Beyond Dead Money

Wow Internet players are bad.

Watching the early stages of the Main Event is a valuable tutorial on how not to play tournament poker. 

At table 39, we watched as a guy in mid-position raised to 300.  The button (wearing a Party Poker hat) flat-calls.  The blinds fold.  It’s two-way action.  The flop comes K-K-6.  Both quickly check.  The turn is another 6.  The mid-position guy bets out 600.  The button calls.  The river is a 3.  No flush on the board.  The mid-position guy bets 1k.  The button calls.  The button flips over pocket Jacks.  The original raiser flips K-Q.  In other words, the button, in the best possible position in poker, does not re-raise his Jacks pre-flop.  He never bets on the flop to find out where he stands.  He doesn’t re-raise on the turn (say another 600, which ultimately would’ve saved him money if HE was re-raised again…he could’ve just folded then).  Instead, he just calls down the worst hand, which started as the best hand and likely would’ve won had he re-raised on the button.  Terrible.

At table 35, a young Asian kid sucked out a bad beat on his opponent.  The Asian kid should’ve never been in the hand, and he took a huge pot.  He says, “I’m gambling.  I don’t care.”  John Juanda sits at table 36 and had been watching the action go down.  He tells the kid, “Don’t make excuses for the bad way you play.”  Classic.  Ironically, the kid is wearing a shirt that reads: Bad Beat Society of America. 

At table 47, we watched a 30k pot go down between three guys (who had all limped into the hand).  With a flop of 10d-9d-6s, the button bets out 2500.  He is raised5000 to go.  Chops caught the third guy’s hand (who wears a Poker Stars shirt), which was 7-6d (so a non-nut flush draw and a gut-shot straight).  He calls.  The original raiser then moves all in.  He’s called by both guys.  The original raiser flips over pocket 9’s (a set).  He’s up against 10-9 (two pair), and the Poker Stars’ kid who is on a non-nut flush and gutshot straight draw.  The river is a blank, and the trip 9’s hold.  Leaving the table, the Poker Stars kid says, “Had to do it.”  What?  Risk your tournament life when there’s already a straight possibility on the board and when you don’t have the non-not flush draw?  Folding early means he’d still be in the tournament.   The bets indicated he was beat.  We think looking back, he’d do it differently.

You won’t find much bad play though at this great stretch of tables: Howard Lederer (44), Doyle Brunson (45), Huck Seed (46), John Juanda (36), and Phil Ivey (48).  We watched Ivey masterfully play his button position to take down a 2k pot, and he sits with around 15k right now.  Seed has over 20k.  Lederer around 18k.  Brunson is hurting though, hovering around 6-7k.