"God Save the Queen," and all of her subjects who play poker. These guys are gonna need divine intervention if they hope to stay in money. Maybe I'll just start all of my columns like this from now on. What do you think?
Let's see … where did I leave off? Oh yeah, the PLO event. That's pot-limit Omaha for those of you who think poker is just no-limit hold'em. It's played like hold'em, but you get four holecards and have to use two of them. If you need any more of an explanation, pick up
Super System 2 and I'll let Bobby Baldwin and Mark Gregorich explain it for me.
The start of the tourney was uneventful for me. I coasted through dinner with a few more chips than I started with, when I got
moved to a great table. Gus Hansen was there, playing every pot, and he wasn't the only one. Besides several action players I knew, there were some I didn't know who quickly found their way onto my "slightly goofy" list. I knew that if I could make a few hands here, this could be my spot to accumulate a huge stack.
After about 30 minutes, and having watched Gus win and lose about 100,000, I finally picked up the hand I had been waiting for - Q-J-10-9 double-suited. I was in middle position and a player who fell into my slightly goofy category limped in from under the gun. Normally, I would hesitate raising with this type of hand in this situation. I'm always leery of an early limper, fearing that he may be trapping with aces. With this hand, I welcome multiway action. I don't want to put a ton of money in preflop, heads up against obvious aces, although I will if I have to.
This time, in this game, having categorized him as I had, and with this big a hand, I disregarded this red flag and raised the pot. I was happy to pick up several hitchhikers behind me, as well as both blinds. Now, the moment of truth; if the under-the-gun limper raises the pot, I think I'm pot-committed with so much already in there. Even though I have the worst hand, it's very close if we don't share suits.
It looked awfully good when he didn't even hesitate and just called. It looked even better when the flop came out 9
8
2
. Not only did I have top pair and a wrap, but considering that I held the J
10
, I also had a straight-flush draw to go with it!
When the first player bet the pot and the limper called, I was thinking it couldn't get much better than this. I raised and didn't have a whole lot left. When the other players dropped, the original bettor looked at my stack and reraised the pot. The limper didn't think more than two seconds before quickly calling off all of his chips, and that was a big bet, as he had a lot more chips than I had.
Obviously, I have a lot of cards that will improve my hand, but I can't know how many until I see the other hands. If one player has the nut-flush draw and the other has trips, I can't win with a spade that doesn't give me the straight flush. I also can't win if the board pairs unless, again, I hit the straight flush.
The first player turned over a hand that I expected to see, although it was much more ragged than I thought it would be: A
K
Q
5
. This killed all of my spades except the 7
, my "kill card." (A kill card is a card you can hit that will shut your opponents out, winning the pot right there.)
Now it all rides on what my other opponent, the original limper, has. If he shares the same wrap draw as mine, my hand's about dead to a split. If he has a smaller straight draw, I'll have him all but dead. If he has a set? Well, then it's a three-way race. The best scenario I could hope for in this spot is that he has two dry aces, but that can't be possible; remember, he just limped in, then called a raise with several other players in the pot.
Well, I guess I should have said
shouldn't be possible instead of can't be possible, because, lo and behold, this slightly goofy player (who'd now been upgraded to a full-blown goofball) turned over the A
A
J
7
. Now do you see why I started this series of columns as I did? This is one of the worst plays I have ever seen.
The guy limped in from under the gun with aces. I raised and four players called. That's the spot you dream of when finding yourself in with aces. Now, instead of back-raising, he just calls and then calls a double raise when he flops a backdoor-flush draw and the idiot end of a gutshot draw, which would be no good if he made it, as I would have made a bigger straight!
As bad as his hand is here, he has about a 29 percent chance to win the pot. Luckily for him, my other opponent and I were both going for spades, and no one even had aces beat yet. Someone is supposed to have two pair or trips here, and then he would be down to a few percent chance to win.
We're all holding our breath as the turn card is burned and turned - the 9
! This isn't a straight flush, but it not only gives me the best hand, but kills many of my opponent's outs who was drawing to the bigger flush. I jump from a 43 percent to almost 70 percent chance to win this monster pot!
I'm already mentally counting the pot when the dealer puts the river up, the harmless-looking 3
. It takes me (and the rest of the table) about three or four seconds to realize that the player with the aces has backdoored a flush. I can hardly speak, but somehow manage to mumble, "Nice hand, you limey bastard." (OK, I didn't say the last half. I was too shocked to even think it.) This guy not only needed divine intervention, he got it!
Oh well, on to the main event. Hang on a second while I check the word count here … 1,099. Hmm, let's see. Can I sum this up in 101 words? I think so. Wait! I just burned up about 30 more debating this. I'm down to about 70 now. I guess there's gonna be a Part IV to this series, and it's starting to feel like I'll never get out of England. As Michael Corleone said, "Every time I think I'm out, they pull me back in!"
