Atlantic City Week - Part II

Well, if you read Part I, you know how disappointed I was with my effort in the United States Poker Championship tournament at the Taj Mahal. I was sloppy early and throughout the middle of the tournament, and finally regained focus a little too late. That wasn't going to happen at the Borgata. I had gotten all of the bad play out of my system and was ready to play my "A" game.

It was the $5,000 championship event, which also was a World Poker Tour event. Since the World Poker Tour and World Series of Poker television broadcasts, we've seen a massive increase in the numbers of players for the big buy-in events. The Borgata was running its first-ever major poker tournament, yet there were 235 players. Amazing!

With 235 entrants, it was no surprise that there were some new faces at my table. Overall, I'd have to say I was happy with my starting table. It looked like a situation in which I could use some of my favorite weapons to double up. Starting with $10,000, I got off to a pretty quick start, and was up to $17,000 by the first break.

After the break, I took a tough beat and was back down to about $9,600. About a round later, with the blinds at $50-$100, the following hand came down:

Keith "Lehr Jet" raised to $400 from early position. I'd seen him make raises like this with hands as bad as 5-2, so I wasn't overly worried about the strength of his hand. If anything, the size of his raise screamed weakness.

Everyone folded to me in the small blind, and I looked down to see the J 10. It's a nice drawing hand, and I felt comfortable calling an extra $350 to see the flop. The big blind called, as well. Before the flop even came down, I decided there was absolutely no flop I was willing to bet. Since Keith came in raising, I was confident he would bet almost any flop, so if I did get lucky, I might be able to trap him. So, I announced, "Check," before the flop hit.

The flop was OK, I guess – A K Q! I'd flopped the nuts with a royal flush draw. At this point, I was hoping I was wrong about Keith's hand, and that he actually did have a strong hand. The big blind also checked to Lehr Jet, who didn't disappoint. "Oh, let's bet about $1,500," he said. Now, I've played a lot with Keith in side games, and he knows I'm capable of raising here with nothing. We've "danced" on several occasions with some pretty awful hands.

Keith is no dummy, though, so I knew I had to come up with a plan that would allow me to double up. Keith had me out-chipped, so there was no way I could break him. I decided that I wanted to represent a weak ace. In order to do that, I would need to make an information raise. So, almost as quickly as Keith threw in his $1,500 bet, I threw in a total of $3,000, raising the minimum.

I assumed that if Keith had A-K, A-Q, K-Q, or possibly even A-J or A-10, I'd be able to trap him. In fact, with one of these hands, he could decide to move all in! Obviously, if he had flopped a set, he would play for all of his chips, as well.

Anyway, the big blind folded and here came the Lehr Jet. "I'm all in," he stated. I waited just a second until it was official, then checked the board once more, and looked back at my hand to make certain I had what I thought I had. "I call," I said.

Now, that was an anxious moment. I couldn't wait to see what I was up against. Did Keith have a set or two pair? Or, maybe I was freerolling, if we both had flopped the straight. I'd turned my hand faceup, but Keith didn't want to turn his faceup. He simply nodded, "That's good," and sent his hand toward the muck.

Being a little bit of a stickler for the rules, I informed Keith that he had to turn his hand faceup. This controversial rule was recently passed by the Tournament Directors Association (TDA) to help prevent collusion and also speed up the game. Keith said, "I can't win. You got it. What's the big deal?" Well, surely I thought there was no way Keith could be drawing dead. Even if all he had was a pair of deuces, he could still catch runner-runner for a full house.

Finally, Keith reluctantly turned over his hand. The 4 2! Huh? That's right, Keith and I had played a $20,000 pot to the turn, with hand A the nut straight with a royal flush draw, and hand B … well, 4 high!

Wow, what a relief. Nothing could go wrong here, as Keith was drawing completely dead. Then, a 10 hit the turn and I realized, "Uh-oh, if a jack hits the river, we'll be splitting the pot!" Of course, I wasn't genuinely worried, and already had started thinking about the strategy adjustments I was going to make now that I'd just doubled up and was in great shape. Then, the river card hit – the J! "Oh, no!!!" What just happened there?

At the time, it was a pretty tough pill to swallow, but looking back on the whole hand, I think it was pretty funny. It was funny first of all that Keith would decide to make this play, and second of all that I would argue when Keith wanted to muck his hand! It was almost like I was saying, "No, you can't fold. You can still beat me!"

Then, of course, it was funny that the 10 and the jack hit on the turn and the river. It was a strange situation, to say the least. I'm not upset about any of it at all. I played the hand to get Keith all in, and that worked. So, why then didn't I let him just throw his hand toward the muck? Well, because I know the rules. To protect the integrity of the game, it's important that we follow and support the rules of the TDA, whether we agree with them or not.

The good news for me was that I was able to bounce back nicely and regain my form. In the next issue, I'll share with you the events that took place during the rest of the tournament.