PETER COSTA’S ‘SMALL-BET POKER’
During his early years of playing tournament poker, Peter had decided to experiment with various styles of playing pot-limit Holdem poker. One amongst these experiments had been slow-playing, or underbetting, some of the strong hands. This had led to many situations in which Peter was to make a succession of small bets even with the nuts. Often, Peter used to show these hands down, and this resulted in Peter’s gaining a lot of respect when he made a small bet.
This lent several bluffing opportunities in which he only needed to make a small bet in order to steal a pot. Despite the fact that this style of play would sometimes open the door to a bad beat when he did indeed have a big hand, it had paid many dividends over the long run. One such hand had taken place at his local Casino (Galaxy) in Nottingham, England, in 1992.
In those days, this 200-pound buy-in pot limit Holdem poker, with multiple rebuys was considered a big Event. The blinds were 800 pounds 800 pounds (the two blinds were the same in those days), his stack of 5,800 pounds looked weak.
Peter knew that he had a whole round to pick up some sort of hand, and that he need not worry as he had just posted both blinds. He had been right! He had dealt a pair of threes on the very next hand. Fantastic hand! This one looked like a monster considering that he had failed to get any sort of a payable poker hand for the past two hours. And his hand grew in strength as each player folded to him on the Button.
Peter was simply going to raise the pot to 3,200 pounds and take the Blinds. He was certain they would be forced to call if he found either of them with any kind of hand. Then he would be in a position of needing to get lucky. Therefore he decided to slow-play this ‘monster’, and just the minimum. He expected to get one Caller at the very least, but at least this way he Could represent a hand without having to commit most of his stack. It even gave him the opportunity to make a steal from the perfect spot He was on the Button.
The first blind deliberated about it and reluctantly folded his hand. The second blind was a somewhat tight lady Player had just flat called. Hmm… Peter was sure that she had some sort of hand, but it obviously wasn’t good enough to reraise him! Anyway! Maybe he was going to get lucky and flop another three? The three did not hit, but the second blind did check the flop of unsuited King and a pair of Queens. He liked his hand at this point.
Somehow he had to make a stab at the pot. But there wasn’t much he Could bet with just 4,200 pounds. He Could have Bet the pot of $4,000 and hope that she had not connected with the flop. Checking was a very weak option. With his minimal pre-flop raise he had represented something of a hand, so he decided to follow it through with a minimum bet. Peter had been certain that if she had not connected with the flop then she would have no problem folding her hand.
Although she was slightly hesitant, to his disappointment, she had called his bet of 800 pounds. That was that! That was the end of his hand! It was only now it became obvious to him that one of her two hole Cards was a King. Based on the number of times she had seen him underbet big hands, she had been reluctant to call. But the only reason he Couldn’t get her to fold was because of the size of their Stacks of around 4,200 pounds.
She kept calling reluctantly and Peter waited for the three to hit the turn. It didn’t! But it had been a big, beautiful Ace. In poker, experimentation was a complex thing, but it was complex only to the extent that one disregarded the simple and the obvious. Such as betting all-in in this case and simply not taking the pot. Peter became greedy for another 800 pounds of this lady’s chips. She would have Been forced to call and hope to get another King at the river.
Finally, she reluctantly three 800 pounds into what was now a nice pot. Peter had been playing the poker odds, and he hoped for any card but a King. Although the King did not hit the river, a dangerous Jack did. Then she Checked after another look at her hole Cards. It had been that close! All she needed for a straight was a ten since the Board was a King, a pair of Queens an Ace and a Jack. He found her check to be assuring, he was sure she did not have a straight.
That was the end of the experiment! He simply moved all-in with the knowledge that she would fold what he thought was a King and nine. She picked up her hand to throw it to the dealer and declared that she was folding. As she threw her cards face-up on the table, she asked him How he knew it a King and nine. Peter had explained that it had been a long Story and that he had an Ace and Queen for a full house.
And the King and nine was suited, of course! As for his being on the Button, he was certain that she would have Called any Pot raise pre-flop. That had been one of his thoughts during the drive home after winning the tournament that night. The phrase goes necessity is the mother of invention. Invention could become the necessity, as far as poker was concerned. That had been yet another thought that night.
ANDY GLAZER’S WALKING BACK TO RENO
Andy had journeyed to the Peppermill in 1999, mostly as a fun road trip with frank and his two children they are truly great kids. Never before had he taken a four-hour drive with two children, and he had learned that all the Clichés about Kids asking ‘Are we there yet?’ were true.
It so happened, Frank and Andy both had made the final table of the $200 buy-in no-limit Holdem poker event, and Andy had been pretty excited because they had never been at the same final table Before. !ndy had been hoping that it would come down to the two of them, but then Frank had never picked up any hands and he had wound up going out seventh when his big reraise with his Ace of hearts and King of hearts got moved in on by opponents Queens in the hole. At that point, there had been too much money in the pot to let it go, and Frank had lost the Coin flip.
Finally, he had got heads-up with Sam Caliva, a nice fellow from Houston, with a chip lead of about $70,000 to $56,000. !ndy kept thinking how grateful he had been that he had learned a few things about heads-up poker in the first World heads-up poker championship and he was also wishing that he had played a few more of the poker events, because he knew there had been lots more that he didn’t know!
The tournament had come down to two big hands. On the first hand, with the Blinds at $2,000-$4,000, Sam Had had the Big blind, and Andy had raised it to $11,000 total (!ndy had been holding his raises to a consistent size), and Sam Had chosen to come over the top of !ndy for another $28,000.
!ndy Pondered for a long time. That had been the first time that Sam Had come over the top of !ndy in perhaps 45 minutes of heads-up, he’d have Been handing Sam a 2-to-1-chip lead if they hadn’t. !ndy had not been a big fan of calling big raises with small pairs. If his opponents had a bigger pair than his pair, he’d be a huge underdog, and even if it was a move with two overcards like a ten and nine, they would still have a coin flip.
!ndy laid it down. After the tournament, Sam Had told him that he had made the move with a King and a two, as he’d been feeling desperate. The old ‘resulto-spectro-scope’ had Andy wishing that he had called, but he still thought he’d lay it down again (He would see what Frank thought.)
He learned a big lesson at the second big hand. !ndy had been attempting to set a trap, he had been limping in a bit more than he’d normally do because Sam Hadn’t been raising his limps, and Andy thought he Could nail Sam if he picked u a big hand. Unfortunately, nothing Exciting had arrived, but winning a no-limit poker tournament was supposed to be about moving one’s chips well, not having caught a lot of cards.
Oh well, Andy finally found his trap hand, an Ace and a King, and limped in from the small blind. Sam chose to check and the flop had come a four, a five and a nine. Sam Had checked this flop, and Andy had gone numb for the second time at the final table (the first had been worse, more like a hallucination than numbness, fortunately it had only cost him a few chips) and he had moved in. Sam called, very quickly, with a four and a seven.
Although an ace had come on the river, a second four had already hit on the turne, and Andy had been down to about $11,000 in chips, which hadn’t lasted long with the Blinds at $3,000-$6,000. Though !ndy had found several rationalizations for the play, the Best had been that Sam Had shown his unwillingness to call big bets post-flop with anything less than the top pair. Even then !ndy felt the play was bad coming and going.
Although an Ace and King wasn’t a good trapping hand when playing heads-up poker, since if an Ace or a King hit the flop it was hard to get an opponent to call any sort of large Bet; and if the ace or King didn’t hit, any sort of random Hand, such as Sam’s four and seven, could rapidly turn into a favorite. The idea of setting up the trap had been good, but if worked much better with a stand-alone hand like a pair of Jacks.
In the interim, post-flop, Andy relied too much on Sam’s prior unwillingness to call big bets. !ndy had had a slight chip lead, and there had been no need to put most of his chips at risk in that way, when there had been only $12,900 in the pot. An Ace and King used to be Called ‘Walking back to Houston’ in the old texas road games, due to the fact that so many Players had gone Broke with it.
It had also broken Frank and Andy both on that very day, although frank had gone out raising pre-flop with his, which was a very big difference. And that day, it was a man from Houston who sent him walking! One thing about it, though, was that it was a lot easier to write about these tournaments than it was to play in them.