Jeff Kimber says...

GUKPT Final Report

Monday 24 Dec 2007

Can it ever be the correct move to lay down what you know is definitely the best hand during a poker tournament?

I’m still not sure of the answer, but it’s a question that came up during the recent GUKPT final in London, when yet again failure to come out the right side of a marginal, but correct, call, sent me spinning to the rail.

Having bubbled in Blackpool, calling for all of my average stack with A-Q in the big blind when the table bully moved all of his twice-as-big stack over the line in the small blind - knowing I had the best hand, and knowing I’d probably be outdrawn, and being correct in both cases when his K-7 paired up - maybe I should have asked the above question sooner, and I may have enjoyed the GUKPT final a bit more…and for longer than a couple of hours.

We started with 15,000 chips, and for once I was happy with my table draw, with no real big names or dangers lurking across the baize.

The first level or two were uneventful until I got involved in a pot in the 200/400 level that started the chain of events that ultimately led to my downfall.

In early position I raise with a pair of jacks and get called in one spot, two seats down, by Brian Johnson, an English-based American I’ve played with a few times and who I knocked out of the £500 side event earlier in the week - incidentally I finished 4th for £5,000 in this event despite losing a huge pot in the penultimate hand of the night on day one with aces against jacks which saw me come back with 30,000 chips, just below average, instead of 150,000 chips, which would have given me a 50,000 lead on second place.

Anyway, the rest of the table fold, and a flop of 10-6-2 with two diamonds is dealt out. I’m first to speak, and bet 1,300, around half the pot. Brian minimum raises me to 2,600, a move I cannot fathom out - if he has a flush draw I’d expect a bigger raise to try and take it there and then without needing to hit, if he has a set I’d expect him to flat call in position and see what I do on the turn, or make a bigger bet to look like he’s stealing and hope I re-pop it with my overpair, and if he has two pair, well what is he doing in this hand given that flop and the raise he’s called from early position?

Whatever I think he has, I have to call, and when the jack hits the turn all of my worries on potentially losing this hand evaporate, and it’s now a case of how to get the most money out of him.

I check hoping after his raise on the flop he will follow through, but Brian checks too. A river king means I no longer have the nuts but obviously I still have the best hand, and I bet big, hoping to look like I’ve missed the flush, or hoping if he did flop a set that I’ll get the absolute lot.

After a bit of a dwell my opponent calls and on seeing my turned set throws his cards in the muck, looks to the heavens, mutters something about not believing it, and generally gives the demeanour of someone who isn’t that happy with life.

A couple of hands later, an obviously steaming Brian is on the big blind of 400. A big stack raises in mid-position to 1,400, and a tight player with a smaller stack directly to his left flat calls. I pass K-3 of spades on the button (this becomes relevant!), the small blind passes, but Brian utters something like, ‘Don’t even think about stealing from me boys, I’m in, how much to me’ and calls too.

The flop comes 10-10-2 with two spades, and it’s checked to the raiser, who bets 2,700. The small stack, who has only 6,000 total, thinks for a while and eventually smooth calls, leaving himself only around 3,000 behind (ie this guy is definitely going all the way with this hand, he now can’t pass whatever happens).

Brian now ships in his whole stack of around 15k, which eventually gets the big stack to pass, and obviously gets a call from the small stack, who is not happy and thinks he must be losing, but has to call.

On this paired board, with a big stack betting and a small stack committed to definitely calling whatever happens, an obviously tilted Brian has stuck the lot in with 6-4 of spades….a six-high flush draw which could already be dead.

The short stack turned over two red kings, explaining, quite reasonably, he felt he needed to take a risk to get a full double up, and was thrilled to see he was up against six high. However, a spade on the flop sealed the deal and Brian raked in a hefty pot.

Unfortunately, this didn’t calm him down too much, as the very next hand, my last in the GUKPT showed. I am in the cut-off and raise to 1,200 with A-10 of spades. Again Brian says he’s calling, how much dealer, count me in, and from the small blind he’s in, with the big blind folding.

The flop comes 10-7-4 with two clubs, and Brian immediately bets out 3,500 into the pot, which is less than 3k. Straight away I know he has a draw. I can play this in a couple of different ways, but as this is such a draw-heavy board, there are hardly any blanks I could see on the turn that I can be sure haven’t made my opponent his hand, so I choose to raise to 10,000.

Brian thinks for two seconds and says something along the lines of, ‘Come on, let’s get it in and gamble’ and moves his whole stack in, which is roughly the same as mine, around 28k. The average stack at this point in the tournament is 20,000 or less, and now I’m faced with a call of 18,000 to win a 60k pot, take the chip lead and make a real run at this tournament…and I know I have the best hand.

My opponent definitely has a draw, I’m ahead of all draws, therefore I should call….shouldn’t I? I spoke to Paul ‘ActionJack’ Jackson about this and he told me about a hand on the last Ladbrokes Cruise between him and Bengt Sonnert.

Between them they were bashing up their table which around 50 players left, taking it in turns to raise and outplay the shorted stacks on the table, when inevitably they got involved in a big hand against each other.

Paul flopped top set on a draw heavy board, and after a bit of raising and reraising Bengt put him to a decision for all of his hefty stack….Paul seriously thought about folding the nuts in the knowledge that he may well get outdrawn by Bengt’s obvious flush draw (and maybe straight draw too) and this table was easy enough to build back up on and dominate. He didn’t, he called, got outdrawn and was left to listen to the Devilfish playing the piano badly, but it’s a thought process that you must go through and neither of us are sure whether it’s too negative a play to muck your cards and carry on with the next hand.

Anyway, the way I’ve played my hand, with a 10k raise on the flop, means I’ve invested a lot of equity in this pot and I still know I’m good, and fortune favours the brave right? Well no, wrong. I call, and fortune favoured the tilted, as Brian hit his nut flush on the turn and I was drawing dead….cash game anybody?

Mike Ellis, a player often seen on the UK scene and one I had despatched with aplomb in another side event earlier the week, eventually went on to claim first prize, winning £200,000 after defeating Sami Yusef heads up.

For me, another what might have been, but at least a trip to one of my favourite cities, Prague, is next on the agenda….maybe there I’ll run good….one time!

Jeff Kimber - World Heads-Up Champion, Barcelona