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 he Guardian Poker Column |
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| Victoria
Coren |
| Wed 17 Feb 2010 |
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The perils of the kamikaze
approach
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Last
week, Manchester hosted the first English leg of the new UK & Ireland Poker
Tour (UKIPT). The event sold out two weeks in advance, even with an extension
to 510 players; buy early if you want a seat in the UKIPT Coventry (April) or
Nottingham (May).
I finished 25th for £1,650. Not bad, but I
wonder what would have happened if I'd taken a kamikaze approach to a key pot
on day one. The chip average was 55K. I had 125K and Mark Warnock, a young
scouser on my right, had 150k. |
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He limped on my big blind (1,600) and I
raised to 5,000 with A T . He called. The flop came J 8 3. Warnock bet 5,000. I made it 20,000. And he went all in. All in!
Of course I was behind, presumably a long way behind. But I could still
hit the nuts; what a rare chance to grab a commanding 5x average chips. Half a
final table stack, on day one!
A crowd gathered for this potentially
vast pot, and Warnock excitedly showed them his cards. Most irregular. Still, I
didn't mind; it told me he definitely had a flush. So I was 9/4 against –
or, if he had a straight-flush draw, 3/1 or worst case 4/1. The pot was only
laying me 6/4. In a cash game, this is an immediate fold. But, in a tournament,
the power of the chip lead I could take . . . The implied odds were enormous.
Warnock chattered about whether or not he was bluffing and how sad I'd
be to get knocked out. I told him this wasn't my exact line of thinking.
Eventually I took the mathematically correct route and folded. He showed me
9
T.
So: worst case. But I wonder, I wonder . . .
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