Rocking hammers to beat down cancer …

First, an instructive example.

In a 90-player freeroll which had a prize of exactly one entry into the next tournament, the following hand decided the match:

Full Tilt Poker Game #785277592: .NET Satellite to Round 1 (5202652), Table 1 - 500/1000 - No Limit Hold’em - 10:42:11 ET - 2024/07/10
Seat 6: puckett101 (78,320)
Seat 7: mandrake11 (33,640)
Seat 8: smpchicana77 (23,040)
smpchicana77 posts the small blind of 500
puckett101 posts the big blind of 1,000
The button is in seat #7
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to puckett101 [Ah Ac]
mandrake11 raises to 2,000
smpchicana77 calls 1,500
puckett101 raises to 78,320, and is all in
mandrake11 calls 31,640, and is all in
smpchicana77 calls 21,040, and is all in
puckett101 shows [Ah Ac]
mandrake11 shows [Ad Jh]
smpchicana77 shows [Kh Ks]
Uncalled bet of 44,680 returned to puckett101
*** FLOP *** [4s 4c 6s]
*** TURN *** [4s 4c 6s] [8h]
*** RIVER *** [4s 4c 6s 8h] [2s]
puckett101 shows two pair, Aces and Fours
mandrake11 shows a pair of Fours
puckett101 wins the side pot (21,200) with two pair, Aces and Fours
smpchicana77 shows two pair, Kings and Fours
puckett101 wins the main pot (69,120) with two pair, Aces and Fours
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 90,320 Main pot 69,120. Side pot 21,200. | Rake 0
Board: [4s 4c 6s 8h 2s]
Seat 6: puckett101 (big blind) showed [Ah Ac] and won (90,320) with two pair, Aces and Fours
Seat 7: mandrake11 (button) showed [Ad Jh] and lost with a pair of Fours
Seat 8: smpchicana77 (small blind) showed [Kh Ks] and lost with two pair, Kings and Fours

I was lucky in that I happened to catch the absolute best starting hand at the same time that the other two players, both of whom were covered and then some, caught hands that allowed them to call my all-in bet. I had also been pushing them around a bit which allowed them to think that I might be bluffing. This is not a particularly subtle play - the raise makes decisions easy. My opponents must call or fold. There is no opportunity to re-raise or play games to see a flop and perhaps make a hand at the flop or turn. They must define the strength of their hand, put me on a range of holdings (which, at that point, could have been anything from 9-10 suited on up) and determine whether their hand was strong enough to call. I suspect that if the player holding pocket kings was immediately to my left, the player with A-Jo might not have called the all-in. As it was, with two all-ins ahead and pocket kings with the opportunity to triple up, calling my all-in made sense. My aces held up and I eliminated both remaining players to win the only seat offered in the freeroll. The key lesson, stated often, is not to slowplay the big boys.

Here’s another example to illustrate what can happen when you try to slowplay the big boys by limping in and extracting more money after the flop:

Full Tilt Poker Game #785289679: .COM Satellite to Round 1 (5202644), Table 3 - 800/1600 - No Limit Hold’em - 10:52:31 ET - 2024/07/10
Seat 4: puckett101 (22,640)
Seat 5: JAMax (38,025)
Seat 6: usarmyproperty (28,540)
Seat 9: mrrobert (45,795)
puckett101 posts the small blind of 800
JAMax posts the big blind of 1,600
The button is in seat #9
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to puckett101 [8h Tc]
usarmyproperty folds
mrrobert calls 1,600
puckett101 calls 800
JAMax checks
*** FLOP *** [9h Js 7s]
puckett101 bets 1,600
JAMax folds
mrrobert calls 1,600
*** TURN *** [9h Js 7s] [6d]
puckett101 bets 1,600
mrrobert raises to 3,200
puckett101 raises to 6,400
mrrobert raises to 9,600
puckett101 raises to 19,440, and is all in
mrrobert calls 9,840
puckett101 shows [8h Tc]
mrrobert shows [Ad As]
*** RIVER *** [9h Js 7s 6d] [Ah]
puckett101 shows a straight, Jack high
mrrobert shows three of a kind, Aces
puckett101 wins the pot (46,880) with a straight, Jack high
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 46,880 | Rake 0
Board: [9h Js 7s 6d Ah]
Seat 4: puckett101 (small blind) showed [8h Tc] and won (46,880) with a straight, Jack high
Seat 5: JAMax (big blind) folded on the Flop
Seat 6: usarmyproperty didn’t bet (folded)
Seat 9: mrrobert (button) showed [Ad As] and lost with three of a kind, Aces

In short-handed play, my opponent limped with pocket aces. I limped in the small blind with one-gapped off-suit cards. After the flop, with a possible straight, my opponent merely calls my blind bet. At the turn, with two possible straights on the board, he begins re-raising me. Based on his tricky play, I put him on 8-5 and a smaller straight at best. The re-raises further confirmed my belief that he had a hand, but that it was unlikely to be as strong as mine. While Phil Gordon is right in that the fourth raise means aces, the fifth raise after the flop seems to be the one to be concerned about. By that point, after all the re-raises, he had the pot odds necessary to call my all-in and he obviously believed that his slow-played aces were good, probably putting me on a jack with a medium kicker.

In the parlance of our times, oops.

This is why you don’t slowplay aces or kings. The times you only take the blinds will more than off-set the times you double someone else up because they flopped a monster and you think you’re trapping them. It is better to win a small pot with a big hand than lose a big pot with a big hand.

As it is, I doubled up on the hand because I flopped the nuts and he over-valued top pair when my betting history should have indicated to him that he was beat. Then again, aces are hard to get away from and he had me covered and then some.

In that freeroll, we both finished in the top 3 to win entries into the next round so the point became moot, but let this be instructive to you. Don’t slowplay the big boys. You might lose big because of it.