Take a Stand

At Foxwoods' recent World Poker Tour event in November, the size of the field was way up, and so was the prize money. With more than 650 players and first-place prize money of more than $1.5 million, this thing was worth winning! After finishing third last year to Hoyt Corkins and Mo Ibrahim – I wrote a hand about it called "Mr. Move All In" in my new book Bad Beats and Lucky Draws – I was ready for some redemption. Alas, I didn't make it past the first day.

T. J. Cloutier once told me, "Phil, sometimes you need to take a stand." The thing is, most of us don't know when, or how, to take that stand. After playing in only three events in the past four months or so, I was feeling rusty and a bit out of touch. Mind you, I have no complaints; business has been great, but my poker game has suffered a bit. In January, I'll be ready to roll on the poker scene!

On day one of the tournament, with the blinds at $100-$200 and a $25 ante, Double J (Jimmy-Jimmy Cha) popped it up to $700 to go from third position. I looked down at 8-8 on the button, and had a decision to make. Most players throughout poker history have reraised the pot in this situation. However, I've had better luck flat-calling and taking a flop. But, while working on my rusty game, I believed a reraise would be a bit better for me, since I've been playing my hands too passively lately.

Another key part of this process was my read of Double J. Although he hadn't been particularly aggressive, my gut read told me that he didn't have an extremely strong hand. Finally, I made it $2,200 to go, and after a moment, Jimmy moved all in for $6,700 more, which had me covered by a few hundred.

To frame the hand a bit better, a few minutes earlier I had raised, Scotty Nguyen had reraised, and I had moved all in. Scotty folded, then flipped a 7 faceup, and I turned a 6 faceup (I had 6-6). So, Jimmy may have thought I was messing around, and this entered into my initial decision to reraise him.

As I stared Jimmy down, my instincts told me, "Now is the time to take a stand. He may have J-J (this was my fear), he may be making a move (unlikely), or he may have A-K or a smaller pair." Still, I'm not in the habit of calling off all of my chips with 8-8 for the third raise, and I finally laid the hand down. Sometimes, surviving is the key to winning, and this was a survival type of play.

Later that day, Jimmy insisted that he had the K , and he reiterated it the next day, as well. I believe him, and now I'm glad I folded my hand, but sometimes we have to take a stand with hands like eights, nines, or tens. This wasn't the time. But, a time will come soon enough for me to take a spectacular stand with a medium pair, and I hope I recognize it.

By the way, if I had read Jimmy right preflop, I could have taken a flop for $700 and played the hand from there. My misread cost me $1,500 and the chance to hit an 8.

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