Jeff Papola had a summer that most poker players only dream about. The 25-year-old law student from New York caught the World Series of Poker (WSOP) by storm in June, taking first and second place in the $5,000 and $2,500 Six-Handed No Limit Hold’em events, respectively, collecting more than $1,058,000 in earnings over the span of a single week.
Papola, a respected online player who goes by the moniker “jpapola,” took some time to discuss a hand he played against Men “The Master” Nguyen during the final table of his $5,000 Six-Handed victory. The hand, which came during three-handed play against Nguyen and Mark Radoja, would help propel Papola to his first ever WSOP gold bracelet.
Hand Setup:
Men Nguyen – 3.3 million
Jeff Papola – 3.2 million
Mark Radoja – 1.9 million
Blinds are 30,000/60,000 with a 5,000 ante.
Poker News Daily: You took second place in Event #26 ($2,500 Six-Max No Limit Hold’em) on June 16th for $391,000. Here you are, just three days later, at another WSOP final table. Were you doing anything differently this time around after coming up just short the first time? What was your game plan coming into this final table, one that included Erick Lindgren and Nguyen?
Jeff Papola: My game plan was a little different because I was the chip leader coming in at a relatively soft table, although Lindgren was to my left with the second or third largest stack. There were also a couple short stacks who were going to be looking to make a few pay jumps, and rightfully so. Although there weren’t really any big names at the $2,500 Six-Max final table, it didn’t really have any soft spots and all the stacks were fairly balanced.
Also, I think I went in with the third stack (and a much shallower stack) to the $2,500 final table and had to play more solid and pick my spots wisely to avoid an early exit or ICM disaster. Luckily for me, Lindgren busted 20 minutes into the final table in sixth, giving Men and I big stacks and everyone else shallow stacks. This allowed me to steal blinds and put pressure on the shorter stacks right away, whereas at the $2,500 Six-Max, there was never really a time where I could do that.
PND: You’re down to the final three players when this hand comes up. Talk a little bit about your opponents and the table dynamics at this point in the tournament. Anyone playing table captain or being overly passive?
Papola: Men was playing a bunch of hands, but playing them very passively. He was limping a bunch, calling raises, etc. Mark wasn’t playing extremely aggressive at this point either, but he was raising most buttons and recognizing good spots to show aggression. I was raising a lot and trying to chip up so I could pressure the other two in a spot where the next pay jump was substantial.
PND: Was this your first time playing with Nguyen? I’ve heard you say that he was more entertaining than annoying at the table, but did his behavior distract you at all?
Papola: This was the first time I’ve ever played with Men, although I’ve watched him on TV and have heard a bunch of stories about him. His antics were mildly entertaining, although he began taking five to 10 minutes to act on every single decision, which became quite annoying. But he was clearly getting intoxicated by the time we were three-handed and it was getting fairly late and stacks were going to be deep for a while. So, I was welcoming any drinking Men wanted to do because I knew it was going to be a long night and at some point, that would catch up to him. He eventually stopped drinking when he realized I wasn’t going to be drinking with him and started getting visibly tired.
Cards are dealt:
Mark Radoja folds his button. Men Nguyen completes from the small blind. Jeff Papola raises to 185,000 from the big blind with [Ac][Tc]. Nguyen calls.
PND: Was this a common play from Nguyen? How often was he completing his small blind and with what range do you feel he’s calling your raise?
Papola: This was extremely common from Men; he limped almost every small blind and called raises with most of his range. Obviously, I’m not exactly sure of his range, but it was something like 80% of hands limp/calling in the SB. I saw him do it with hands as strong as A-Q and hands as weak as J-2o.
FLOP: [6c][3h][3s]
Both players check.
PND: You elect to check behind on this flop rather than fire a continuation bet. Explain your thought process here.
Papola: Pretty straightforward thinking by me here. I wasn’t going to get him to fold out anything I beat with a bet and he wasn’t going to call without the best hand or a hand with a lot of equity like straight draws. Also, while he was playing passively, he would mix in check-raises and I wasn’t comfortable calling a check-raise here from him on the flop and I didn’t want to get blown off a hand as strong as A-10 on this flop. A protection bet has some merit here because all of his random hands have decent equity to spike a pair on me, but I was trying to keep the pot smaller here in position with a hand with showdown value.
In hindsight, there probably is some value on the flop from all of the gutters and weaker ace highs, but I think I can get at least the same value from those ace-highs on future streets and he’s not going to be folding his straight draws, which have a good bit of equity against my hand. So, I chose to keep the pot small and checked.
TURN: [8c]
Nguyen checks. Papola bets 200,000. Nguyen check-raises to 500,000. Papola calls.
PND: You pick up a club draw and bet the turn, only to get check-raised. Given the way he’s played up to this point, what does his raise mean?
Papola: With the way he was playing, his check-raise is likely polarized – most of the time it’s his strong hands and his air. I suppose he could have some semi-bluffing hands, but he was more likely to check-call those types of hands, so I’d give him those hands with considerably less frequency. He was definitely capable of taking a stab here with a check-raise because of the weakness I showed on the flop and a seemingly insignificant turn. I also thought he’d check most rivers after I called, which gave me more incentive to call since I could control the sizing on the river.
PND: Did you give any thought to folding or even 3-betting your draw?
I never really thought about 3-betting my draw for the same reason I checked behind the flop. With his range, 3-betting doesn’t get him to fold anything he check-raised for value and doesn’t get value from any hands that I’m beating. It also allows him to come back over the top with his stronger hands and push me off my draw. I would be folding 0% of the time here against Men for 300,000 more with the deep stacks and the equity my hand has.
River: [7c]
Nguyen checks. Papola bets 1.1 million. Nguyen tanks for several minutes.
PND: He slows down on the river and you fire a 4/5 pot bet with your flush. Why did you decide on 1.1 million rather than something smaller? What hand(s) are you putting him on?
Papola: I’m pretty much putting him on air or a relatively strong hand. It didn’t feel like he had 8-8 or 6-6, which is more read-based and I can’t really give any logistical explanation for that. So, I bet big because any of his hands with value are going to be strong enough where he’s most likely going to call or weak enough where he’s going to fold to any bet regardless of sizing. Also, in previous hands, I had used similar bet sizing that didn’t get shown down, so I know those hands were still in his mind.
PND: Nguyen thinks it over for awhile. Was there any banter going on during this stretch or were you staying quiet?
Papola: There was no banter from me. Men’s game is taking a lot of time on his decisions to try and pick something up on you, so I made the decision to sit as still and quiet as I could every single hand as long as it took Men to act. It turned out being five to 10 minutes every hand for the next five hours, but giving in and playing Men’s game was the last thing I was going to do. I’d have sat there motionless for an hour on that hand if I had to.
Nguyen calls.
Showdown:
Papola – [Ac][Tc] (nut flush)
Nguyen – [Qd][3d] (trip threes)
PND: He finally calls and is visibly frustrated when he sees your flush. You now have a substantial chip lead. Was this the most important hand of the tournament?
Papola: Probably not. I think he doubled on me with a flush draw against my A-A not too long after that to even our stacks back out. But besides hands where someone was all-in, this was the biggest pot of the tournament.
PND: Now that you can look back on it, would you play this hand differently a second time?
Papola: No, I think I played it perfectly (smiles).