Over Christmas in Madison, Wisconsin, we had the annual holiday poker game. It was pot-limit hold'em with $5-$5 blinds, a $1,000 buy-in, and $500 rebuys. This was a hefty-sized poker game for Madison! After years of winning during my Madison trips, in 2004 I set the record loss of $14,000. Word of my huge loss spread throughout the state, and my poker friends talked about it for a year. In fact, they couldn't wait for me to come back to town in 2005. In 2005, I won $8,000 back, so the stage was set for 2006. When we set up the game, it seemed like every poker player in the state of Wisconsin wanted a seat at that table. I asked for a 2 p.m. starting time on Wednesday, Dec. 20, with a midnight quitting time (of course, we knew the game would go well past midnight). The game was held in Jon Green's beautiful basement poker room, overlooking Lake Ripley, and it featured Mark Kroon (online poker legend "Poker Ho"), Wayne "Tilly" Tyler, Tim Belstner, Larry Beilfus ("Concrete Larry"), and others.
At around 7 p.m., the following hand came up. Belstner called $5, "Pizza" Jimmy called $5, I called $5 with 10-9, Poker Ho called $5, Brett Weum (son of poker star Dewey Weum) called $5, and Green made it $35 to go. Then, Belstner called $35, Jimmy called $35, I called $35, Ho called $35, and Weum called the $35 and raised it $245 more. Green called, Jimmy called, I called, and Ho called. The flop was Q
J
4
, and everyone checked to Weum, who moved all in for his last $395. Green called, I called with my open-end straight draw, and Ho called. The turn card was the 10
. Green checked, I checked, and Ho bet $900. Green folded, and I had a big decision to make. I called, and the last card was the 8
. I immediately moved all in for my last $1,240, and Ho folded. I was awarded the pot of nearly $5,000 with my queen-high straight. Weum showed down pocket kings, and Ho showed a set of fours.
Let's discuss this hand for a moment. First off, we were playing a bit of deep-stack poker here, which means that you can play a lot looser before the flop, trying to get lucky and hit a straight or a flush and win a big pot. Thus, I have no problem with everyone limping in and calling the raise to $35. I love the way Weum played his hand; he just called $5, hoping that Green would raise and enable him to trap everyone in the middle for $35 apiece. Then, Weum "closed the trap" by making a pot-sized reraise. This would have enabled him - under most circumstances - to win the pot right then and there. What about the $245 calls? I do not know what Green had, but my call required a lot of thought, and a lot of gamble. My call was probably a bad one, and definitely a bit weak. Before I called the $245, I noticed that Weum had another $395 left, and I believed my exposure would be only another $395, as I thought Weum would move all in on most flops. All in all, I was just trying to get lucky and win a huge pot somehow with my 10-9. Ho's call with 4-4 was a good one.
On the flop, Weum's all-in move was natural, my call was natural, as I now had an open-end straight draw (I needed a king or an 8), and Ho's call with a set of fours was OK. I would have loved to see Ho make some sort of raise on the flop, of perhaps $500 to $800. Then, he could further protect his hand by moving all in after the 10
came off. Of course, Ho was waiting for one safe card to hit before he made his move, and I do not blame him too much for this line of thinking.
On the turn, I would have loved to see Ho bet a lot more. I mean, why bet only $900 when there was already $3,000 in the pot? In fact, if he had bet $2,000, I would have folded for sure and Ho would have won the pot. As for my $900 call on the turn, I like it. In fact, I was on the verge of folding my hand, but it suddenly hit me that Ho didn't have a straight. You see, I couldn't put Ho on A-K (I know that he would have reraised it himself before the flop with A-K), and it was hard to imagine that he had K-9. Thus, I called the bet, believing that Ho had two pair - perhaps queens and tens or jacks and tens - not a straight. I believed that I needed an 8 or a king to win the pot, and that I had all eight outs left. If I had eight outs, I was almost a 5-to-1 underdog (38-to-8). In fact, knowing the other two hands, I had six outs, and was a 6-to-1 underdog (36-to-6). On the end, I made a huge mistake by not only betting quickly (a sign of strength), but also betting everything I had left (another sign of strength). I should have taken my time and bet about $500 or so.
I quit at a little after midnight, up $1,450 for the session, although I had been up almost $8,000 a few hours earlier. You see, I "forgot" to win a single pot in the last 80-120 minutes that I played in the game, culminated by my wife's arrival ("Honey, let's go") and Big Jon Green cracking my pocket aces with K-J (K-5-2-3-K). In Green's defense, I did check-call the turn with my aces - trying to trap him for a big bet on the river. In any case, I love the game, I love the guys, and I'll be back!
