This hand occurred at the 2024 $25K PokerGo Cup on February 3. The table was down to the final five players, with 20,000/40,000 blinds and a 40,000 BB ante.
Jonathan Little was third in chips on the button with a stack of 1,440,000. Seth Davies, a tough and sticky opponent, was the short stack sitting in the big blind with 610,000.
In the video below, Little talks through the hand play-by-play, providing exclusive insight into the thought process of a seasoned tournament pro and one of the most respected poker coaches in the game.
Little bit of ICM
Independent Chip Model (ICM) awareness is essential once you begin to plan your strategy at a final table, especially as a short stack. By being acutely aware of ICM implications, players can determine their equity calculated by their chip stack, opponents’ stacks, and payout structure.
Little shared with PokerOrg the ICM approach from the vantage point of having two much shorter stacks at the table remaining.
“Justin Zaki had the big stack, and I was on his direct left,” shared Little. “That’s precisely the position you want to be in. Because when he folded, I essentially got to act as the big stack. That was mainly because John Riordan, on my left, wasn't playing too aggressively when I would raise.
“Generally, you should be aggressive against the small and medium stacks because they often have to fold with normally playable hands due to ICM implications. On the other hand, it could be quite costly if your opponents do not account for ICM, and you play as if they do. That’s especially true when trying to run big bluffs.”
Watch out! Little’s back
After years on the circuit, many of Little’s fans wondered why the WPT Season VI POY had stopped playing live. But not to worry. He’s back with a vengeance after taking down the PokerGo Cup Championship title with a win in the $25K final event and the third $10K event in the series for over $760,000.
Truthfully, he had never been out of sight nor out of mind. Little’s popularity has increased exponentially due to a successful training site and a stellar roster of coaches at pokercoaching.com.
“About nine years ago, I took time away from the circuit to focus on my family. The kids are a bit older now, so I can travel more. I plan to play most of the PokerGo series and other tournaments that provide high-value and nice environments. But my favorite thing to do is to teach. I love helping thousands of players make money and have fun playing the game.”
Twitter/X skirmishes
On a not-so-serious note, where would poker Twitter/X be without Matt Berkey and Daniel Negreanu squabbling back and forth about a Jonathan Little tweet or two?
Let’s throw in a little Nick Schulman knockout angst while Little calmly resides in the vortex of multiple Twitter tornados, seemingly without a care in the world.
“Social media is whatever you make of it to some extent,” confessed Little. “If you want to get in there and fight, you can. My social media presence is essentially trying to add value to people who want to learn from me. I discuss entirely poker. Let's get real. Just because I'm good at poker doesn't mean my thoughts about other things are relevant. Many players think they're great at everything because they're good at a card game. The truth is, they're not.”
Though you never really left, welcome back, Jonathan.
