Ouch!

In the $200 no-limit hold'em (one rebuy) event at Larry Flynt's Grand Slam of Poker, I had been playing for about four hours and had been up and down the entire time. With around $3,800 left, I was almost in "all-in mode," where I would be forced to move in on just about any hand that I played. I caught a huge break on this hand, though, and was given a chance to win a huge pot, thus catapulting me back into contention with 70 players remaining – if I won. I really find this particular hand to be fascinating, because it presents so many different questions to be answered. Take a look:



I was in the big blind and lucky enough to look down at the true powerhouse hand of the 4 3 (ha). The blinds were $150-$300 with a $50 ante, so there was $900 in the pot already, including my big blind. I mentally prepared for the fold that I would inevitably have to make once a raise was made. But an interesting thing happened that protected my hand. The gentleman in second position raised all in, but only for $675. The action then went like this: fold, call, call, fold, call, call, and then it was on me. What would you do in this situation, and why?

You have three real options:



1. Fold: You don't have enough chips to get in and splash around here. Fold your big blind, get out, and live to fight when you have a stronger hand. There are just too many people in the hand for you to have a legitimate shot at winning the pot.



2. Call: The raise was small enough, barely more than double your blind, and it wouldn't dent your stack too much to call and take a flop here. If nothing connects, you can always throw your cards away. You are getting great odds and have the chance to possibly win a huge pot.



3. Move All In: Now, you don't have enough chips to partially commit to the hand. You have to decide when to make your stand, and this may be it. You are getting great pot odds, and you somehow may be able to force everyone except the all-in player to fold. You would be making a pretty substantial raise, after all.



Here are the facts to consider: There are five players in a pot totaling $4,125, which includes the all-in raise ($675), four callers ($2,700), the antes ($450), and your big blind ($300). If you call, the pot will total $4,500. On the call of that last $375, you will be getting odds of 11-1. Your initial blind is dead, of course, and already in the pot. Most people would consider this an absolute automatic call. They fail to also consider that they have to beat the other five players who have called. This has to be factored in when making the decision. For instance, if I held the 7 2 here, I would have folded. If I had more chips, I may have called quickly, but being in the short-stacked position that I was, the extra chips were too valuable to me. Many would disagree with me here, though.



Also, odds are here that you aren't going to be facing any powerhouse hands. Someone would have wanted to thin the field if they were holding a big pocket pair or something like A-K.



At any rate, I decided that with my hand, it was worth a call. I had no interest in moving all in with such a weak hand, as I didn't think there was much chance I could get everyone to fold. Remember, there was already one player all in whom I couldn't make fold, regardless. On the flip side, I wasn't going to fold for only $375 more, either. There were just too many combinations of hands I could make with the 4 3, and my pot odds were just too good.



The flop couldn't have come much more spectacularly for me: 5 3 3. The small blind checked, and I did the same, hoping to trap someone. One more check came and the next player made a bet of $1,500. Now, this had to be my lucky day, I was thinking to myself. I was already thinking about how I would trap this kid when, surprisingly, two other players called behind him (the button and the small blind), now making the pot $9,000. What would you do now, and why?



This was a no-brainer for me. I was moving in, and doing so in a hurry. The pot was big enough for me not to let anyone hang around to hit some slim draw. I was going to play this one straight ahead, with no more thoughts of trapping.



I moved in for my last $3,075 and took all of the guesswork out of it for everyone. The initial bettor went "into the tank," and when he emerged, he decided to call my bet, leaving himself with only about $3,500. The other two players folded quickly. I was truly blown away by what my opponent turned over, the A 4, giving him a gutshot-straight draw along with a backdoor-flush draw.



At the time, I thought this was one of the sickest calls I had seen in a while. He was getting 4-to-1 as about a 5-1 underdog, so I guess it wasn't as bad as it seemed initially, but there was no way that he could have thought he was anything less than a huge underdog to win the hand. Sometimes you have to look at the cards and say to yourself, "Well, I am getting 7-1 or 8-1 on my money here, but the only way I can win is to hit my perfect card(s). It just isn't worth it." Despite getting great odds on your money, occasionally you just have to lay your hand down. Clearly, my opponent didn't share my philosophy here, as I am quite sure many other players wouldn't.



Also, considering that he had a good amount of chips, and would be endangering about half of his stack, I just didn't get it. I will say, though, that when talking the hand over with Bear (Barry Greenstein), he didn't think it was that bad a call, at least in terms of the odds. Well, in actuality, he said that he had seen me make much worse calls than that. I do believe that my dad would have gone nuts had I been the one making that call, though.



The way I had played it, there were really only two possible hands I could have here: I had to have a 3 or possibly an overpair – that's it. For my opponent, it was the worst possible scenario, and his ace was no good. Only a deuce could save him, or the long-shot clubs. When he turned his cards over, I was overjoyed, of course. I was almost a 5-1 favorite to win the hand. As so often happens in poker, however, my joy rapidly turned to horror.



The turn delivered the 2, and I was left rooting for a deuce, a 4, a 5, or the case 3. After a loud yelp was let out by the players at the table, the river brought the K, and that was that. I went from a hammerlock on the hand, and a win of $15,150 in chips, to the rail. I would have been one of the chip leaders and in a sweet position. Instead, I was left muttering to myself. That's the rub in these situations: You want people to make calls like that at your table, but you don't want them to hit their hands against you.



You will win a ton of chips from players making calls like that against you. And you will also experience a ton of headaches from players making calls like that against you. I guess we live by the sword, so we must die by it too, sometimes. In this instance, though, it felt more like being drawn and quartered and dragged behind horses for about an hour.

Joe loves to receive your comments and questions. You can reach him at [email protected], and can view all of his past columns at www.barrygreenstein.com under the "joepoker" link.