Folding Trips

You always feel great when you flop trips in hold'em. There you are holding two unpaired cards and bang! There's a pair matching one of your cards. Normally in this situation you start thinking, correctly, about how much you might win, especially if you also have an excellent kicker.

While you are dreaming about how much action you can put into the pot, and whether to disguise your hand, a funny thing sometimes happens. You start to get too much action. Many players get so mesmerized by their beautiful hand that they keep putting in raises, ignoring the possibility, likelihood, or even near certainty that they are beat.

An obvious situation: Let's look at a common and somewhat obvious situation, but one that we all see players get wrong over and over again.

A player holds A-K (call him "Slick") and raises in a somewhat loose game. Three or four people call. He is thrilled to see a flop of A-A-7 with no flush draw, and the play on the flop narrows the field to Slick and two opponents. Now, the turn is an offsuit 3, and suddenly everyone seems to go nuts. Slick bets, the next player raises, and the third player reraises! How should Slick feel?

Lots of players get elated here and put in the fourth bet without much thought. After all, they have the best possible kicker, and while they might lose to A-3 or A-7, they also know that another player with three aces will raise much of the time anyway.

But let's stop and examine this situation for a moment. There are two aces on the table, Slick has one, and almost certainly one of the two opponents has the other one. That leaves one opponent with no ace at all. But this opponent is also raising, knowing that he is up against at least one player and probably two who have three aces!

One of two things must be true here. Either this third opponent has momentarily lost his mind, or he has a hand that can beat three aces. Even if Slick is not generally good at reading hands, he ought to be able to figure this one out. This third opponent most likely holds pocket sevens for a full house.

Once Slick stops to think about this, he begins to realize he has six outs at best. Any of the three remaining kings will give him the nut full house, and a 3 will give him aces full of threes, beating the opponent with the sevens full and tying the other opponent with an ace. Given that one opponent has sevens full, only the other opponent holding exactly A-7 or A-3 would give Slick fewer than six outs.

Depending on the pot size, Slick might decide to call to try to catch his outs. But here comes the hardest part. If he does not make his full house, Slick must fold on the river. It is always difficult to fold a big hand, but calling when you cannot win is the same as placing a bet on a dead horse.

A strange hand:Recently I witnessed a strange hand that demonstrated a classic example of a player staying in with top trips when he could not win. The read was much harder, but this hand was a sparkling example of a key poker adage: It does not matter if you can put a player on a particular hand or not. If you are certain that whatever he holds beats you, you must fold.

I was in a $30-$60 game recently when this hand came down. The game was unusually loose, with lots of players seeing the flop with very weak hands, and several usually staying, frequently incorrectly, to see the turn. While this is one of the most profitable situations in poker, you still need to be very careful, as many unusual hands will occur.

On this deal, a Las Vegas regular (call him "Moe") held the A J in the big blind. I had folded in early position and watched five players, including both blinds, see a flop of J 5 4. Moe bet out and was called in two spots, with the small blind folding. The turn brought the 2. This looked fairly safe to Moe, so he bet again. The next player (let's call him "Larry") raised immediately, and the late-position player ("Curly") called.

Frequently, you will hear advice that when you are raised on the turn and have only one pair, even a good one, you should usually fold. While it is often good advice, there are times when you could be up against a draw, or even two pair, which you might be able to beat with a good river card. In this case, Moe probably assumed that Curly had a club-flush draw for his call on the flop and his call of two bets on the turn. Larry could be raising with a hand like K-J, which would give Moe the best hand. Other possibilities include 5-4, which would give Moe eight outs (three aces, two jacks, and three threes). Perhaps Moe thought Larry might even have a hand like 4-3, which gave him a pair and a straight draw, with Moe still having the best hand. Of course, Moe also could have been drawing dead.

In any event, Moe chose to call here, and I do not blame him at all. And he was excited when the J fell on the river. He had made trips with an ace kicker, and he bet out again. Once more, Larry raised, and now seemingly from nowhere, Curly raised, as well!

We now return to our original theme for this column. Moe had made trip jacks with an ace kicker and was raised on the river in two different spots. Certainly, both opponents knew by now that Moe held at least three jacks. How could they both raise him? Only one of them could possibly have a jack, so the other one, or even both of them, simply must be able to beat three jacks. Now, Moe might not have been able to figure out what hands he was up against that could beat him, but he absolutely had to know he was beat. To call here would simply be a case of deep denial.

Call he did, though, and Larry raised yet again. Curly called, and Moe actually said, "I guess you have ace-three," as he called yet again. On the river, then, Moe called $180 worth of raises when he had to know he had no chance to win.

Moe proved he was a much better card reader than he was a folder, as Larry did indeed show down his A-3 for a made straight on the turn. He did not win, though, as Curly turned over pocket deuces for a full house and the very large pot. And I am pretty certain I heard him chuckle, "Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk," as he was stacking his chips.

Conclusion: Holding trips (with a pair on the board) and getting extreme action from two or more players presents one of the most obvious hand-reading situations in hold'em. While making the laydown might be one of the most annoying things you have to do, it should also be one of the easiest, as you can be virtually certain you cannot win. Nevertheless, we have all seen player after player make this impossible call. If you can stay focused on what is actually happening at the table instead of just admiring how good your hand looks, you will not be one of them. And, as we all know, money that you do not lose spends just as well as money you win.