Reading Opponents’ Ranges with Eugene Katchalov at EPT11 Deauville
Season 11 of the European Poker Tour has touched down in Deauville, France this week where the Main Event is already well underway.
Eugene Katchalov made a deep run in last year’s Main Event in Deauville, making it all of the way to heads-up before finishing runner-up to Sotirios Koutoupas. In his effort to get back to the EPT Deauville final table, Katchalov finished today’s Day 2 with a stack 137,000 — a little over the average with 138 players remaining — not a bad effort given that he began the day with just 16,000.
Along the way today, Katchalov found himself in an especially tricky hand versus two short-stacked opponents — Mike Neuens and Yury Gulyy — that required a lot of effort for him to figure out both players’ ranges from their preflop actions.
The blinds were 400/800 with a 100 ante, and the action began with a player in middle position opening for 1,800. Katchalov started the hand with about 75,000, and when it folded to him on the button he looked down to see 9♥9♣ and called the raise.
Neuens was in the small blind with about 24,000, and he called the raise as well. The action moved to Gulyy in the big blind who started the hand with about 38,000, and he took the opportunity to squeeze with a three-bet to 7,200. The initial raiser then called the reraise, as did Katchalov.
Then Neuens pushed all in with his remaining 22,000 or so. Gulyy responded with an all-in shove as well, forcing out the initial raiser.
Katchalov was left with an interesting decision to make. To call Gulyy’s reshove would mean putting about half his stack at risk. Katchalov had to decided how well his pocket nines played against the probable ranges of both Neuens (who had just called a raise, then reshoved) and Gulyy (who had three-bet, then shoved).
What do you think Neuens might have? What about Gulyy? Pocket pairs? Big aces? And how do pocket nines rate against each?
Our Remko Rinkema caught up with Katchalov at a subsequent break to discuss his thinking when making that decision. Take a look below to hear what Katchalov had to say — and to find out what he decided to do. You can also click here to read the hand report to discover how the hand played out.
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