Thursday, July 21, 2016

The Weirdest Hand I’ve Ever Played

I’ve been coming out to Pendleton’s poker tournaments for a few years now, off and on They’re among my favorite to play. I’ve even blogged about them before. So I thought I’d discuss a very weird hand I played here yesterday – probably my weirdest tournament hands ever. It essentially propelled me all the way to the final table.

The Wildhorse Casino hosts three big tournament series each year (in April, July, and November), called either the “Poker Round-Up” or the “Poker Rodeo”, depending on the time of the year. They are, without a doubt, the premier poker event in the Northwest, and hundreds of players descend on this tiny town from as far away as Reno, San Francisco, and Seattle.

Although I’ve been to plenty of the Spring and Fall events over the past several years, this is the first time I’ve gone to their Summer event. It’s a much smaller scale, and the crowd (I’ve discovered) is much more local … and, more importantly, less-skilled.

This particular tournament (“Event #1”) started with each player getting 10,000 in chips. Each level lasted thirty minutes, and there was a break every three levels. During the first three levels, nothing very significant happened at my table. I won some small pots and lost some small pots, and headed into the first break with a stack slightly below the 10k I started with. No big deal; during those early levels that sort of deficit isn’t too difficult to recover from.

Once I got back from break, though, I went on a massive heater. With levels at 100/200 with a 25 ante, the player under the gun raised to 600. It was folded all the way around to me in the big blind. I had a decent enough hand: 9c 9s. It’s certainly worth playing, and since I was already getting a discount (being in the blind), I tossed 400 in for a call.

The flop was absolutely perfect: Ah Kd 9d. I had a set on a board that almost certainly hit her hand. I checked, preparing a check raise. But I didn’t get the chance, because she pushed all-in! I happily called, saw that she held Ah Jd, and won the pot when the rest of the board cards bricked. Since I had her covered (slightly), she was out of the tournament … and I was nearly doubled-up. Sweet.

A few hands later, a player under-the-gun shoved his small stack. I was in the cutoff with (déjà vu!) 9c 9h, and called. It was heads up. He showed Ac Kh, the board didn’t help, and I’d busted my second victim in less than one button orbit.

At this point, I definitely had some chirping chips. I started stealing some small pots and leaning on my opponents with big bets, and built my stack up to around 60k – around three times the average stack size at the time.

Then, the big hand came up. I mean, big big hand.

With levels at 400/800 and 100 ante, the player second to act (UTG+1) opened with a raise to around 1800. Action folded to a lady in middle position who had a short stack. She pushed all-in for about 10,000. The next player to act was a rather unsophisticated player on my right (late position, or “LP”). He thought and thought for a long time, and then called. I was next up, on the button. I looked down at Ad Kh and thought about how to play it:
·       If one of my opponents had either Aces or Kings, my hand is in very bad shape. Against any other pair, my odds are just slightly under 50/50. And against any hand that’s not a pair, my chances of winning start at around 60% and go up from there.
·       I didn’t put the guy on my right on Aces or Kings. He was having a tough time deciding what to do, and I thought it was because he had a hand other than those.
·       The lady who shoved? It was very possible that she had one of those pairs. But if so, and if she wins, I’m only out around 10k and still have a monstrously huge stack to keep playing with.
·       What about the opener? He was a young kid who’d just lost a pot earlier. Was he on tilt? Was he any good? I had a really tough time reading him. I had to make my decision without having much input there.

Although I briefly considered it, I decided that I wasn’t going to fold. It came down to whether I should just call, or re-raise and try to isolate one of the other two players. I didn’t see any advantage to isolating; I kind of wanted the guy on my right in the hand so I could win a post-flop side pot if in fact the shover did have Aces or Kings. So, I just called.

Next up was the player in the small blind. He also shoved, but since he only had around 8k he was all-in for less. He seemed a bit resigned at this point, and I thought he wasn’t particularly enthusiastic with his hand.

Action went back to the original raiser, who was now facing a re-raise to around 10k. He decided to shove himself, which was around 25k.

Now, back to the guy on my right. He had the UTG+1 player covered, but not by much. He hemmed and hawed for a long time, and then called the re-raise.

I was next up, to call the 25k re-raise. Wow, a lot of action in this hand! I figured I was probably beat somewhere along the line, but maybe I could still snag a side pot. I went ahead and re-shoved myself, hoping at least I could get the guy on my right to call. Since he was already nearly all-in, it wasn’t much more for him, so he called off.

It took probably three minutes for the dealer to assemble the three side pots! So, in total, we were fighting over four total pots:
·       The main pot held around 40k, and all five players were in that one.
·       The first side pot had around 8k, and everybody except the small blind were in that one.
·       The second side pot had around 45k, and the UTG+1, LP player, and I were in that one.
·       The final side pot had maybe 5k, and only me and the LP guy were in that one.

Then, we all turned over our cards. Here’s what we all held (in order of smallest to largest stacks):
·       The shortest stack, the small blind, had Tc Ts.
·       The lady who went all-in had Ks Kc. She was looking very happy.
·       The UTG+1 player had As Qc. He was drawing nearly dead.
·       The LP guy on my right had 8h 8c.
·       And me, your humble hero, with Ad Kh.

The board cards came out 6d 5c 9d. The guy with eights now had a straight draw. The turn was the 3h. Even at that point, except for the UTG+1 player we were all still alive for the main pot. Then, the dealer gave us the river.

It was the Ace of Hearts.

I’d won it all. Every chip. I was completely stunned. I could barely move. I’d knocked out four players in one hand. I suddenly had over 100k in chips sitting in front of me. I didn’t even have enough room to stack them all. Since there were only five players still at our table, they had to suspend play until they could fill it back up (which was very fortunate, because it gave me a chance to start the epic job of stacking all those chips). Ultimately, the TD bought two racks of my smallest chip denominations (the 100s) and brought over some 5k chips – which weren’t even supposed to be in play until after the next break!


Anyhow, I rode that massive chip advantage all the way to the final table. I think I played above average, but (as you can see) I also got hit by the deck pretty hard. But that’s how you win tournaments. Or, at least in my case, run really really deep in them!

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