Phil’s A-Q Gets Lucky

OK, I may owe a gentleman out there somewhere a signed book. With four tables left in a $1,500 buy-in no-limit hold’em tournament, the following hand came up. A little history: I hadn’t been winning many pots during the 90 minutes before this hand came up, but I had enough chips not to panic. With the blinds at 1,500-3,000, I opened for 8,000 from middle position with the A Q, and the gentleman in the big blind called. The flop was A J 4, the gentleman checked, I bet 6,000, and he made it 16,000 to go. I called, and the turn card was the 6. He bet 20,000, and I called. The river was the Q, he checked, and I checked. Even though the gentleman was supposed to show his hand first, I always turn over my hand quickly when I think it’s a winner, so as not to slow-roll my opponent.

One pet peeve that I have with some of the new-generation players is their total disregard for poker etiquette. In golf, you wouldn’t shout in the middle of someone else’s backswing, and slow-rolling is something akin to that on the scale of etiquette breaches. A slow-roll occurs when someone bets the strongest possible hand (or one of them), gets called by an opponent, and then hesitates for three seconds or longer before showing the obvious winning hand. This gives false hope to the player who called, that he indeed has won the pot. In the old days, if one player slow-rolled another player, it was newsworthy. The violated player would tell the poker world what had happened to him (“He shouted in my backswing!”), and the other players in the poker world would confront the offender, asking, “Why did you slow-roll him?”

In any case, the gentleman folded his hand facedown, and then we went on a 20-minute break. While leaving the table, this gentleman insisted that he had not only A-K, but also the K — meaning that I could win only with a non-diamond queen, of which there were two left (the Q and the Q). Many times, players lie about their hands — it’s standard practice — but this guy swore on his life that he had it, and it was easy to see that he meant it.

Let’s take a closer look at this hand. I like my opening bet of 8,000; anything close to three times the big blind is OK, although on the Net these days, they open for more like 2.2 times the big blind (6,600 in this case). I do not like his smooth-call with A-K. I usually reraise with A-K, figuring that I will win the pot 80 percent of the time right then and there; there’s nothing wrong with taking down the pot risk-free. However, his smooth-call was OK.

I like my little 6,000 bet on the flop. I could have anything with this size bet, and I do not want him to fold a hand like the A 10. I like his 10,000 raise on the flop. If he’s going to smooth-call before the flop and take that line of play, he might as well raise my flop bet to make me pay to see the turn card that could beat him (like the 10 if I have the 10 10, or a non-diamond 10 if I have the K Q).

I like the gentleman’s check on the river, although I may have made a small bet. I hate my check on the river! I hit a 20-to-1 shot, and then I checked? I made top two pair, and then I checked? It was unlikely that my opponent was going for another check-raise. It also was unlikely that he checked a flush or a set of fours here, so why not bet? I should have fired at least 20,000, and perhaps as much as 40,000. In any case, I told that gentleman that I would give him a signed book, and I’m not sure that it was delivered!

Learn more about Phil by going to his website, www.PhilHellmuth.com, and visit his webstore at www.PokerBrat.com.