This morning, while reading an article over on the ESPN Poker Club site, I got to thinking about an old hand I played. More importantly, how I would play it differently today after all I have learned.
The hand in question was at the final table of a tournament at Hollywood Park Casino back in 2003. I was pretty new to tournament poker but I had already experienced some success. In fact, this tourney was the day after I was knocked out of the 2003 Legends main event (by Chip Jett). In Legends, it was nearing the end of the first day. We had started in the early evening and, at 3am, it had been announced that we would be playing until 4am. I had maintained a decent stack throughout the day, making moves before I got too short and getting my total back up above average. Well, around 3:30am, I decided I needed to make another move because I didn’t want to go into day two with a short stack. At that point, I actually had a decent amount in front of me. But if I didn’t play another hand in the last half hour, that would change.
So I picked a spot when I was dealt KQc in late position. I lead out and maintained aggression on the flop. Unfortunately, I was heads up against the chip leader in Mr. Jett. He held a big pocket pair and just let me hang myself until the turn. That’s when he turned it around and put the pressure on me. He made a big bet leaving me with a crippling call, a painful fold, or an all-or-nothing attempt to take it down. I tried the later and found myself drawing very thin needing a club to make my flush. The pair I had already made was no good. Anyway, I didn’t catch and headed home with less than 30 minutes left in the day’s action.
I certainly could have picked a better spot and lesser opponent to make a play at there. But that is not the hand I was referring to in the beginning of this thought. But the starting hand was the same.
We were five-handed at the final table of a NL Hold’Em tourney. We had just made a deal that paid everyone the same amount except for me. I got more because I had a substantial chip lead (about 170k with next highest at about 90k). The remainder of the prize money would go to 3rd through 1st. And those were still pretty nice amounts. The problem was that there were two players with extremely short stacks. With the blinds at 5k-10k, there could now move all in with any two cards since 4th and 5th had already been paid. They could try to get lucky and stick around for third. That is what they did. Both players doubled up quickly so, instead of having the lead three-handed, we remained five-handed for a while.
Eventually one player was knocked out. Now four-handed with blinds at 10k-20k, I was still around 180k. I picked up KQc under the gun and raised just a hair over the minimum. (That’s one thing I don’t do anymore. These days, when I raise, I raise.) The man on my right called from the big blind. The flop brought an Ace and two clubs. My opponent lead out with a bet of 40k. I liked my club draw but I didn’t like the Ace. My read before the flop was that he might have a weak Ace. Now I was fairly confident in that read. So I couldn’t count on my K or Q to be live. In my mind, I only had the flush draw.
I ended up laying the hand down. It was based entirely on my read that I was likely behind in the hand at that moment. I had also considered the fact that I could put him all in and still have 50k left in case he called and a club didn’t come. Back then, I made these types of folds more often than I do today. Now I understand the value in using chip position, especially in a spot where I have outs and the result means the difference between moving up in the money and going back to the grind.
If I had it to do over again (and I have had many similar opportunities since), I would have put the pressure back on my opponent. If he had called with an Ace, I would still have 9 outs to bust him and completely dominate the remaining two opponents. If he called and I lost? Oh, well. Time to pick a hand and move all-in.
As it happened, folding left me in a tough spot: About even with the guy on my right and not much more than either of the short stacks. And that’s not a fun place to be at that stage.
Lesson learned. One that I think I have applied well in games since.
SEEYa
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