (Two pair, Fives and Fours)
Villain shows Ac 5h (Pair of Fives)
PND: He makes a hero call with a pair of fives and you take down a colossal pot. You now own 65% of the chips with six players remaining. Explain the feeling of winning such a significant pot and eliminating quite possibly the toughest player at the final table.
SD: I was of course really excited about the outcome of the hand and the chip lead that I had. I was also well aware that if I let my emotions fog my mind I could easily blow the tournament.
PND: Finally, talk about the excitement of winning one of the biggest online poker tournaments ever created. Has it even sunk in yet? Was it business as usual? How does this change your life, if at all?
SD: It was and still is a really amazing feeling. Many people say that it takes a little while for it to really sink in; I think it sunk in for me right away… I pretty much went nuts right after I had all the chips in play. It doesn’t really change too much in my life but it is certainly a nice cushion. I just hope I can keep my momentum going.
