Sam Trickett Poker Strategy

With more than $20,000,000 in tournament winnings, Sam Trickett is arguably the least referenced name among the top 10 players on the All-Time Money List. Poker fans love to discuss players like Daniel Negreanu, Eric Seidel, Phil Ivey, Scott Seiver or even the relative newcomer Fedor Holz, but Sam Trickett doesn't get nearly enough love from the enthusiast and he certainly deserves plenty.

Even though he doesn't have an EPT, WPT or WSOP title to his name he's an absolute beast at high roller tournaments, he made a bunch of money in the famous (or infamous depending on who you ask) Macau games and he's almost too good looking to play cards for a living. His playstyle is truly captivating to watch and in this article, we're going to take a closer look at Sam's game.

Amazing Discipline and Game Sense

The hand started with a standard AJ preflop open by Sam followed by two calls. What happened next was a true masterclass in both discipline and adjusting to the table dynamics. While most players would've gone for a standard cbet with AJ on an 8cAs2s board, Trickett found a lot of reasons to slow down.

First of all, he was up against two accomplished players. It wasn't your average online NL50 game or even like 5$/10$ game where you can sometimes expect to get paid with a simple bet, bet, bet or bet, check, bet line. Sam knew that he's somewhat unlikely to get more than two streets of value and if he decided to build the pot starting on the flop it might lead to a lot of troublesome scenarios.

On top of that Trickett had to consider the money bubble and he didn't really need to protect his hand given the somewhat disconnected board texture and the fact that As on the board blocked a bunch of potential flush draw combos. All of that combined led to Sam's unorthodox check that kept the pot small, his opponent's guessing and his hand underrepresented, primed for some future value bets.

Get On My Level

Another hand where Sam displayed his amazing game sense. After open raising with 22 and getting squeezed by Esfandiari Trickett was in a prime spot to play back on "The Magician". Both players had an aggressive dynamic and that made Antonio's perceived range extremely polarized. Deuces actually play fairly great equity wise against a polarized range containing a lot of Ax type hands and that's why Sam decided to go for a 4bet.

Trickett's flop sizing might seem ridiculous but it was a genius adaptation in that specific spot. 369 rainbow board is as far from what polarized preflop 3bettor wants to see as possible and that's why Sam couldn't really get punished for his tiny raptor bet. He even had some fold equity believe it or not. Besides, given both player's stack sizes pot management was a consideration and it's a mark of a great player to be able to make this sort of an extreme adjustment.

Confusing the Legend

From the previous hands we might get the impression that Trickett is one of them "strong silent types", but it turns out that he can also utilize a high-level speech play when necessary. In this memorable hand against one of the absolute legends of the game Dave "Devilfish" Ulliott who's sadly no longer with us, Trickett acted in a very unusual manner to boost his EV.

While, he's usually cool, calm and collected he decided to follow up his preflop KK call with what seemed like the uncontrolled babbling of an intimidated amateur. To be fair, when playing against someone with as much gravitas as "Devilfish" it's hard not to feel intimidated, but it's safe to assume that a player as experienced as Trickett wouldn't have been.

Not every word that came from Sam's mouth that night was important, but one sentence he directed at Alec Torelli seating beside him, shortly after Dave made the loose call, was especially important. "It's not likely that he's going to call with a hand like 99 if I don't do something", explained brilliantly what separates Sam from the rest of the pack. Truly great player don't just treat the adage about the "game of small edges" as just something all poker players say. They live and breathe it.