Professional Poker Tour Final Vs. Erick Lindgren – Tick, tick, tick … the clock is running

I've been playing poker since I was about 17 years old, giving me 13 years of poker experience. In that time, I'd never been faced with a situation in which I had to rush my decision … until now.

I think that overall, I take a lot less time than most players, but when I need to think through a hand, sometimes I might need a few minutes. The longer you wait out a guy, the more information you can often get from him. Sometimes an opponent won't do or say anything after 60 seconds, but after 90 seconds, he may say or do something that clues you in to what he might have.

Well, in a Professional Poker Tour (PPT) event, you just don't have that luxury at the final table. Each player is given 90 seconds to act on his hand or it is declared dead. With six players remaining, I was the chip leader, but by the time we were threehanded, the stacks were pretty close and I had a key hand come up against E-DOG, Erick Lindgren. With the blinds at $8,000-$16,000 with an ante, Erick raised from the button to $45,000, Chris Bigler called from the small blind, and I decided to call from the big blind with the Q 8.

The flop came J-8-2 rainbow with one heart. Chris checked, I checked, and E-DOG bet $80,000. By the amount he bet and the way he put the chips in, my gut told me he didn't have all that much.

Chris folded, and normally in this situation I would just flat-call and see what rolled off on the turn, since I had a decent hand with second pair, as well as an overcard and both a backdoor-flush and straight draw. Erick knows that, though, so I thought I'd do something a little different. I check-raised, calling the $80,000 and raising $150,000 more, leaving me with $204,000 just in case I picked a bad spot to make a play.

After putting in that much money, Erick has to know that I'm committed to the pot regardless of my hand. So, on that note, my plan was to fold if he reraised me and save my $204,000.

Erick looked over at my chips and asked, "How much you got left?" He saw that I had about $200,000 and then stuck his whole stack into the middle, putting me all in.

For some reason, I now thought that he had to have at least top pair, if not better. He could have a hand like

10-9, though, in which case he would still have a ton of outs against me.

With just 20 seconds left on the clock, I still hadn't processed all of the information, so I asked for my 30-second extension (you get just one). That seemed to zoom by in no time, and as the clock ticked down – 3 … 2 … 1 … – I was still undecided. "Your hand is dead, Daniel," Jan Fisher informed me.

I was getting close to 3.5-1 on the call, but I really thought that $204,000 was enough to come back from. Unfortunately for me, on the very next hand, Bigler raised from the button to $45,000 and I moved all in on him with A-7. It looked like a great spot (Chris had K-J), but Erick woke up in the big blind with 10-10, and that was it for me.

As I got up to shake E-DOG's hand, I immediately asked him what he had in that crucial hand, and he told me: Q-10! Q-10! He bluffed me for my last $204,000 after I'd already invested $275,000 in the pot. Wow. That's both a great read and crazy play he made, but my hat's off to him.

He must have outfoxed me, knowing that I was saving my last $204,000 just in case I was "beat." So, of course, I've replayed this hand in my head a million times since then, and I genuinely believe that if I wasn't rushed by the clock, I would have made the correct call.

With more time, I would have had a chance to ask Erick a question. I would have had the chance to look at him. I would have had the chance to process all of the clues that would have told me he was bluffing. There was one dead giveaway clue that, as I was leaving, popped into my head. Oh, no! It was so obvious that he was bluffing, and I missed it. And no, I'm not going to share it with you, so you'll just have to guess.

So, I didn't win the PPT event, and Erick went on to take the title by beating another formidable player in Chris Bigler. I hate to exhibit sour grapes about the hand, but I'm certain that the clock got to me.

In closing, I really hope that time clocks don't become the norm in major tournaments. I believe they take away from the game a bit. I realize that for television purposes they need players to act quickly, but when the players are putting up the money for buy-ins, flights, hotel rooms, food, and administrative expenses, I don't think the TV people should have any say in the matter.

If they start footing the bill, as did the PPT, they can put us on 10-second clocks if they like! Until then, though, I hope we can protect the game by not turning these million-dollar events into "speed poker tournaments."