This week, I posted the following hand on the blonde poker 'Poker Hand Analysis' board.
The Tournament
Environment: Live Game
Type: Multi-Table Freezeout
Players: 76
Buy-in: $550
Starting Chips: $10,000
Prize Pool: $41,800
Blinds: $800/$1600 with $200 ante
Remaining Players: 9
Average Chips: $84,500
Chip Leader: $125,000
We are at the final table of this tournament and we have just busted the shortest stack so 9 players remain... we have been playing for 6 hours. This hand involves a clash between the 3 chip leaders.
History
The standard in this tournament has been mind-boggling at times. We have been shocked by the poor play of some of the participants. An unimproved A-K seems to be the Holy Grail of poker hands for many of the tourists. However, there are also some solid professionals playing including Steve Dannenmann, runner-up in the 2005 WSOP Main Event.
Our two opponents in this hand are UTG, a sweet and attractive young lady from Toronto... we will call her 'Maple Syrup'. We shared a table with Maple Syrup earlier in the tournament. She check-called all the way to win a huge pot after flopping quads and won another big pot, again check-calling all the way with an unimproved A-6 of diamonds?? She seems to have no set strategy but rarely takes the lead and the diverse range of hands she has shown make her incredibly difficult to read.
In middle position we have a typical loudmouth American table captain. Although we have not played at his table we have heard him loud and clear throughout. He commentates relentlessly whether he is in the hand or not. He clearly believes he is the best player and is not afraid to let that point be known, he is the current chip leader and everyone at the table knows it!! He is the spitting image of a character out of the sitcom Friends... so we will call him 'Chandler'.
The Players
Chandler: $125,000 1st of 9 and in middle position
Maple Syrup: $112,000 2nd of 9 and UTG
Mantis01: $110,000 3rd of 9 and on the button
The Hand
Maple Syrup raises to $3,200. It gets to Chandler who makes a big show of how strong his hand is but states that he will cut Maple Syrup a break and only call.... but if anyone raises behind he is going all-in and puts his chips on the line to demonstrate this. It gets to us on the button and we look down to see...
We have a good drawing hand with position, there is $10,600 in the pot and it costs us $3,200 to call. We decide to call and both blinds fold (no appreciation of value here). The pot now stands at $13,800
The Flop
Maple Syrup quietly pushes $5,000 over the line. It gets to Chandler who gets up and starts pacing about. He returns to the table before declaring she is making him nervous now and so will only call.
The pot now stands at $23,800. We opt to flat call the $5,000 flop bet so the pot now stands at $28,800 and we go to the turn...
The Turn
The turn card hits the deck and it is the
The board now reads
We are watching Maple Syrup closely. She hesitates, looks like she's going to bet and then reconsiders before checking. Chandler checks almost instantly and says nothing.
So the action gets to us. We decide to bet and after cutting down $15,000 in chips we slide them across the line.
Maple Syrup quickly reaches for her chips and announces "call". It gets to Chandler and he demands, "Why are you trying to steal my pot with A-10? If Maple Syrup hadn't called I would've set you all-in!" He counts out his chips, looks at me, looks at Maple and calls.
The pot now stands at a whopping $73,800 going to the river and we have a remaining stack of $86,800.
As the river card comes down I am watching Maple Syrup closely - there is little point in watching Chandler's reaction because he is staring intently at ME. So we have the rather bizarre sight of Chandler looking at me, me looking at Maple and Maple looking at the board.
The River
The river card hits and it is....
Maple glances at her chips and quickly checks. It comes to Chandler who is already cutting down chips, and a lot of them by the looks of it. He prepares $40,000 ready to push and then returns to his stack for two $5,000 chips, puts them on top and announces "Enough of playing softball poker" before shoving $50,000 into the middle. We throw a glance at Maple who is already counting out chips. It is impossible to say for certain what she is planning but it is safe to say that the serial check-caller is definitely putting chips in here and it does not appear our involvement is relevant to her.
The Response
This was a fascinating hand and garnered plenty of feedback:
snoopy1239: "I think there's a chance we've run into two monsters here, Chandler with Pocket Sevens and Maple with Pocket Kings. That's a big assumption though, so a call could be justified, however, I certainly wouldn't re-raise. It's a fold for me."
Flea: "I'd like to think I'd fold - from what you've said I think Chandler may have been overplaying AK but may have had KK all along and maple has in my opinion got at least a full house and maybe quads, definitely think you're beaten by at least 1 of them."
doubleup: "Bad bad card, but with the likely overcall this pot is massive - surely C can't be betting a pair here? I fold - if he is that bad I still have enough chips left to get him later."
pswnio: "Bad card the king. I think against these two you'll find a better spot. I fold on the hand analysis board and in real life can't get away from it, call and curse."
Alex Martin: "Im a station and the pot is huge, call."
TightEnd: "Now I've got a headache!"
The Reveal
After serious consideration I decided to let the straight go and folded.
Maple Syrup pushed all-in and Chandler insta-called.
Chandler proudly flipped....
for the flopped boat.
Maple Syrup revealed...
for a bigger full-house.
... and Chandler was down to the felt. Oh dear, what a real shame for him!! In fact seeing Chandler's face drop when Maple showed Kings-full was one of the highlights of Vegas 2007. He busted soon after and was still muttering away to himself as he left... lol. After breathing a huge sigh of relief here I eventually went out in 3rd place picking up $5k which paid for the holiday and Maple Syrup went on to win shortly after, proving you don't have to be aggressive to win poker tournaments.
Conclusion
This hand interested me because fundamentally it is about drawing to my straight on a paired board, a fact picked-up by Tightend and doubleup right from the kick-off. I was mindful of this as soon as the flop came down and was hoping the pot remained small until showdown.
Even with this flop I thought that the 5k flop call was reasonable.. calling with J-10 pre-flop meant I had to be interested in this with my position, I was quite deep-stacked and the bet was affordable.
After they both check the turn I feel I have to bet but I still wanted to keep things small ball. I thought my chances of taking the pot down there were slim so I hoped the bet would stop a big steal bet on the river lol... check-check and a cheap showdown suited me actually.
Chandler's play had worried me a bit. He was an arrogant and aggressive player who had the chip lead, but aside from all the bluster, his play in this hand was actually overly passive. Call pre-flop, flat-call on the flop and check-call on the turn despite the interest from two other players... Why?
In the end I think Maple's inexperience saved me though. When Chandler put in his big bet Maple was counting out chips with some eagerness - this was really poor play by her because I may well have looked Chandler up. Looking at the players rather than the board is simple but good advice I think.
Ultimately though my intention was to keep the pot small with a hand that was a long way from the nuts. A paired board vs. the chip leaders made me cautious form the flop onwards and come the river there was serious heat from both players and this didn't suit my hand or my expectations I thought.
Many thanks to all blonde members for their contributions and a special mention to Snoopy who absolutely nailed this one with his river read and decision.