Casey Glick was just 13 years' old when Chris Moneymaker won the WSOP Main Event, and spent most of his teenage years in the Moneymaker boom watching and being interested in poker.
Fast-forward a little over two decades later, and in April he won the $1,700 Moneymaker Main Event in Maryland, taking on a field of 261 entrants and chopping heads-up for his biggest career score of $78,760.
Casey joined Craig Tapscott to talk through two crucial hands from the final table.
Hand #1
Stacks:
Casey Glick: 4,000,000 (80bbs)
Adrian Garcia: 4,600,000 (92bbs)
Isiah Ditoto: 1,800,000 (36bbs)
Blinds: 25K/50K/50K
- With three players remaining, Garcia raises from the button to 100K.
What do you know about Garcia?
He is a Spanish pro who has been very solid. He was on my left with 18 left and gave me some trouble. When we redrew for the final table, I was fortunately to his left. Both Villains in this hand are more accomplished players than I am.
- Glick calls in the small blind holding
and Ditoto calls in the big blind.
With only three players remaining, did you think a raise was a possible option from the small blind?
I think flatting may not be a thing here, but I decided I didn’t want to play a big pot out of position with a hand that can be difficult to navigate post-flop, especially against a good opponent who covers me.
I know he can’t go too crazy though since he doesn’t have me covered by much. Ditoto is short relative to us but not so short that he needs to make a move soon.
FLOP: 
- Glick checks. Ditoto checks. Garcia bets 125K.
I don’t see much else to do other than call here. I don’t love that there is another player still to act, but I’ve got too much hand to fold. If I wanted to raise, I’d much rather have something like 6-5 or 7-5 that has more ways to improve on the turn.
- Glick calls. Ditoto folds.
TURN: 
- Glick checks. Garcia bets 550K.
What did you make of this sizing and what’s the plan if you continue in the hand?
Garcia had shown several times previously that he knows his bet sizing, often starting with a small flop bet and then sizing up appropriately on turns and rivers. When I flatted pre-flop, my range is capped in that I don’t have any overpairs, and I probably don’t have a set of nines.
I can have the rest of the sets and the straights, but so can Garcia. In these situations, I think the small blind calling range pre is a lot of small to medium pairs, medium suited connectors, and potentially some broadways that decide not to 3-bet.
While Garcia likely still has the overall range advantage, I think nut advantage is more or less even, and I think my range is more concentrated around the current board than his range.
So your take was that Garcia was betting for value with his range?
Though he can and should have some bluffs here in the big bet double-barrel range, he hadn’t shown the tendency to just barrel through multiple streets as the preflop aggressor, so I did interpret this bet as more likely to be value-driven.
So what was the best game plan to proceed?
I think calling here would be the worst option, as my hand isn’t best often enough, doesn’t have many cards that will improve it, and when it is good I may still get bluffed on the river.
Did the turn open the door for a bluff in your mind?
Well. other than a 7, I thought a 6 may be the best card in the deck to set up a bluff. 8-7s gets there, 6-5s get there, 4-3s gets there (I’m not flatting 4-3s pre but some might), and I can have all the sets except nines. Having two key blockers to 8-7s in my hand is another reason to raise.
Sounds like you were very focused and ready to battle in this spot?
Well, I had come into the day with the chip lead and my sights were set on first place. Here, I faced a potential elimination in a pot versus someone that had me covered and a much shorter opponent still in.
I considered shutting it down, but basically told myself, 'If you’re not going to go for it in a spot that you know is good, what are you even doing here?'
- Glick raises to 1.2M.
What were the thoughts behind your sizing?
I think the raise could have been a bit smaller than standard due to the size of the original turn bet building the pot already. I also wanted it to look really value-y.
I basically tried to think of the size someone with a slightly unbalanced range would bet with a set, and bet that. If called, I would have about 2.4 million left in my stack and a pot size of just over 3 million, setting up a good size for a river jam.
What runouts were you jamming?
I planned on continuing the bluff on an 8, 7, 6, spade, or club on the river. It’s possible that including both flush draws in bluffs leaves me with too many bluffs, but in practice I think the spot is underbluffed enough that it’s fine. I don’t know that for sure though. Villain tanked for 2-3 minutes…
- Garcia folds. Glick wins the pot of 1.1M.
Hand #2
Stacks:
Casey Glick: 3,800,000 (63bbs)
Adrian Garcia: 6,600,000 (110bbs)
Blinds: 30K/60K/60K
- After 20-30 hands of heads-up play, mostly small pots, Glick has chipped up a few big blinds. Garcia raises from the button to 150K. Glick calls with
.
FLOP: 
- Glick checks. Garcia bets 125K.
This seems like a range bet spot from Garcia heads-up. I think check/call and check/raise are both options here. Top pair was a pretty strong hand heads-up, which makes for a raising candidate, but I didn’t want to check/raise every strong hand because that will leave my check/call range extremely vulnerable.
- Glick raises to 330K.
Because the flop is rainbow, there are more suited hands with backdoor flush draws that Garcia can call against my small sizing. I would expect some bare ace-highs to call as well, as I will be raising some bottom pairs and gutshots as well.
- Garcia calls.
TURN: 
I think betting and checking are both options now. Heads-up, our hand is still strong enough to bet for value, particularly against a sticky opponent, and we can still get called by worse. Checking is interesting too, as a balance against some hands like bottom pair that I might check-raise for protection to realize equity but then start shutting down on the turn when called.
- Glick checks. Garcia checks.
RIVER: 
Is it time to go for more value?
Yes. I definitely wanted to bet here, but sizing was the question. I thought Garcia was a bit capped now after checking back the turn and calling the raise on the flop. I think overpairs might have 3-bet the flop, as we are still quite deep, and some stronger jacks and two-pair combos that slowplayed the flop would likely bet turn.
What does your hand look like now to Garcia?
I think in general, when people play check-raise flop, check turn, their ranges are pretty weak. Often, I see players that know a certain board is good for their big blind preflop range, but once their check-raise is called, they aren’t quite sure what to do and shut down with their air, particularly on a brick turn card.
Garcia should be attacking my turn check with a small bet at a high frequency. His check back made me think that he had a medium strength hand on the flop, as he was unlikely to have picked up equity on the turn aside for combos of diamonds.
- Glick bets 180K.
I wanted to bet a size that could get called by a six or any pocket pair below a nine. I also thought it might induce some bluffs because of said perceived weakness.
- Garcia raises to 1.2M.
That was close to a pot-sized raise. I really went into the tank on this one. Garcia can certainly have backdoor diamonds, but other than that it was hard to find value hands that suddenly wanted to pile in money.
I mean 8-7 gets there but I do have a blocker. My biggest worry was that he was value-betting a better jack. He played second pair very well against me earlier in the tournament, finding a value bet where most other players wouldn’t, so I knew it was a possibility.
I also think he's a good hand reader and could certainly make a move with something like 
or other relevant blockers.
What else was going through your mind as you contemplated a call or fold?
A lot. If I called and lost, I’d be down roughly 4:1 in chips, if I folded I’m down 3:1, and if I called and won I’d have a slight chip lead.
Ultimately, I decided that there weren’t enough obvious value hands for Garcia, coupled with my small bet size, that I had to make the call. So, I slid the chips in…
- Glick calls. Garcia reveals
. Glick wins the pot of 3.4M.
We scooped the pot. I think Garcia played the pot really well, recognizing on the river that his middling second pair wasn’t good enough to call, and turning it into a bluff with the diamond blocker. A lot of players aren’t going to recognize that as a spot to bluff, so I give him credit for that.
How did the rest of the heads-up play out?
We played one more hand, and we went on break. Garcia asked me if I wanted to look at the numbers.
Though I had some momentum having taken the chip lead, Garcia seemed to have a solid mental game and was a strong player overall. He’s certainly more accomplished than me. We were still quite deep, so there was plenty of poker to be played. I decided to take the win and the trophy. So effectively, that call won me the tournament, since it propelled me into a small chip lead.
Congratulations!
Thanks. I’m thrilled with the result, and happy to see my efforts with studying paying off. I’ve had a couple of near misses at final tables, mostly online, over the past year or so, so it felt very validating to finally cash one in.
I’m extremely lucky to have the support of my wife, my friends, and my family, who are all invested in my poker hobby.
Images courtesy of Moneymaker Tour.
