Andy Bloch decided to pull a Phil Hellmuth, showing up late for the World Poker Tour’s $15,000 buy-in Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic at Bellagio in 2008.
His first hand from that event provides a good example of why you should leave such intentional tardiness to Hellmuth, even if you’re a world-class tournament player such as Bloch, runner-up in the prestigious $50,000 buy-in H.O.R.S.E. event at the 2006 World Series of Poker and NBC’s National Heads- Up Championship in 2008.
With blinds at $100-$200, Bloch sat down and immediately found pocket 10s in the cutoff seat and called a raise to $600 by a player in middle position. The flop came 10-5-5, giving Bloch top full house.
“I’m thinking, ‘This is my first hand, but it could be my last hand,”‘ Bloch said. “It’s not that I’m always thinking negatively, it’s just that I’m always prepared for every possibility.
“My opponent checked, which is indicative of absolutely nothing or he has a big hand. I decided to check in hopes that he would improve his hand on the turn.”
The turn came the 7 of clubs. The initial raiser bet out $1,000.
“Now he’s showing that he has something, maybe a flush draw, and I want to build the pot,” said Bloch, a pro from the Full Tilt Poker online site. “I have the second nuts and I want to make sure there’s money in there. I’m willing to go all the way with this hand if I have to. The only hand I lose to is pocket 5s now. There’s always a possibility (that his opponent has quad 5s), but you can’t be afraid of every monster under the bed. When you have the second nuts, you have to go with it.”
Bloch raised it to $3,000. His opponent called.
The river came the jack of spades, completing a straight with 8-9 and making a better full house than Bloch’s if his opponent had pocket jacks. The intial raiser checked. Bloch made it $6,000. His opponent called, then mucked his cards when he saw Bloch’s 10s full.
“There’s a lot of regret there,” Bloch said. “I’m starting to think I should’ve bet the flop. Maybe he had a 5 and was slow-playing on the flop and if I had bet, he would’ve check-raised me and I could’ve gotten two more bets out of it.
“Later on, it looked like this player called a lot and it was hard to put him on a hand in a lot of situations. He was more of a check-caller. He seemed to be on tilt from some previous hands that I wasn’t around for. That’s one of the disadvantages of coming late. You don’t get all the information. If I had more information, I probably would’ve bet on the flop.”
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Table talk
H.O.R.S.E.: An acronym for a tournament that rotates from Hold’em to Omaha eight-or-better to Razz to Stud to stud Eight-or-better On tilt: Playing erratically, usually the result of suffering a bad beat.
