Bay 101, Bad Play, Bad Beat

The World Poker Tour came to the Bay Area in early March, and I was fired up! First, the host casino -- Bay 101 in San Jose -- is in my backyard. And second, I had just made the final table of the WPT event in L.A. 10 days earlier. So, I was feeling like I was at the peak of my powers, and I had the added bonus of being able to sleep in my own bed. As I drove to play in the tournament (more than two hours late!), I received a text message from John Juanda, saying that he was betting a lot of money on me to win. I believed that Juanda had made a good bet, because when I begin to catch my stride in tourneys, I usually stay in "form" for a month or two. I knew that I was in form, partly because I had a clear blueprint in my head of how to win. The day-one part of that blueprint is this: make it to the end of the day by playing patiently and avoiding big pots.

About an hour after I arrived at the tournament, I was sitting on my starting chip stack of 20,000 when the following hand came up. With the blinds at 150-300, five players limped in, and I called 75 more from the small blind with the 9 6. The flop was Q 9 2. All of us checked, and the turn card was the 4. I bet out 1,100, and everyone folded except Alex (a local player and a nice guy), who made it 3,600 to go. I studied for a moment, and thought that Alex probably had a weak hand that included the A, which would give him a draw to an ace-high flush. One reason that I believed he was weak was that he had played five out of the last seven hands, and hadn't shown any of his holecards. Thus, I assumed that he was loose and reckless. So, I called the additional 2,500. The river was the 9, and I checked. Alex bet 7,000, and I called him right away. Oops! He flipped up the A 10 (the nut flush!), and I had made a bad call. I had put 2,500 more into the pot with second pair, with not a winning card in the deck, and then hit a 9 to pay off another 7,000. (Yuck, I hate my play here!) Was the 9 on the river an unlucky card? Yes, but I should have seen the strength in Alex's eyes, and folded my hand on fourth street to the 2,500 raise. I simply made a bad read, period -- and it cost me half of my chips. If you're going to risk that kind of money with second pair, you'd better have a strong read that your opponent is weak.

Then, with the blinds at 150-300, five people limped in and I checked with 6-6 in the big blind. The flop was A 9 6, I checked, and, surprisingly, everyone else checked. The turn card was the 5, and we all checked to Kent Washington (on the button), who bet 1,200. I merely called. The player directly to my left -- Eric Cloutier -- who had limped in from first position, then made it 5,000 to go. Washington called 3,800 more, and I called for Tournament Director Matt Savage to come over to the table. In the Shooting Star tournament, if you take out a designated star, you win $5,000 in cash. Along with that, whenever a star is all in, the hands are flipped faceup and announced to the crowd and the players.

This brings back some bad memories, of me having K-K versus 9-9 and Savage announcing, "The flop is K-9-9!" And another year, at the final table, Savage announced, "Phil is all in with nines versus K-3; the flop is K-K-2, and a 3 on the turn ends it!" Or, last year, with 10 minutes left on day one, Savage announced, "Hellmuth is all in with A-K, but his opponent has aces!" That's enough of that; let's get back to the story.

After a brief moment, I moved all in for 5,600 more, and Cloutier folded. Washington called 5,600 more with the 10 8, and had 10 outs: He needed one of seven hearts (he couldn't hit the 5 or the 6) to make a flush, or one of three sevens to complete a straight. So, I had 34 wins to his 10 wins. The last card was the 4, and I lost the pot.

What happened in this hand? I don't mind the way that anyone played it. I like the checks on the flop. Washington's 1,200 bet on the turn was OK. My call was designed to do two things: first, to lose less just in case I had the worst hand, and second, to trap someone into losing more money. The trap worked perfectly, as Cloutier made a big bluff at the pot. When Washington called the 3,800, and didn't reraise, I was pretty sure that I had him beat. Now, all I had to worry about was whether Cloutier had me beat, and that didn't seem likely. So, I love my all-in move, and I do not have a problem with Washington's 5,600 call. After all, there was a $5,000 cash bounty on my head, and it looked like he had at least 10 cards that he could hit to win the pot. Mathematically, it cost him 5,600 to win roughly 22,400. So, Washington was getting good pot odds -- 22,400 to 5,600 (4-to-1) -- when he was at worst a 3.4-to-1 underdog. I was enormously disappointed, as I wanted to show my hometown of the Bay Area what I could do. Oh well, maybe next year!