After building my stack from $10,000 to $10,900 in the early stages of the
Betfair Asian Poker Tour main event, it seemed like there was nothing for me to worry about. But, worry I did, as I had already misplayed two premium hands by going for the fancy and complicated moves when just straightforward betting could have made me much more money.
Failed Fancy Play Costs Half a Stack
Then I got involved with the strong Lee Nelson, co-author of the excellent
Kill Phil book. In the cutoff position, as the first one in, with the blinds still just $50-$100, he had made it $300 to go. Holding the K
Q
on the button, I seemed to have an automatic reraise, knowing that Lee could be opening with a very wide range of hands here. But because the money was so deep, because I had good position, and because making a standard reraise to around $1,000 would be opening myself up to a reraise that my hand probably couldn't stand, I decided to just call. Both blinds folded, and the flop came Q
10
4
, giving me top pair, decent kicker. Lee bet out $850, and after some deliberation, I decided to flat-call, knowing that my hand had a very good chance of being the best. The turn brought an awful-looking jack, and when Lee checked, I decided to check it back. Then, when a blank came on the river, he bet out $1,500. I went into the tank. For all the world, this looked like a value-bet, whereby quite possibly, Lee's check on the turn had been a trap. On the other hand, I knew that he knew that - based on my earlier plays - I easily could have flat-called before the flop with A-K; on top of that, it was a hand that would be consistent with my flop play, and to a lesser degree, also my turn play. Also, I knew that if he was value-betting with hands like A-A, K-K, or A-K, and maybe even J-10, he almost certainly would fold to a raise. So, in the end I decided to go for it, and made it $5,025 total. But, alas, Lee called me fairly quickly, holding 9-8 for a straight.
I simply had gotten outplayed here, having wasted $5,025 on a raise that I shouldn't have made. Heck, I lost money on a hand with which I should have made money, had I done the obvious (either reraising before the flop or raising on the flop).
My stack now down to $4,725, I knew that it was time to change gears and start playing better. I continued to play tight, but started using my "specialty" more (reraising a loose raiser on total air to make him fold the best hand there and then). After I had been transferred to a juicy table where I continued to win small pots uncontested, I worked my way back to more than $10,000 without ever being all in. I felt good again about my prospects.
Ace Fancy-Plays Himself to the Rail
But then, I fancy-played myself to the rail. With blinds of $150-$300 and a $25 ante, I already had made two massive - and successful, because uncontested - overbets, and I didn't want to become
too predictable this early in the event. So, when everyone folded to the small blind, who called, and I found A-J offsuit in the big blind, I did what I normally wouldn't do: check.
The flop came 4
3
2
, and the small blind instantly bet $800 into the $850 pot. I contemplated my best move. Holding the A
, I knew that I had a key card in the deck. What's more, inasmuch as many players would automatically go for the steal after the flop in a blinds-only/unraised-pot situation, and based on the unlikelihood of the small blind having a hand with which he could stand any heat, I decided that folding would be giving him a bit too much credit here. Also, it should have been clear that as the big blind in an unraised pot, this was exactly the type of flop that very well could have helped
me.
I decided not to mess around. Thinking that if I raised big, my opponent would fold any pair with no extras, any gutshot-straight draw, and almost certainly any open-end straight draw as long as it had no pair to go with it, I decided to make a massive raise, to about $8,000. I was thinking that almost regardless of my opponent's hand, even if I was called (say, by something like a pair or a flush draw), I would not be dead. Nothing could be further from the truth. He put me all in for $3,100 more, and I called because of my tremendous odds (which I had created myself with my massive raise). My opponent showed 6-5 for the nut straight, and I was drawing dead to a runner-runner flush that I didn't get.
Afterthought
When I left the table, I thought about all of the fancy plays I had made during the day, and most of them had gone sour: the A-A I had limped in with when I should have raised; the Q-Q that I should have bet and raised instead of checked; the K
Q
that I should have reraised preflop, raised on the flop, and folded on the river; and, finally, the A-J with which I simply could have picked up the pot by raising before the flop, but instead chose to do otherwise.
Sometimes it is correct to play a bit creatively and trickily; after all, without doing so, one could never be a winning player. But what I had done was let my opponents catch up on a regular basis, give them free cards when there was no need to, and then give them excessive action once they had made their hands. In other words, I had played some truly awful poker - and knew that my early elimination was a well-deserved one.
Rolf has been a professional cash-game player since 1998. He is the author of the successful Secrets of Professional Pot-Limit Omaha, and the co-author of Hold'em on the Come. He is the creator and presenter of the hold'em four-DVD set, Rolf Slotboom's Winning Plays. He is the first-ever Dutch Champion, and maintains his own site at www.rolfslotboom.com.
