Hold'em with Holloway, Vol. 108: JohnnieVibes Makes Big Call in RIU Reno Main Event
Last month I got to spend 11 days working and playing in Jason Somerville's Run It Up Reno VIII series at the Peppermill Casino. I'd been there many times before and have always had a blast. This trip was no exception.
During my time I witnessed some interesting hands play out, including Andrew Neeme's quads-over-quads hand discussed in last week's column. Sticking with the vlogger theme, I decided this time to tackle a hand from the $600 RIU Reno VIII Main Event involving Johnnie "JohnnieVibes" Moreno.
It happened on Day 2 in Level 16 (3,000/6,000/6,000) with around 55 players remaining from the 629-entry field. Moreno raised to 14,000 from the cutoff and Kham Boo Saechao called out of the small blind. The player in the big blind came along to make it three-way action to the 8♠5♥K♥ flop.
"As a cash game player my mind always defaults to squeezing max value from my opponents."
Two checks saw Moreno continue for 18,000 and only Saechao called to see the 5♦ turn.
"As a cash game player my mind always defaults to squeezing max value from my opponents," Moreno told me when I asked him about his bet sizing. "This is an easy bet for value spot with top pair, and since my hand doesn't benefit a ton from equity denial — I have a heart, and the only overcard that can come is an ace — I decided to size down a tad. Using this sizing ensures that I'll get called by many worse pairs."
When asked if he was concerned his opponent may have a five in the small blind, Moreno responded as follows.
"Yeah, when we start counting combos of hands that the small blind can have, there are a few suited combos of 5xXx that are in his range. However, there are many more combos of 6x7x suited, heart draws, 8xXx and other worse pairs that I can extract value from," he explained.
"I was relatively new to the table and my only piece of info was that I saw him limp UTG, call a raise, and fold 6♠4♠ face up when he completely missed the flop. This led me to believe that he would have many combos of draws in his hand that I could continue getting value from. So it really came down to combos of hands I could get value from vs. combos of hands that had me beat. The former dwarfed the latter."
On the turn, Saechao check-called a bet of 28,000 and the 3♦ completed the board on the river.
Saechao opted to lead out for 80,000 and Moreno thought for a bit before making the call. A frustrated Saechao shook his head and showed A♥Q♥ for a missed flush draw while Moreno rolled over K♠10♥ for top pair and the win.
"At the time 80K was a large bet so I wanted to take some pause," Moreno explained of the spot. "Having the 10♥ in my hand has some relevance as I block some of the likely bricked draws. Thin value betting or worse value was out of the question when he used this polarized sizing. I made a few more assumptions about this player type. I thought AxAx or AxKx, or KxKx would likely be a three-bet preflop."
"The vibe of the weekend and people were so great that I decided I'm going to make it a longer trip next time."
He continued: "I thought this player type would check-raise the flop on this board texture with 8x8x or 8x5x. I also thought that if he had a 5x in his hand he would have likely check-raised the turn. With those deductions that leaves him with no value hand on the river. Obviously, this is a big assumption as he can have some tricky flats with 5x on the turn. In the end, it came down to counting the unlikely few combos of value versus likely dozens of combos of 6x7x suited and bricked hearts. It became apparent in my mind that I needed to make the call."
Saechao was left with 60,000 after the hand but went bust a short time later. Moreno went on to finish 12th in the Main Event for $5,400. It was a deep run to end an eventful RIU Reno.
"I always thought of RIU Reno as exclusively a tournament series, which is why, as a cash game grinder, I never considered attending," Moreno said of his experience. "Actually, the only reason I decided to attend this time was because of my decision to fire on WSOP tournaments this summer. I thought the RIU Reno Main Event would be a great warmup tournament for the summer. I wanted to get in a lot of spots so I could discuss them with my coaches so I planned on firing as many bullets as needed to get in a lot of work. Fortunately, I only needed one bullet and I still managed to practice many different situations (big stack, 30 BBs, short stack, bubble play, etc.)."
He added: "Aside from the actual tournament it was really great to connect with all the people that consume my content and other content creators in the industry. The vibe of the weekend and people were so great that I decided I'm going to make it a longer trip next time. Moreover, having success in this tournament has given me the itch to start mixing in a few more tournaments here and there and RIU Reno does tournaments right. Great structures with low buy-ins, fun formats, and a great atmosphere."
For more on JohnnieVibes follow him on Twitter and YouTube @JohnnieVibes, and also check out his website JohnnVibes.com.
