Slowplaying a big hand is a dangerous ploy

Slowplaying a big hand is a dangerous ploy By Dennis Deitch For Delco Times The nation has gone poker crazy, and Delaware County is no different. You don't have to travel far down one of Delco's main pikes - Chester Pike, Baltimore Pike or West Chester Pike - before finding an establishment that runs a No-Limit Texas Hold 'Em tournament during the week. And many area churches have packed up the Bingo balls and markers and traded them in for felt tables and playing cards for fundraisers. In this column we'll discuss some of the strategies that can make you or break you in no-limit games. The hope is that the topics - which will also include other forms of poker, including 7-card stud and Omaha - will appeal to those who have played tens of thousands of hands, as well as those just getting involved in the new millennium's fastest-growing competitive activity (no e-mails from ballroom dancers, please). While yours truly isn't a pro player by any means, I've seen enough flops to know a thing or three - and I won't be afraid to share examples where I've made the wrong move. After all, you learn the most from the hands that send you packing. Speaking of which ... A couple of weeks ago I participated in one of the events at the U.S. Poker Championships at the Taj Mahal in Atlantic City. After three hours in the single-day event things were looking good. I had doubled the 5,000 chips with which I started and was one of three players at my table with a healthy stack in front of me. With the blinds having been raised to 75-150 with a 25-chip ante, I was in the big blind with Q-K suited - a strong starting hand, particularly when the only two players to act before me were my fellow large stacks, both of whom only called. I decided I wanted to feign weakness by casually checking when the option to raise came my way. It was the first part of what, in retrospect, I consider a three-part bungle. The flop came out K-Q-5 ... Yahtzee! I was first to act, but I coolly checked the hand, praying one of my fellow players either caught a piece of the flop, or would try to use position to bluff their way to the chips. Instead, both players - a young, solid player, and an older, wily gambling type - checked. The turn card was an Ace. It made me slightly nervous, but my gut told me that if the other two players had a bullet, they were playing it, at best, with a kicker card of 10 or lower. Otherwise they would have raised before the flopv. The young player threw in a bet of 500 chips, which the older player next to him called. I made my move, raising the bet 2,000 chips, or slightly more than what was in the pot. The young player responded with "all-in." Clearly I had slowplayed myself into a mess. However, instead of taking a moment to think things over, I committed the mortal sin of acting out of self-loathing. I called, my opponent turned over 10-J suited, and after counting out the chips I went from great shape to a long walk to the parking garage. And so, to recap: Mistake No. 1: If you have a good hand, play it like one. I had an opportunity to establish my hand by raising the limpers before the flop. While you can slow-play a strong hand before the flop, it either should be a very strong hand (A-A or K-K), or it should only involve you and one other player. With two opponents out there, the chances of a bad beat burning me were doubled. Mistake No. 2: Don't assume your opponents are going to bet into you. My opponents were solid players. The young guy only pushed when he had a hand, the older gentleman liked to play passively - he called bets when he had a piece of them, and check-raised when he had a big hand. A firm bet would have given me either A) a modest victory and added to a strong stack, or B) the knowledge that my opponents either had a piece of the flop, or a legitimate draw. Mistake No. 3: Have the poise to minimize your losses. There was no changing my missteps once the turn card came. I made my bed, and I should have lain in it. Poker isn't played on a hand-by-hand basis; it's a card-by-card test. I had a big lead after the flop, and I knew it. But a big lead can become a big deficit quickly in Hold 'Em. He had eight cards in the deck that could beat me (four Aces, four 9s) and he hit one. A good player makes chips with pocket Aces; a great player can lay down his Aces when he knows they are beat.