Dario Minieri vs "StarTeenGirl"
A brief insight into the mind of a true poker psychopath
By Philip Tuck
For those of you who have been living on the moon for the past few years, and as a result have not heard of Dario Minieri, he has quickly become one of the most respected players in the world - both live and online. He has held the chip lead of the WSOP Main Event, won the PokerStars $100,000 Winner Takes All, and has become one of the most successful heads up sit and go players around.This is a hand from a $2200 $50 Heads up sit and go against a player called “StarTeenGirl”, it is still at the first blind level, and both players have nearly identical stacks. To view the hand click here.
What I want to discuss here is not so much the exact play of the hand, but more the broader concepts surrounding Dario Minieri’s flop and turn calls and his check raise all in on the river. In this particular hand Dario Minieri makes a play that many people would argue is stupid, insane, or a mixture of both; yet there is a lot going on behind the scenes which is well worth thinking about.
The first point to consider is Dario Minieri’s general reputation and playing style. He is known to be an extremely loose, tricky, and aggressive player who makes big moves with both the nuts and utter junk. This enables him to get paid off massively on his big hands, but often makes him look like an idiot when it backfires. In order to maintain this reputation he has to be regularly caught making moves like this - otherwise people will simply revert to treating him like a standard tight aggressive player. Think how hard it is to play someone who makes this play two thirds of the time with the nut flush, and one third of the time with air. Over a long run of heads up games it will be extremely hard to pick the spots to call or fold with your marginal hands.
The second point to consider is his opponents calling range. Although you clearly snap call with a made flush in this spot against a player like Dario, what about when you have a hand like king queen, a low two pair, or even three of a kind? Can you realistically call after a play as strong as a massive check raise on the river? There are both possible straights and flushes out there - it is an incredibly nasty spot to be in without one of the really strong hands, and it is very difficult to judge whether calling will be profitable long term. Darion knows this all too well and constantly utilises it to his advantage. He is a true expert of making his opponents believe he can be playing anything, and he ruthlessly exploits it whenever promising spots to bluff emerge.
The final point to think about is the stakes involved. At stakes as high as this all players will be highly skilled, and there will be relatively few of them, you will regularly have to play the same skilled opponents over and over again. In order to gain an edge over them a player has to adopt a much more unorthodox style than at lower limits. Dario Minieri is making an extremely advanced play here - one which serves him as much in his future games against this opponent as it does in this particular match. It lays down extensive groundwork for his more regular plays in future games.
This hand shows some of the aspects of the complex and intelligent game that has taken Dario Minieri right to the top of his chosen profession. Although it clearly back fires in this hand - it does not mean the play was bad. If you are not getting caught out then you are simply not making enough moves, and no one better exemplifies this point than Dario Minieri in full swing.
20/03/08
Dario in action