At the beginning of March, the
World Poker Tour held its annual event in my backyard - at Bay 101 in San Jose - and I believed I was ready to play some great poker. I had just won four heats out of seven (with six players each in them) in England, and I had a close call in Tunica at the last
WPT event that I played. I came in my customary 90 minutes late and began my day by using extremely tight tactics. Why not play a very patient strategy, especially up here in NorCal, where they're known to play big pots with weak hands? Another reason to play patiently was that this was a bounty tournament, and I was a bounty; anyone who knocked me out would win $5,000 in cash. Of course, this caused more players to play more pots against me, in order to try to bust me.
As the day progressed, I steadily built my chips up in a risk-free manner. Whenever I say that I steadily build my chips up in a risk-free manner, I am running my chips up while playing small pots and avoiding serious risk - and I am on top of my game and happy with my play. After never being all in all day long and never playing any huge pots, I finally got tangled up in a big pot, late on day one.
With the blinds at $500-$1,000, I raised to $2,800 with A-K on the button. The player in the small blind reraised $5,200 more, making it $8,000 to go. When I first saw my A-K, knowing that I had been raising a lot of pots over the last hour, I was hoping that one of the blinds would reraise me so that I could move all in and he could fold his hand: game, set, match. The game plan was set, or so it seemed. However, as I reached for my chips to move all in, per my preconceived plan, the guy in the small blind flinched, and something started to smell fishy. I then asked him, "You have pocket aces, don't you?"
He replied, "Do I need pocket aces?" This comment threw me off a bit, but my initial reaction was that he had pocket aces.
I remembered that as I hit the parking lot a few minutes later - after I had busted out of the tournament; after I had moved all in; and after he had called me and showed me what I knew he would show me: pocket aces. I also remember thinking, in the middle of the hand, "No way am I this unlucky; there is no way that he has pocket aces here."
Was I extremely unlucky to pick up A-K on the button and run into A-A in the small blind? Yes. Was it even more unlucky a situation for me, as I had been raising before the flop quite often over the last hour? Yes, because that meant that another player would reraise me with a relatively weak hand, thinking that I was weak. Still, I simply could have folded my hand. One thing that all of the great poker players have is the ability to "know" (have a very strong read) when an opponent has the best possible hand. There is no other situation quite like it in poker, and the great ones can smell it a mile away. I did smell it, but I did not believe it! So, instead of making a great fold, I moved all in - sigh! I certainly missed a good opportunity to be a superhero.
I want to briefly discuss the tactics that I frequently employ in championship-level poker tournaments. Why do I play extremely patiently a lot of the time before the flop? Simply because it makes my life a lot easier after the flop. When I play hands like the J
8
, 10
9
, or A
3
before the flop for a raise, I find myself in a lot of unfavorable positions after the flop. For example, I may have the 10
9
, the flop comes down J-10-4, and my opponent bets out big; now, what should I do? I may be in bad shape - for example, if my opponent has a jack in his hand, or an overpair, or a 10 with a higher kicker (that's ugly), or, the worst-case scenario is that he may have a set. And even if I have the best hand here, my opponent may have K-Q, and I'm only a small favorite to win the pot. Another example is when you have the A
3
and the flop comes down A-10-9. Yes, you have hit the ace, but you cannot play a very big pot from here on out and expect to have the best hand. Now, what should you do? Playing these types of hands puts your reading ability to the test over and over again.
On the other hand, there are a lot of top players who do play these types of hands successfully, and when they do hit the 9-6-5 flop to their 8-7 and win a huge pot, they look like geniuses. (Let's be clear, some of these guys are geniuses!) Patrik Antonius, Daniel Negreanu, and a few others seem to use this style of play and win big with it. So, if you do want to play high-level poker and these types of hands, expect big swings, but the rewards also can be huge. It's just not my style of play.
Playing a lot of suited-connector hands preflop like the 8
7
puts a lot of pressure on you to read your opponents, can work like a charm if you're a world-class player, and is a dangerous way for a beginner to play.
