Recently I had the good fortune to quadruple up in a tournament after four similarly sized stacks moved all-in early on in a freezeout tournament. It got me thinking about how rarely this wonderful phenomenon has actually occurred in my favour, considering the thousands of hours I have played. Multi-way all-ins are commonplace in the frenetic madhouse that is a cheap rebuy tournament, typically in the first hour, but when losing an all-in actually means you’re out people tend to apply a little more discipline.
The hand that reaped my reward, funnily enough, was AA. I say this with some genuine surprise actually as although it is a strong start hand and a likely winner it is vulnerable in a multi-way pot and often easy to read and hard to get paid off with, if it does hold. This can be a particular difficulty when an ace comes on the flop with a couple of low inconsequential cards. Now I maybe hitting a new low of negative thinking to describe hitting ‘the nuts’ – the best possible hand at that point – as a problem. But the contrast between your brilliant hand and your opponents’ rags is unlikely to bring great reward. A rainbow flop (three different suits) of A-8-3 for example has virtually no scope for chasing a flush or straight or having flopped two pair. An opponent is even unlikely to have flopped a single pair with only one ace left in the pack after yours and no other high cards on the board. Big pots are much better than big sets and they typically come about when two decent hands collide. The momentary joy at hitting top set is quickly tempered by the realisation that any bet will very likely end the hand for miniscule reward. The alternative of not betting the flop or turn to help your opponent catch something or induce a bluff is also flawed given that it’s easily read.
On this occasion my first break was being dealt AA. The second was hitting a further ace on the flop but crucially my further good fortune was a flop (Ac-Qh-7c) that had something for everyone. With three opponents having called my standard pre-flop raise from under-the-gun (first player to act) I was able to make a continuation bet with reason to hope I would get some action. All three players quickly called my bet which led to the jackpot card falling on the turn of the Queen of clubs. At this point all hell broke loose. I quickly realised that this gave me the nut full house while hopefully, surely, giving someone else a flush that they would assume was winning. What I hadn’t anticipated was that all four players left in the play would assume they were now winning. After the Qc fell the big blind checked to me again and I elected to continue my betting, just over half the pot-size, so not to draw attention to how strong I was. It was a play that I thought people would expect me to make with a hand such as AK or AJ that I might want to keep betting in spite of the danger cards. I felt that a sudden check-raise play would make it pretty obvious that I really did love my hand. However, given what followed, I would suggest that my efforts to slip under the radar were ultimately irrelevant because everybody had already decided to go all-in one way or another!
Following my continuation bet Player 2 simply called before Player 3 moved all-in. Player 4 soon followed his lead before the action returned to me. I was somewhat surprised by this and noted that I could of course be beaten by one hand – four queens. This was an unappetizing thought but only a brief consideration because I knew perfectly well that I wasn’t throwing away the nut full house because of the incredibly unlikely threat of four of a kind. If I was beat, I was beat. What I hadn’t expected was Player 1 to then plough in behind me for the remainder of his chips as well. You have to be pretty pleased with your holdings to call three all-ins in the early stages of a poker tournament!
As it turned out Player 1 was perhaps the unluckiest of the three losers, as he held the nut flush (Kc-9c). That said I would like to think I would have folded it after all that action, with at least one full house surely guaranteed. Had he moved all-in first then he would have been more unlucky. As it was he had at least the chance to make a great fold. Player 2 had been fishing and got what he deserved. Holding Qd-10d he was guilty of chasing on the flop with second pair and then when his apparent dream card arrived he failed to realise that it probably made someone else a flush. It was a classic case of somebody getting absorbed in the quality of their own hand – three-of-a-kind does sound good – and not paying attention to what else was going on around them and the danger that lurked. Player 3 also had a flush (5c-6c) and in fairness he did have Player 2 beat who was the only all-in he faced at the point his chips went in. That said, he had to consider the fact that a higher flush or any full house had him beat and there were still two players left to act behind him.
It was a dramatic moment that I was obviously delighted to come out of on top of. The funny thing was that one exciting moment led to the game getting very dull for a long period thereafter. The blinds were so low that the remaining players could take their time and not be intimidated by my big stack at all. To some extent I just had to wait for the phase of the game to arrive when I could make my chip advantage count. Only then did I really realise the benefit of that one crazy hand.
Simon Ballou writes for Oddschecker Poker