$225 No Limit Hold'em with 1 re-buy
Larry Flynt's Grand Slam of Poker 2005
Blinds 150 and 300, Ante 50

I had been playing for about four hours and had been up and down the entire time. Down to around 3800 left, I was just barely pre-"all-in mode", where I would be forced to move in on just about any hand that I played. I caught a huge break on this hand though and was given a chance to win a huge pot, thus catapulting me back into contention with 70 players remaining...if I won. I really find this particular hand to be fascinating because it presents so many different questions to be answered. Take a look:

I was in the big blind and lucky enough to look down at the truly powerhouse hand of 34. Ha. The blinds were 150 and 300 with a 50 ante, so there was already 900 in the pot, including my big blind. I mentally prepared for the fold that I would inevitably have to make once a raise was made into me. An interesting thing happened here though, which protected my hand. The gentleman in the second seat raised all-in, but had only 675 remaining. The action then went like this: fold-call-call-fold-call-call, and then rolled around to me. What would you do in this situation, and why?

You have three real options:

1. Fold- You don't have enough chips to get in and splash around here. You fold your big blind, get out, and live to fight when you have a stronger hand. There are just too many people in the hand for you to have a legitimate shot at winning the pot.

2. Call- The raise was small enough, barely more than double your blind, and it wouldn't dent your stack too much to call and take a flop here. If nothing connects, then you can always throw your cards away. You are getting great odds and have the chance to possibly win a huge pot.

3. Move All-In- Now, you don't have enough chips to semi-commit to the hand. You have to decide when to make your stand, and this may be it. You are getting great pot odds here, and you may be able to force everyone, except the all-in player, to fold somehow. You would be making a pretty substantial raise, after all.

Here are the facts to consider: 5 players in the pot, with it totaling 4125 chips, which is the initial raise (675) + 4 callers (2700) + antes (450) + your big blind (300). If you call then the pot will be 4500 total. On the call of that last 375, you will be getting odds of 12-1. Your initial blind is dead of course, and already in the pot. Most people would consider this an absolute automatic call. They fail to also consider that they have to beat the other five players who have called. This has to be factored in when making the decision. For instance, if I held 72 here, I would have folded. Maybe if I had more chips I would have called quickly, but being in the short-stack position that I was, the extra chips were too valuable to me. Many would disagree with me here though.

Also, odds are here that you aren't going to be facing any powerhouse hands. Someone would have wanted to thin the field if they were holding a big pocket pair or something like AK.

At any rate, I decided that with my hand it was worth a call. I had no interest in moving all-in with such a weak hand, and didn't think there was much chance I could get everyone to fold. Remember, there was already one player all-in, who I couldn't make fold regardless. On the flip side, I wasn't personally going to fold for only 375 more either. There were just too many combinations of hands I could make with the 34, and my pot odds were just too good.

The flop couldn't have come much more spectacularly for me: 3 5 3. The small blind checked, and I did the same, hoping to trap someone. One more check came and the next player made a bet of 1500 chips. Now this had to be my lucky day, I was thinking to myself. I was already thinking about how I would trap this kid when, surprisingly, there were two other callers behind him. Both the button and the small blind players had called, now making the pot 9000. What would you do now, and why?

This was a no-brainer for me. I was moving in, and doing so in a hurry. The pot was big enough for me to not let anyone hang around to hit some slim draw anymore. I was going to play this one straight ahead, no more thoughts of trapping for me here.

I moved in for my final 3075 and took all of the guesswork out of it, for everyone. The initial bettor went "into the tank" and when he reemerged, he decided to call my bet, leaving him with only about 3500 left. The other two players folded quickly and we were all left to watch the action. I was truly blown away by what my opponent turned over, A4, giving him a gutshot straight draw along with a back-door flush draw.

I thought that this was one of the sickest calls I had seen in a while. Odds-wise, he was getting 4 to 1 as about a 5 to 1 underdog, so I guess it wasn't as bad as it seemed initially, but cards-wise there was no way that he could have thought he was anything less than a huge underdog to win the hand. Sometimes you have to look at the cards and say to yourself, "Well, I am getting 7 or 8-1 on my money here, but the only way I can win is to hit my perfect card(s). It just isn't worth it". Despite getting great odds on your money occasionally, you just have to lay your hand down. Clearly my opponent didn't share my philosophy here, as I am quite sure many other players wouldn't.

Also considering that he had good chips, and would be endangering about half of his stack...well, I just didn't get it. I will say though that when talking the hand over with Bear, he didn't think it was that bad of a call, at least in terms of his odds. Well, in actuality what he said was that he had seen me make much worse calls than that. I do believe that my dad would have gone nuts had I been the one making that call though. I digress...

The way I had played it, there were really only two possible hands that I could have here: either I had a 3, or possibly an overpair. That's it. For my opponent, it was the worst possible scenario, and his ace was no good. Only a deuce could save him, or the long-shot clubs. When he turned his cards over I was overjoyed, of course. I was about a 4-1 favorite to win the hand. As so often happens in poker however, my joy rapidly turned to horror.

The turn delivered the 2, and I was left rooting for the board to pair, a 4, or the case 3. After a loud yelp was let out by the table, the river offered the K, and that was that. I went from a hammer-lock on the hand, and a win of 15,150 in chips, to the rail. I would have been one of the chip leaders and in a sweet position. Instead I was left muttering to myself about what an awful call the kid had made. That's the rub in these situations: you want people like that at your table, but you just don't want them to hit their hands against you.

You will get a ton of chips by players making calls like this against you. You will also get a ton of headaches by players making calls like this against you. I guess we live by the sword, so naturally we gotta die by it too sometimes. In this instance though, the sword had more the feel of being drawn and quartered, drug behind horses for about an hour.