Reno

I concluded my last column with 13 players left in the $3,000 World Poker Challenge event, which was paying nine spots, and James Van Alstyne had just been moved to my right. I was third in chips, and James was either first or second. James is a very aggressive player, and I made up my mind right away that I wasn’t going to relinquish control of my table without a fight.

I didn’t have to wait long. On the second hand dealt to him, which was his small blind and my big blind, James raised. I looked down at pocket sevens, which is kind of a trouble hand in this spot. I don’t remember the blinds, but he raised like three and a half times my big blind, and I had a stack of more than 10 times his raise.

It’s possible to just call in this spot and try to flop a set or get a ragged flop to continue with, but it’s difficult when the flop comes K-J-9. Then, you feel like a fool when you get bet out of the pot and shown A-2. So, I decided to just make a huge overraise here (which I’m usually not a fan of). It worked, and I won the hand.

The very next hand, James raised again, from the button this time. (For those of you with short memories, this would place me in the small blind.) I looked down at an ace. I sweat my other card, and there was nothing across (meaning it was an ace, deuce, or trey). I sweat it a little further, and saw what looked like an ink spot toward the middle.

I stopped immediately, as I didn’t want to know for sure (but I was pretty confident that it was another ace). I quickly announced that I was all in, and James went into the tank for a long time. He counted and separated the call to see what he’d have left. He was deep, but so was I, and he was going to be crippled and a short stack if he called me and lost.

He called, and I told him I was 80 percent sure that I had aces. I flipped my cards up, and lo and behold … A-2! The ink spot I thought I saw had been dirt, not the ink of the A. James turned over pocket sixes. Wow! They held up, and I was out.

He put his entire tournament life on the line with a hand like that! I know that a lot of you are thinking, “Well, you put your tournament life on the line with a hand worse than that.” You’re right, but it’s not the same thing, and I’ll explain why.

First and foremost, I raised and he called. That’s all the difference of night and day. Anytime you raise or bet with any two cards, you have a chance of winning right there; if you get called, it’s like you’re getting a second chance to win by making the best hand.

Next, I still had the potential to have the best hand (pocket aces), by the way that I sweated my hand. (By the way, you do this by turning your card lengthwise and pulling up both corners slowly. A paint is a jack, queen, or king. Four spots across the top is a 9 or 10; three across is a 6, 7, or 8; two across is a 4 or 5; and nothing across the top is a deuce, trey, or ace.) There are several reasons to do this; one is that it makes it hard for your opponent to get a read on you if you don’t know exactly what you have yourself. And, it makes it easier to make bold plays, as I did here.

I still like my play, even though it didn’t work out for me. I believe that it should have, if James had played his hand (what I believe to be) correctly. You see, it’s just so highly unlikely that he could be any kind of a favorite here (although this was the one in 50 times that he was). His hand is dominated by eight of the 12 other pairs (2-1), and I’m just not likely to shove all in with a pair smaller than sixes. I’d rather pick J-10 suited, or something like that.

The one thought that may have been going through his head that would make calling not completely stupid was that this tournament was so top-heavy that you needed to make the top three for a decent payday. A big gamble won here made him the overwhelming chip leader, and should have just about guaranteed him a spot in the top three. Well, I think it would have for me, anyway; James finished fourth.

The main event started two days later, and got off to an interesting start. They allowed players to sign up two hours late. Fortunately, I happened to be on time for once, and it paid off in spades. You see, they put down 10 full stacks at three tables, even though they had only about 12 players there at the starting time. This meant that there were only three other players at my table, and six unguarded stacks being blinded off.

The larceny in me took over, and I proceeded to raise every pot that wasn’t raised in front of me. One player behind me got sick of this and tried to take a stand, but when I flopped an open-end straight draw, I bet him off his unpaired high cards. I could tell that he was itchin’ for a fight, and it didn’t take long.

I raised again, and he called from the small blind. I held K-Q suited, and the flop came K-Q-X. He check-raised me, and I just called. A jack on the turn was slightly scary, but I raised his bet anyway, and he reraised. Hmm. This was gonna hurt if he had flopped a set or turned a gutshot straight.

I decided to call and make sure nothing ridiculous came on the end, like a 10 or jack. The river brought a blank, and he moved all in. Well, if he’s got me, he’s got me, I thought to myself, and called. He showed me pocket aces, and I showed him the exit door.

I was now almost tripled up and had high hopes of winning something — finally, this year. But, I went semi-card-dead for the next few levels after the dinner break, and the other stacks began to catch up, as more than half of the players had by now busted out. I had been fairly snug in my play, at least compared to how things had started off, when this happened:

A player in middle position raised my blind. It was a standard raise, so it didn’t cost me much to call with the A 9. The flop came Q-9-4 with two hearts. I really like this type of hand, as it matches up pretty well against just about anything. Only a set can really have this hand dominated, at around 2.5-1, and guess what I ran into? Bye-bye, Reno; hello, San Jose.