Exceptionally talented and highly controversial: that’s Dan “Wretchy” Martin in a nutshell. The poker pro loves to run his mouth and needle opponents at the poker table. His aggressive approach to the game has helped him land several massive scores over the past year, including a victory in the PokerStars Wednesday Quarter Million for nearly $52,000 on March 24th.
The 23 year-old Martin, who has climbed as high as #15 on the PocketFives.com Online Poker Rankings, took some time with Poker News Daily to discuss a critical hand from the late stages of that tournament:
Hand Setup
Seat 1: jchasek (4,995 chips)
Seat 2: dogtriumph (29,846)
Seat 3: Joe “hoodini10” Udine (43,372)
Seat 4: Stuart “thedonator” Patterson (13,180)
Seat 5: Tuna28 (34,711)
Seat 6: MZtrain (28,134)
Seat 7: Dan “Wretchy” Martin (36,213)
Seat 8: MI2SURE (43,959)
Seat 9: Luke “Bdbeatslayer” Vrabel (9,427)
Blinds are 500/1,000 with a 100 ante
Poker News Daily: First, talk about your image at this point in the tournament. You’re usually perceived as a very aggressive No Limit Hold’em player, especially pre-flop. Could the same be assumed here?
Dan Martin: I believe I was opening around 25% of the pots pre-flop at this table because I had a nice stack and there really wasn’t anyone playing back at me. The hand before, I had just lost a big pot going all-in pre-flop as a favorite versus hoodini10, who ran like a Kenyan at the Olympics during this tournament, so I was semi-tilted from that and decided to min-raise under the gun with a suited gapper.
PND: What are your thoughts on the level of players at this table? Is there anyone you’re staying away from?
Dan Martin: There are three guys at this table I play with on a regular basis: hoodini, thedonator, and Bdbeatslayer. I wasn’t too concerned with Bdbeatslayer because he knows I’m committed to calling his all-in shove on this particular hand, so he’s pushing a fairly standard range that should beat most of my opens here. hoodini10 and I had played a few pots prior to this and there is one particular hand I can remember a few months ago in which he 4bet jammed my 3bet from under the gun with 3-2 of diamonds, so I knew he liked to play back at me. We always have fun and get into some ridiculous pots. Stuart and I have chopped a few $100 rebuys together and I think he respects my play and doesn’t try to mess with me too much. I feel the same way towards him. Everyone else at the table was either playing badly or straightforward.
Cards are Dealt
Wretchy raises to 2,000 with Td-7d
MI2SURE folds
Bdbeatslayer moves all-in for 9,327
jchasek folds
dogtriumph folds
hoodini10 folds
thedonator folds
Tuna28 calls
MZtrain calls
Wretchy calls
PND: This is a wild sequence of action and you took some time before deciding to call. What range are you opening with and what do you think Bdbeatslayer is moving in with?
Dan Martin: Clearly, if I’m opening T-7 suited from under the gun with a min-raise, you could say that I’m a fairly aggressive player. I normally open a lot of hands under the gun with this stack because I felt like I play well enough post-flop against mostly noobies. I felt like Bdbeatslayer would jam a fairly standard PokerStove range that should crush my range, any pair and KQ+.
PND: Tuna28 and MZtrain flat call Bdbeatslayer’s shove, which seems strange given their stack sizes. Explain your thought process in this spot. What are they doing?
Martin: The player in the small blind took little to no time snap calling and the big blind thought for a few seconds before calling. My thinking was that the small blind could have a decent ace, pocket pair, or some random hand like J-T, Q-J, or K-Q. I thought the small blind was around the same range, perhaps weaker, adding in suited connectors, etc. I ultimately decided to call because I felt like if I hit my hand hard enough with any type of combo draw, I could scoop a huge pot and end up crushing the table.
Flop: Tc-5h-4d
Tuna28 checks
MZtrain checks
Wretchy moves all-in for 26,786
PND: Are you surprised that both players checked to you?
Martin: I was shocked that they pretty much snap-checked to me. Once they did that, I figured they were lower-stakes players who were expecting the pot to be checked down because of the all-in player.
PND: Is there any chance that either of them is trapping with an overpair?
Martin: I thought they could be trapping with an overpair, but at the same time, I felt like they would have made that move pre-flop. If they had a hand like J-J, they’d probably lead-jam here instead of trying to be even trickier because there were over 40 big blinds in the pot already. I pretty much thought my hand was gin at this point and wanted to isolate the all-in player when it was checked to me.
PND: What is your play if either of them moves in on the flop?
Martin: If either one of them were to shove, I would have folded.
Flop: Tc-5h-4d
Tuna28 checks
MZtrain checks
Wretchy moves all-in for 26,786
Tuna28: folds
MZtrain: folds
Turn: 8d
River: 7c
Hands Revealed:
Wretchy shows Td-7d for two pair, Tens and Sevens
Bdbeatslayer shows Ad-Js for Ace-high
Wretchy wins 38,208 with two pair, Tens and Sevens
PND: Your isolation shove induces two folds and your pair holds against Bdbeatslayer. This hand played out perfectly for you, but is there anything you would do differently if you could play it again?
Dan Martin: I thought the hand was pretty crazy and it happened to be one of those hands that set the tone for the rest of the tournament. Clearly, I was very happy with the outcome of scooping a very large pot and knocking out a threat to me at my table.
PND: How does this tournament rate in terms of your biggest all-time wins?
Dan Martin: I have a few $70,000-plus scores, so this is probably in my top 10 biggest wins and I took it down with no chop in a pretty epic heads-up battle. I was stoked with how I played this tournament and quite happy to go to bed after playing for nearly 10 hours. I’d like to thank Drew Crawford and Tim Clark along with Mark Herm and Amanda Musumeci for staying up with me to keep me focused and wishing me luck.