Hand No. 5

I wasn't going to write about this hand at first, but the more I thought about it, I realized there is an interesting concept at play in this hand worth discussion. In this entry, we'll discuss what to do with a huge hand at a crucial moment in a tournament.

Four players remain out of ten entrants. Blinds are 1000/2000. The Dealer has a little over 50,000 chips, SB has 15,600, BB has approximately 60,000, and Player A has approximately 50,000. This tournament pays only two places, with a bulk of the payout going to first place. Player A is first to act.

Player A folds and the Dealer raises to 6,000. SB goes all-in for his final 15,600. BB re-raises all-in. After some thought, the Dealer calls. Dealer shows K K, SB shows A J unsuited, and BB shows A K unsuited.

The board comes 8 5 4 8 Q. No flush for the SB or BB. The Dealer takes down a total pot of close to 120,000. The BB is left with approximately 8,000 chips, or enough for about 4 big blinds. SB is knocked out of the tournament.

My thoughts on this hand:

The Dealer made a standard raise of 3 times the big blind. Although this may indicate some type of hand, it is difficult to confidently put the Dealer on a big pocket pair, due to his position and chip stack. SB's push all-in for his remaining 15,600 with A J makes sense as he is getting desperate and A J is a good hand with 4 players at the table. So what do we make of the play by the BB?

The BB had several options at this point, all of them defensible.

A) The BB chose to go all-in, risking a significant portion of his chip stack. This was an attempt at an isolation play. The BB had a strong enough hand to call SB's all-in bet. The BB wanted to compete only with the SB and made a re-raise to try to eliminate the Dealer from the hand. The BB may also have suspected the Dealer was making a move to steal the blinds based on the Dealer's position and chip stack. Finally, when considered in a vacuum, A K is a very strong hand. The only hands you don't want to see from your opponent is pocket Aces or pocket Kings. The likelihood of one opponent holding either of those hands is remote, even more so considering the BB had an Ace and a King in his hand.

B) The BB could have made a mid-size raise. House rules would have allowed the BB to re-raise the SB's all-in bet to as little as 25,200. A raise in the neighborhood of 30,000 would have given the BB a chance to see if the Dealer was serious about his hand, while leaving him with about 30,000 if he met resistance and suspected the Dealer did have a big pocket pair. Or perhaps the Dealer would have only called a mid-size raise and the BB would at least see a flop before making a big decision for the rest of his chips.

C) The BB could have called the SB's all-in bet of 15,600. Action would go back to the Dealer, who could fold, call, or re-raise. If the Dealer then went all-in, and the BB believed the story the Dealer was telling, the BB could get away from the hand and still have 45,000 in his stack. Another reason the Dealer may just call the all-in bet of 15,600 is to execute an unspoken cooperation play. The Dealer and the BB had an opportunity to eliminate a player from the tournament, and move one step close to finishing in the money. The Dealer may have felt, even with a premium hand, that two players have a better chance of eliminating the small stack. The Dealer may have called the SB's all-in, and then the Dealer and the BB could have checked down the hand hoping one of them would eliminate the SB. Or the Dealer may have bet out after a safe-looking flop and again the BB could have made a big decision with the benefit of more information. In the end, had the BB opted to just call the SB's all-in, he may have escaped the hand with 45,000 chips, 3 players remaining, and very much alive in the chase for the money.

D) The BB could have folded his hand pre-flop. This would be a very conservative play. However, if the BB felt the Dealer would call the SB's all-in bet, the BB could have just left it to the Dealer to try to knock out the SB. The factors lending to a call from the Dealer were very compelling. The Dealer would only need to put in another 9,600 to play for a pot that would be over 30,000. The Dealer had enough chips to commit to a pot with the SB. And the SB was very short-stacked with only about 8 big blinds left. The SB could be making this move with any two cards. Finally, the Dealer's raise could have just been a move to steal the blinds, or it could have been a bet for value. The BB may have been unsure what the Dealer was holding, and rather than risk his tournament with 2 unpaired cards, the BB may have decided to let the Dealer eliminate the SB. Bottom line, had the BB just folded, he had the potential of playing three-handed with approximately 60,000 chips.

This hand reminds me of a saying from basketball that used to drive me nuts. Announcers or pundits would often say that in the last minute of the game, referees should just "let the players play." Meaning the referees should be less willing to call a foul in the last minute of the game, so that the players on the court determine the outcome. I never agreed with that concept. I felt if a foul would be called in the early part of the game, then a foul should be called in the last minute. I worried the "let the players play" mentality was a benefit to the defense, who could be more physically aggressive in the final minute without the consequence of a foul.

So is it the same in poker? If the BB would have made a big re-raise with A K early in the tournament, shouldn't he behave the same way in the late stages? I don't know, and I suspect we all may feel differently. My preference would have been to call the SB's all-in, see what the Dealer does, and then hope to check the hand down if the board is unfavorable. How did things end for the BB? He hung in valiantly for a few hands, but was ultimately knocked out by the Dealer for a third place finish.

What do you think? Is it ever okay to just fold A K, even if you don't believe you opponent has one of the top two pairs? Sound off in the comments section, and thanks for reading.