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One Tough Poker Game
A few weeks back, I was in Aruba in a $5,000 buy-in no-limit Hold ’em side game with $20-$40 blinds. As I was leaving the game I witnessed the following hand. This hand involved poker pro Eugene Todd, “Masters of Poker” DVD producer and UBT (“Ultimate Blackjack Tour”) producer Houston Curtis, and 1992 World Champion of Poker Russ Hamilton. I happened to be standing behind Todd (who was in the nine seat) and Hamilton (in the one seat) and saw both of their hands. With a flop of 5s-6s-8s, Curtis checked, Todd bet out $400, Hamilton made it $1,000 to go, and Curtis then made it $4,000 to go, after having checked to both players.
Now Todd gave his hole cards a long, careful look, showed them to me (he had As-Kc), and then folded. He had the nut flush draw, and simply folded his hand without incident. This is a rare case indeed, where someone actually folds the nut flush draw, especially on the flop! Hamilton then called the raise, the Qc hit the board, and Curtis bet $8,000. Hamilton now closely examined his hole cards, showed them to me (he held 8h-8c), and then folded his hand. This lay down, too, was rare, since Hamilton had top set, although I can see him folding here in this situation. By the way, Hamilton had ten wins (three fives, three sixes, three queens, and one eight) vs. 34 losing cards (assuming that we have not seen Todd’s hand), making Hamilton a 3.4-to-1 underdog to win the pot with one card to come.
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My Big ‘Over Bet’
In order to write this, I will have to admit what I had in a hand versus one of my business partner’s who also happens to be the 1992 World Champion of poker, Russ Hamilton. I did not want to tell him what I had in this hand, as he is already too perceptive! It will also confirm to him that he played a hand really well against me last week in Aruba (I do not want to give him that much credit at the poker table!).
The game was no limit Hold ’em, with $10-$20 blinds, and the buy-in was $5,000. In the game that night we had Antonio “the magician” Esfandiari, Hamilton, businessman Greg Pierson, Aviation Club (Paris) manager Bruno Fitoussi, and blackjack champion Ken Einiger.
Four of us called a $20 bet, including me one off of the button, when Einiger raised it up to $240 to go. Hamilton called from the small blind as did the rest of us, so that six people took the flop. I had 10-9, the flop was 7c-6s-2h, and everyone checked. Of course I thought that a great card for me would be an eight, which would make me the best possible hand, and lo and behold an eight came off and Hamilton bet out $1,500. Fold, fold, fold to me, and I thought, “OK, I have the best possible hand here and I’m going to raise it up, but how much? A $3,000 raise may induce Russ to move all-in or at least call the $3,000 bet. Since the eight was a club, Russ could have a flush draw. He could also have trips, two pair, or a straight. I’m sick of raising it up $2,000 or $3,000 and having a bad card (that beats me) come off on the end. Thus I will move all-in to protect my hand, which may fool Russ into thinking that I have a club draw or a straight draw.”
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The Ultimate Bet in Aruba
The UltimateBet.com poker championship tour was recently in Aruba, as was the Ultimate Blackjack Tour. So coming down to Aruba for the week would allow a person to play in both the UBT tournaments and the UltimateBet.com poker tournaments. Unfortunately, I didn’t last very long in any of the main tournaments that I played in!
Of course, there is always the beach.
On the poker side, the buy-in was $5,000. With over 500 players, we had $2.5 million in the prize pool; with a first-place prize a little north of $750,000. Early on, with the blinds at $50-$100, I made it $450 to go with As-5c after two other players called $50. I was trying to win the pot right then and there with my raise. By the way, I was thinking that my A-5 was the best starting hand. However, Player A, who was behind me on the button, called $450 cold (cold — meaning that he had no other money in the pot), and I immediately knew that he had me beat. I surmised that he had pocket jacks, or perhaps A-Q.
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Bad Beat for Layne Flack
A few months back, in Las Vegas, at the Red Rock Casino’s $20,000 buy-in tournament, Layne “Back-to-back” Flack faced a tough six-handed starting table, including: Phil Ivey, Allen Cunningham, Richard Brodie, Jeff Shulman and Robert Mizrachi. There were six tables with six players at each table, and winning your table simply meant that you would get your money back. The final six players would then play for $600,000 for first place, live on FSN (Fox Sports Net) on Thanksgiving Day — the first show is on October 7th.
Flack is one of the toughest — and most feared — no-limit Hold ’em tournament players in the world, and he has been since he left Montana and showed up in Las Vegas back in 1998. In 1998, on his very first trip to a major tournament, Flack made an immediate impact by winning one of the first big-time poker tournaments that he ever played in. A few years later, he picked up his “back-to-back” nickname at the Bicycle Club (in Los Angeles) when he won two tournaments in two days. The reason why Flack is feared at the table is that he is capable of betting all of his chips on a pure bluff when he smells any weakness at all in his opponent. When Flack is reading the other players well, then you might as well stop trying to bluff him altogether, because if you do, he will be ready for you.
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Michael Jordan: Champion
Recently, in Minneapolis, longtime New York Knick player Trent Tucker (he played for them for 10 years), had a charity event to benefit the “Trent Tucker Youth Program.” Normally, this event is all about the golf, and people pay a minimum of $5,000 per person to play with the likes of Michael Jordan, Kevin Garnett, Patrick Ewing, Byron Scott, Charles Oakley, Scottie Pippen and many other NBA stars and celebrities. The 2006 version included a no-limit Hold ’em charity poker tournament at Canterbury Card Casino; and Johnny Chan, Michael “the Grinder” Mizrachi, Greg Raymer, Phil Gordon, Liz Liu, John Phan, Patrick Antonious, Marcel Luske and myself were there to support the charity.
Since my brother David and my agent Brian Balsbaugh were both long time residents of the twin cities, I was pleased to have had an inside report that said that Trent Tucker is first class in every sense of the word.
About 120 players entered the poker tournament, including the No. 1 celebrity in the world, Michael Jordan, but not including Ewing or Scott (Scott told me that he doesn’t play, but that his 19-year-old daughter loves Hold ’em). I busted out when I limped in with Q-10, two others limped in behind me, and the flop came down Qc-10c-9d. I bet the flop and was called by one player, and then Phan moved me all-in. I “insta-called” his bet and Phan rolled over the 8c-2c. He needed a club for a flush or a jack for a straight. The first card off was the Jc, and the next card off just plain added insult to injury; it was the 9c and made Phan a straight flush! Phan came all the way to Minneapolis to bust me, but I still bought Dom and Cristal for him at the club (“Karma”) later that night.
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Day 2 at the Bicycle Club
In my last column, I covered Day 1 of the World Poker Tour (WPT) tournament at the Bicycle Club in Los Angeles. I mentioned that I had made a mistake against Erik Seidel by playing a 5-3 hand for a raise before the flop, and how that hand ended up costing me more than $20,000 in chips. Still, I did make it to Day 2 (on Monday) with $24,500 in chips. (We had started with $20,000 apiece.)
On Day 2, I sat down in the two seat, with J-Till (actress Jennifer Tilly) to my left in the three seat, Michael “the Grinder” Mizrachi in the four seat, World Champion of poker Scotty Nyugen in the seven seat, and tough player James Van Alstyne to my right in the one seat. Tough table, and it seemed like they were ALL pretty tough, owing to the fact that we’d had only 450 players enter the tournament, as opposed to over 1,000 entrants for most of the World Series of Poker tournaments held over the last two months.
With the blinds at $300-$600 I soon realized I was at a table that liked to play big pots. One pot J-Till opened for $1,800 in late position, Player A on the button made it $5,000 to go with K-J, Player B in the big blind made it $20,000 to go with As-7s, J-Till moved all-in for $63,000 total, Player A called for his last $14,000, and Player B called $43,000 more. J-Till then flipped up A-A — tough to beat, but the rest of us were in shock to see K-J and As-7s from the other hands! Player A had called off his last $14,000 with K-J off suit, excuse me? I don’t blame him for reraising it $5,000 to go, though that was a bit weak, but how in the world could he call off his last $14,000 with K-J? He should have known, given the third and fourth raises before the flop, that he was looking at A-A or K-K in his opponents’ hands, so throwing away his K-J should have been an easy decision.
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