Jack Mcclelland’s Four Queens And Q-4

Four queens and Q-4, my two most memorable hands.  First of all, the four queens, in a game of seven card stud. In the final hand of the 1989 Ladies World Championship at Binion’s Horseshoe Casino, my late wife, alma, slow-played a starting hand of three rolled-up queens.  Her worthy and aggressive opponent, Adrienne Zoia, made two open pair, jacks and tens.  But on the final card games, alma caught a fourth queen and won her gold bracelet! A fairy tale ending to a perfect day!

            Her first words were “I did it just like Johnny Chan!” She was referring to an earlier viewing of 1988 WSOP finals where Johnny had flopped the nut straight and trapped another great champion, Erik Seidel, to win the title.  This same sequence is recounted in the movie Rounder's.

Now for a very different way to accomplish the same thing.  A couple of months ago, I was playing gold with my good friend J.C. Pearson.   I’ve been J.C.’s golf pigeon for many years.  He usually plays just well enough to win the gaming money! (I wonder if he learned that from his brother “Puggy.”)  J.C.was telling me that the key to winning at limit Hold’em poker game was learning how to play and win with mediocre or bad hands.  Now, J.C.is very unorthodox player, but he is also very successful, and has won far more than his share of poker tournaments.  So I listened.  Equipped with these new jewels of wisdom, I made my first “solitary trip” (without Alma or my current wife, Elizabeth) to the Heavenly Hold’em tournament at the Commerce Casino in Los Angeles.

            Over the years, watching thousands of tournaments, I have come to see the players falling into three categories first wpt 2003.  Group I are the survivors; these masters of the short stack can hand on forever with only a few chips.  They wiggle their way into the money, and then claw their way up the payoff ladder, one rung at a time.  This group includes such great tournament players as Ken Flaton, Artie Cobb, Mansour Matloubi, Mike Sexton, and Susie Isaacs.  They are always hanging around the money positions late in the tournament, making the money a high low poker percentage of the time.

            Group II are the super aggressive players.  They have almost a disdain for just trying to get a payday, just making sure to finish in the money.  Late in the tournament, as the money approaches, they become more and more aggressive, many times finishing out of the money.  But when they do arrive at a final table, they usually have a mountain of chips, and manage to finish in the top positions.  They spend a lot of time at the jewelry store getting their poker bracelets and accessories sized and polished.  This group includes great Champions like Huck Seed, John Duthie Bonetti, Men “The master” Nguyen, the late Jack Keller, Doyle Brunson, Barbara Enright, and Phil Ivey.

            Group III, in my opinion, is the most dangerous group.  They can sit patiently for hours, almost never playing a hand, while letting other players push them around.  A half hour later, they have shifted gears, seemingly raising every pot limit omaha, and the next thing you know, you’re on your way to the rail, never knowing quite what hit you.  This group includes the superstars of the circuit, such as Johnny Chan, Russ Hamilton, T.J.

Cloutier, Ted Forrest, berry Johnston, Annie Duke, and the author of this book, Phil Hellmuth.  They are also very successful side game of cards players.  (The ability to switch gears is an art in the side games, as well as in the poker tournaments.)  These players divide their break time between the jewelry shop and conferences with their financial handlers. They get the money, one way or another, and that’s how we keep score in poker.

            I have always been a part of the survivor group.  I developed that style thought poker many years of playing small-limit side games and tournaments.  My theory was that if you can put a “black mark” (the winner) into your player’s log every day, instead of a “red mark” (loser), then the weeks, months, and years will take care of themselves.  I wanted to make some changes in my tournament game, and see what it felt like to play more like a group II (superaggressive) player, with hopes of one day aspiring to group III (dangerous) status night poker.

            The first time I tried this approach was at a $200 buy-in limit Hold’em event that attracted 201 players who made 258 rebuys, for a prize pool of $91,800.  although having pocket aces cracked twice, I steadily built up my chips, until we were down to about poker 40 players.  At this point, I had about $4,000 in chips, slightly less than the average, which was about $6,000.

            Going against my normal style of surviving, I started to raise a lot of pots poker event.  As my good friend Dr. Max Stearn has taught me, position is far more important than the strength of your starting hand.  Every time I was in late position, my opponents could expect me to raise, raise, raise, and keep the pressure on.  The next thing I knew, we were at the final table.  I was running second, with about $43,000 in chips, and my good friend of over 20 years, Cheryl Kaufman, was the leader, with a little over $60,000 in chips coty award.