RICHARD TATALOVICH’S BIG HANDS
At the end of the second day of the Championship no-limit holdem poker event at the Trump Taj Mahal’s United States Poker Championship in 2000, Richard was involved in an interesting and important hand. To better explain why the hand played out the way it did, he’d have to give a little Background on the action leading up to it.
The Blinds were $1,000-$2,000 with a $300 ante when they were down to the final two tables. Richard was among the Chip leaders at his table as he had gradually but steadily built his stack of chips. Richard had defended his blinds aggressively, often reraising the players who moved on his blind pre-flop. Unless the players at the table had a big hand, they finally gave up challenging his blinds.
There had been only one exception, Eric Panayiotou, who had been seated to Richard’s immediate right. He kept coming after the Blinds, and Richard continued to play back at him. Apparently, he had to lay down his hand pre-flop or on the flop. Richard sensed that Eric was getting frustrated, and he expected that Eric was about to start repopping him before the flop with less than a premium Hand, just to test him. Richard didn’t’ have to wait for long.
Eric was on the Button in the very next hand, and Richard was in the small blind with two red Jacks. Eric had limped in from the Button, and Richard had raised it. Richard had been careful not to overbet his Jacks, and yet he wanted to bet enough to force the bigs blinds out, so that Eric had intended to mix it up on that hand, that way, he wouldn’t have to play his Jacks against two opponents. So Richard had raised our times the size of the Big blind.
The Big blind had folded and Eric had come over the top by doubting Richard’s bet. Richard thought it over and opted to see what the flop would bring. Richard did not necessarily give him credit for a big hand. The flop came down Queen of hearts, four of hearts, and two of hearts, and Richard had bet $10,000. Eric had then doubled his bet to $20,000, and Richard had called.
There were many reasons why Richard thought he was in the lead at that point. In the first place, Richard thought that he had a pretty good read on Eric’s play, and on some of his mannerisms too, and if Eric had had the nut flush, he would have just smooth-called. In the second place, the pot was already quite large, so that if Eric had a slush that wasn’t the nuts, he would have moved all-in, Richard had believed, to shut him out of trying to draw to a fourth heart on the Board, in case Richard had been holding a bigger heart than his hearts.
Thirdly, Eric would have had to move in with a set or two pair to shut out the potential flush draw that Richard might have had. And, last but not the least, if Eric had a Queen with a big kicker, Richard surmised on the Basis of his play of the previous several hours, that he would have made a larger raise. Richard felt that his most likely duke's hand was an Ace and King with the ace of hearts.
The turn had brought a black rag. Richard had bet another $10,000, and Eric had immediately raised him $10,000 more. While pushing the additional $10,000 in, Richard had said that he’d call and check blind on the last round of betting. The Ball was now in Eric’s court. If an Ace or King had hit on the river, and Eric had bet, Richard would have had a little tougher decision to make, since he would have had the third nut in that case, thought Richard would also have had folded in that situation.
But if the ace of hearts had hit on the river, that too, would have presented a tough decision, although there Richard would have Called, with the second nut. The river had brought a blank. It had been Eric’s turn to act, since Richard already checked blind. Eric had contemplated his next move for close to five minutes. By now half of Eric’s sizeable stack was in the pot, and so did Richard. Eric had known that if he had bet and Richard had called. E would be eliminated from the poker tournament.
That had been the heavy decision he had been faced with. Finally, Eric had checked, and Richard had turned over his pocked Jacks. Eric had flashed his cards to Richard as he had thrown them into the muck. Richard had seen the ace of hearts but he hadn’t seen the other card closely, though he assumed it had been a King. Eric appeared to have Been very upset with himself when he had seen Richard’s Jacks, and Eric told him that if he had moved all-in, there was no way Richard would have Called.
Well, Richard told him that he made a good check. If he had said all-in, Richard would have Beaten him in the pot with his own stack, and Eric’s wallet would now have Been lighter by $79,500 that he earned for his very respectable third place finish. Richard had taken over the Chip lead with that hand and had never abandoned it for the rest of the tournament. It had proved to be the key hand for him in the poker tournament.
It had been poker trick and treacherous hand and slightly scary, with basically that whole tournament at stake for him. But after he had processed all the information leading up to the hand, as well as the information he had picked up during the hand as it had unfolded, his gut instinct had told him that he had the Best hand. Luckily, he had been right that time.
He found that in almost any Poker tournament he had ever won, he had to be willing to lay it all on the line, usually more than once, and gone with his gut. If he were wrong, he would have Been headed for the exit, but as long as his decisions were Based on an informed study, he would not have any regrets.
Frank’s two cents: Frank had spoken to Eric the very night that these two had played this hand together, and Eric had told him that he had held an Ace and King, so Richard had been right. Eric had asked Frank if he had misplayed the hand, and Frank had told him that Richard was a hard man to bluff ! One thing that he’d written and Frank loved was that he went with his gut. Richard had gone with his gut, thus he had gone on to win the United States open poker championship. Good going, Richard!