Hey, it Was Soooooot-ed!

That's what they always say when they turn over some piece of cheese they limped in with under the gun to scoop in the chips that should have been mine. Mine! Mine! Mine! And I smile and say, "Nice hand," while thinking to myself, "Don't get too friendly with those chips, buster, you ain't keepin 'em long. Somebody at this table is gonna get 'em and I know who I'm rootin' for."

Of all the poker pros I meet, it seems that I attach the least amount of value to suited connectors. It is not that I think they are unplayable, because in the right spot, they can have a lot of value. I just think they get most players into a lot of trouble spots – and I like to avoid trouble spots.

The $30-$60 hold'em game I was in was loose as a goose. I was in the small blind holding the 6 5. The player under the gun had called, was raised by the player behind him, and four players called. I threw in $40, calling the raise. The big blind called and the pot opener three-bet the pot on a preflop trap play. Everyone came for the 90 bucks.

The flop came 9-8-4 rainbow with one spade, not a dream flop for my hand, by any means. I checked, the opener bet, and everyone called to me. It was $30 to me with $900 in the pot, and I held the idiot end of a gutshot with a 6-high backdoor flush draw. 30-1 at that time! I went into my mental huddle. What if I caught a 7 or a spade? How about both? A 7 wouldn't necessarily be good, and neither would the backdoor spade draw with the field I was facing. Whenever the hand you are drawing to may not win the pot if you hit it, you need to extend your odds accordingly. Still, I thought a call was definitely the right play. I called the $30, knowing that it might be the right play over time, but that I was probably kissing the money goodbye in this case.

Boink! My dream card, the 7, hit on the turn, giving me the idiot-end straight and a flush draw. I checked to the opener, confident that he held an overpair and would bet, giving me the opportunity to check-raise the whole field. The opener didn't disappoint me and fired $60 into the pot. Four players called the wager and I check-raised. The opener reraised another $25 and went all in. The whole field called the $85. I was gonna need a stepladder to climb over this pot.

An offsuit queen hit on the river, and I fired and was called in two spots. I turned my hand over and it was good. As is the case with most large pots, a conversation started regarding what everyone held. One player who called me showed two tens, and the other had nines and eights. The opener showed K-K. One of the callers stated he had A 4, informing me that my spade draw was no good. With all cards shown in everyone's hand, 16 of the 38 potential cards on the river would have cost me the pot; in that precarious spot, I had caught my perfect card on the turn! They ragged me and I stacked my chips. "But it was sooooot-ed," I wanted to say. For once, I held my tongue.

And so it is with many hold'em hands. The appearance of strength is often fallacious. Even though my perfect card hit, I was less than a 3-2 favorite to win the pot. And a lot of cards could have come on the turn other than the

7. I was a very lucky guy to be stacking this pot.

A lot of players strictly avoid playing any hand that can get them into trouble. They are losing value when there is equity in the pot to be had in playing a hand that has potential to get them into trouble. The trick is to be able to analyze the situation correctly and differentiate between the times that a hand has value and the times that the potential for trouble makes the hand a mucker. Part of that equation is that when the hand is in trouble, you have the ability to be able to make the decision to get away from it and not have it cost you more than it should. Players who have a hard time releasing when a pot gets big need to be particularly careful about getting involved in marginal situations.

And you thought I played only big pairs.

Editor's note: Roy Cooke played winning professional poker for 16 years. He is a successful real estate broker/salesperson in Las Vegas – please see his ad on page 123.