Hard Poker Rule: Don’t play a big pot unless you have a big hand.
Overvaluing one pair is a mistake that amateurs regularly make, especially with aces. Sometimes, it is an error that even the top pros make, as John Juanda learned painfully in a World Poker Tour event at Foxwoods Casino in Mashantucket, Conn.
Holding K-J offsuit, Juanda raised from middle position. Richard Tatalovich called from the big blind. The flop came 9-6-4, two diamonds.
Tatalovich checked. Juanda made a pot-sized bet. Tatalovich thought for a while, then called. A jack turned, giving Juanda top pair/good kicker.
“Then Richard comes out betting — uh-oh,” said Juanda, one of the best players in the world and one of the stars of Full Tilt Poker. “His bet on the turn just screams, `Raise me! I dare you!’ I go into the tank and my thoughts go something like this:
“He flopped a set. That explains the smooth call on the flop; he’s trying to trap me into staying, hoping I’ll bet the turn too.
John Juanda
King of clubs
Jack of spades
Richard Tatalovich
9 of hearts
9 of clubs
The flop
9 of diamonds
6 of hearts
4 of diamonds
Turn
Jack of clubs
“No. If he had a set, he’d have checked the turn and waited for me to hang myself right then and there, or let me catch something on the river. He can’t have a set.
“The jack helped him. I don’t have the jack of diamonds. Maybe he does, and he called the flop with a jack-high flush draw. If so, I like my kicker and my hand.
“He’s betting on the come with a flush or straight draw and is hoping to buy the pot right there.”
With no hard conclusions, Juanda said he normally would just call.
“Then, I have the misfortune to remember a hand from a month earlier at Bellagio,” Juanda said. “Richard had been running bad and was complaining about a string of horrific beats. I saw him check and call with top boat because he was afraid of quads! A guy that afraid of monsters under the bed isn’t going to check-call top set on the flop with a flush draw out there.”
So, Juanda moved all in for the rest of the $30,000 stack that he started the hand with.
“This is now a big pot,” Juanda said, “and rest assured, top pair doesn’t even resemble a big hand. In the four years I’ve been playing with him, I’ve never seen him call so fast.”
Turned out, Tatalovich held pocket 9s and Juanda was drawing dead to his set.
“Sometimes, we all forget that big cards don’t always equal a big hand and that the smart move can be to play conservatively instead of going for the quick kill,” Juanda said.
Table talk
Top boat: The top full house.
Quads: Four of a kind.
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srosenbloom@tribune.com
