Don't Try This at Home

I would like to discuss a hand I played many, many months ago during the second day of the $10,000 buy-in no-limit hold'em championship event at this year's L.A. Poker Classic. This hand was actually discussed by Jeff Shulman in his Card Player column (Vol. 17/No. 6; March 12, 2004). Jeff was a few seats to my right when this hand came up. In his column, he described this hand as "the greatest hand of poker that I have seen in my brief poker career," and you will soon see why!

I had been playing very aggressively for several hours and had built a large stack, $75,000 in chips, which was in the top five with about 100 players left. The blinds were $500-$1,000 with $100 antes. The action started off quiet enough, with everyone folding to the small blind, who completed his blind, and then the action came to me in the big blind. I looked down to see a rag, Q-8 offsuit, a hand with which I would normally check in this spot and see a flop. However, I thought the small blind was very weak by the way he painfully threw his chips in to complete his blind, so I raised the pot $2,000, figuring he would fold and I would pick up the blinds and antes right then and there.

Much to my surprise, he reraised me another $7,500. Now, in this situation, almost all players would fold the Q-8, as it looked like the small blind was trying to trap me with a very big hand, and Q-8 is a complete rag. Despite this, I still had a lot of faith in my initial read that my opponent was weak. There were many other factors involved, as well. I had been playing very aggressively, and was sure that my opponent knew this and could definitely be on a resteal with a marginal hand, figuring quite correctly that I was just trying to steal the pot with my initial raise. He also had a large stack, so I was getting substantial implied odds if I could bust him on this hand. I quickly concluded that he had either a huge hand with which he was going to commit all of his chips, or a marginal hand with which he was just trying to resteal. I considered reraising him, but figured I would need to reraise at least another $15,000 to make the raise look legitimate and get him to fold a marginal hand. I also was worried that he would still think I was on a steal and would try to resteal again with an all-in move or another big raise on top of whatever I raised. I did not want to put $22,500 into the pot preflop and have to fold if he then moved all in on me. At the same time, I did not want to fold. Given all of these factors, I decided to just call his raise with the intention of making a move on him post-flop unless I actually flopped a hand. Note that I had position on him; I would never make this play when out of position, as no-limit hold'em is very hard to play when you are out of position, especially when both players have big stacks.

So, I called and the flop came K-3-2 with two spades. My opponent led into the $22,000 pot for only $6,000, which was a small bet of just over a quarter of the pot. I thought this was a very weak bet and contemplated raising him to try to pick up the $28,000 pot. However, I really believed that just calling might actually look stronger, as it often does in no-limit hold'em, since raising or betting with nothing is a standard play because you are putting pressure on your opponent to fold. Just calling a bet can look stronger, especially if the pot is already big, because it generally means that you must have some sort of hand if you are not going to try to win the pot right there. I figured that if I just called this weak bet, my opponent would give up on the turn if he was weak or had nothing, and I could pick up the pot with a relatively small bet. So, I called again with just queen high, and a 10 came on the turn. As I expected, my opponent quickly checked. I bet $10,000 into the $34,000 pot. Now, that was a smallish bet for that pot, but it was a reasonable bet given his chip stack, as the bet was more than 10 percent of his total stack, and I figured he would fold nothing to that bet, especially given the way I had played the hand. I also figured that if he just called that smallish bet, he was not that strong, and if a blank came off on the end, I could move in and he likely would not be able to call. He quickly called, and the dealer put up the 6 on the river, making a flush possible. My opponent checked immediately, and I quickly moved all in for my remaining $40,000, never putting him on a flush draw given how he had played the hand and viewing the 6 as about as harmless a card as could come. He went into deep thought for what seemed like several minutes, and I was quite nervous. My entire tournament rested on this hand, and I knew there was no way I could be good if he called. Finally, he said those dreaded words, "I call," and my heart sunk like an elephant skating on thin ice.

I knew my hand was beat, but I had to see what he called me with, so I flipped over my measly Q-8. He immediately flipped over a total rag, 10-6 offsuit, giving him runner-runner two pair. The entire table was shocked by the weak hands that were turned over in the biggest pot of the tournament up to that point. As the dealer pushed my opponent the $140,000 pot, my mind raced with thoughts of how I could have played the hand differently, given that I could have raised him on the flop or turn and most certainly taken the pot away. I was happy that at least my read was right, that he was making a resteal, because in the long run this hand would give me crucial confidence to trust future reads and follow my instincts. I obviously wish I had won the pot, but I am satisfied with how I played the hand. The only way I go broke on this hand is if he catches a 6. There is no way he could have called my bet on the end with just a pair of tens, and if another 10 had come on the river, he probably would have led out. And if he had checked three tens, I would not have made such a big bet. If one of the many possible blanks had come on the river and I had made the same play, I would have won a $54,000 pot with queen high and greatly improved my stack.

I hope my thought process sheds some light on this very complicated hand. And remember one thing: If you're going to bluff off your big stack in one hand in a huge tournament, make sure you at least get a good story out of it.

Thomas "Thunder" Keller is a 23-year-old professional poker player and one of poker's young and rising stars. He can often be found playing at Ultimatebet.com under the name gummybear. To learn more about him, go to his website at www.thunderkeller.com.