Sometimes, Second Place Ain't So Bad

Four of us were left in a no-limit hold'em tournament. We had been playing fourhanded for about 45 minutes, and no one was going quietly into the night (or late afternoon, as it were). Since no one had been eliminated for a while, the blinds had escalated drastically in comparison to our stacks, making every hand an important decision. That's when the following situation came up:

The blinds were $6,000-$12,000. I was under the gun (UTG) with about $30,000 in chips. The button had me covered, but with only about $35,000 in front of him. The small blind (SB) had just won a big hand and had about $90,000. The big blind (BB) had been the unfortunate loser of that hand, so he was down to $15,000. Having to put out a $2,000 ante and a $12,000 BB, he was reduced to a single, lonely $1,000 chip sitting in front of him. The cards were dealt, and I looked down at A-3 offsuit. I was certainly hoping for something a little better, but when you're shorthanded, you take what you can get.

I weighed my options. Folding was a possibility, but it would definitely be my weakest play. I would be stuck putting almost half of my stack in as the BB on the next hand, and I probably wouldn't get anything as good as ace high. And by folding, I'd be leaving it up to the button or the SB to find a hand that would eliminate the BB, rather than trying to do it myself. Maybe one of them would happen to have a real hand, but I couldn't count on that. And since A-3 stood to be significantly better than the random hand the BB was holding, I decided to play.

So, was there any reason to call rather than raise? If my top priority was to eliminate the BB, I might want to call and entice one of the other two players to call behind me, and thus increase the chances of knocking out the BB. But, if I let one of my opponents in and he won the hand, I would be severely short-stacked, and my chances of finishing higher than third would be slim. As it was, a quick look at the prize structure made my decision easy.

Fourth place was about $400 and third place was roughly $500. But then, second place jumped to $900 and first place was $1,700. In other words, while lots of tournaments put the bulk of the prize money in the top three spots, this one was heavy for only the top two places. Therefore, it was not as big a priority for me to have the BB eliminated as much as it was for me to be the one who eliminated him. Thus, I decided to raise all in, hoping to get heads up with the BB. As I said, I was a clear favorite against a random hand, and even if I lost, I would still have $17,000 left. I could still get lucky the next hand, when most of my money would be in as the BB.

Unfortunately, there's a saying about the best-laid plans of mice, men, and poker players. After I pushed all in, the button studied the situation for a few moments. Then, he decided to move his $35,000 all in. Naturally, I didn't like that one bit, but then it got worse. The SB didn't take long in calling the $35,000! My first thought was that I wished I had somehow managed to fold my ace-rag preflop. My second thought was that I hoped the BB wouldn't realize his correct play.

Unfortunately for me, he knew exactly what he was doing and folded his hand, leaving him with exactly $1,000! The opportunity to make that type of play doesn't come up too often, so it's important to recognize it and take advantage of it when it does. To his credit, that's exactly what he did. He forfeited his chance of winning the tournament, but to have any hope of winning, he would have had to win this hand. Since all three of his opponents had already shown strength, he could not have liked those odds. However, his chances for finishing second skyrocketed. The action in the hand definitely suggested that the SB had the best hand of the three of us involved. After all, I didn't need much of a hand to move all in from UTG. The button needed only slightly more than I did to do the same. But the SB would need a significantly stronger hand to get involved with both of us. And if the SB managed to win the hand, the BB would sneak into second place. The bulk of the prize money was in the top two spots, so folding and saving his last $1,000 was clearly his best chance at the premium prize money.

As expected, the SB had us dominated. I turned up my A-3, the button turned up A-6, and the SB turned up A-Q suited. The flop brought a queen, and the rest is history. I was eliminated in fourth, the button finished third since he started with more chips than me, and the BB was now heads up with a $169,000-$1,000 chip disadvantage. Adding a little humor to the situation, he turned to his opponent and asked, "Are you ready to make a deal now?" Everyone got a good laugh out of that one.

But the funny thing is, the story doesn't end there. The next couple of hands were obviously just a showdown, but our friend with a chip and a chair won twice and moved up to $4,000. His opponent then offered him $20 to end the tournament right there and accept second place, and he took the offer almost immediately. With approximately an $800 difference between second- and first-place prize money, and a $166,000-$4,000 chip disadvantage, he was quite correct to take the extra $20. So, when all was said and done, not only did he sneak into second place, he also got an extra $20, to boot! Given the situation, the tournament could not have ended more favorably for our hero.

But having said that, the pivotal hand in which two of us got eliminated is certainly an interesting hand for discussion. For instance, if the BB had seen that all three of us held A-X, would a call have been more correct? Or, ignoring our hands, how good a hand would he need to throw his last $1,000 in? There is no clearly defined answer to this situation, but it certainly is food for thought. If you're strictly a live-game player, you probably don't care much about such questions. But if you ever play tournaments, these are things you should think about, because you never know when you'll have to make a decision like the one our friend made.