Stacks and Position: Kara Scott vs. Felipe Ramos at 888Live São Paulo
The 888Live São Paulo Main Event last month drew a big crowd to Brazil in what proved an entertaining event to follow. Among those taking part were Team PokerStars Pro Felipe Ramos and 888Live Ambassador Kara Scott, and on Day 2 those two clashed in a hand about which each shared some thoughts with PokerNews afterwards.
Despite there being no showdown, the hand was relatively interesting in the way it highlighted the importance of stack sizes and position.
To set the stage and provide a little more context for the discussion below, it was Level 11 with the blinds 800/1,600. Both players were relatively deep, with Ramos starting the hand with approximately 90,000 and Scott a little less.
Scott opened with an early position raise, then Ramos three-bet from the button and Scott called. The flop came 7♣3♠10♥ and Scott check-called a continuation bet, then both checked the Q♦ turn.
In the video below each player talks about reasons for playing those streets the way they did, as well as what they thought the other player might be thinking.
The river was a blank — the 2♦ — completing a board that filled no straight or flush draws. Scott checked again.
Thinking she had a medium-strength hand but not necessarily the strongest with that board, Ramos made a big overbet — more than the size of the pot and enough to put Scott all in.
Listen to the discussion and how in this case the cards weren't necessarily as important as stack sizes and position:
Though Ramos won this battle, Scott actually had the last laugh between them going much deeper to take 13th in the 288-entry tournament eventually won by Ka Li.
