All it Takes is One Mistake

Tournaments are easy to enter but hard to win. All it takes to play is a buy-in, and all it takes to lose is one mistake. Here's a hand that I played several years ago at the Peppermill tournament in Reno in which three of us were involved - and we all misplayed it! It happened in the second round of the $120 buy-in limit hold'em tournament when we were playing $20-$40 limits with blinds of $10-$20. The only "local" at the table had been opening with some marginal hands, so I didn't think he had much when he called from early position. I was on the button and called with Q-9 offsuit. The small blind also called, so four players were in the pot for the minimum bet.

The flop came A 9 7. Both blinds checked and the local bet. I decided to call, with the intent of folding if either of the blinds check-raised, because it wasn't clear to me whether this early-position limper had an ace or was on a drawing hand. By taking a card off, I could make my decision on fourth street. The small blind just called, and the big blind folded. An offsuit deuce fell on fourth street and all three of us checked. I still couldn't decide whether either of my opponents held an ace, so I decided to just take the free card rather than bet. If they were on drawing hands, my bet wouldn't chase them out of the pot, because it was now big enough that they could justify calling. And if either of them had a weak ace, I was already beaten with my second-best pair.

Fifth street brought another unsuited deuce. The small blind again checked, the local bet, I called, and the small blind overcalled. The local then mucked his hand, making it obvious that he had been on a bluff, probably with a busted flush or straight draw. The small blind turned over the A 10 to scoop the pot.

How did each of us misplay the hand? First, the small blind clearly played far too timidly with his ace and a fairly good kicker. This was an unraised pot, so the chances were good that nobody had much strength, making his check-call on the flop a very weak play. When it was checked around on fourth street, the small blind should have figured that he had the best hand. The two running deuces on fourth and fifth streets were probably meaningless, as it was highly unlikely that either opponent held a deuce. However, his call (rather than a raise) on fifth street was correct, since he had played the hand without ever value-betting it. I would have led with the A-10. If I had gotten raised, I would have just called and then played defensively the rest of the way.

Remember, too, that we were in the second round of play when all of the stacks were still fairly equal. It was not a critical, life-or-death, low-chip situation in which survival would be your uppermost thought. In this situation, you usually would play this tournament hand the same way that you would play it in a side game.

The second player (the local) got called in two spots on the flop, checked it on the turn and received a free card, got a random nothing card on the river - and then fired in a bet on what I would call a hopeless bluff. It was quite obvious that he didn't have a hand, and that either the small blind or I had to have a pair. For all three of us to be on draws to either a flush or a straight was highly unlikely. He certainly could not expect the small blind and me to timidly lay down our hands, particularly since he had shown weakness on fourth street when he checked. In this situation, he could not win with a bet, he could only lose more money.

Now, how did I misplay? With a marginal hand on the button, my only justification for playing was that there was only one limper in the pot and I didn't think he had much of a hand. I also had won a few pots, so I had some extra chips, and it was early in the tournament, so I wasn't in severe jeopardy. In other words, I decided to gamble. But you could make a good case for my not playing this hand at all.

Actually, I didn't settle for just one mistake - I made three of them. First, it was questionable whether I should have called at the start. Second, I just flat-called with second pair on the flop instead of raising to try to determine whether I had the best hand. But my worst play was on the end. Because the small blind had overcalled on the flop, I almost had to give somebody an ace, so the only way I could contest this pot was to make a very risky raise. If I had snapped off the bluffer's bet by raising on the river, the small blind would have had a difficult time cold-calling me with his A-10.

In closing, here's a tip of the Stetson to Dave Ulliott, premier tournament player and ultimate nice-guy, for his win in the championship event at the World Poker Open. And congratulations to my writing partner, T.J. Cloutier, for winning the $500 pot-limit hold'em event at the L.A. Poker Classic just a few hours after stepping off the plane from Dallas. Until next time, I hope to meet you in the winner's circle one day soon, hopefully during the PartyPoker.com Million.

Editor's note: Tom McEvoy is the author of Tournament Poker and the co-author (with T.J. Cloutier) of Championship Tournament Practice Hands, soon to be released. E-mail your tournament questions to either author at www.pokerbooks.com.

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