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Deep Stack Bluff in Holiday Game
In my last column I wrote about a hand that came up in the “Holiday Poker Game” that I play in every year back in Wisconsin. In this column I am writing about another entertaining hand that came up during our 18 hour long marathon Holiday poker game. The game was $5,000 buy in no limit Hold’em game featuring $5-$10 blinds, and each player started with at least $2,000 in chips in front of them; we were allowed to put three $1,000 chips into our pocket. The fact that all of the players started with at least $2,000 in chips combined with the fact that we had $5-$10 blinds meant that each player started with at least 200 big blinds, and that, my readers, is a “Deep stack” poker game!
About 12 hours into the game, with a live $20 straddle on, Jon Ferraro limped in for $20 with Qc-10c, and three other players called, including Jon Green from the small blind. The flop was Qh-10s-6d, Green checked, another player checked, and Ferraro bet $120. Everyone folded before Green and the player in the big blind called. The turn card was an eight; Ferraro bet $450, Green called, and the player in the big blind called. The river was a three, both players checked to Ferraro who bet $500. Green now check raised to $2,200 to go, the player in the big blind folded and Ferraro began to squirm in his chair. After 30 seconds, Ferraro said to Green, “J-9, huh? You have to have J-9!” Green said nothing and continued to sit very still in his chair. After another 60 seconds, Green flipped up a jack (face up) from his hole cards, and now the already squirming Ferraro began to squirm even more. Ferraro then flipped up Q-10—top two pair--and after another 30 seconds he told Green, “Give me $1,000 back from the pot, and I will fold.” Quick as a startled rabbit springs forth Green said, “Done!” Then in one quick motion Green grabbed the large pot, flipped his K-J (bluff) face up, and tossed two $500 chips to Ferraro. Ferraro collected his two $500 chips and exclaimed, “I should have known you were bluffing! Otherwise, why would you have shown me a jack?”
Let’s take a closer look at this hand. First a little background: Green had been playing super tight for the last six hours, and in any case, it is not Green’s style to fire out huge bluffs on the river. Personally, I thought that Green had the J-9, and I was half expecting him to raise it up on the turn when Farraro bet $450. Of course, looking back, Green almost always raises it up on the turn when he has the nuts, in order to protect his hand. Thus, since Green didn’t raise it up, then he couldn’t have had J-9.
Another possibility was that Green had a set. If Green had had a set, then perhaps he didn’t raise it up on the turn because all three players had at least $6,000 in front of them, and why stick $6,000 into a $450 pot when someone else has a straight and you are a three-and-a-half-to-one underdog to win the pot (34 wins to 10 wins)? Following this line of thinking; on the river, it looked like a set was good when Ferraro bet only $500, thus Green could have raised it up at that point with a set.
I like the fact that Green showed one card (the jack) because he has done similar things like this in the past to try to confuse his opponents when he did have the goods. If Ferraro had already made up his mind to fold, then I love his offer to take back $1,000 to fold his hand! Brilliant! I am not in love with the play that Green made in accepting Ferraro’s offer, although it did lock in some profit for him. It seemed to me that Ferraro was going to fold his hand in a minute, but to be fair Ferraro did pay off some big bets later with weaker holdings and perhaps Green did make the right move. |
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