Eva Longoria Parker’s a Queen!

Once a year, the paparazzi descend upon San Antonio, Texas, for a poker tournament, and everyone there loves it. Normally, Eva and Tony Parker might not appreciate being in the spotlight away from their “work” (Tony is a perennial NBA all-star guard for the San Antonio Spurs, and Eva was voted “the world’s most beautiful woman” several times by People magazine and is the star of Desperate Housewives), but in this case, it was great, because the press was there for “Eva’s Heroes” (www.Evasheroes.org). Eva’s Heroes raises money for intellectually disabled children, and the poker tournament that the Parkers host as the main event of their “Celebrity Casino Night” brings in hundreds of thousands of dollars. My younger sister Ann is intellectually disabled, and she is a Special Olympics girl, so the Eva’s Heroes charity is pretty close to my heart. I emceed the Celebrity Casino Night, and I put a few videos up at my twitter address (www.twitter.com/phil_hellmuth) — featuring Parker, Tim Duncan, country-music star Sara Evans, and NBC poker hostess Leeann Tweeden — that are pretty sick!

One of the things that I love about Eva is that she takes her poker very seriously. She is a skilled Texas hold’em player, a real competitor, and absolutely plays to win. You should have seen her play poker against her husband, Tony, and his two brothers. What a war! In any case, about two hours into the tournament, with the blinds at 500-1,000, Player A, in middle position, opened for 3,000 with A-8. Eva, from the button, moved all in for her last 11,000, and Player B — in the small blind — called off his last 9,000 with A-J. After a minute, Player A called the 11,000, and the hands were flipped up. Two queens for the queen! The board ran out 10-9-4-4-7, and Eva’s pocket queens scooped a big pot.

Let’s take a closer look at this hand. Player A’s open for 3,000 with A-8 is OK, and a fold would have been OK, as well. I would lean more toward the fold, especially in a charity tournament, because you know that you will get called. And when you know that you will get called, you must hit your hand, and A-8 is a hard hand to hit. Eva’s 11,000 all-in move is pretty standard. I hate Player B’s 9,000 call. Why get involved? He has only 500 in the pot with his small blind, and Eva is a very patient player, so there is no way that A-J is the best hand. Simply fold A-J in this spot. As for Player A’s 8,000 call with A-8 offsuit, I do not like it, but it is close. In defense of the call, the pot was laying Player A 3-1 odds on the call (he could call 8,000 to win 24,000: Eva’s 11,000 + B’s 9,000 + A’s 3,000 + the big blind of 1,000). However, Player A must be a bigger underdog than that, right? In fact, I believe that at least 80 percent of the time, Player A would be more than a 3-1 underdog, so I like the fold. I mean, if you’re Player A, what do you expect your opponents to have here that would make you less than a 3-1 underdog? A call or a fold here is a personal style thing. If you like to gamble, call. If you don’t mind surrendering some of your edge, call. If you think you’re one of the worst poker players at the table, call. If you have a plane to catch soon, call. But if you want to push your chips into the pot in a good or great situation, fold and wait for a better spot, which shouldn’t be hard to do in a charity tournament. Thus, I would have folded the A-8 and tried to stick that 8,000 into a pot in which I felt I had a big edge.

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