Squaring Off With the Young Guns

Recently I played in a six-person invitational tournament with some of the most promising young poker players in the world. The other five competitors were fellow Card Player columnist Scott Fischman, David Williams, John D'Agostino, Joe Cassidy, and Pete Lawson. There were many interesting and exciting hands that came up in this tournament, and I'm sure it will be fun to watch when it airs on the Travel Channel this summer. I'd like to discuss a few hands from the tournament – ironically, the first and last hands that I played.

In the first hand, with the blinds at 3K-6K and everyone still having their original 250K in chips, I open-raised from the cutoff seat for 18K with K-10 offsuit. Pete was in the big blind and he called. The flop came Q-10-3 with two hearts. Pete checked, and I decided to check, as well. This is a flop that I would often bet, since I connected with it, but I also held a very vulnerable hand. I didn't think I could withstand much action if Pete check-raised me on this flop. I thought he could check-raise me with a variety of hands, including many drawing hands that I could beat, such as K-J, J-9, or the flush draw. I decided that if I bet and he check-raised, I would likely have to fold, and if I bet and he check-called, I still wouldn't really know where I was at and would potentially have another dilemma on the turn, especially since this was the first hand I had ever played with him. By checking, I thought I would look very weak, since this is not the kind of flop that one would typically slow-play, given all of the possible draws and the two big cards on board.

The turn brought a harmless 4, and Pete quickly led out for around 25K. This was a pretty decent-sized bet, but I figured that it could easily be a steal, since I had checked the flop and looked so weak. At this point, I didn't have much of a read on Pete, but I knew that my weak-looking check on the flop could definitely induce a bluff, and I also figured that I had outs if he did have me beat. With one card to come, I decided to just call and see what the river brought and what Pete did in front of me.

The river brought an ugly 8, completing the flush and making J-9 the nut straight. Pete thought for a bit, and then made a modest 35K bet into what was now a pretty big pot. Again, I did not have much of a read on him, but I thought the amount that he bet was a bit strange. I thought it was an awfully small bet relative to the size of the pot if he had made the straight or the flush, given that the pot had almost 100K in it before his bet. Furthermore, I figured that he would likely check a queen in this spot, since all of the draws got there. I know I wouldn't have been too confident holding a pair of queens out of position with this river card popping off. Basically, I figured that this bet was either a bluff, a considerable underbet of the pot with a big hand, or a defensive value bet with a pair of queens (a bet to keep me from possibly making a very large bet if he checked to me). Since I thought the last two scenarios were unlikely and I was getting 4-1 on a call, I called his bet. To my relief, he tapped his cards against the felt and I revealed my K-10, middle pair, to scoop in the nice pot. Unfortunately, the last hand of the tournament did not go nearly as well for me.

I was the short stack with about 170K in chips and Scott Fischman, Joe Cassidy, and Pete Lawson still remaining. The blinds were 12K-24K with 4K antes. Scott, who had been playing very aggressively preflop and had amassed a lot of chips, raised my big blind from the button for 60K. I had been getting cold-decked since the early part of the tournament and had slowly gone from being the chip leader to being the chip dog without hardly playing a hand. Given the circumstances, I thought this might be a prime opportunity to make a big move, since I had stayed in line all day and surely had a tight image, and Scott was likely gambling with a marginal holding, given the frequency of his raising. I looked down to see the Q 10 and thought about moving all in. The major problem with this was that after I had posted my blind and ante, I had only around 140K left, and Scott would likely be pot-committed to call my all-in move with lots of hands (especially better hands), since he would be getting more than 2-1 on the call. Therefore, I decided to just call, with the intention of making a move if the flop was a favorable one. The flop came 9-7-3 with one club. I had completely missed it, but I decided it was a decent flop to bluff at, so I went all in, figuring that he would need at least a 9 or a 7 to call, and if he did call with a 9 or 7, at least I would have some outs. To my dismay, he called instantly and my heart sank, as I knew he had a big hand and that I was in a world of hurt. He flipped over pocket queens and I felt like just mucking my Q 10 then; so much for my having outs if he called! An anticlimatic deuce rolled off on the turn and I was out in fourth place.

Despite the way this hand turned out, I do not feel bad about it, since the blinds were becoming astronomical and I knew that I needed to start making some moves or I would be blinded away to oblivion. Hopefully the next time I try to make a move on Scott, he won't wake up with a big hand like pocket queens!

I hope you get off to a great start both on and off the felt in 2005.

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.