Beat Taken, Lesson Learned

The $2,500 no-limit hold'em event at the World Series of Poker this year (won by Phi Nguyen) attracted a field of 259 players, many of whom won their seats via satellites. A few years ago, after the $2,000 buy-in no-limit hold'em tournament, I received a letter from a reader who was still feeling the agony of defeat from getting drawn out on when he had the best hand. "I was on the button with pocket kings," he began his story. "I had about $8,000 in chips, the blinds were $200-$400, and I made a small raise of $400, trying not to scare off the blinds. The small blind folded and the big blind, who had about $9,000 in chips, raised $1,600. I reraised $8,000 all in and he called. I thought he probably had an ace, but judging from his actions and his strong raise, I didn't think he had pocket aces. He showed me the Q J. A club came on the flop, another one appeared on the turn, and a third came on the river to give him a flush and send me to the rail. With his hand, I figure he had only a 4 percent chance of beating me after the flop. Did I make the correct decision, or should I have played this hand differently?"

You might have made a slightly bigger starting raise with the pocket kings; for example, $1,200 to go in this situation as opposed to $800. I like to bring it in for a standard raise of between three and four times the amount of the big blind. You would like to get a little action on your kings. When your opponent plays back at you, the only hand that can beat you before the flop, of course, is pocket aces. I am fairly fatalistic about this sort of thing. When I run into pocket aces against my pocket kings before the flop, and I have played them strongly, I usually am just going to have to go broke with them. So, I would have played back before the flop in just about every situation I can think of to try to win the pot right there. You simply experienced what every poker player runs into in tournaments, a bad beat.

If your opponent had made the proper play and laid down his hand, he wouldn't even have seen the flop, but obviously, he was willing to gamble. His reraise wasn't so bad against a rather timid $800 bet by the button. He might have thought he could steal it from you if you didn't have much of a hand. But when you played back for all of your chips, it should have been clear to the big blind that he should fold, because the risk of losing with a Q-J was so great. He should have known there was virtually no hand you could have that he would be the favorite against. Furthermore, he should've realized that if he lost the hand, he would be crippled, going from $9,000 to $1,000 in chips, putting him in bad shape. But your opponent obviously wasn't thinking in those terms.

The reader who took this beat said he was surprised to see that the players at the WSOP were typical of what he finds in the less important, smaller buy-in tournaments he plays. "I saw some great players and some bad players, but mostly average players. I was really expecting all players to be great players," he said. Although you are going to find the world's greatest players participating in many of the events at the WSOP, it is a misconception that all the players are world-class. The tremendous diversity in the playing styles and skills that you find at the Series is due in large part to the satellite system. Players who are average, inexperienced, loose, tight, world-class, reckless, conservative, amateurs, or pros can win a satellite. And many WSOP entrants these days get into the events through satellite wins.

You'll see the entire gamut of player expertise at the WSOP, but what sets it apart from the other tournaments is that, competing at virtually every table, you will find players who have distinguished themselves in the fields of battle – players who have won WSOP bracelets or have had high-money WSOP finishes, or have won other major tournaments. Poker is unique in that amateur players are actively encouraged to compete against pros, whereas this certainly is not true of other sports. The only criterion in a poker tournament, of course, is that you post the buy-in. And in today's satellite-oriented tournament system, you don't even have to pay full price for your seat – you can win it at a bargain price via a satellite. 1991 World Poker Champion Brad Daugherty and I currently are writing a book on satellite strategy that we believe will get you to the winner's circle a lot cheaper (and a lot faster) than you ever imagined. And, of course, I hope to meet you there one day soon.

Editor's note: Tom McEvoy is the author of Tournament Poker and the co-author, with Brad Daugherty, of the upcoming Championship Satellite Strategy (due out in August). For more information, visit www.pokerbooks.com.