Hand Reviews — Patrick Tardif Ontario’s Poker Player

Before Poker

Starting his professional poker career in 2017, Patrick is from the Prairies, growing up in Saskatchewan but went to school in Ontario, graduating from the University of Western, located in London, and went overseas to teach English as a second language in South Korea.  His gaming career started playing HALO professionally but transitioned to poker and launched his Twitch channel in 2016, before he set his sights on poker exclusively a year later.

From Micros to the Nose Bleeds

Starting out in the same streets as many of us did, playing $4 micro MTT’s, within a matter of a few years, he rose up to join the heavyweights of online poker playing in some of the biggest games on the internet like $25k High Rollers.  His career took another jump when he became part of Team PartyPoker, joining the likes of several other prominent Canadian streamers.  During his time with Party, Patrick branched out into the live world where we scored several major cashes:

• October 2017 – 3^rd Place, Run it Up Reno V, $600 event – Cashed for $21,840
• April 2018 – 32^nd place, PartyPoker Millions $5,300 Main event – Cashed for $25,000 CAD
• January 2019 – 65^th place, PokerStars PSPC $25k – Cashed for $56,800
• July 2019 – 9^th place, WSOP Event #70 – $5k NLHE – Cashed for $59,338
• February 2020 – 2^nd Place, WPT Fallsview $2,500 Event – Cashed for $210k CAD

Patch Change

In March 2021, Patrick switched teams, joining a newly formed TwitchSquad as part of GG Poker.  Patrick joined the likes of other established streamers from around the world to help grow the GG Poker brand and quickly saw success with them, placing 94^th in the $5k NLHE Main Event World Championship as part of the WSOP Online bracelet series, winning $29k.

WSOP Success

That success continued online for Patrick as he started to rack up more live cashes on the WSOP Circuit events in Canada, the Online bracelet series on GG Poker, and multiple cashes at the WSOP series in Las Vegas.  To date, Patrick has 22 recorded cashes at the WSOP for lifetime earnings of over $200k – the biggest of which came in 2023 when he ran deep in the Main Event, finishing 97^th for a $78,900 cash – the second biggest of his career.  In total, Patrick has eclipsed the half million dollar mark in lifetime earnings.

WPT Comes Calling

In May of 2024, Patrick switched teams again, leaving the GG Poker team and joining the newest pro team in the poker world, becoming a WPT Global Brand Ambassador.  In typical Patrick fashion, it didn’t take long for him to make his mark on the WPT Global world, getting heads-up but ultimately finishing 2^nd in the 2024 WPT Summer Festival $3500 event to score a $130k payout – a win that was streamed on his Twitch channel with over 1,200 watching the action on a small delay.

That twitch channel that he started in 2016 has over 54,000 followers and has posted over 2.28 million hours of content for the poker world to enjoy, and we dove into some of his past videos to showcase Patrick’s skills in the following hand reviews:

Hand #1 – It’s Always Coming Seven

Our first look at Patrick’s play comes in a $2,100 PKO – action is joined post flop with the big blind in the hand against Patrick’s pocket sevens.  Villain has a 26.BB stack and a $500 bounty to start the hand, while Patrick sits with 20BB.  Patrick leads out with a small c-bet of 1.1BB, only to get check-raised by the villain, to which Patrick calls.  The turn brings a check from both, before our villain tanks on the river 5 of hearts, before going for Patrick’s head.  Unlucky for him, Patrick was going nowhere with his hand.

Patrick read the check-raise as his opponent using the board texture to make a move – the board is not great for Patrick’s range when you look at the texture, but also the villain probably thinks they are ahead with their top pair.  The situation gets worse for the villain when the flush draw comes into focus on the turn – their check is a bit tricky.  If you check-raise the flop, what changes on the turn with a five that would cause you to slow down?  If they were making a move, slowing down on the turn just gives more evidence that they have nothing – when if fact they do have something.  The river shove completes that story in a lot of ways, which could induce a hero call from Patrick, and potentially disguising their strength well to get called and take out a player.  The plan should have worked – had Patrick not had a massive boat waiting to set sail.

Hand #2 – Patrick Punts

In our second hand, Patrick is sitting with a 48.3BB stack and a $25 bounty on them in this $110 6 max PKO tournament.  The villain – the big blind – sits with a 61.3BB stack and the same bounty.  Patrick min-raises pre-flop, only to get 3-bet to 9BB.  Patrick decided that he’s the boss – and four bet shoves.  Patrick called his bluff – and you can see how this turned out:

When you take a stand against the blinds, sometimes they are testing you, and sometimes they are trying to build a pot because they have it.  In this case, Patrick walked into a 97.8BB pot pre-flop with Ace-Three and had no business hitting his ace.  Even luckier for Patrick, the villain didn’t have the King of Clubs and somehow faded the flush on top of hitting top pair.

Lesson learned – the blinds are not always full of it!

Hand #3 – Mechanics of PKO

We move up to the final table of a $220 Turbo PKO event where Patrick sits 4^th of 8 players left.  He starts this hand with a 17.2BB stack and a $93 bounty, while the other two players in the hand have 3.5BB and a $131 bounty, and a 26.4BB stack and a $225 bounty.

Patrick finds Jack-Ten of hearts in the big blind and sees a 3BB raise by the short stack, leaving only 0.4BB back.  The small blind isolates, jamming their 26.4BB into the middle and Patrick must decide if it’s worth the risk to go for the money.  He does, and here’s what happens:

In a normal MTT this should be a fold every day of the week – the pay jump goes from $258 for 8^th to $331 for seventh, and there’s an additional $131 on the line if you hit and get the knockout.  Patrick has already accumulated bounties at this point, so with the additional equity and suited connectors, it makes sense to call and go for it.  Lucky for him, his cards were live and hits a dream flop, but if you play PKO tournaments, the added equity the bounty adds widens your calling range considerably – something your opponents will also do.

Hand #4 – Was He Bluffing?

Staying in the $220 PKO streets, we move to a new tournament that still has registration open.   Patrick is UTG+1 to start with a $87.50 bounty and 100BB, while our villain – the big blind in this case – has 44.3BB to start and a $50 bounty.

Patrick wakes up with pocket kings and raises to 2.5BB preflop and gets looked up by the big blind.  The flop brings two jacks and a deuce, and both players check.  The turn brings a second deuce, and a second diamond which induces a 1.8BB Bet by the big blind.  Patrick raises up to 6 BB, only to get three-bet to 14.8.  Patrick gives a puzzled look, only to call to build a 35.3BB pot.  On the river, we see the King of Diamonds, and with a SPR of less than one, villain leads for 10.9BB, leaving only 15.9BB back.  Patrick chuckles to himself, raises to put the blind all in, and gets called.  The blood bath ensued:

The King of Diamonds was the absolute worst card for the big blind clearly, completing their runner-runner flush, but allowing Patrick to sail away on his massive boat.  The blind tanked before calling off their stack, leading Patrick to believe he had been bluffing, but clearly, they were worried about Patrick having a jack in his hand – I bet they were surprised to see two kings starting back given how the hand played out.  In this case, the aggressive line appeared to pay off for the big blind, but in the end, they were never ahead and playing their draw as they did, backfired.  Good news at least – late registration was still open! 

Hand #5 – Fringe Call?

We end our review of Patrick looking at the $2,100 WPT High Roller Bounty Championship event – first prize taking home $22,300 plus any bounties that you can accumulate along the way.  Patrick starts this hand in the small blind with a $1k bounty and 19BB, while the big blind has 13.1BB and a $500 bounty, and the high jack has 11.4BB and a $500 bounty.

Preflop, the high-jack raises up to 9.4BB and Patrick must decide to go for it with Queen-Ten, knowing that the big blind is still to act, or sit back and wait for a better spot.  He ultimately decides to go for it and sends the high-jack player on a roller coaster of emotions.

The high jack player with that short of a stack didn’t have to shove Queen-Jack off-suit in that spot – they still had a few hands before the big blind was coming around, and with four bigger stacks behind them, had to think that one of them was going to take a shot at them.  Patrick considered this a fringe call but let’s really look at it:

Queen-Ten is going to be a favourite against a total random hand pre-flop, but one would have to consider that against an opening shove, it won’t be ahead.  There’s a good chance the villain is going to have one of a Queen of Ten in their hand with a better kicker – however, recall this is a PKO and that changes things for Patrick in several ways:

• The profit to knock out that opponent that is realized immediately
• The chip stack and ability to go after more bounties in future hands if you are successful

Calling ranges in PKO’s will vary significantly depending on the aggressiveness of the player, and in this spot, Patrick takes the change and ends up putting a bad beat on the villain, sending them to the showers and building Patrick’s stack even more – not to mention the $250 in his pocket!

Conclusion

Patrick Tardif has been around the online poker circles for a long time but may not be as well known as some of the other prominent poker streamers that broadcast today.  If you don’t know the name though, you will want to as the sky is the limit for Egption – and don’t be surprised if he adds a WSOP Circuit ring or bracelet to his trophy case in the near future!