Daniel Negreanu’s Two Tens

In 1999, at the Commerce Casino’s California State Poker Championships, I played a hand during the $1,000 buy-in No-limit Holdem Championship event that caused me to lose a little sleep. I was three-handed in the toughest spot I’d ever been involved in-up to that point in my career.

Ken Buntjer was chip leader with $90,000, I was second with $40,000, and the always dangerous John Duthie Bonetti just wouldn’t go away with $12,000 in chips. In your average tournament 1999, blinds would probably se something like $3000 – $6,000, but fortunately this particular tournament had a lot of play to it,and the blinds were only $1,000-$2,000 with a s $300 ante.

I was on the button with 10-10, and I opened for $7,000. Buntjer immediately moved all-in in the small blind and Bonetti folded. After about poker two minutes of deliberation, I decided to seal my fate and make the call. Did I make a mistake?

Well, let’s look at my thought poker process during the hand. First of all, my personal philosophy is to always play for the trophy and forget about moving up the ladder; simply outlasting Bonetti didn’t cross my mind for a second, even though the prize breakdown might suggest that I should have (first was $54,000, second $27,000, and third $14,000).

I like my raise of $7,000 to go; I had been using that amount to pick up pots with weaker hands. Although I think you can make a solid case for moving all-in this situation, I don’t think there is only one way to play a hand like this, and moving all-in in a tournament with some play poker card games just isn’t my style.

Now, let’s concentrate on Ken’s actions. I have tremendous respect for Ken’s play. In fact, with two tables to go I envisioned a showdown with him. I was in the zone that day, too, and I had a lot of confidence in my reads. After playing all night with Kenny, I’d picked up a read on him from the way he’d played previous hands against me. My instincts told me I had the better hand; something he did led me to believe his hand was only mediocre. I knew he didn’t have a bigger pair than mine; I was sure he held 7-7, 8-8 or 9-9, or in a worst-case scenario, two overcards to my pair.

If my read was correct and he had 8-8, then throwing my hand away would have been a huge mistake. On the other hand, if he held two over card games I was a small favorite, maybe 6 to 5, but I wouldn’t want to roll the dice at that point, since it could eliminate me. I thought, too, that there was a chance he had a hand as weak as A-9 suited, which would also make me a pretty strong favorite.

With Ken’s chip position, he could afford to make these risky plays, knowing that I would have to have a very big hand to call him. He could pick up a $10,900 profit if I didn’t call, and since he had the ace there was only one hand that he was in terrible shape against, a-A. Playing three-handed, he knew I was going to raise a lot of hands on the button; and he wasn’t going to simply watch me rob Bonetti’s big blind. Unfortunately, he held the Ad-Qd and flopped a queen.

“You’re welcome, John Duthie,” I thought; after all, that play allowed Bonetti to sneak into second place. It was nice to see John rooting for me after the flop, though he did yell, “No ten, dealer, no ten!’

If I hadn’t been up against two world-class players, I might have thrown my hand away. Against weaker players, I wouldn’t have needed to gambling guide; with them, I could have done some more stealing, and could have found a better spot to make a move. But these two opponents were not going to let me walk all over them. They weren’t going to give anything away.

If I had won that pot, then I would had had about $83,000 in chips. At that point, I would have been solidly in the driver’s seat, where I’m much more comfortable. But after discussing the hand with friends, I feel a lot better about my decision. I thought Ken had a pair, but my read wasn’t entirely wrong; and I did have the better hand. Oh, well.

Many people have asked me why I didn’t just make a deal, since this situation would have been a good spot for one. I never make deals. I think they’re bad for the integrity of the game of cards, and I was thrilled to learn that the World Poker Tournament wasn’t allowing them. Good job, WPT! You don’t see Tiger Woods and David Duval on the 18th say, “You want to chop it up?” or Andre Agassi say to Pete Sampras, “Well, you’re up two sets to one. I’ll take an extra $100,000, and you can have the trophy.” That would be pathetic (and the TV ratings would drop like a rock wpt 2003).

Phil’s two cents: I would have called with the tens as well, given that I felt had the better hand. Sometimes our opponent’s actions lead us to believe they are weak; or sometimes we just smell the weakness. (I’m sure you picked up on that.) I’ll give you a little piece of advice for next time, though: don’t forget to catch a ten us poker 1999!