A 2-7 Triple Draw Hand from 2013

As many of you know by now, I'm a big fan of mixed games and think it's important that if you are just a hold'em player that you expand your horizons by playing mixed games. Here is a hand I played at last years WSOP when I went on to finish in second place.

David Baker, a great 2-7 triple draw player raised under the gun. The game is typically played 6 handed, and I was next to act with 2478Q and re-raised. Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi called on the button and three of us drew. David drew two, I drew one, and The Grinder drew 2. In this situation, I am ALWAYS betting no matter what I catch. When David checks I just bet blind and both players called.

On the second draw David drew one, I drew one, and The Grinder who was short stacked, drew two again. I caught a Ten. David checked, I bet my hand, The Grinder called with his remaining chips and David called also.

On the end, David drew one. A pat 10 (pat meaning you aren't taking any more cards) is a favorite over one player who draws one card, but its much closer with two players drawing one. I wasn't convinced that The Grinder was drawing one, he was pretty much pot committed even drawing two, so I decided to stay pat. I was really happy to see Grinder draw two again on the last draw.

Here is where it gets interesting. Up to this point the hand is pretty standard and now we have Grinder all in drawing two, and David drawing one to beat my pat 10. David checked. What would you do?

A) Check and hope that either you or David busts Grinder with just 12 players left in the tournament?

B) Bet

If you chose B) why bet? What is your goal with the bet? As is the case with any poker decision, that's something you need to think about before you make a bet. What's the purpose. Are you betting for value or as a bluff?

Well I bet and my purpose was clear. In that spot, with a player all in, David absolutely knows for certain I'm not snowing (standing pat with a bad hand like a pair with the intention of betting the river as a bluff.) So my intention with the bet is to get David to fold a hand like:

98234
2347T

Both of those hands beat me, but since he knows I'm not bluffing since I have to show my hand and still beat the Grinder who drew two, what hand can he beat really? The only hand I pat in a 3 way pot that he beats, just so happens to be the one that I have. However, considering I re-raised him before the first draw from second position, he knows I have at least a one card draw to an 8. He loses to all my value hands with 98234 and he knows I'm not bluffing.

David ended up thinking for a minute and folding. Grinder missed and I won a very key pot. David saw me turn over my hand and his eyebrows raised, thinking "Wow, you bet that?" On the other end of the table, the always perceptive Scott Seiver gave me a nod and said, "Great bet." He understood exactly why I needed to bet that.

Lots of really cool situations come up in limit games that have tons of depth. In this case, a non-thinking player may have checked, David turns over 2347T and they lose the pot thinking they were unlucky. That's not the case! It was the perfect spot to run what ultimately becomes a semi-bluff. Move out the best hand and take your chances against the two card draw.

I'll likely be sharing hand analysis using this medium throughout the WSOP. I won't be doing any no limit hold'em hands, but I will share analysis from hands in all of the variants of poker I play this summer. I hope you enjoy it, and maybe learn a thing or two along the way.

Daniel Negreanu is the 2004 CardPlayer Magazine and World Poker Tour Player of the Year. He presents his poker strategies in one-on-one virtual training at pokervt.com and writes a weekly syndicated newspaper column.
Read all of Daniel Negreanu's poker blog and poker articles at Full Contact Poker.