1. Deep Stack Poker Tournament Strategy
2. Texas Hold'em Deep Stack Tournament Strategy
3. Deep Stack Poker Tournament Strategy
4. Deep Stack Tournament Strategy
5. Deep Stack Turbo Tournament Strategy

Ankush Mandavia Wins 2021 Card Player Poker Tour Venetian Main Event

888poker continues to deliver the goods with premium-grade poker software. This one-of-a-kind gaming platform has won top honours across the globe from important gaming organisations, including awards from EGR Magazine for Best Poker Operator. Cash games require solid fundamentals of deep stacked poker. The Tournament Masterclass will help you focus on more exploitative approaches, ICM & Shortstack situations. This is the the bread and butter of winning tournament players.

Posted: Tue, Feb 23, 21, 2:17 AM

Ankush Mandavia has won the 2021 Card Player Poker Tour Venetian $2,500 buy-in no-limit hold’em main event. The 33-year-old poker pro from Kalamazoo, Michigan defeated a field of 652 entries to earn the title and the top payout of $260,000 after striking a heads-up deal with Anselmo Villarreal. This was the fifth-largest score of Mandavia’s career, and it brought his lifetime earnings to just shy of $5.4 million.

In addition to the trophies and the money, Mandavia was also awarded 1,260 Card Player Player of the Year points as the champion of this event. This win alone was enough to catapult him into fourth place in the POY race standings.

“It’s amazing. This is actually my first tournament back,” said Mandavia after coming out on top. “When I went to register and got a player’s card they told me it had been exactly one year since I last played here. That’s kinda crazy, but it feels good.”

The huge turnout of 652 entries for this event saw the $500,000 guarantee nearly tripled, with a final prize pool of $1,467,000 paid out among the top 72 finishers. Just 27 players made it to the final day of the event, with Mandavia sitting in 18th place when action resumed.

The action was fast and furious during the early levels, with 17 eliminations in the first four hours of the day. Plenty of big names hit the rail as the field was quickly narrowed down to a final table, including Justin Lapka (25th – $9,682), Scott Stewart (24th – $11,589), Frank Marasco (23rd – $11,589), Jordan Cristos (19th – $11,589), TK Miles (17th – $11,589), Stanley Lee (13th – $16,137), and start-of-day chip leader James Anderson (11th – $19,071).

By the time the official eight-handed final table was set, Tim Capretta had worked his way into the chip lead, with Mandavia sitting on the next-largest stack. Three-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner Kristen Bicknell and World Poker Tour main event winner Alex Foxen, who are a couple, both made the final table. This was not the first time the pair achieved that feat here at Venetian. In 2018, the two poker pros made the final table of a $5,000 buy-in Mid-States Poker Tour event together, finishing in first and second for a combined total of $439,000.

Qing Liu was the first to be eliminated at the final table, with his pocket aces being cracked by Bicknell’s pocket jacks. Liu earned $24,939 while Bicknell climbed into the middle of the pack. Seven-handed action continued for quite a while, with multiple short-stack double-ups along the way. Mandavia overtook the lead during this stretch, winning a massive pot with a floped straight against the turned set of Capretta.

Yosif Nawabi’s run in this event came to an end when his A9 ran into the pocket queens of Alex Foxen, just moments after Foxen had spiked a gutshot to double up through Nawabi. The pocket pair held up and Nawabi was knocked out in seventh place ($35,208).

Alex Foxen was the short stack when the next key hand arose. With blinds of 80,000-160,000 and a big-blind ante of 160,000, Foxen raised to 680,000 as the first to act. Capretta called from the hijack and the flop brought the 1082. Foxen shoved for 550,000 and Caprett called with AJ. Foxen rolled over the J8 for a leading pair of eights. The 10 on the turn kep him ahead, but the A on the river gave Capretta the winning hand. Foxen earned $45,477 for his sixth-place showing. The score increased his career earnings to $17,395,831.

A preflop race determined the next player to be eliminated. Derek Gregory called all-in from the big blind facing a shove from Kristin Bicknell out of the small blind. Gregory held the QJ, while Bicknell had 33. Gregory failed to improve and was knocked out in fifth place ($60,147).

Kristen Bicknell climbed into the chip lead early in four-handed action, while Mandavia had fallen to the bottom of the leaderboard. He found a double-up with pocket eights against Bicknell’s A-7 offsuit to give himself some breathing room. Bicknell, on the other hand, continued to see her stack dwindle as short-handed action continued. In the end, she got all-in with 55 racing against the AK of Anselmo Villarreal. The board came down K63710 and Villarreal’s pair of kings sent Bicknell home with $90,954 for her latest deep run, brought her career tournament earnings to $5,525,426.

Mandavia picked off a multi-street bluff from Villarreal to regain the lead during three-handed action. Villarreal was left quite short but doubled through Capretta to regain his footing. Not long after that hand, the two clashed again. With the flop showing AA9, Capretta made a bet of 1,000,00. Villarreal called and the turn brought the 3. Capretta moved all-in for 3,400,000. Villarreal made the call, having his opponent covered by a single 25,000 tournament chip. Villareal showed Q9 for aces and nines. Capretta had been making a move with K10. The river brought the 3 and Capretta was knocked out in third place, earning $132,030.

With that, Villarreal entered heads-up play with 13,855,000 to Mandavia’s 12,225,000. The two paused the action to discuss a deal. They ultimately agreed to redistribute the remaining prize pool, with Mandavia taking home $260,000 while Villarrael would earn $253,441. The two agreed to run a flip for the title, and Mandavia’s 108 beat out Villarreall’s A3. The board came down Q73810 to give Mandavia two pair for the win.

Deep Stack Poker Tournament Strategy

Here is a look at the payouts and POY points awarded at the final table:

Short stacks and deep stacks are quite the contradiction. A short stack can be very nerve racking to manage, but a big stack will make you feel like the king of the world. Each type of stack will call for its own unique approach in tournament poker. Of course, your stack size is not the only thing that matters when it comes to tournament strategy.

Texas Hold'em Deep Stack Tournament Strategy

For many players, though, simply adjusting to their new found wealth (or lack thereof) can be a major hurdle. Stack sizes are one of the easiest measurements to use when determining how to approach any particular event. The key to success in managing your stack is finding the perfect medium between loose/tight and profitable.

A lot of players will either go crazy or play way too tight when they experience a shift in stack size, but this is never going to work out in the majority of online poker tournaments. You need to be comfortable with the stack size that you have, otherwise you will be preparing to dump your chips off to one of your opponents.

The differences between short stack play and deep stack play are large in some aspects but minute in others. Both stack sizes will allow for a bit of robotic and systematic play, but only a big stack will give you the ability to try new things out and play without fear. A small stack needs to be willing to go big or go home, while a deep stack should be thinking the exact opposite. These are just a handful of the ways that big and small stacks vary.

If you are able to become a master at how to play a short stack, there is a good chance that you will also be able to master the big stack. Both stack sizes call for their own skill sets, but they are much more of a math than they are an art or a science. Tournament poker largely relies of creativity and the willingness to make moved on a whim, but this is not how playing a skewed stack works. You should always be very systematic in your approach and remember that you should not be getting out of line one way or the other.

Players who try to get tricky with abnormal stack sizes will end up punishing themselves. A short stack who shoves too often will get their money in bad and a big stack who plays too tight will five up tons of free chips. These stacks are not as difficult to play as they seem - it is only a matter of practice, understanding, and application.

Playing the Short Stack

Playing the short stack is never fun, every tournament player is well aware of that. You can remove a lot of the pain, though, if you know what you are doing. Your ultimate goal as a short stack should be obvious: to get back to a comfortable amount of chips. There are really only a few ways that this can be done.

Deep Stack Poker Tournament Strategy

In fact, there is actually just one way that you should play a short stack. Look for opportunities to either double up or steal the blinds. Doubling up requires no further stipulations, but stealing the blinds is situational. You don’t want to go all in order to steal the blinds if you are either unlikely to force folds or you will not truly improve your situation.

Deep Stack Tournament Strategy

Shoving all in with a small stack to steal the blinds is something that you should do when the blinds are high and your stack is still going to be worth something to someone else. If you have a pittance of chips, some players will call you off anyway, even if they have a very mediocre hand. Take a look at the pot odds that you will present to players who you want to fold. If you would call in their shoes, it won’t make sense to see if they will do the opposite.

Playing the Deep Stack

Having a deep stack is one of the best feeling in tournament poker. You know that you are in good position to make a deep run if you aren’t in the middle of one already. Aside from this, your big stack size will allow you to play aggressively and even take some hits without severe repercussions. The real danger for big stacks is when they start to either get a bit too comfortable to start to play too wildly.

Players who sit back and relax with a big stack probably got their abundance of chips by sitting around and laying a cooler on someone. These are the players you should attack because they won’t mind that they are bleeding off a little bit of chips each hand that they play. If you are this player, though, change your strategy immediately.

Deep Stack Turbo Tournament Strategy

A big stack has the chance to steal pot after pot, either through pre flop play, post flop play, or both. You should always bully the other players around. Players with a big stack in the later stages of a tournament have the biggest advantage. When play gets deep, the blinds get high, and when the blinds get high, you can bulk up your stack without even taking a flop. To sum deep stack play up, keep the pressure on your shorter stacked opponents, but do everything you can to ensure that you don’t become one of the short stacks yourself.