A Hand With Scott Fischman

Recently I played in the inaugural Poker Exchange Invitational tournament with Robert Williamson III, Clonie Gowen, Cindy Violette, Scott Fischman, and David Williams. The most interesting part of the tournament was that afterward, the six of us were given the opportunity to talk about the tournament and even discuss specific hands in the tournament. I found this to be a very insightful discussion, as I got to hear each player's thought process behind many of the key plays in the tournament, which eventually crowned my good friend and 2004 World Series of Poker runner-up David Williams the champion. I will present one of the key hands in this tournament, and for anyone who wishes to see the tournament and post-tournament analysis in its entirety, it will be available soon via DVD, The Poker Exchange Invitational: From the Kitchen Table to the Final Table.

In this tournament, the six of us started with $5,000 in chips apiece. During one of the first levels, Clonie opened the pot from first position for $200 when the blinds were $25-$50. I smooth-called with the K J directly to her left, and Scott and Robert came into the pot from the small blind and big blind, respectively. The flop came down K-9-4 with one spade, and Scott led out $400 into the $800 pot. Robert and Clonie quickly folded and the action was up to me. I believed Scott's half-pot bet was quite strong in this spot, given that he had led out into three opponents who had been in for a raise. At the same time, I held a fairly strong hand, top pair with a good kicker and a backdoor-flush draw. The bet was small relative to my stack, since I had more than $5,000 in chips at the time, and I had position on Scott. So, I decided to just call and see what the turn brought, and more importantly, see what Scott did on the turn.

A complete blank rolled off on the turn and Scott quickly checked. I still was trusting my gut that Scott may be very strong and trying to trap me, so I quickly checked behind him. Another blank rolled off and Scott checked to me again. Now, after he had checked the turn and the river, I thought my hand was likely good, and that he could be holding a variety of hands with which he would pay off a moderate-sized bet. Still feeling cautious, I bet out a mere $750 into the $1,600 pot. To my dismay, Scott quickly raised me another $1,050, propelling me into deep thought. The pot now had $4,150 in it, so I was getting about 4-1 to make the call. I had a fairly big hand, which would normally make this an easy call, yet I sensed I could beat only a bluff, as I thought Scott would not make this play for value with a hand that was worse than mine, such as a pair of kings with a weaker kicker. I had played with him before and knew that he was capable of making any play if he read me as being weak, and I believed I certainly gave off the appearance of weakness by just calling his half-pot bet on the flop and then checking the turn and betting only a small amount on the river. Also, I still would have several thousand dollars in chips if I called his raise and lost the hand. So, calling and losing the final $1,050 would not cripple me in the tournament by any means. Given these factors, I finally decided to call, and Scott turned over pocket nines to win with three nines. I was obviously disappointed to lose the hand, but at the same time, I believed I had made a good read initially and had played the hand well overall, losing far less than I could have had I played the hand more aggressively.

After the tournament, I got to hear Scott's thoughts on the hand, which were very interesting. He initially made the $400 bet into the $800 pot to look weak, trying to make it look like a tester bet, hoping someone with a big king would come over the top. When I called the flop, Scott was very confident that I had flopped a pair of kings, probably with a big kicker since I had called a raise before the flop. He therefore checked to me, hoping I would bet my pair of kings, as many players would, and then he could check-raise me on the turn and win a big pot or even double through on the hand. My quick check behind him on the turn surprised him, but he was still confident that I had a big king, so he checked to me again on the river, figuring I would have to bet my king at that point, and then he could pull off a check-raise. I give him a lot of credit for making a great read on me on the flop and for trusting his read despite my check on the turn, which would have thrown many other players off, figuring I would not check the turn with a king.

He thought, after the hand, that he could have raised me a little more on the river to make the raise look more like a potential bluff, and therefore get paid off more if I decided to call. I agree that I probably would have paid off a slightly larger raise on the river, especially since it would have looked more like a bluff than his $1,050 raise, as most people simply do not raise a quarter of the pot as a bluff because it looks more like a value raise than a bluff. At the same time, though, I reminded him that I had him correctly read as being strong throughout most of the hand, and if he had raised too much on the end, I probably would have folded. If he had raised much more on the river, I probably would have convinced myself that he was playing a strong hand very trickily by checking the turn and the river to me; most all players would have bet something on the river after missing the opportunity to check-raise the turn.

I believe both Scott and I played this hand very well. And even though I lost a good amount of chips, had I played the hand differently, I could have lost a lot more. Running a big king into a set on a dry board will often cost anyone lots of chips, and I am happy I didn't double Scott up on this hand.

Unfortunately for Scott, he was knocked out sixth in this tournament by David Williams, but it was not because of bad play. Kudos to all of the participants in this tournament; I hope they enjoyed the experience as much as I did.

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.