Trying To Win The Bike

While playing in the Bicycle Club’s $5,000 buy-in World Poker Tournament no-limit Hold’em poker game tournament in 2003, the following hand came up on day two. 

The even was scheduled over three days, but the structure was way too fast, and 309 players were reduced to a mere 54 players in day one’s eight hours of play.  I think we really need all W.PT events to be a structured so as to allow the players to employ the maximum amount of skill possible over three days.  The World Series of Poker is on the right track in 2004, going to six days of play.

            In any case, I made it back to day two of the Bike’s event with $18,900, with the blinds at $500-$1,000 and an ante of $200 a play poker card games.  My ideal was to double up, and then see if my opponents could beat me or not.  About the 10th hand or so, I was dealt the Ad-Qd in the small blind.  A player two off the of the button made it $3,500 to go, and I studied for a minute.

            I was thinking: number one, I hate A-Q, and this hand has cost me more money than any other in no-limit Hold’em tournaments; number two, I probably can’t fold this hand; and number three, do I then move all-in or just call?  The thought of going broke with A-A again wasn’t very appealing to me, so I decided to just call the bet.  The flop then came down As-9h-6h, and I checked.  At this point, I was probably check-raising the flop all-in.

            My opponent then checked behind me, and the Qc came off the deck for As-9h-6h-Qc.  Now I decided that checking here would be a bad play, because I didn’t want my opponent to hit some sort of trips or straight card games for free, especially since I was now committed to my hand for all of my chips with the top two pair.  I was also thinking that betting too much here would be a mistake, because I wanted high limit action with my now very powerful hand.

            So I bet out a small $2,000 into this $9,000 pot, and my opponent moved all-in! “Yikes,” I thought, “did I run into a set here or what?” After a quick 10-second study I realized that I could beat a ton of hands, and that I couldn’t fold the top two pair here in this situation; thus, I called.  I was pleasantly surprised, and a bit shocked, to find that my opponent had Q-J, and that he was drawing dead-no matter what card hit on the last card, I would win this pot hold'em poker.

            OK, now that I was doubled up in chips, it was time to find out if my opponents could beat me! I decided to play the waiting game, since I suspected that Stan Goldstein-who was on my left-might reraise me if I began to raise a lot of pots.  But the blinds and antes kept relentlessly creeping up, and I found myself anteing off quite a few chips.  I did make one move where, in fact, Stan did reraise me, and I was forced to fold-grr! Stan had nice timing that time, but I will get him soon seven-cad-stud!

            With the blinds now at $1,000-$2,000, I finally raised with Jd-10d, making it $4,400 to go.  The big blind then moved all-in for $6,000 more, and I found myself considering calling with my Jd-10d because of the pot odds.  I was getting $4,400 + $4,400 + $1,000 + (8 x $400) + $6,000, or roughly $19,000 for my $6,000 call.  I decided that the right play was to call.  By the way, I didn’t feel extreme strength from the raiser limit stud.

            As it turned out, the raiser had 9c-9h, and we “raced” (he was a small favorite) for a $26,000 pot.  I lost the race, and had only $8,000 left.  That’s ok, but had I won it, I would have been right back in the ball game.  Shortly thereafter, I was in the big blind with Kd-5d, and the button raised it to $5,000 to go.

            I decided to take a flop for two reasons.  The first was that I had the $2,000 big blind in there already, and the second was that I thought poker I might have the best hand with king high.  I decided to call before the flop, and then bet my last $2,500 no matter what hit the flop.  When the flop came down A-5-4, I moved all-in, and was called by the button player, who held A-7.  That was all she wrote for Phil Hellmuth that day.  (They paid 27 spots, but I wasn’t there just to make the money; I was there to win the whole enchilada!)

            Each tournament I enter, I try to make the best decisions I can, but oftentimes-in fact, most times-I leave wishing I would have done something better.