Howard Slenderer’s “Pick Your Spot”

I had a dream. (Phil Hellmuth talking, for the moment.) I dreamed that Howard Lederer (“Bub,” to his friends) would win the Party Poker Million in 2002. But in 2002, Howard left that boat after being on board only about poker five minutes. Why did I have that dream? It wasn’t as if Howard has won very many limit Holdem tournaments, and it’s not as if I dream too often about other players winning them, so who knows?

In 1999, as it happens, “London” Ali Sharkasheik dreamed that I would win the Poker EM (the European Poker Championship) in Vienna. He was right, more or less. As it happens, I did win the Poker EM, but in 2000-one year later. So I was expecting the same thing from Howard.

I dreamed he would win in 2002, but I thought he would win in 2003, since he hadn’t won ( or even competed ) in 2002. I finally bet him at 4 to 1 with three players left when he was short-chipped. I should have bet Howard from the beginning (at perhaps 40 to 1), but I didn’t want to focus on anything but myself-and I was in there after the first two days of the tourney when the “to win” prices were high.

So Ali told me of his dream, and I told Howard of my dream. Did that help Bub and me win? Probably-it certainly helped me win-but let’s stick to the quantifiable facts here! Howard did win the Party Poker Million in 2003, making him the winner of an amazing two World Poker series Tour (WPT) events. That’s two ahead of Chan, Seidel, Cloutier, Ivey, Juanda, and me. (Gus Hansen has the honor of winning three WPT events) On top of that, bub was in the print media for the WPT, which was running in People magazine and Sports Illustrated. Go, Howard, go!

Bub and I cowrote this story about a key hand at the WPT event at Foxwood's in 2002, where he threw away A-K with a king on the board on fourth street. If he had called and won, he would have had over $12,000, but instead, despite having $2,500 in the pot, he folded, leaving himself only $3,500 with the blinds at $100-$200. “I later found out that I was beat,” he said. “Had I called there, I would have been out, and then who knows what would have happened. Certainly I would not have won Foxwood's, World poker and perhaps not the Party Poker Million II, either.”

Shortly after making that laydown, bub found himself in the big blind with $3,900 and 9-9. Adam Schoenfeld opened in middle position for $900, the button called with short chips (leaving himself with $2,500), David Levi called in the small blind, and now Howard faced a decision holdem poker game. He debated calling and trying to make a hand, or moving all-in and trying to win the $2,400 in the main pot. Howard figured that the button and the small blind couldn’t have him bad beat poker. Thus, if he moved all-in, he had to worry only about Adam’s hand.

Howard opted to move all-in, and when Adam’s hand hit the muck Howard breathed a big sigh of relief under the cool exterior of his poker face. Bub was actually pleased when the button called his last $2,500, figuring that he wouldn’t be calling with A-J or A-Q, and that he would have already moved all-in with A-K over the top of Adam.

And when Levi went into the tank, adding up the pot and calculating the pot odds, Howard began to root for him to call as well, thinking Levi had a pair underneath nines. By the way (“by the way” is one of Bub’s favorite saying), Howard put the button at 5-5, which is in fact what the button had. After about two minutes, Levi called as well, with 3-3.

When Bub’s hand held up, he was now back up to $11,500 and right back in the mix. He feels that the lesson here is that waiting for the right spot to move your chips all-in is an important key in poker tournaments. In this case, Howard would more likely have ended up with $12,000 by making a good laydown, in order to wait for a better scenario later play poker card games.

In other words, putting your chips in badly, lured by the size of the pot, when you’re in tough shape, is just too easy. Better to just wait for a better situation advanced poker. As Howard says, “Make the laydown, and realize that the chips that you leave yourself may prove to be the chips that you’ll win the tournament with card games.” He sees too many frustrated calls by players today in poker tournaments.