Tournament Life Insurance

Introduction. Over and over again, you see tournament players fire all their bullets into one pot – only to be escorted to the rail when an opponent catches perfect on the river. In a cash game, you can go into your pocket for more capital after a bad beat, but in a tournament you are history the moment your last chip disappears. Even when you are holding the nut Straight on the Turn, you can still lose to a Flull House on the River. One solid tournament strategy (especially in Pot Limit and No-Limit games) is to lay in the weeds until you get a monster starting hand, and then bet all your chips and place your tournament future in the hands of the Poker Gods. It's not a bad way to go. However, if you really want to survive more tournaments, you need to make a slight adjustment to the strategy: Don't bet all your chips. Save 15-20% for a rainy day.

Full Pedal to the Metal Strategy. Let's say you have flopped the nut flush in a Pot-Limit game. You have the Ace and Jack of Hearts in your hand, and the flop comes Queen, Five, Three of Hearts. You have the nut Flush, so you put the pedal to the metal and bet the pot. There is a lone caller. The Turn card is the Ten of Clubs, probably helping no one. The pot has grown to the point where there are slightly more chips in the total pot than you have in front of you. So you push it all in, and watch with horror while a second Queen hits the river. You had the nuts on the Turn, but now the nut hand is a Full House. All your chips are in the center of the table, and you're starting to feel like you're walking on ice with crutches. The other player shows down a Full House, and you head for the rail. For you the tournament is over.

85% Throttle Strategy. Now, let's replay the scenario. You bet the pot on the Flop, but when you bet the Turn, you held back 20% of your chips…just in case. The board paired on the River, your opponent pushed in the rest of his chips, and, knowing that Pot-Limit players rarely bluff on the River, you folded your hand and immediately started to behave like a short stack. The moral of the story? Unless you are holding the nut hand on the River, hold back 15% of your chips. Always. When you win those big hands, you may wish you'd have bet it all, but when lose a big one, you'll be glad you purchased some "Tournament Life Insurance."

When bad things happen… Bad beats, unusual upsets, draw-outs, perfect catches – these are all part of the game. Hold back 15%, and if a bad thing happens, trot out your short-stack strategy. Go all-in with a marginal hand in a checked pot from a rear position. If your normal playing style is selective aggression, switch to super-aggressive when you're playing a small stack. Go after pots that you'd have avoided earlier in the tournament. It's tough to win a tournament from a short position – but it can be done.

Conclusion. So, the next time you're getting ready to push all your chips into the center, hold back 15% for a rainy day. You'd be amazed how many rainy day stories you hear at the rail.

Bill Fried

www.pocketscoringsystem.com
www.pokercheatercards.com

Excerpted from a book in progress entitled, "For Winners Only: Texas Hold'em Tournament Play."

Aces in Pot-Limit Omaha

I was under-the-gun in a Pot-Limit Omaha game. I had A-A-7-T in the pocket – including the Ace and Seven of diamonds. First to act, I was tempted to raise the pot, but decided to call the blind bet and raise any raiser to get heads-up with my Aces. One of the problems with betting the pot pre-flop in Omaha is that you completely give away your hand. In essence, you have lit up a neon sign that says, “I have Aces.”

One player limped in behind me, and the cutoff (player just before the button) put in a pot-sized raise. Something told me he had pocket Aces as well – the other two. If I re-raised, I would let the cat out of the bag and expose my own pocket Aces. Instead, I took my time calling his all-in bet. My heart started to race, because for one of the few times in Omaha, I knew exactly (even to the suit) what my opponent was holding. It was as though he was sitting in front of a mirror, and I was looking at his hand. (It doesn’t get any better than that in poker.)

The Flop came a 9-5-3 rainbow with one Diamond, the Five. It seemed unlikely that a holder of AA would have hit the flop with his other two cards, so my thinking was that we were dead even in the hand. I thought that if I made a bet, I might slow the other player down. I was sure he had Aces, and he had to be feeling the same as I was about the board. Thinking his Aces were still good, the player again bet the pot. I deliberated for a reasonable period of time and called. The Turn was the Ten of Diamonds, giving me a tie hand – unless the competitor was sitting with a companion Queen-Jack to provide an open-ended straight draw.

Again I checked, hoping he would push his last stack of chips into the center. In that event, I would have a tie hand at worst, but with a free-roll for the nut Diamond Flush. As hoped, he bet the rest of his chips, and I called with the rest of mine.

The River brought the blessed Four of Diamonds to deliver me the coveted Nut Flush – doubling me up and sending the other player to the rail. The moral of the story is that it pays to mix up your game. When you're sitting with pocket Aces in early position, it's often wise to limp in ans see if someone gets frisky behind you. In that event, you have the advantage of pretty much knowing what the other player is holding - while your opponent is completely in the dark with regard to the nature of your hand.

Multiple Bad Beats in a Jackpot

I overheard this in a Casino recently: “What is the maximum number of hands that can participate in a Bad Beat Jackpot?”

Most casinos rake a dollar chip out of each pot and distribute the pool to the participants in a bad beat jackpot. Typical rules are: (1) minimum oftwo hands each holding a minimum of four of a kind, and (2) participating hands must use both hole cards to make up the winning/losing hand. (In some games, such as Omaha or Omaha 8/b, the minimum winning hand to participate can be as high as 7777.)

It is theoretically possible for four hands to all meet the requirements for a Bad Beat Jackpot. The board would be as follows:

7 of Spades, 7 of Hearts, 8 of Hearts, 9 of Hearts, 9 of Spades

The four hands would be as follows:

Pocket Cards Board Cards Hand
5 of Hearts 7 of Hearts
6 of Hearts 8 of Hearts
9 of Hearts 5-6-7-8-9 Hearts

7 of Diamonds 7 of Spades
7 of Clubs 7 of Hearts 7-7-7-7

10 of Hearts 7 of Hearts
J of Hearts 8 of Hearts
9 of Hearts 7-8-9-T-J Hearts

9 of Diamonds 9 of Hearts
9 of Clubs 9 of Spades 9-9-9-9

A Book on Beating Texas Hold’em

For Winners Only. You may not have heard about me on the major poker tournament circuit, but I just published a book on Texas Hold’em. It’s entitled, For Winners Only: The Pocket Scoring System for Beating Texas Hold’em. I wrote it so that relative newcomers to the game could win money right from the get-go, and it seems to be working out very well for my book-buyers.

Won some, Lost some. Because I have a business to run, I don’t have the time to go out of town and play the major tournaments in Las Vegas and Tunica, but I do play my share of local Bay Area tourneys and have won more than my fair share of seats at Final Table – including some tournament wins in the $10,000 - $15,000 prize range at casinos like Lucky Chances, Garden City, and Artichoke Joe’s. Whenever I use the system, I win, and whenever I depart from the system, I lose.

Pocket Scoring System. The system takes into account three factors: (1) card rank, (2) suited cards, and (3) connected cards. You add up three little numbers, and the total tells you what hands to play from every position at the table – and the requirements automatically change when players leave the game or enter the game. The system advises, for example, that you can enter and call the blind bet on the button with an Ace-Nine-offsuit, but you must fold the same hand without question when sitting under-the-gun in a full game. But when the field has shrunk to only three players, you can raise with the same starting hand. The Pocket Scoring System takes about two minutes to learn, and it gives me the confidence to know when to enter a pot, check, bet, raise, re-raise and fold – simply by looking at a single number that totals 38 points or less.

Filling a need. The reason I wrote the book was that I wanted to save new players from having to go through the agony of learning which hands can be played from the various positions at the table. About two years ago I delved into the game with a vengeance. I read every book on Hold’em ever written and then purchased a copy of Wilson Software’s Texas Hold’em product and nearly developed a case of carpel tunnel syndrome by playing some 300,000 – 400,000 hands. Then I went on the Internet and played many, many hands. Because I hold a MBA in Statistics, I began to search for patterns to help the newcomer to the game come up to speed much faster. The Pocket Scoring System came to me while pondering the problem on a flight to Calgary, and when I returned home and tested the system, it went way beyond my expectations.

Bill Fried

pocketscoringsystem.com
pokercheatercards.com


©2005 by William I. Fried. This information is protected under U.S. Copyright law.

(Excerpted from a book entitled, “For Winners Only: A Pocket Scoring System for Beating Texas Hold’em”)

Folding Aces for Fun and Profit

(Slow-Play in a Texas Hold’em Speed Tournament)

Speed Tournament. Recently I played a Speed Tournament at an Internet site. The blinds went up every three minutes and capped at Level 26 with blinds of $100,000/$200,000. It was a $20+2 buy-in with 1100 entrants seated at 110 tables of 10 players each, for a prize pool of $22,000. With sound play, using the Pocket Scoring System to tell me when to enter a hand, I grew my chip stack from the initial $800 to about $6,500 – but before too long the blinds were going up faster than I could accumulate chips. Soon the blinds were $4,000/$8,000 and I could see that my chances of growing my stack large enough to survive the next blind were somewhere between slim and none. I suddenly realized that I should have gone all-in two circuits of the table ago. By this time the field had been reduced from 1100 to about 250.

The Big Stall. And then I noticed a curious thing. Every player was taking the maximum time allowable to take action. The game was proceeding slower than a cashier during a run on a bank. I typed this question to the other players: “How come everyone is taking so long to act?” Another player replied, “The longer we take to make our moves, the more players bomb out of the other tables, the higher our finishing position, and the more money we all make.” I typed back, “Sounds kind of dumb for a speed tournament. I thought that because the blinds are escalating so fast, it would make more sense to play quickly and try to accumulate chips faster than the blinds can rise.” “Incorrect,” replied another player. “The more you stall, the more you win. Just do what we are doing, and from time to time go back to the big scoreboard and watch how fast your position is moving up.”

Five Minutes a Hand. I may have been born at night, but it wasn’t last night. I quickly realized the other players knew what they were doing, so I followed suit. Because each player was taking a full 30 seconds to take action, each hand was consuming a full five minutes (30 seconds X 10 players), but because the blinds were going up every three minutes, the blinds were nearly doubling during the play of each hand. When all the stalling began, I had been on the button. As the button marched around the table slower than a tired turtle, I noticed that my position in the tournament standings was continuing to rise.

The Battle of the Blinds. By this time the blinds had reached $5,000/$10,000, and only the players in the two blinds were playing hands – because they were forced to do so. I could not help but think that the site management had made a grievous business error by running speed tournaments that were best played by stalling at every opportunity. I somehow felt like I was stealing money out of the collection plate, since I was moving up the payout schedule without playing or winning a hand.

BIG Blinds. When we went through the next three-minute level, the blinds went from $10,000/$20,000 to $20,000/$40,000. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to realize that it was mathematically impossible for me to win the tournament. Even if I took on a bigger chip stack and won a hand, I could never accumulate more than three times my $6,500 chip stack in a single hand. If I attacked and won, my stack would rise to $19,500 – but the $40,000 (possibly $50,000) Big Blind coming my way would wipe me out unless I was lucky enough to win the hand and survive another circuit of the table. I quickly calculated that to take first place, I would have to double up four or five times in a row – and before the blinds reached me again. Even then by the time the blinds reached me, I might not have enough chips to cover the Big Blind. (They should have changed the name of the tournament to One Step Forward, Two Steps Backward.)

No Win Possible. There was no way I could win the tourney, but perhaps I could move up the payout table by continuing to exercise patience. At that moment I really began to understand the value of stalling in a timed tournament. Every hand was played between only the two blinds, and in every hand, one of them was eliminated. That scenario was occurring was every hand at every table in the tournament. Wow – what a weird situation. Now we’re coming to the fun part.

A Lucky Table Change. The Big Blind was marching inexorably toward me, and now there was only one player between me and the Big Blind. Unless I happened to draw a winning hand, I would be out of the tourney two hands from now. Suddenly, the software picked me up and deposited me at another table – to the immediate left of the button. The next hand had me sitting right on the button. Talk about a lucky table change! I had gone from almost certain death in the Small Blind to a safe haven on the button! The first hand for me at that table was dealt, and I looked down and saw two big, bright, shiny, black Aces staring at me. Pocket Rockets. American Airlines. Black Bullets. What a wonderful sight. (I didn’t even have to look up the score in the Pocket Scoring System, because I knew it was a 38 – the highest score possible when using the system.)

The Moment of Truth. My instinct was to punch the all-in button and trust my fate to the Poker Gods, but then I had a sudden and compelling realization. If I played the hand and got my Aces cracked (much more likely against two random blind hands than a competitor with a small pocket pair), I’d be done. According to the payout schedule, if I played the hand and lost, I’d finish up in about 70th place for $50 or so. If I played the hand and won, I’d have $19,500 in chips and after a full circuit of the table would be sitting in the $40,000 Blind – perhaps $50,000 by then. My position would be unimproved. In a flash of blinding insight, I realized that the most economically rational and strategically significant thing I could do would be do fold my pocket Aces. And so, for the first time in my life, I folded pocket Aces! My girlfriend was looking over my shoulder and exclaimed, “Do you know that you just folded the best hand in the deck?”

Smart Decision. It was the savviest thing I could do. In the time it would take me to go from the button to the Big Blind, 50 or more players could be knocked out, and I could advance toward the top of the payment schedule. I threw away hand after hand and waited for the Small Blind to claim me as its next victim. And then the Poker Gods decided to again smile upon me. Another table had become short-handed, and again the software picked me up and deposited me directly in front of the button at another table. Again, I had gone from a near-certain death in the Big Blind to a fresh outlook on life – with 9 hands to go until I would be faced with making an all-in bet to cover part of the Big Blind. The hand that had been in progress came to an end, and the button moved to my position. Another player from my table had also been brought to this one, and he sent me this message, “You know, for a player with almost no chips, you’re a fair shot to make final table. Boy, they sure dropped you into a great position at the table.”

Happy Ending. Obviously, after folding Aces in the pocket, there was no way I would voluntarily play any other hand. I continued to stall and use up the maximum time allowable – until the tourney became so short that the dealing was hand-by-hand. When the last two tables became synchronized, there was no longer any reason to stall, and so play proceeded quickly from that point. Finally, the Big Blind capped at $100,000/200,000 and came to me. I pushed in my $6,500 in chips and lost the hand to the Small Blind. A little banner came up on the screen that said, “Congratulations, you have finished in 11th position for a total of $176.” The payout was only 900% of my investment, but it was better than a sharp stick in the eye. Thinking back on my play, I realized that I had gone from 100th place to 11th place in the tournament without ever playing a hand.

The Moral of the Story. Things are not always as they seem. When you find yourself in uncharted territory, don’t be afraid to ask the other players what’s going on. Never assume that the way to win more money is to play more hands. In some tournaments, depending upon your seat and chip positions, it may make more sense to fold big hands than to play them. The other players were eager to help me out because they did not suffer by letting me in on the strategy. We all benefited – a rather unusual occurrence at a poker table. Our whole table had been in a kind of quiet collusion against the tournament setup – and most of us finished in the money. I still chuckle when I recount the only time in my life that I have folded pocket Aces – and I look forward to the next time.

Bill Fried

pocketscoringsystem.com
pokercheatercards.com


©2005 by William I. Fried. This information is protected under U.S. Copyright law.

(Excerpted from a book-in-progress entitled, “For Winners Only: A Flop Scoring System for Beating Texas Hold’em”)

Short-Stacked in a No-Limit Texas Hold'em Tournament

Playing the Stacks. To be a winning tournament player, you must shy away from confrontations with larger stacks. It is better to enter a pot with a lesser hand against a short stack than to go in with a better hand against a big stack. When a big stack puts you all in, you are faced with an all-or-nothing decision – and the outcome generally favors the big stack. Another critical ingredient of tournament play is in knowing when to make a stand. Most players wait until they are on fumes to make a move – and their measly bets are quickly called by the sharks.

Winning is about Attitude. I had played in a number of brick-and-mortar tournaments and had won a number of satellites and Limit tourneys – but I had never won a No-Limit contest in a casino. T.J. Cloutier, one of the poker greats, says that to win a tournament, you must concentrate all your energy on winning first place. Because the payment schedule drops off so precipitously after first place, it’s all about winning the top slot. I disagree slightly with T.J. I logged my first No-Limit tournament win at Lucky Chances in Colma, CA – a noted Northern California casino. There were 160 entrants, and the prize pool after re-buys and add-ons was $10,500. Top prize was $3,500, second was $1,800, third was $1,000 – and the payouts fell off sharply after that.

Double Up or Go Home. The blinds had reached $1,000/$2,000 and I was sitting with about $4,000 in chips. I had been using the Pocket Scoring System, and although it was working well for me, the blinds had risen faster than my chip stack. I was definitely on life support. I realized I should have gone all-in about $2,000 ago – even with marginal tickets. My stack had shrunk to the point where I could no longer scare anyone with a raise. I was sitting about four seats to the left of the Big Blind, and the blinds were fast approaching my position. There were about 25 players left in the tourney, and I realized that if I couldn’t find a hand to go with right away, a few deals later I would be putting up $2,000 for the Big Blind and $1,000 for the Small Blind. If I failed to win either hand, I’d be left with $1,000 and have almost no chance of moving up. I desperately needed to make something happen – now. I needed to either double up or blow canopy and punch out of the tourney.

Almost a Family Pot. The cards were dealt, and the Chip Leader went all-in, followed by another short stack, followed by yet another short stack. Three players were now all-in. The action came to me and I peeled off a Jack-Ten-offsuit (a light call according to The Pocket Scoring System). While many would consider the hand as a throwaway against a single player, I was willing to gamble with it against a larger field. Knowing that for one all-in bet I would be able to see the flop, turn, and river, I decided to go for it. I knew if I got real lucky and won the pot, I’d quadruple my supply of chips and get back in the game.

“Turn ‘em over.” When the other players turned over their hands, I felt like singing. All three of them were holding Ace-Little. One had Ace-Nine, another had Ace-Seven, and the third had Ace-Three – and none of them were suited. Because the Aces were virtually dead (there was only one Ace left in the deck), my Jack-Ten looked very strong against their little cards. As luck would have it, I flopped a Jack and won the pot. With antes, blinds, and all-in bets, my end of the pot (the Chip Leader got most of his chips back) amounted to about $17,000. Now I was back in the tournament.

Just Move Up. At that point, I was in 23rd place – and the tourney would pay out only 12 places. I formulated my strategy. I would not concentrate on winning the tournament. I couldn’t do that, because relative to the chip leaders, I was comparatively short-stacked with my $17,000 – and blinds and antes would diminish the stack to about $13,000 in the next three or four hands. My strategy was simple: Just try to move up one slot in the payout schedule. While in 23rd place, I focused on moving up one slot. When I hit 22nd place, I again focused on moving up one slot. I never considered that I could win the tournament, I concentrated on surviving to reach the next payout level. And then the next. And then the next. Now the blinds were up to $2,000/$4,000 with a $500 ante, and the short stacks were being blinded out.

Final Table. Before I knew it, the tournament director came over and announced that our table would be the Final Table. I was pleasantly surprised to find myself at Final Table, because I hadn’t played a hand since my win with Jacks. The blinds were killing most of the short stacks they touched. Still, I had no hope of winning, since my stack was pitifully small when compared with the others. Again, my strategy was to survive and try to move up one payment level at a time. Each time a player left the table, I looked up at the payout schedule and said, “Wow, I made it to $800,” then “Wow, I made it to $920.” Again, I had no hope of winning, but I was folding both poor and marginal hands while the blinds were knocking each other out.

Go for the Gold. Suddenly I looked around, and there were only three players left. I had survived to make third place - $1,100. Not bad. “Hell,” I said to myself, “I can’t win this thing, but maybe I can slip into second place – which pays $1,800.” Again, I was not setting my sights on winning – merely surviving to take second place money. The Chip Leader knocked out a player, and now I was heads-up with the chip mountain. Because my strategy had been Just move up, I continued with it. I asked my opponent if he was interested in halting the tournament and splitting first and second money – but he replied that he had come to dance, and he wanted to see it through. At that moment I realized that no matter what happened, I would walk home with $1,800 – not terribly bad for five hours of pleasant work.

All-in Every Hand. For the next four hands, I went all-in on every hand - regardless of what the Pocket Scoring System told me to do. First it was with a Jack-Nine-suited, then a King-Four-offsuit, then a Queen-Seven-offsuit – and each time the other player folded his hand. After the four hands had been played, my opponent said, “Hey, do you realize you’ve got more chips than I do?” “Impossible,” I said, but after doing a quick count of my stacks, I discovered I had perhaps a $20,000 advantage in chips. That meant if I lost an all-in bet, I would at least survive to play one more hand. The next hand I anted $2,000 and posted my $12,000 Big Blind and peeled off an Ace-Nine-suited – a great hand in heads-up play. I went all-in, the other player called, and we turned up our cards. He had King-Jack-offsuit. The flop, turn, and river all came up rags, and my Ace stood up to win the hand – and the tournament. The tournament director counted out 35 fresh $100 bills, I slipped a few of them to the tournament director on behalf of the dealers, and logged another No-Limit tournament win.

The Moral of the Story. Don’t set out to win the tourney, because that’s too big a goal. Instead, set incremental goals. Every time you move up into a higher position, set your goal toward achieving one step higher. It’s much easier to concentrate on climbing a ladder one step at a time than focusing on the top of the building and wondering how you are going to get there. Winning a tournament involves taking a number of baby steps – steps that lead you to the tournament win.

Wait 'em out. Your objective is always to survive so you can get to Final Table. Once you’re seated there, allow the other players to knock each other out while you preserve your capital waiting for a huge hand to invest in. You survive by folding hands, not playing them. It may not be very exciting, but it’s extremely profitable to sit back and watch the other players beat each other’s brains in – and then take on the winner(s). I’ve won tourneys in which I rarely played a hand but managed to win most of the hands I played. I’ve also won tourneys in which I never knocked out a single player – all the casualties were initiated by other players. You have to sit and wait a lot, but the strategy is a sound one. It’s also a very relaxing way to play because while the other players are sweating bullets, you’re calmly watching the action from the sidelines – and watching your payoff mount.

Bill Fried

pocketscoringsystem.com
pokercheatercards.com

©2005 by William I. Fried. This information is protected under U.S. Copyright law.

(Excerpted from a book-in-progress entitled, “For Winners Only: A Flop Scoring System for Beating Texas Hold’em”)

Stuff Happens in Texas Hold’em

A Funny Story. I was in a No-Limit Hold’em tournament at Artichoke Joe’s in San Bruno, California. It was a comparatively small tournament – 107 players and a prize pool of $11,000. I was one of 16 players remaining at two tables, and the blinds were $700 and $1,500 with a $300 ante. I had $7,000 in chips at the start of the hand. (I was not yet on life support, but the hospital orderlies were assembling in the hallway.) Before the action started, the pot consisted of $2,400 in antes and $2,200 in blinds for a total of $4,600. Because I was in the big blind, $1800 of it was my money. Everyone folded except the player in the small blind, who made a $1,000 pre-flop raise. When I peeled my cards, I discovered the Ace and King of Clubs - a no-brainer holding according to the Pocket Scoring System (32 points out of a possible 38). I called the raise so fast, that I left skid marks on the felt.

Position is Everything. I was in seat #1, he was in seat #10, and the dealer was in the middle. Because the dealer was sitting between us and on a direct line with both of us, neither of us was able to have a clear view of the other player or his stack of chips. When I called his $1,000 raise, he somehow thought that I had gone all-in to make the call, and he turned over his cards – a pair of Nines.

A Generous Offer. Thinking of myself as a nice fellow, and having made just about every mistake that it’s possible to make at a poker table, I felt sorry for the other player, knowing that he had made an honest mistake, and offered to turn over my cards and automatically check the hand down for the rest of the cards – playing for the chips already in the center of the table. (Another reason I was willing to play the rest of the hand for the chips already at risk, was that I knew the other player would beat me if I failed to draw a higher pair, straight, or flush – his made pair could easily prevail over my Big Slick. He had a hand already, and I would have to draw one from the deck. My two over-cards gave me comfort, but I would nevertheless have to draw to win.) The dealer immediately called over the floor manager and asked for a ruling. The floor manager ruled that the error had been the fault of the other player, and that he needed to play his hand open against my closed hand. He also ruled that the players could not agree to check the hand down, but we would have to play the hand card by card. I shrugged my shoulders and agreed to the ruling.

The Plot Sickens. Then the flop was dealt, and it was a King-Seven-Three rainbow, giving me a pair of Kings with an Ace kicker – Top Pair with Top Kicker – about the best hand you can hope for in No-Limit Hold’em. The battle was now between a pair of uncovered Nines and a pair of concealed Kings. Without a moment’s hesitation, I announced, “All-In” and pushed my remaining $4,200 worth of chips to the center. The table broke into peals of laughter, and the other player looked like, to quote Tom Lehrer, “a Christian Scientists who had just been diagnosed with acute appendicitis.” I had just made an all-in bet against a player whose cards were completely known to me, while my cards were completely unknown to him. (It was the perfect example of Sklansky’s Fundamental Theorem of Poker in practice!) He pondered for nearly a full minute before folding his hand and reluctantly awarding me the $10,800 pot. It was a moment that both of us will probably talk about for some time to come, and we bantered good-naturedly back and forth about it during the next few hands.

The Post-Win Analysis. After I made my all-in bet on my top pair with top kicker, I settled into that zen-like space where I really didn’t care whether he called me or folded – and I was convinced that he only had those two options. (By the way, when you take an action and then don’t care how the other player responds – by definition you have taken the perfect action for the situation. You’ll know it when you feel serene and calm about your decision. When you honestly don’t care what the other player does, you have made the best possible decision.)

From My Opponent’s Point of View… Raising me back was not an option for the other player since I had already made an all-in bet. His only choice was to call or fold his hand. Because it was late in the tournament, and the blinds had been starting to cripple my chip stack, I had been more than willing to check the hand down and gamble that my Ace-King over-cards would improve to beat his Nines, but I also knew that by playing out the hand, I would assume the risk that he might make a miracle draw to steal the pot from me – and perhaps blow me out of the tournament. (At minimum, there were two more nines in the deck that would send me to the rail, and straights and flushes were always possible.) Later, when re-thinking the decision, it occurred to me that an all-in bet at that point was the most appropriate action that could have been taken in that situation – regardless of the cards I was holding and the cards that hit the flop. Even if the flop had been rags, my all-in bet would have been appropriate. Because I knew the other player’s cards, while he did not know mine, it would have been crazy for the other player in this situation to do anything but fold in the face of my all-in bet. The conditions were perfect for the Bluff of the Century.

Bill Fried
pocketscoringsystem.com
pokercheatercards.com

©2005 by William I. Fried. This information is protected under U.S. Copyright law.

(Excerpted from a book-in-progress entitled, “For Winners Only: A Flop Scoring System for Beating Texas Hold’em”)

A Bad Beat on a Bad Beat Jackpot

A Cash Game. It was at The Palace Casino on the East side of San Francisco Bay in a ring game. The bad beat jackpot was posted as $48,680 – and the minimum hand required to win the jackpot was Seven-Seven-Seven-Seven. Another requirement was that the both players had to use both hole cards to make up their hands. (The reason for this is obvious: if the board showed four Sevens, without the two-card usage requirement, both players could play the board and use their highest hole card as a kicker – and the spirit of the bad beat jackpot would be defeated, because the jackpots would be smaller and more numerous.)

Bad Beat City? The casino’s policy was to pay the bad beat jackpot on a 50/30/20 split, with 50% going to the player whose hand was beaten, 30% going to the player with the best hand, and the remaining 20% being split between the other players at the table. The flop came all spades, Five-Four-Three, and some serious betting and raising ensued. I had entered with a small pair (satisfying the requirements of the Pocket Scoring System) and quickly got out of the way. The Six of Spades came on the Turn, and now the board was showing four to a straight flush: the Three, Four, Five, and Six of Spades. Excitement at the table hit a crescendo as the dealer laid the King of Spades on the board. Now the board was showing a completed Flush – Three-Four-Five-Six-King of Spades

Hand-to-Hand Combat. Two players squared off, and their betting, raising and re-raising moved into high gear. Everyone at the table began to sense that perhaps a jackpot hand was being played. Finally one of the players called a last bet, and both players opened their hands. The winner turned over his Seven-Eight of Spades and waited for the dealer to push all the chips in the pot his way. The winning hand was a Straight Flush – Four-Five-Six-Seven-Eight of Spades. The loser turned over his hole cards – Ace-Deuce of Spades – and announced to the dealer that this hand qualified for the bad beat jackpot. “Not so fast, my friend,” said the dealer, “to win the bad beat jackpot, both players need to use both hole cards in their hands.” “I am using both cards,” replied the player. “My Ace-Deuce of Spades gives me the losing straight flush – and the lion’s share of the bad beat jackpot payoff.”

The Best Possible Hand. “You’re wrong,” said the dealer. “In Texas Hold’em, every player uses the best cards on the board with the best cards in his or her hand to make up the best possible hand. The dealer constructs the best possible hand for each player and then award the pot to the highest hand. Unfortunately, you can’t use both of your hole cards to make up your best possible hand.” “What do you mean?” asked the player. The dealer replied, “Your best hand is not the spade Wheel for a Straight-Flush. Your best hand is a Spade Straight-Flush – Two-Three-Four-Five-Six. Ace-Two-Three-Four-Five is not your best possible hand, because a Six-High Straight Flush is higher than a Five-High Straight-Flush. Your best hand used only the Deuce to form the higher Straight-Flush. Because you are only using one card from the hole to make up your best hand, this hand does not qualify to win the bad beat jackpot.”

Not So Fast, Red Ryder. “You’re wrong,” said the player. Because this rule is not specifically covered in your bad beat jackpot policy, it doesn’t apply here. I’m using both of my hole cards to make up a Straight-Flush Wheel – and that player just beat me with a higher Straight-Flush.”

The Voice of Reason. “I beg to differ with you, my friend,” said the dealer. “A player’s hand at showdown is the very best hand that can be constructed from the board’s five cards and the player’s hole cards. It’s like putting seven cards face-up on the table and assembling the best possible hand. There is only one very best hand that can be constructed from a seven-card layout. That definition of a Hold’em hand is a basic rule of the game. To get back to your hand, the best possible hand you can construct is a Deuce-Three-Four-Five-Six. Therefore, the Ace is superfluous, and because you are using only one hole card to make up your best hand, your hand does not qualify for a bad beat jackpot.”

The Final Authority. Naturally, with so much money at stake, the heated discussion continued, and the casino owner was called over to settle the dispute. He agreed with the dealer’s call, and the bad beat jackpot was not paid out.

Bill Fried

pocketscoringsystem.com

©2005 by William I. Fried. This information is protected under U.S. Copyright law.

(Excerpted from a book-in-progress entitled, “For Winners Only: A Flop Scoring System for Beating Texas Hold’em”)