Perfect hands down the stretch - Part 1.
By Dr. Mark Burtman

I have already written two articles about perfect poker hands. These are hands where more than one player will have good reason to put all of his or her chips into the pot. Essentially the losing hand is trapped by its strength against an even better hand. It seems that I have suffered several major setbacks this year with perfect hands less than one or two tables from the money in tournaments.

It started in mid January when I was trying to qualify for the PartyPoker Million online. I had an average chip pile under the gun and raised with pocket Kings. I flopped a set of kings, but the board was suited in hearts. The big blind had called with a 2-3 of hearts, even though he had so many chips he didn't need to play another hand in order to qualify for the cruise. The board never paired and I went broke about 8 places out of the cruise after starting with over 1000 players. It was a perfect hand after the flop, pitting my top set against a 3 high flush, because neither of us could lay down the hand, although the 2-3 was crazy to call the preflop raise after having more than enough chips to guarantee himself a cruise. Had the board paired, I would have not needed to play any more hands and he would have had to play his average stack.

In the last article I expressed some concerns about the prevalence of perfect hands on the internet, but it was simply a perception, certainly not the result of any scientific research. Now I am going to show several perfect hands, close showdowns that have hurt me down the stretch as I have been knocked out of tournaments within one or two tables of the money. However, I am not going suggest that this represents anything out of the ordinary. I'll explain later.

A few weeks later, at the main event of the WPO in Tunica I busted out with pocket Queens against pocket Aces, but it was the first four hours of the tournament, and it was a hand I could have escaped had I played it differently, so that one doesn't count. In my next WPT event, The Shooting Star, I finished 43rd out of about 250, 16 out of the money. I was relatively short-stacked when I moved all-in with A-Q against pocket Kings. I hit my Ace on the flop, but he hit his set also. Again I was close, but I made a short stacked desperation play, so this is not a perfect hand in so far as the way it was played. If I had more chips, some might argue that it would have been. I would have had A-Q against Kings with a flop of A-K-x. The question then is would I have been able to escape the hand. The answer: It depends. He raised first, and I moved all-in from the next seat. If I had a moderate stack, I would have played the hand differently. I would have been afraid of Ace-King, especially because that was the hand he had just played the previous hand, which demostrated that he wasn't pushing a marginal hand. Escaping that hand would have been a factor of how many chips I had committed to the pot before it became evident he had a monster, and my perception of him as a careful player down the stretch.

Let's talk about play down the stretch. For the most part, play down the stretch is careful and tight, which is why I made a move all-in with A-Q there. I had just moved all-in the hand before with a 9-10 suited. Wait a minute! You say. That's far from tight play. No wonder you're losing at poker. I said, for the most part. Experienced tournament professionals often become more aggressive, raising the timid who are trying to simply squeak into the money, because they know that they won't call with anything but type 1 hands. Thus, I moved all-in with 9-10, not expecting a call with my stack big enough to push someone off of anything but the best hand and low enough that I only had enough to survive about 15 more hands before the antes and blinds consumed my meager stack. Once he called the reraise I was glad to be up against A-K, because that meant that both of my cards were live. I hit a ten and double through. On the next hand he raised and I reraised all-in, which was the aforementioned hand on which I went broke. Had I won that hand, I would have not only gained chips, but also gained some ground in the fear factor, because the tighter players would have feared my aggression down the stretch. Nonetheless, I was out of the tournament close to the money, but with a waning stack and losing with the weaker starting hand, the outcome was not unexpected.

I left San Jose happy with how I played. I ended up getting some TV time when I busted out TJ Cloutier. I got my $5,000 entry fee back as well. I thought I played solid poker against some of the world's best players. Even though I was on a losing streak, I felt that with a few breaks at the right time I could bring home a big win.

I only played a few events at the WSOP. My best finish was in the top 60 in the first seven-card stud event. There were no bad beats down the stretch. I simply failed to get a playable hand, forced to watch my stack get trimmed by the antes before making a stand with Ace high.

My real source of hope was the Mid-America Poker Classic in Tunica at the beginning of August. There are many new faces in poker and I was excited to find myself against a field of newcomers. It was also interesting to be recognized by some of my readers. The MAPC was where I got my first and only win of over 20 grand in 2001. Most of the pros were at the Legends of Poker in Los Angeles, so I expected some straightforward competition. I finally went deep into a tournament on the $500 limit hold-em event on the first Sunday. I had an average stack, but the blinds were high enough that an average stack could get broke by losing a big hand that went to the river. The dinner break had just concluded and we were down to about 45 players. They were paying 36. There were many stacks smaller than mine. There were only amateurs left except for a few pros, none of whom were at my table. The first hand after the break presented me with pocket Kings in early position. I raised only to face a reraise. I reraised and he capped it. I knew that was a bad sign, but I hung on, not knowing for sure that I was beat, hoping he had something smaller. In fact, I had concluded a previous hand an hour earlier with pocket Queens. The other guy put all of his chips in after the flop with pocket Jacks. I hoped it would be the same here. The flop came small. I bet to gauge his response. He raised and asked me if I wanted to get all-in. I knew then he had to have Aces. Now I had so few chips in my hand with the blind coming that I decided to take my chances with the Kings. His Aces held up, and I was broke.

That was a perfect hand. Some may argue that I should have laid down the Kings, but if you can lay down Kings too easily, you'll get beat up by the boys who reraise with pocket Jacks. It was just bad timing. There's three keys to winning big pots with pocket Aces. First, you have to get the damn things. Second, you have to find someone who has a strong enough hand to want to give you action. Kings are a great hand to be up against down the stretch. Third, they need to hold up. It's very hard to get away from a big pair when you're in a tournament. Especially Kings. The odds of having Kings at the same time that someone has Aces are very low. It's happened to me three other times that I can recall in tournament play. The only way to know that you are likely beat is to invest chips into the pot and let the action carry you to the proper conclusion. Then you need to have enough chips left over to make folding worthwhile.

I went straight from the poker table to the car and drove the 2 and ½ hours back to Columbus. I was both angry and confident. I was angry to get trapped with pocket Kings, but reassured of my poker skills in knowing that it took precisely that kind of hand to get me busted. It's not like I blew my stack with an Ace-10 against an A-K. So, I returned the following weekend for the main event.

Part 2