Wednesday Weirdness Continues

No topic is off limits in our Wednesday poker discussion group, and some great friendships have been formed and some good information exchanged and shared. A great deal of the time, we don't agree on how to play a particular hand that we are discussing, and it reminds us all that, generally speaking, the answer to most poker questions is, "It depends."

One topic that a group regular brought up the other day was the need to be right. How many of us play with such a need to be right that we change what we thought, rationalize it afterward, are wrong, and then wish we hadn't second-guessed ourselves? OK, what the heck did that mean. Well, here is the scenario we were discussing: The game is hold'em. Preflop, there is a lot of raising and the flop is seen heads up. Our hero in question is holding two kings. He has put the other player on A-K. (Putting a player on a hand means that you have determined what you think the player has based on the way he has played the hand up to that point.) The dealer puts out the flop and it is a rainbow mess of rags. Our hero bets, gets raised, and reraises, since he thinks the other player has A-K. The other player calls. Now, the turn card is an ace. What does he do? He bets again! Why? Because now he wants to change his mind and put the player on two queens! Ugh! Now, the other player raises, sort of confirming that our hero's first read of A-K may have been correct. Or, the player may now be trying to represent A-K (or he holds pocket aces, in which case our hero was already in a lot of trouble).

Anyway, our buddy calls the raise, check-calls on the river, and loses to A-K. But he got to finish out the hand and be right, since he changed his belief of what the opponent held. If our hero had really wanted to be right, he would have checked and mucked on the turn when the ace came. I am not saying that you must always dump pocket kings when an ace hits, but a large percentage of the time, you should. In this particular case, the guy holding the kings had done everything right up until the turn. He had read his opponent correctly, and had played the hand right by getting the maximum amount of money into the pot with the best of it. But, he didn't stay right and believe in himself and his own reading abilities. Sometimes when you lay down those kings when an ace comes, you will have laid down the best hand. However, if you never lay down a winner, you are calling far too many bets and cannot ever beat the game in the long run.

Since we have been talking about having kings and seeing the dreaded ace on the flop, just what is the correct play when this happens? You are going to hate me, but the answer is, it depends. You need to have a good read on your opponent and evaluate the preflop play if you are heads up, but if you are in a multiway pot, the answer is nearly automatic. You hold kings, there is a preflop raise, and several people see the flop. If it comes with an ace, muck your hand, as someone will almost always have an ace. The same thing goes for holding queens and seeing a king or an ace, or worse yet, both of them. One of my favorite plays to watch is the guy who holds two jacks and sees a flop of A-K-Q. Sure, he might catch a 10 and make a straight, but if he catches a jack and makes a set, he could lose a huge pot to someone else who made the straight. Or, he may just end up in second or third place with his jacks. Don't fall in love with a hand. I love hearing someone say, after losing with a hand like this one, "But I had jacks!" Remember, when you are playing poker, only the best hand wins. Try to put your money in when you have the best of it, not when you are paddling upstream. Class dismissed.

Please send your poker-related questions or comments to [email protected]. Also, E-mail me when you come to town if you'd like to visit our chat group on a Wednesday.