The 2006 World Series of Poker

[JackT]

It has begun.... after Event #1 (a casino employees-only game), Event #2, a $1500 buy-in No Limit Hold'em tourney is in full swing.

Wondering if anyone here has ever been to the WSOP, as a player or a spectator.....? Any cool stories to share?




Here is a hand from today's play at the $1500 NLHE Tourney:

Eric Froehlich raises to $5,000 in late position. Greg Raymer calls from the big blind. The flop comes Qd7d3s. Raymer checks and Froehlich goes all-in. Raymer calls and showed 7h7s for a set. Froehlich shoes AdKs. The turn and river come Js and Jh. Raymer doubles up to $32,200 while Froehlich falls to $27,800.


Is Froehlich's huge flop bet -- risking his entire stack on an Ace-high hand -- a complete donkey move or what????

 

[Waterclone]

No. Froehlick's bet is fine. If Raymer doubled up to 32k that means he started the hand with about 16k. Pre flop Raymer put in 5k. So now the pot is about 11k and that's also what Raymer has in his stack.

The minimal "reasonable" bet that Froehlick could make would be half the pot. He knows that if he bets 6k, and Raymer reraises all in for just another 5k on top of that he has to call. It would be only be costing him 5k to win a 30k pot. And he has 9 outs to the nut flush even he he knows pairing his over cards is no good. It's an insta-call.

So, knowing that he is going to go all in with this hand anyway, he is applying maximum, pressure to Raymer.

It was a good play. In most cases Raymer, even with a better hand than Froehlich (Like if he had a pair), would have folded. But even if he didn't fold, Froehlich had good odds.

 

[Waterclone]

Sorry. I misread. Thought Froehlick had 2 diamonds. So that makes it more of a bluff than a semi bluff. He might have thought his 2 over cards were good if one of them hit.

Still, the reasoning stands. He knew that if he made any standard continuation bet, Raymer didn't have enough chips to make him fold with a reraise. And, it would have been a donkey play to call all in after the flop with just A high, but betting it is nowhere near as dumb.

 

[JackT]

True enough, Froehlich didn't risk his entire stack because he had about 27K more chips than Raymer before the hand started... I agree with taking a stab at this pot, but still, I think I bet less than the size of the pot here -- if I'm Froehlich, I want to be able to lay this down if Raymer decides to push all in on me. Putting Raymer all-in here seems unneccessary to me....

 

[Waterclone]

There is no way to take a stab at this pot without pot committing yourself.

You mentioned betting less than the size of the pot. Even if you only bet half the pot, you would be pot committed and have to call the all in reraise.

The pot is 11k. If you bet 5k, and Raymer reraises all in for a total of 11, it's only 6k more to you on a 30k pot. Mathematically, it's a horrible fold and no pro would do it.

The only way to not get all in in this scenario would be if you didn't make a flop bet and Raymer pushed all in then. You can fold your 2 over cards to a pot sized bet on the flop. But once you take any stab, because of Raymers small stack size, you have made the pot too big to fold to any reraise.

In my opinion.

 

[Slinky Bender]

The biggest question in my mind is "How was Raymer playing up till then?" Was he slow playing a lot, a little or none? If he wasn't slow playing and was strong betting all strong hands, it was a lot better move than if he'd been slow playing stuff or making a lot of flat calls.

 

[Cloud Nine]

Phil Helmuth just missed getting his 10th bracelet last night in the 5,000 no limit holdem. He was heads up with a 2 to 1 chip lead and eventually lost to a guy who has never played in a big tournament before. Carplayer.com has updates and chip counts to all of the events.

 

[Slinky Bender]

I think that's www.Cardplayer.com .....

 

[Cloud Nine]

With the small amount of time I have to read UG these days, let alone make a post with no typos...

 

[Cloud Nine]

Sam Farha beats Phil Ivey to take a Omaha 8's or better bracelet.

 

[Thorn]

There is no way to take a stab at this pot without pot committing yourself.

Which is why I never take a stab at this pot if there are 10 players in the initial action, because some of my 9 out cards may possibly be tied up in the eighteen other hole cards dealt down at the start of the action.

Now if there are only six, or five, players in play or better yet, at the final table and we are down to four or less, and I have a big chip lead, different story. But at the beginning of tourney play, with 10 seats filled at the table, no way.