The Big One at The Bike

This year, the $5,000 buy-in World Poker Tour event at The Bicycle Casino in Bell Gardens, California, attracted more than 800 entrants, and first place was $1.1 million. This championship finale – capping a monthlong series of events at the Legends of Poker tournament – has some serious history and prestige, and is on all of the top poker players' schedules.



And, man, how the prize pool has changed over the years! Way back in 1988, I won this event and a whopping $145,000, out of a prize pool of $365,000. In 1989, I finished in third place, and the prize pool had already risen to $800,000.



In 2005, with 839 players, the prize pool was $4,195,000! With that many players, we had to have a split two-day start, and I drew day one. I made it through day one and came back to face the other 301 players. Things didn't go well for me in the first couple of hours of play, and my starting chip stack of $24,000 was down to $8,200.



With the blinds at $300-$600, I opened for $1,600 with the A K, and player G called from the small blind. After a flop of Q 4 4, player G checked, and I studied for a moment. I could beat A-J, A-10, K-J, or A-X suited (such as the A 5), but not too much else. Any pocket pair that G might have had me beat, and if he held A-Q, K-Q, or Q-J, he had outflopped me by hitting a pair of queens. Finally, I decided there was about a 40 percent chance that I still had the best hand, and there was a good chance that he would fold a small pair if I bet something.



So, I bet $1,800. Now, player G began to study, and after a full minute (a long time with a weak bet out there!), he raised by moving all in. Now my decision seemed clear: fold. Although player G may have had a flush draw, I thought he had hit a pair of queens, or had a pocket pair.

About 10 minutes later, I moved all in for my last $5,000 or so with the A J in the big blind after a player had opened for $2,000. My opponent happened to have A-Q, and he "felted me" (Phil Laak's term for losing all of your chips) when neither of us improved. But, I didn't have a problem with the way I played my A J.



Inevitably, however, the question of how I had played the A-K bothered me. Could I have bet more before the flop? Could I have called $600 before the flop? Could I have moved all in on the flop and won the pot? (I certainly couldn't if player G had a queen!) Could I have checked on the flop? After running through various scenarios in my head, I decided that I had played the hand about as well as I could have.



By the way, my second choice for how to play the hand was to call the $600 before the flop, and then move all in if someone raised after I called – thereby getting all of my chips in before the flop. My third choice was to bet $3,000 before the flop, thus committing myself to the pot for the rest of my chips, no matter what the flop might prove to be.