Jordan “scarface_79” Smith won his first World Series of Poker bracelet on June 20, 2009. He bested a field of 1,659 players to capture the $2,000 No Limit Hold’em Event (#36), collecting $586,212 in the process. It was the biggest career cash for 27-year old online poker pro from Texas, who went on to finish 10th in the 2009 WSOP Main Event for $896,730, just missing an opportunity to become a member of the November Nine. Smith also has multiple major online wins, including the PokerStars Sunday Million and Full Tilt Poker Sunday Mulligan. His lifetime poker winnings (both online and live) are well over $3 million.
Smith took some time with Poker News Daily to analyze a hand he played during his WSOP victory against eventual runner-up Ken Lennaard. This particular hand was the biggest pot of the entire tournament and gave Smith the commanding chip lead.
Poker News Daily: First off Jordan, how do you think your style of play is perceived by opponents? Did you switch your game up at all during the final table?
Jordan Smith: Well, I’m not sure how online players perceive me, some think I’m a total nit, and some think I’m a maniac. But, as far as this tournament, I think I had a fairly tight image, because I was at tough tables the whole tourney and never got a chance to open up much, so I just played fairly solid. But I am still somewhat young, and I had a big stack most of the tourney, so that’s two bad stereotypes going against me for possibly being labeled loose and aggressive. So, perception probably varied for my opponents. I was second in chips coming in to the final table and lost a big flip right off the bat, so I got put back with the pack and sort of chilled after that for awhile and played solid for various reasons.
PND: What are your thoughts on Ken Lennaard?
JS: He plays different than your typical Swede. He is more old school, and more of a flop taker than a 3-bettor. I think he played pretty well for the most part. I played with him on Day 2 and obviously assumed he was your usual over-aggro Scandi, but I gradually realized the longer we played on Day 3 that he was reasonably straightforward.
PND: Did you feel like you had an edge against him heads-up?
JS: I feel like I’m a favorite versus anyone if I’m playing well, but I’m not sure what percentage of that is confidence and what percent is me being delusional (laughs). Whatever edge I felt I had, was probably erased by the fact I was so exhausted and mentally drained by the time we reached heads up. I definitely don’t want to shortchange Ken, he played well. But we were probably flipping on the heads up match on that particular day.
PND: You’ve been heads-up in several online tournaments in the past. What sort of strategy do you normally use? Do you like to influence the action or is it dependent on your opponent’s style?
JS: I really never go in with a certain strategy heads-up – or at any point during a tourney for that matter. I just try to adapt according to stack sizes, blinds size, opponents, the flow of the table, and each individual situation or hand as it comes up. As far as the action goes, it really all depends on the things I’ve just mentioned and mainly my opponent and how deep the stacks are. I just try to find out what the best way to counter his style of play is.
Hand Setup:
Ken Lenaard – 5.8 million chips
Jordan Smith – 4.3 million chips
Blinds are 40,000/80,000 with a 10,000 ante
Cards are dealt:
Ken Lennaard raises to 240,000 from the button and Jordan Smith calls with [Ts][9c]
PND: Do you always defend your big blind? With what range do you think he’s opening with position?
JS: No, I don’t. But, I’m certainly not going to let someone run me over either. We have sort of awkward stacks, they are quasi-deep, but shallow enough to where pots develop quickly and you can easily get all the chips in. Position is so huge and underrated heads up, and I try to avoid playing many hands out of position. It’s kind of funny that this hand played out the way it did or even took place to begin with, but there were a few factors that made me take a flop in this spot. First, and most importantly, I was kind of on tilt from a hand not long before where I didn’t follow my instincts and paid him off on a big pot which let him catch up to me on chips, and then he proceeded to win most of the handful of pots leading up to this hand taking the chip lead.
Flop: [8c][7d][5h]
Smith checks to Lennaard, who fires out 150,000. Smith calls.
PND: Is this a spot where you might lead with a bet? Check-raise? What made you decide on a check-call here?
JS: Sometimes I do (bet), and looking back based on the stack sizes etc., leading out with the intention of shoving if he raised might’ve been the best option here. But I decided to check, and he only bet 150K which was considerably lower than his opening raise which was sort of confusing because he hadn’t really been doing things like this. If he had bet like 350-400K, I probably would’ve just raised to 1.1-1.3 million and called if he shoved (even though it wouldn’t have been fun) because there would’ve been enough in the pot to merit that based on the percentage of times I get him to fold and the equity I have versus his shoving range. But with his super small bet after my check, calling was the easy clear cut option. It seemed he either had a really strong hand or a fairly weak one and was just getting goofy. So I was content to keep the pot small and see what happened on the turn because I truly had no idea what he had.
Turn: [Kd]
Smith checks. Lennaard bets 300,000. Smith calls.
PND: Does his bet sizing indicate strength?
JS: At this point, I’m thoroughly confused by his small bet sizing, and I’m just calling pretty much drawing at decent pot odds with the possibility of implied odds.
PND: What range of hands are you putting him on now and what is your plan on the river?
JS: I really don’t think he has a monster at this point, but I can’t really put him on a specific range of hands. I really, really hate just check-calling on draws with no other chance to win a pot, especially heads up. I like to be aggressive with draws a lot of times to give myself two chances to win, but in this spot his small bet sizing and our stack sizes really made it hard for me to do that, so I was sort of forced to play passive and draw for cheap. So yeah, sadly my only plan for the river is just for my hand to get there. And I hadn’t shown any strength in the hand, so not many lead bluffs on the river would be believable.
River: [6s]
Smith takes the lead by betting out 900,000.
PND: You hit one of your eight outs and make the nuts on the river. Talk a little bit about your thought process here. Why did you feel that leading out would be the best way to get action?
JS: Well, there was a four card straight on the board so I’m guessing he’s not betting very many hands if I check to him, and hopefully he either happened to have a big hand or he tries to make a hero call with whatever. With that scare card, it’s also entirely possible that I am bluffing here, and he also knew I was starting to get frustrated in the match. So I just stuck out a big bet and hoped I could get action.
River: [6s]
Smith takes the lead by betting out 900,000. Lennaard moves all in. Smith snap-calls.
Hands Revealed:
BOARD: [8c][7d][5h][Kd][6s]
Lennard shows [Jd][9d] (Nine-high straight)
Smith shows [Ts][9c] (Ten-high straight)
PND: He moves all in and leaves you with an easy call. You now have 8,670,000 chips while he slips to 1,500,000. How much confidence did this pot give you the rest of the way?
JS : Well, I’m not sure if it gave me extra confidence except just for the significant chip lead it gave me, but it sure perked my energy level up and got me off tilt because I was extremely fortunate to not only hit, but for it to be one of the three gin cards that gave him a lower straight and also the fact he decided to shove. He had picked up a diamond draw on the turn, so my eight outs had turned to six, and he had me in fairly bad shape heading to the river. But, yeah, it definitely got my blood pumping to try and finish him off.
PND: Is there anything you’d do differently in this hand now looking back on it?
JS: I definitely could’ve folded preflop, but like I said, I was tired and tilted and felt comfortable playing postflop with his quasi-passive style. But he definitely could’ve made my decisions tougher in this hand after the flop. And I guess I possibly could’ve led the flop and shoved if he raised, but in hindsight that wouldn’t have been good, because he would’ve certainly called my shove with two overs and a double gutter if the hand played out that way. It would’ve been a really interesting postflop all-in showdown if we had played it like that, jack-high versus ten-high in true Potripper form (laughs).
