He might be one of the best minds in poker, with nearly $14Million in tournament earnings, this high stakes cash game player and super high roller crusher takes his knowledge to the streets of the $1/$2 6 max cash games on the GG Poker network. We review some of the toughest spots he comes up against and learn that he is not afraid to pull the trigger in these pots that will sort the men from the boys in a game of Hold’em.

Getting 4-Bet with Jacks

So this is one of the toughest spots we come up against, some players will nearly use this hand as a set mining hand when facing a 4-Bet, let’s look at home Steffan deals with playing out of position and without the betting lead once he decides to flat with his Jacks pre-flop.

We see a pretty good board for this hand with all things considered, so when his opponent bets he does say that yes he could be up against QQ, KK and AA but he denies so much equity from moving all-in here against hands that have overcards to his holding that he just can’t do anything other than push all-in.

I feel like most players would just flat call this C-Bet and try and gauge whether they are against a better overpair in a passive manner, however, we can lose in this way by A) Folding the best hand, or B) Getting drawn out on. I love this take on how to play Jacks here, see a flop and continue from there on good boards.

There is another possibility though and this becomes true when his opponent calls the All-in with top pair and way behind.

Isolating on the Button with Jacks

After re-raising pre-flop we see a pretty bad board for our hand because there are two overcards, however, our opponent isn’t too likely to hold a King in this pot and we can apply a huge amount of pressure to any random Qx with a couple of bets here too.

So in actuality, this is a decent board for a hand like Jacks, Steffan begins betting very small, he wants to allow his opponent to make mistakes, we could bet small like this with hands like KQ to build a pot too, so betting small could be with a vulnerable holding or with a super-strong hand too.

The opponent calls and a bad card hits the Turn in the shape of an Ace, this is a great time to slow down and check back, the River brings another Ace and the opponent checks one last time… this is the time to grab this pot.

It’s nearly impossible for any Kx to call a huge bet here because most Aces would check back the Turn once they hit, Steffan liked this spot because he states that most people just aren’t balanced enough when finding checks on Rivers in spots like this and I have to agree. Too many players these days just hit their hand and bet for value, without even thinking what could call me here?

When trying to bluff an opponent of a hand like King here you are going to want to choose a big sizing to apply some pressure, Steffan pulls the trigger and gets the job done, taking the whole pot in what would likely have been a chopped pot with both opponents playing the board when his opponent shows up with hands like 77–TT.

Flat Calling with AKo

Players will likely have much stronger ranges when 3-Betting from the Blinds, therefore smooth calling with hands even as strong as Ace-King is a really good way to play stacks of 100BBs effective.

This allows you to maximise your positional advantage, which Steffan loves, you will notice nearly every pot he is in, he is playing from position typically.

A low flop comes out and Steffan calls a C-Bet with Ace high, some players might just fold here, but with a backdoor flush draw and beating hands like AJs AQo KQs, we are going to want to stick around, at least for a little bit longer.

Once the Turn brings him the second nut flush draw he decides this is the time to pull the trigger and try and win the pot, most players would call here again but if you can ever make hands like 44, 77, 88, 99 fold then pushing all in here is a great play. The good thing is even when he is up against a truthful opponent who has a hand like QQ, he has a live flush draw and two overcards to catch up, so he can never be in terrible shape. These are the spots to flip the aggression up to the max and gamble it up, your opponent can make mistakes in folding better hands sometimes and when you are called you just need to get there.

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