Understand one thing about all the poker moves you see on television: You don’t know everything that went into a hand, especially a bluff.
Sure, you can see the players’ hole cards, but you have no idea of the context sometimes.
Take one of the greatest bluffs ever pulled off at the World Series of Poker final table, and by an amateur against a savvy pro, no less.
Chris Moneymaker, the Tennessee accountant who qualified for the main event by winning a PokerStars.com online tournament, was heads up against longtime pro Sam Farha. Moneymaker raised $100,000 with K-7. Farha called with Q-9.
The flop came 9-2-6. Farha hit a shaky top pair. Both checked. The turn came an 8, giving both players a spade draw and Moneymaker also a straight draw.
“He made a bet of 300,000 on the turn,” said Moneymaker, who just came out with a self-titled book. “The bet was signaling to me that he was afraid of the spade. I thought if I made a bet, he would lay it down because he was afraid of the spade.”
Moneymaker raised $500,000. But Farha called. The river came a 3. Farha checked. Moneymaker moved all in. With nothing. Farha eventually folded. With the winning hand.
Chris Moneymaker
King of spades
7 of hearts
Sam Farha
Queen of spades
9 of hearts
The flop
9 of spades
2 of diamonds
6 of spades
Turn and river
8 of spades
3 of hearts
It looks like simply a great bluff by Moneymaker, and it was. It gave him the equity to win the $2.5 million first prize. But the reasons he could pull it off came largely from tells, one of which was caught by ESPN when Moneymaker’s father said something to Moneymaker’s mother.
“I told my dad the night before that when he shuffles his chips with his left hand, he folds, and when he does it with his right hand, he’s going to call,” Moneymaker said.
Nobody watching, however, could figure the other two tells. One was Moneymaker’s offer of a deal to split evenly the first- and second-place money when they got heads up, even though Moneymaker had a big chip lead.
“He turned me down,” Moneymaker said. “So, that told me right there that he thought he was a superior player to me. So, in thinking that, I knew he didn’t want to risk all of his chips with [a medium pair easily beaten].”
And there was something else that helped Moneymaker while Farha considered calling the all in.
“He went through this thing of asking me questions: `You missed your flush?’ ” Moneymaker said. “Earlier in the tournament, Amir (Vahedi) said something to Sammy when he made his bluff with a 6-4 of hearts. I remembered that. Everytime somebody said something to Sammy, he called. I just didn’t say a word. I sat there really quiet and knew he was going to fold. “When you’re at a table, you’re trying to take everything into consideration.”
Table talk
Medium pair: Generally regarded as pairs of 7s, 8s and 9s.
