Reading Jake Cody
Monday, 11 November 2013
Jeff Kimber on learning from great players.
One of the greatest things about poker is that it’s a very real possibility you’ll get to play the game you love with your hero. I’ll never play golf with Tiger, or shoot hoops with LeBron, but if I’m lucky enough, and have the money to buy-in or qualify for the same tournament, I might get the chance to play poker with Phil Ivey.
In fact I have, which brings me to the second point. Not only can you play with your heroes, you might even beat them at their own game. I did, I knocked out Ivey. He only had about 6bb and I had double-suited aces, but on that occasion, David slew Goliath.
Phil’s still my hero, and I still think he’s the greatest, and even though I beat him on that day I don’t think I’m better than he is. What I enjoy most about playing against great players, however, is trying to pick up on why they’re so good, what makes them better than me, what they’re doing differently, and so on. I’m not there to fill an autograph book, I’m there to win, and to do so I try and pick up as many of their good habits as I can.
Now, this may be because I feel I can compete with great players. I feel I’m not that far behind and, of course, playing poker is my job. It’s something I take a great deal of pride in. I love to win every bit as much as they do.
A couple of weeks ago I played GUKPT Manchester, and on day two was drawn on the same table as Jake Cody. Now, no one needs me to tell them that Jake is a great poker player; it blows my mind to think of the titles he’s won, not to mention the money. In fact, I had a faint hope that this £1k buy-in GUKPT might be too small for him to get excited about, but no chance – ever the consummate pro, he played beautifully. In fact, at the first break I asked him how many showdowns he’d won – it was zero – yet he’d almost doubled his stack. Every time cards went on their backs, the other guy had the best of it, yet Jake had made almost 100% return.
I’d noticed early on that the guy to Jake’s right, who’d started with a big stack, had become his target. In a hand involving neither myself nor Jake, this guy had played some absolutely bizarre poker in a blind-on-blind coup, calling a raise, then betting the flop when it was checked to him.
Nothing wrong with that, but when the small blind check-raised for more than half his stack, our friend now thought for a while and shoved with no hand and no draw. Now, even if the small blind was bluffing, he probably has to call it off now. As it was, he’d flopped a set and couldn’t lose.
From then on, even though Jake didn’t have a particularly big stack, he tried to play pots with the mark, raising his blind from under the gun three times running, raising any limps, three-betting him at will – he was like a lion that had just spotted a zebra with a pronounced limp.
No one else on the table seemed to notice any of this, neither the bad play of the mark nor the incessant attacking from Jake. If they had, they could have used it to their advantage, three-betting Jake’s opens and isolations, but instead they were busy chatting, checking Facebook or ordering a pint.
With the naivety of the rest of the table in mind, as well as the respect I have for Jake, both from past experience and how well he was playing on the day, the following hand really sums up how less experienced players can be involved in a hand and still not understand fully what went on and why.
Halfway though day two, I had built up a big stack, maybe chip-leading, and Jake had dropped to about 12bb at 1200/2400. I’d been raising liberally, as you’re licensed to do with a big stack, and Jake was grinding, hadn’t played a hand for at least half an hour.
However, one hand which seemed pretty inconsequential I was pretty sure had caught Jake’s eye as he looked for a spot to get his chips in. I raised in early position, Martin Bader, a businessman who plays recreationally and has done for years, winning GUKPT London earlier this year, peeled in mid-position off an above average stack and the rest of the table folded.
The flop fell ace-high, and despite it not particularly fitting my Q-9 suited, I went to c-bet. Before I’d got a bet over the line, though, Martin had folded. To most of the table, this was just someone not wasting time, but I clocked Jake noticing this, and making a mental note that if Jeff opens – and as chip leader this is hardly rare – and this guy peels, if I can get past Jeff, this guy is peeling pretty wide and likely to fold. Half a dozen hands later, that very situation came up, and I was ready for it.
I made it 5,500 under the gun with pocket fives. Martin called and the guy who Jake was targeting also peeled. I was expecting Jake, and his 25k, to be all-in with most of his holdings, so when he shoved, it was no surprise.
I had over 200k, with the two live players behind both having around 90-100k. I decided that I looked stronger if I just called Jake’s shove, like I would do with aces or kings. Neither opponent would be getting anything like the right price to flop a set and couldn’t really call with A-Q or A-J type hands. Therefore if either shoved now, they either had A-K, which I think they would have three-bet first up nearly 100% of the time, or a slow-played monster, which I could now avoid.
Neither live opponent was aware of the dynamic, that Jake would be shoving even wider than usual because he was aware how wide my opening ranges and the ranges of the peelers behind. They were just now more bothered about whether then could get that great get-out clause for bad play: value!
Martin thought forever and, frustrated by an earlier big lay down against me, he somewhat surprisingly decided to peel. Given that, the fold from the guy closing the action was also a surprise.
The flop fell 7-7-7, a dream for me as it can’t have improved Martin and I’m representing such strength. I bet 15k into the 90k pot and he quickly folded, saying he knew I had aces or kings. I flipped my 5-5 and thought I must be ahead of Jake. I felt like I’d be pretty unlucky if he had more than one overcard, so when he revealed A-K I was a bit taken aback.
The turn and river fell safe and Jake departed, and I started to wonder whether I had over-thought matters. Jake had played super-tight while short, but I’d convinced myself his shoving range was wide enough for me to take a pretty big risk with pocket fives.
Being results-orientated, everything worked out perfectly, but looking at the bigger picture, had I got it completely wrong with the observations I made? Should I have given Jake’s shove more respect? Was he playing so tight that my hand didn’t play anywhere near as well as I thought it would against his shoving range? If that was the case, given I wasn’t even closing the action, my flat wasn’t great at all.
As well as being a great player, Jake is a real gentleman, as I found out the first time I played him, at GUKPT Blackpool a few years ago. This was, I found out later, his biggest tournament to date, his first £1k buy-in. I’d had enough of the kid three to my right raising and re-raising every hand, so when he raised my blind for the umpteenth time and four-bet all-in after I reraised, I snapped him off with A-Q and taught him, and his two kings, a real lesson not to mess with me, by hitting my three outer.
Having taken that like a man, despite it being so important to him at the time and having outplayed me all day, we chatted about that hand the next time we saw each other and we’ve been friends ever since, so I took the opportunity to ask him about his exit hand in Manchester.
Thankfully, we were on the same page. He was looking to get his chips in, was happy to shove over one of my raises as I was the most active, and very happy to shove over one of Martin’s peels as he was obviously playing a lot of hands. The fact Martin peeled in between probably threw a small spanner into the works, but Jake said he was pretty convinced I had a monster and was just hoping it was queens or jacks. The situation was perfect for him and it just so happened he picked up an almost perfect hand as well. The only thing that wasn’t perfect was the result as my fives held.
That pot gave me the stack to wield all the way to the final table and a three-way chop for £43k, and also reinforced the belief that table dynamics, and taking in every bit of information out there, is one of the reasons the great players become great.
Maybe someday playing with you will make some guy’s day.