The World Poker Tour at Borgata 2003

by Phil Hellmuth | Published: Mar 26, 2004

The following hand was written by Jennifer Harman Traniello. Jennifer is one of the best poker players in the world, and she plays regularly in the biggest high-stakes poker games anywhere.

Since the World Poker Tour has become so popular, the large prize pools have captured my interest and I've starting playing in a few of the events. I usually play in cash games at Bellagio, and find that tournaments are just too draining, as well as frustrating! I wouldn't consider no-limit hold'em to be my best game, by any means, but I have spent a lot of time recently working on my game, and my confidence has been growing and growing.

Going into the event at Borgata in Atlantic City, I had high expectations. I believed I was playing well and that if I could catch a lucky break here and there, I'd have a legitimate chance to win it. Well, with just seven players left, I was cruising right along and could taste victory. Then, I was faced with an interesting hand that I'll probably be second-guessing for years to come.

With the blinds at $10,000-$15,000 with a $2,000 ante, I was sitting in pretty good shape with $300,000. Everyone folded to me, and I was on the button with the A 10. I decided to raise, making it $45,000 to go. The big blind, a tricky player by the name of Charles Shoten, aka "Scotty Warbucks," called the raise. Charlie had more chips than I did, so it was important that I exercised some caution against such an excellent and tricky player. The flop came K Q 10. Wow, that was a pretty sweet flop for my hand, I thought – a pair of tens and a royal-flush draw! Charlie checked and I bet $80,000, which was close to three-fourths of the pot size. Charlie called. The turn brought the 10. Wow, this hand was just getting better and better. Charlie again checked, and I also decided to check (more on that later). The river brought the 9. Oh, what an ugly card. That had to be the single worst card that could have come on the river. Charlie bet out just $40,000, and with so much money in the pot, I decided to call. Charlie turned over two red nines for a full house.

So, what happened here? Why did I check the turn? Why did I pay him off on the river? Well, here was my thinking: Knowing how tricky Charlie is, I thought there was a reasonable chance he'd flopped a straight (J-9 or A-J) or even a flush of some kind. In fact, I also didn't rule out the possibility that Charlie was trapping me with pocket kings or queens, giving him a full house. I coupled that with the fact that if I did in fact have the best hand, there would be very few outs against me. I had the straight covered with my ace if a jack hit, and that same ace also protected me from any heart coming on the river. Of course, if Charlie had a jack in his hand for an open-end straight draw, an ace would give him the straight, but would give me a full house. There was a decent chance that Charlie was drawing completely dead against my hand. At best, he could have a total of five outs (provided that I had the best hand, of course). If he had a hand like K-J, for example, he would have three nines and two kings to beat me, for a total of five outs. Now, that's the worst-case scenario. As it turned out, my check on the turn gave Charlie two free outs, and I was unfortunate to lose this pot.

It still had me thinking, though: How far off was my thought process here? Was there any real merit to the check? Should I have just protected my hand since it was a tournament and bet big on the turn? I had lots of questions, so I asked several players whose games I respect and got very different answers:

Phil Ivey: "I would have moved all in on the turn. It's a tournament, and I want what's in the middle. I don't want to give my opponent any free cards to beat me."

Daniel Negreanu: "Based on your read of Charlie, I like the check on the turn. You were going to get called only if you were beat, and the worst thing that could have happened is that you gave him a free shot when he was drawing real slim anyway."

It wasn't until I talked to a legend who is arguably the best poker player who has ever walked this earth that the right answer dawned on me. Phil, Daniel, and I were all preoccupied with the wrong potential error.

Here is what Chip Reese had to say: "I would have avoided the whole dilemma by moving all in on the flop. If you bet the $80,000 and get raised, you are going to call anyway, so why not just move all in first? That way, you might even get your opponent to lay down the best hand, as well." Duh! It seems so obvious to me now, but at the time, it never dawned on me. Thanks, Chip!

As for my call on the river, the pot was laying me such a big price when Charlie bet just $40,000 that I felt I just had to call. There was more than $250,000 in the pot, so I was being laid more than 6-to-1 odds that Charlie was either bluffing or making a smallish bet with what he thought might be the best hand (possibly A-K or even 10-8).

I hope you enjoyed this Hand of the Week. I'll tell you what, though – I sure didn't enjoy playing it!