When Victory Poker opened its doors earlier this year, it welcomed a handful of high-profile players into its stable of sponsored pros. Antonio Esfandiari, Paul Wasicka, Andrew Robl, and Brian Rast, among others, now wear the Victory logo as the site attempts to build its reputation as one of the world’s top online poker rooms.
Joel “Odonkor1” Nordkvist joined Victory’s roster of pros in April. Like many of the world’s top online cash players, Nordkvist has flown under the radar for most of his poker career. But Victory Poker saw a great amount of talent in Nordkvist and signed the 24-year-old Swedish pro, allowing him to join his friends to form one of the most lethal teams of pros out there.
Nordkvist is a regular at the highest stakes available online, sometimes playing as high as $500/1,000 NLHE cash games. On October 17, the Swede played a heads-up $100/200 NLHE match against Daniel Negreanu on PokerStars that attracted a large rail and generated several large pots. Nordkvist was kind enough to speak with Poker News Daily about one hand in particular that caused a baffled Negreanu to quit the session.
Hand Setup:
Small Blind: KidPoker ($81,043.50)
Big Blind: Odonkor1 ($74,248.50)
Blinds are $100/200 with a $50 ante
Poker News Daily: First, talk a little about your history playing with Daniel. How much have you played with him and how would you rate his online heads-up NLHE game compared to other high-stakes players like Dan “jungleman12” Cates, “LarsLuzak,” and Tom “durrrr” Dwan?
Joel Nordkvist: I’ve played with him a couple of times in ring games, but this was the first time we played heads-up. He’s not bad at heads-up, but he’s not as good as “jungleman12” or “durrrr.” He’s probably better at six-max than heads-up; live players usually don’t have a great amount of heads-up experience.
PND: Do you feel like you’re a favorite against Daniel in this game?
Nordkvist: Yeah, I think I’m the favorite. Even though he has played poker a lot longer than me, I think I have much more experience playing NLHE heads-up online than him.
Cards are dealt:
KidPoker raises to $600
Odonkor1 re-raises to $2,400 with [6s][4s]
KidPoker calls
PND: Has he been opening his button frequently? Explain your thought process in three-betting [6s][4s] out of position here.
Nordkvist: He wasn’t opening a lot of buttons, but he was playing kinda tight overall. So I was three-betting a lot because I was winning a lot of the hands either pre-flop or on the flop.
FLOP: [Ks][9d][8s]
Odonkor1 bets $3,200
KidPoker calls
PND: Not the worst flop for your hand. Regardless of this particular flop, though, are you leading out almost every time? How often do you think a continuation bet will induce a fold from Negreanu and what’s your plan if he calls?
Nordkvist: When I played in this session, I was c-betting almost any flop in three-bet pots. Since I flopped a flush draw here, I’m obviously betting. If I didn’t have a flush draw with my hand, I would probably check-fold this flop versus a lot of players since so many of the hands he’s calling three-bets with hit this flop in some way.
If I’m betting the flop here, I’m gonna fire the turn a lot of the time. My opponent is very likely to call a flop bet with a pair of eights or nines, or some straight draw, that I can get him to fold on a lot of turn cards.
TURN: [Kh] (Board is [Ks][9d][8s][Kh])
Odonkor1 bets $8,200
KidPoker calls
PND: The board pairs and you fire another bullet with your draw. Negreanu is known as somewhat of a calling station, so what are you reducing his range down to when he calls your turn bet?
Nordkvist: I’m probably betting my hand here whatever turn card that comes. Another king isn’t the best card since he’s more likely to call a turn bet with a nine or eight now. He can call a turn bet here with a lot of hands. He can have any king, pocket jacks, pocket tens, and I think he’s calling with a lot of eights and nines. He can also have a nut flush draw.
PND: Are you preparing to fire a third bullet if you miss your flush on the river?
Nordkvist: I hadn’t really decided yet if I was betting the river if I missed. I was stuck a bit at first in this session and when this hand was played, I just recently got back to around even. Therefore, I kinda felt that he didn’t wanna play a big pot right now and he probably wouldn’t make any huge hero calls at this time.
RIVER: [Jc] (Board is [Ks][9d][8s][Kh][Jc])
Odonkor1 bets $21,000, and Negreanu begins to think out loud in the chat box:
KidPoker: “i have no idea what you have and thats a good time to quit I guess lol”
KidPoker: “no idea”
KidPoker: “I can beat 44”
KidPoker: “cant beat a K”
KidPoker: “this feels like a bluff to me”
KidPoker: “nh”
KidPoker folds
Odonkor1 collects a pot worth $27,699.50 and shows [6s][4s] (a pair of kings)
PND: Talk a little bit about your bet sizing leading up to your river bet. What are you representing here and what do you expect him to call with?
Nordkvist: I never expect him to fold a king here, but I think he will fold a nine or eight now. Against some opponents, I would value bet J-10 here, but in this spot, I wouldn’t value bet that light. In his eyes, I can have anything and I don’t think he wants to call me down with 10-9 to see me turn over J-10.
PND: He’s always eager to give a speech when he’s playing live, so not surprising to see one online either. You clearly have him confused. Were you anticipating a call based on his chatter?
Nordkvist: At first, I thought he would never fold, that he was slow-rolling me with K-10, or would make some crying call with tens. But the longer he took, I thought more and more that he would fold.
PND: He decides to quit and says he had A-8, which would have been a crying call, albeit correct in this instance. Knowing what you know now, would you have played this the same way if given another chance?
Nordkvist: Well, according to his chat, he was very close to calling with a hand that I expected him to fold. But I still think if he’s got a nine or eight, he folds often enough to make it a good bet.
nh!