Buried at Sea

On a recent cruise for a World Poker Tour (WPT) event, the action was fast and furious in the side games. Of course, there was a lot of dancing and drinking – especially of Dom Perignon – in the top-floor "Crows Nest" dance club. Boy, I thought my bar bill was bad, but Erick Lindgren – E-Dog, to his friends – spent $22,000 in one night at the Crows Nest. Albeit, he had just won the $1 million first-place prize in the tournament, and it was a ship full of poker players and he kept the bar "open" for a couple of hours. Thankfully, Linda Johnson managed to get his bill knocked down to a mere $12,000 for the night.

In the old cruise days back in the late'80s, we always called the side game the "buried at sea" game. The 2004 version of the buried at sea game was $100-$200 blinds no-limit hold'em. On the very last night of the cruise, John Juanda, Allen Cunningham, Carlos Mortensen, Randy Jensen, Prahlad Friedman, Mike Matusow, and I were all losing at least $20,000 at some point in the game. We were really playing some monster pots!

At about 11:30 p.m., we were told the poker room would close at midnight. Immediately, we offered to buy a poker table and pay some dealers out of our pockets to deal to us until the 8 a.m. arrival time in San Diego. After all, some of us were losing big in the game. Fortunately, Mark Tenner came up with a solution for us, and the game moved to the library of the ship – with a big crowd watching us play.

By the way, at this point, Daniel Negreanu was up $8,200 by playing my discards! Yes, you read that right. Whenever I folded my hand before the flop, the other players agreed to let Daniel play my hand from that point forward, much to the delight of the huge crowd sweating the game. Simply put, a night of craziness was brewing.

At around 4 a.m., the following one-of-a-kind hand came up. I opened for $600 from first position with the 7 4. Allen Cunningham called the bet, Carlos made it $3,000 to go from the button, and then Randy Jensen made it $9,000 to go. I folded, Allen folded, and then Carlos said, "Give me another card, please, dealer." Stunned, we all sat there for a minute while the dealer gave Carlos another card. The discards were quickly counted, and at that point most of us starting laughing out loud! You see, the dealer hadn't given Carlos his last card yet. Carlos had made it $3,000 to go with only one card, and had planned to laugh at us – while showing us his one-card bluff – after we all had folded!

After he received his second card, Carlos decided to move all in for $16,300 total. What the heck was going on here? Randy, feeling a bit ill at that moment, studied for a good long while, and then decided to call the bet with 6-3 offsuit. Before Randy flipped his hand up, he had the good sense to ask Carlos to save the last $7,300 bet, but Carlos immediately replied, "No way." Then, Randy asked, "Deal it two times?" Carlos agreed.

(When you deal it twice, you put up two flops, in order to take some of the luck out of the game. If you each win it once, you split the pot; if one person wins it twice, he scoops the whole pot.)

With what kind of powerhouse hand did Carlos immediately say no to a $7,300 save? How about Q-J offsuit? He had raised it with a mere jack, and caught perfect, a queen – yeah, right! Here was a hand with which the rest of the world wouldn't call a $600 raise – and Carlos had put in the fourth raise for $16,300 total! How could Carlos move all in with that hand in this spot? And how could Carlos not make a save here? Somehow, Carlos believed that Q-J was the best hand, and even scarier than that, he was right. I mean, these guys both have a giant-sized set of you know what; they put $16,300 apiece into this pot with a 6-3 and a Q-J!

What about Randy's actions during this hand? He correctly read Carlos as being weak and made a good move on him. But, Carlos also read Randy well, and made a strong move right back at him. I don't like Randy's $7,300 call here, but he was right, because he was only about a 2-to-1 underdog in a pot that was laying him almost 4-to-1 on his $7,300 call.

By the way, Randy pointed out this interesting fact: If Carlos assumed that Randy had noticed that Carlos had been dealt only one card, Carlos could also assume that Randy might easily have raised him with a weak hand. Thus, it would be easier for Carlos to put Randy on a steal and move all in with his Q-J. But it cuts both ways, because then Randy's call with 6-3 looks much better. (Incidentally, Randy claims he did not notice that Carlos had only one card.)

The rest of the story is this: The first flop came down 9-5-3-9-10, and Randy won it. But Carlos won the second flop when a jack hit, and a huge laugh was then had by all. What a truly unbelievable hand!

Editor's note: Chat or play poker with Phil at ultimatebet.com. To learn more about him, go to philhellmuth.com.