I'm a believer - well, not really. I can get as stubborn as the most mulish of players, and when heads-up, have never managed to pass kings preflop (satellites excluded). However, someone once told me that if I passed when another player raised or reraised me, both my wallet and chip stack would be healthier for it. Basically, although he's right, I would be the first to admit that judicious folding would not be too high on my list of priorities. So, when my better half called me over to watch a hand being played between Daniel Negreanu and Erick Lindgren during a high-stakes poker game being aired on the Net, I was intrigued.
The game was no-limit hold'em. Negreanu had 10-9 and Lindgren was holding pocket eights. Negreanu raised to $2,000 preflop and Lindgren called. The flop was Q-J-8, giving Negreanu the nut straight and Lindgren bottom set. The former bet and the latter called. The turn brought another 8, and once more, Negreanu came out betting, causing Lindgren to go into the think tank for almost two minutes before finally calling. What an actor! The river was an irrelevant ace and again Negreanu came out betting. This time, Lindgren took a little less time before moving all in, forcing his opponent to take his turn in the think tank. I'm not quite sure of the figures involved, but Negreanu's river bet was around $20,000 and Lindgren's raise was an additional $70,000, creating a pot of about a quarter of a million dollars. At this point, the commentators quite rightly pointed out that instead of asking himself what hand Lindgren could be holding, Negreanu should be asking, "What hand can I beat?" Quite surprisingly, he didn't do that, and after a lot of pondering, eventually called. He just couldn't believe that his nuts on the flop had gotten busted.
Another world-class tournament player is John Bonetti, but on this occasion, he was definitely a nonbeliever. We were down to the last three tables in a no-limit hold'em tournament during the
World Series of Poker (all of us were in the money). A player raised from middle position and Bonetti (the small blind) reraised, only to find the big blind reraising him all in. Now, this last player had just doubled up after finding aces, and prior to that had not played a hand in more than an hour. He was the proverbial rock. Well, it doesn't take a genius to work out what he had, so the first raiser passed, but Bonetti just shrugged his shoulders and said to the whole table, "I know I'm behind, but … ," and shoved his chips in the middle. Sure enough, the rock had aces and Bonetti turned over queens, at which point the original raiser announced that he had just passed A-Q. Needless to say, Bonetti spiked the last queen! He shouldn't have called the all-in reraise, as he was not pot-committed and would have been virtually wiped out had he lost. If ever a player telegraphed his hand, it was that hapless rock.
However painful it is, sometimes you just have to retreat so that you can fight another day, and you would expect Patrik Antonius to know that mantra by heart. However, on this occasion, he wasn't that focused. It was in the first William Hill televised
Grand Prix, and still in the first level. He raised moderately with kings and got called by Brian Wilson. The flop came with an open pair of sixes and a rag. Antonius bet and was immediately raised. He called and then checked the turn (which was another rag), but when Wilson went all in, he called instantly, only to discover that he was behind to a set of sixes. It was a very early bath for Antonius.
Sometimes, the way a hand develops makes it very hard to pass, but in these three examples, surely it was obvious that each of these world-class players was in mortal danger and basically could beat only a bluff. So, all in all, the player who advised me to eat humble pie if ever I got raised was right. He wanted to win the war, not each individual battle. So, in 2007, I'm going to be a believer (I think).
Lucy has been playing poker for 20 years and has won more than $1 million in tournament prize money all over the world. She prefers playing pot-limit Omaha and pot-limit seven-card stud eight-or-better.
