Getting a piece of a rag flop can be a dicey thing, even when you have top pair. These are not necessarily sexy hands and major pots that lead to a dramatic chip swing, although they can.
Mostly, though, these are the kinds of pots that can help you chip away at a table, especially early in a tournament–the pots are there to be taken, right?–and they allow you to build your stack if you have a handle on the texture of the board and a solid line on the way your opponents play.
Erik Seidel, who won his eighth bracelet at the 2007 World Series of Poker to tie the legendary Johnny Moss on the all-time list, drew A-9 offsuit in early position in the first level of the $15,000 buy-in Doyle Brunson North American Poker Classic at Las Vegas’ Bellagio in 2006.
Erik Seidel
ACE OF SPADES
9 OF DIAMONDS
The flop
2 OF HEARTS
9 OF CLUBS
7 OF CLUBS
The turn
2 OF DIAMONDS
With blinds at $50-$100, Seidel limped in, as did six other players, which can be common in a doublestack event.
The flop came rags of 2-9-7, giving Seidel top pair/top kicker.
“With two clubs in the flop, I wasn’t too excited about it,” said Seidel, one of the founding pros of the Full Tilt Poker online site.
After the blinds checked, Seidel bet $300, a feeler bet of less than half the pot. Seidel hoped to determine the relative strength of his opponents’ hands.
A player behind Seidel called, as did another player in front of him; the others folded.
“I thought I had the best hand,” Seidel said. “I just thought it was a very dangerous flop for somebody to be slow-playing. That’s why I thought I had the best hand.
“The first guy was the one I was concerned about slow-playing. The other guy had position on me and I thought he would be crazy not to raise with a better hand than mine.”
So, three players took a turn of the 2 of diamonds, pairing the board.
After the first player checked, Seidel bet $1,250, more than three-quarters of the pot. It was the kind of bet that would put pressure on players who might be drawing to a flush or might induce a re-raise from a player with a set of deuces, which would tell Seidel that he was holding a loser and should fold.
“I did think my hand was good with the way the betting went,” Seidel said. “I would’ve been surprised if it wasn’t.
“I wasn’t so worried about the second guy because I thought if he had a better hand than mine he would’ve re-raised on the flop. The first guy was the only concern, but I thought it was likely I had the best hand.”
Apparently, he did. Both players folded to Seidel’s bet and he took the pot. Not necessarily a big pot, mind you, but one that would give him some ammunition to chip away at later pots.
Table talk
Double-stack event: A tournament where you start with twice as many chips as the cost of the buy-in; in this case, the $15,000 buy-in gave entrants a starting stack of $30,000 in chips.
