Another High Stakes Cooler

Needless to say that on High Stakes Poker on GSN, my luck hasn't been all that good. I've been on the wrong end of several cooler hands in which I flopped the nuts and lost.



Now, when you watch High Stakes Poker, you'll see a one-hour episode per week over 13 weeks, but the whole show was taped over two 12-hour days. So while it might seem like these beats happened a week apart, many of the coolers happened in succession. When that happens to you, it makes the game even harder to beat, since it adds a new dynamic to your table image. Your opponents may think you are steaming, and will likely play differently against you.

In this particular hand, there was a lot more to it than there seemed to be. With the blinds at $300-$600 with a $100 ante, Eli Elezra raised it to $2,100, which was a pretty standard raise in this game. Everyone folded to me in the small blind, and I called with the 5 3. Erick Lindgren also called from the big blind with the 10 9.



If you've watched the show at all, or have ever played deep-stack no-limit hold'em, you've seen a very different game being played before the flop. Hands like 5-3 suited and 10-9 suited are played by most everyone in the game, except for maybe the tight nits who couldn't win in the long run in most games.



So, the flop came perfect for me: 6 4 2. Not only did I flop the nuts, but I had a backdoor-flush draw, to boot! I checked, looking to set the trap. Erick checked also, and Eli bet $5,500.



Now, obviously, my goal would be to get all of the money in right here, so I decided that the best way to do that was to raise Eli, hoping that he also hit the flop and was willing to play for it all. I made it $15,000 total.



Eli hemmed and hawed for a little bit, and then finally called the additional $9,500. The turn card was just an ugly card for me, the 5. Now, if Eli had a hand like the 8 7, I was totally dead. More likely, if he had a hand like A-A or K-K, that card may scare him off, killing my action.



With the flush draw out there, though, I wasn't about to just check and let Eli get there, so I bet out $30,000. At this point, my hand looked pretty obvious, but Eli's hand was still a question mark. While I wanted him to raise me on the flop, on the turn I was hoping for either a fold or a smooth-call. Eli finally called the big bet.



Going to the river, there was already $97,100 in the pot. Now, while I didn't like the turn card, I liked the river card even less – as the 2 paired the board.



I thought about making a defensive bet, but thought better of it and decided to check. If Eli had a hand like the A 7, I wanted to give him every opportunity to bluff off his money. Also, if he had a 3 in his hand, once I checked, I would expect a player like him to bet.



Eli bet $60,000. Obviously, he could have the full house or the higher straight, but I felt as though there was a reasonable chance of a tie, or even a win if he was making a move. After Eli's bet, there was $157,100 in the pot, so I was getting close to 3-to-1 odds on the call.



Despite the great price the pot was laying me, this was all about the read I had on Eli: Was he capable of risking $60,000 on a bluff? Basing a call only on the hope that we had the same straight wouldn't be enough incentive to make it, so gauging whether or not Eli had the guts to bluff me was the key.



Eli has guts, and he has a wild streak to him, to say the least. In the end, due to past hands we've played over the years, I didn't think this was a hand I could lay down, and finally called the $60,000.



Well, Eli turned over pocket sixes, and I was totally wrong – or was I? Obviously if you focus solely on the result and the fact that I lost the pot, the answer would be yes, I was totally wrong, but that's just not how poker works.



There were extenuating circumstances that had me leaning toward a call that had absolutely nothing to do with the play of the hand. By that point in the game, it was clear that I was taking a beating in a very sick way.



The fact that I was losing some sick hands started to wear on me. If Eli perceived that my confidence was shot even slightly, he may see this as an opportunity to take advantage of my beaten state of mind.



I hated calling the bet, frankly, but I knew that I had to make the call. My check on the river was a pure sign of weakness, and the bottom line is that Eli is a gutsy enough player to try to take the pot away from me on a bluff.



If I had to do it all over again, I still don't know if I could throw the hand away. Eli was more likely to be on a flush and straight draw than on a flopped set. It was just another cooler, but that's part of the game. Sometimes hands will come up in which you are just going to lose a lot of money, and there is nothing you can do about it.



You can read Daniel's blog and play poker with him at http://www.fullcontactpoker.com/.