| He paused, grimaced, smiled and paused some more. "Well, I guess I gotta try to make a hand, no?" he said to the dealer as he grabbed another stack of greens and stood it next to the original bet. Staring at those two tall stacks of $25 chips out there in the betting circle, he now glanced back at the rest of his chips. By gosh, he was risking nearly half of his stake all on one hand! Caution suddenly set in and he quickly stopped the dealer, then pulled back one of his stacks. Waving his hand over his original $400 bet, he said, "I'm just gonna hold." "Are you sure now?" asked the dealer before proceeding. That's when the player looked over at the two of us with a quizzical look on his face. So I said, "What would you do if you only had a quarter on the hand?" "Split 'em," he replied without hesitation. "And which time would you be more likely to win -- the time you had two 25s riding or when you had two 400s riding?" "The same," he answered in a flash. I flipped my hands up as much as to say "Well, then?" He quickly reached back again for that other $400 stack and finally split his two 7s like he was supposed to. His first hit brought a 10 for a total of 17. On his second 7 he caught a 3, and he glanced at me with a "Now what?" expression -- although we both knew that he knew the answer. Seeing his fear over risking maybe two thirds of his stake on one deal I quickly offered, "I'll go halves with you on the double." (I like nothing more than to walk right into a situation where I knew I was a 5-to-3 favorite to win). That was all he needed. He immediately reached right back and stood a third $400 stack out there, correctly doubling on his own. The news wasn't good -- he bought a deuce to make 12. I stood pat with 15 and third base stayed on his 18. The dealer promptly ripped off a four-card 19 and swept the table. First base then stood up and said, "Well, it's time for me to leave." I offered a quick apology but maintaining his poise, third base said, "No, no, I know you were right -- I still made $500". And with that he left. There are a couple of lessons in this true story. The first is, you need to remember that on any hand you might end up risking three, four or even five bets through potential doubles and splits. The second is, if the size of your wager causes you to hedge on these doubles, splits and re-splits, then you have bet too much.Texas Hold'em tournaments on cable TV have been such a success that nearly everybody seems to want to get in there and try the game themselves. From country clubs to fraternal organizations, people are putting together their own little Hold'em tournaments. But if you're a previous non-gambler or just a kitchen table poker player who's been bitten by the Hold'em bug, there are a few things you'd better know before you play in a real live card room. The first is that proper strategy for a typical Texas Hold'em game is nothing at all like you see on TV. If you sit down in a $5/$10 Hold'em game at a casino, no decent player worth his salt will be "raising it up" before the flop with, say, a Jack/8 like you've probably seen on cable. And nobody's going to go "all in" if the flop comes "2-5-9" to his Ace/Jack. Those kinds of dramatics surely make for exciting viewing, but tournament finals and straight limit poker are two completely different things. Here's why. Tournament finals vs. regular Hold'em |
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