HOWARD LEDERER’S ‘PICK YOUR SPOT’
He had a dream (Frank was talking for the moment.) He had dreamed that Howard Lederer (‘Bub’ to his friends) would have won the Party Poker Million in 2001. But in 2001, Howard had left that boat after being on board only about five minutes. Why had he had that dream? It wasn’t as if Howard had won very many limit Holdem poker tournaments, and it’s not as if he had dreamed too often about other online poker players winning them, so who knows?
It so happens, ‘London’ Ali Sharkasheik had dreamed that Frank had won the Poker EM (the European Poker Championship) in Vienna, in the year 1998. He had been more or less right. AS it happened, Frank had won the Poker EM, except it had been in the year 1999 – one year later. So Frank had been expecting the same thing from Howard. Frank had dreamed he was going to win in 2001, but he thought Howard was going to win in 2002, since he hadn’t won (or even competed) in 2001.
Frank had finally bet him at 4-to-1 with three players left when he had been short-chipped. Frank should have Bet Howard from the Beginning (at perhaps 40 to 1), but Frank hadn’t wanted to focus on anything but himself and Frank had been in there after the first two days of the tourney when the ‘to win’ prices had been high.
So Ali had told me of his dream, and Frank had told Howard of his dream. Had that helped bub and Frank win? Probably it had certainly helped Frank win but let’s stick to the quantifiable facts here! Howard had indeed won the Party Poker Million in 2002, which had made him the winner of an amazing two World Poker Tour (WPT) events. That was two more than Chan, Seidel, Cloutier, Ivey, Juanda, and Frank. (Gus Hansen had the honor of winning three WPT events.)
On top of that, bub had been in the print media for the WPT, which had been running in People magazine and Sports Illustrated. Go, Howard, go! Bub and Frank had co-written this story about a key hand at the WPT event at Foxwoods in the year 2001, where he had throw away an Ace and King with a King on the Board on fourth street. If he had called and won, he would have had more than $12,000, however, instead, despite the fact that he had $2,500 in the pot, he had folded, which meant he was left with only $3,500 with the Blinds at $100-$200.
Howard had later found out that he was beaten, he had said, if he had called there, he would have Been out, and Lord knows what might have happened. He Certainly would not have won the Foxwoods poker event, and perhaps not the Party Poker Million II, either. Soon after making that laydown, bub found had found himself in the Big blind with $3,900 and a pair of nines.
Adam Schoenfeld had opened in middle position for $900, the Button had called with short chips (having left himself with $2,500), David Levi had called in the small blind, and now Howard was facing a decision. He had debated calling and trying to make a hand, or moving all-in and having tried to win the $2,400 in the main pot. Howard had figured that the Button and the small blind couldn’t have Beaten him. Thus, if he had moved all-in, he would have had to worry only about Adam’s hand.
Howard had opted to move all-in, and when Adam’s hand had hit the muck Howard had breathed a big Sigh of relief under the Cool exterior of his omaha poker face. Bub had actually been pleased when the Button called his last $2,500, having figured that he wouldn’t be Calling with an Ace and Jack, or an Ace and Queen, and that he would have already moved all-in with an Ace and King over the top of Adam.
And when Levi had gone into the think tank, he’d been adding up the pot and calculating the pot odds, Howard had begun to root for him to call as well, having thought Levi had a pair underneath nines. By the way (by the way was one of Bub’s favorite sayings), Howard had put the Button at a pair of fives, which was in fact what the Button had. After about two minutes, Levi had called as well, with a pair of threes.
When Bub’s hand had held up, he had now been back up to $11,500 and right back in the mix. He felt that the lesson here was that waiting for the right spot to move one’s chips all-in was an important key in poker tournaments. In this case, Howard would have Been more likely to end up with $12,000 by having made a good laydown, in order to wait for a better Scenario later.
In other words, having put one’s chips in badly, being lured by the size of the pot, when one was in tough shape, was just too easy. It would have Been better to just wait for a better Situation. As Howard said, ‘Having made the laydown, and realizing that the Chips that one leaves oneself may Prove to be the Chips that one would win the tournament with.’ He saw too many frustrated calls by Players today in poker tournaments.
LAYNE BLACK’S ‘TWO BLACK NINES’
This had been the first time that frank's big kitty had allowed Layne to write up a key hand 100 percent on his own. How fitting that it had involved pocket nines, as they all knew; and he meant it, they all knew whom this hand had really belonged to. Right, Frank? (Yes Layne! Frank had won the World Series of Poker, in 1988, with two black nines, when they had held up against Johnny Chan’s Ace of spades and seven of spades for a $1.2 million pot.)
It had been the 2001 WSOP (World Series of Poker). Frank won the first no-limit Holdem poker tournament, which had seen approximately 628 players. The talk had been, ‘O, Layne had won another no-limit, blah, blah, so what,’ right? Then the second round had begun with 549 players, and Layne found himself in contention to win another bracelet.
They had come to a close on the first day, and after that hard day of playing and drinking these poker tournaments had required solid focus, hence the drinking Layne had looked up, he had paid little attention to the other tables, to see how tough the road to victory was going to be. Layne wondered how much worse Could it get! Layne already had Johnny Chan to his right and Erik Seidel to his left! (Once again, this poker tournament had shown him that no-limit did bring out the Best at the WSOP, and people did rise to the occasion.)
On the second day, Layne had been one of the Chip leaders, and he had picked up two red nines and lost a ‘coin flip’ (his opponent had an Ace and King) and half of his stack. A while later, he had picked up the Black nines and had won all of his chops back, plus some. This had set the tone for the real hand that Layne will be telling you about. So hold on.
As they had reached the final table, Layne had noticed that it had seated many great, really great, players: Johnny Chan. T.J.Cloutier, Carlos Mortensen, and Chris Bjorin, to name some!(By the way, it was funny that Layne’s story wasn’t about another hand that had come up at the final table that day an unbelievable hand featured Layne’s quad tens over German player Philip Mamorstein’s quad fours!)
However, it had finally been down to Layne, chan, and T.J. The Chip counts had been about $320,000 for 4.J., $280,000 for Layne, and $170,000 for Johnny. Layne had picked up the two black nines, which like he said had a history that day, because he had already won one Big pot with them.
With $2000-$4,000 blinds and a $5000 ante, Layne had raised it to $12,000 to go. 4.J. had moved in $300,000 more. What could one do here? Layne had called all his money without hesitation. Had Layne Been silly or wrong? Did he have the Correct odds? (For the record, Layne thought it had probably been a close Call.)
So why had Layne made the Call? History, of course. After all, they had been the Black nines. (Just Kidding; that hadn’t even been close to the reason he had called!) The real reason Layne had made the Call had been simple to him. 4.J. had been moving over the top of many of his raises all day long. Then he would have shown the table an Ace, not Ace and King, not Ace and Queen, but a lone a. Once in a while he used to flash the ace and King; granted that had been Layne’s risk.
The Biggest factor of all, really, had been this fact: Layne had made a raise earlier in the day and T.J's wsop had reraised, but this time he had stopped; and he had thought; and he had counted his chips; and finally he had put in a teasing or well-thought-out raise. There had been no callers, and then he had shown a pair of Queens, and it had been a similar occasion, a pair of Aces. But where had that pause and teasing raise Been this time? Ah, thank you for the read, T.J. Layne had picked up on it quickly and had been waiting for his opponent to take advantage.
It had also flashed through Layne’s mind, as T.J. had moved all-in quickly, that he might have had one of three hands. First, he might have had an Ace and rag, and Layne was a big favorite over this hand. Second, he might have had ace high with a ten through a King for kicker, which meant it was a coin flip. Third, he had an overpair, and Layne Became a 4-to-1 underdog. Now, what could one do? With the read he had mentioned above, Layne had felt like he didn’t have an overpair, so it had been a simple decision. To call.
One other thing had been this: Layne had been playing T.J. and Johnny Chan, and no one had said that it would have Been easy! No one had said that was not going to take a big risk for Something to happen against two of the World’s greatest no-limit poker players. So the Calculated risk had just gone way down then, he Believed just ask Layne. Incidentally, T.J. had had an Ace and King and Layne had flopped a nine with a Jack, nine and eight flop and ‘filled up’ (he’d made a full hous.)
Layne had gone on to his second no-limit poker victory at the 2001 WSOP, but this had been his favorite, since he had gained a lot more respect for his no-limit poker game Because of the field an whom He had to beat. Afterward, Layne had felt great. Hats off to T.J. and Johnny. They were two of the all-time great champions, and it had been an honor and a privilege to play with them.