19 Jan
For the majority of poker amateurs, mistakes come thick and fast when we play. Wrong bet sizes, raising when we should fold, folding when we have the odds to call and 1000 variations on the faulty plays.
For the pros, however, such mistakes are obviously less noticeable, and occur less often. However…when they do make big mistakes, they are often of the hilarious and cringe-worthy variety rather than our common-or-garden type, as we will see!
Mucking the winning hand at showdown
When Antonio ‘The Magician’ Esfandiari played Daniel ‘Jungleman’ Cates heads-up, you could expect a high-quality match. You certainly wouldn’t expect what happened in this hand….
Esfandiari, sitting with 8♠ 3♥, was called pre-flop by Cates holding 4♦ 2♥. Obviously these guys don’t stick to just playing ‘good’ hands, particularly heads-up!
When the flop came
8♦ 3♦ A♠
Esfandiari had hit his 2 pair while Cates was looking at a wheel should a 5 appear. ‘The Magician bet out ¾ of the pot and Cates called, and naturally the turn brought the….
8♦ 3♦ A♠ (5♥)
Cates hitting his wheel and Esfandiari drawing to only the remaining 8’s and 3’s for a full house. Of course he didn’t know this, and would likely think he is still good here, so bet the pot – which again Cates only called. The river fell…
8♦ 3♦ A♠ 5♥ (A♥)
…and now Esfandiari’s 3’s have been counterfeited, which should save him some money, and simply checks the river. Cates inexplicably checked behind and when Antonio turned over his cards Cates grimaced and….mucked his winning hand!
Quite what he thought Esfandiari was showing (a boat?) or what he had himself (he hadn’t spotted the straight he hit on turn?) is anybody’s guess! But it does go to show you that the best players sometimes simply aren’t concentrating or paying attention!
It is not only money that can be lost when making mistakes due to misreading. When Pobal was playing 3-handed at the EPT Barcelona back in 2012, he hit the nut flush on the river. When his single opponent checked, he checked behind!
Of course, not only had he missed the opportunity to win an extra bet from his opponent (whose top pair might have called a bet) but he had committed the cardinal sin of not betting when holding the nuts!
This is actually considered illegal in most poker games, as it can lead to accusations of soft-playing, and Pobal had to miss a round. Not such a terrible outcome as play was 3-handed, but still an embarrassing mistake from a good pro!
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Misreading the Cards
At the WSOP, we saw Tran versus Tran in a big hand – and one of them made a huge error by misreading his hand and the board – and ended his Main Event hopes in one horrible move.
Luther Tran held the Q♣10♣, while Nguyen T Tran had the K♣J♥.
The board came out 8♥J♦4♦10♠ and Luther Tran moved all in for his last 375.000 chips into a million chip pot. With top pair and a big kicker, Nguyen Tran was priced in and called, only to see his name-sake Luther rise from the table and say:
The nuts baby! Come on”.
Except….it wasn’t the nuts, as the straight he thought he had turned was nothing of the sort! “What nuts?” asked a fellow player.
“Oh, I misread my hand!” exclaimed Luther, and now drawing to only 9 outs, his tournament life was at risk. When the river bricked, poor Luther hit the rails and was no doubt cursing himself for such a terrible mistake.
Of course, Luther Tran isn’t the only player to have done this. David Balkin, the Australian pro, had an equally embarrassing WSOP exit at the hands of Gaelle Baumann.
On day 6, Balkin was dealt 10♦10♣ against Baumann’s A♥J♥ and the flop must have pleased both players…
A♦ 9♥ 10♣
Balkin’s trips up against top pair, good kicker set up an interesting hand, and he bet out half the pot which Baumann just called. The turn appeared….
A♦ 9♥ 10♣ (7♥)
Which of course helped Baumann, who though 3-1 behind, now had the nut flush draw and an inside straight draw to add to it. Betting out 1 million into the 1.6 million pot, Balkin couldn’t shake off Baumann who called with almost the correct odds and some implied odds too, should she hit….
A♦ 9♥ 10♣ 7♥ (4♥)
Which she did! Only now Balkin decided to shove all-in, which Baumann naturally insta-called, showing up her nut flush cards to scoop the massive pot.
And then….Balkin got up from his seat and started to celebrate with his rail!
Amid the ‘yeahs!’ and high-fiving, Balkin was quickly brought back down to earth when his table-mates called out, “You lost bro’! You lost!”
A shocked Balkin returned to the table to see the cards still staring at him – the flush had hit and his tournament had gone from a potential leading stack to being one of the stragglers! Tip for amateurs at home – double-check the cards before celebrating!
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Thinking your opponent has the nuts!
Jennifer Tilly, the actress and poker pro, suffered a hugely embarrassing moment in the Poker After Dark series. The hand which saw her ridiculed by trolls and haters played out as follows….
Playing 6-handed, she open-raised with J♦J♣ in seat 4 on the button and Patrick Antonius, holding 10♥ 8♥ called behind her – with Jennifer Harman folding the big blind.
When the flop appeared…
10♠ J♥ 7♣
Tilly had her trips, with Antonius hitting second pair and a gutshot draw. After Antonius’ check, Tilly bet out close to half the pot, the perfectly ok call came, and the turn showed…
10♠ J♥ 7♣ (K♠)
Not a great card for either player, but Tilly is still ahead of almost everything Antonius would be calling with except perhaps 89 or, less likely, Q9.
AQ and KK would both surely have raised pre-flop out of position in the small blind, wouldn’t they? Anyway, after a check-check, the river came…
10♠ J♥ 7♣ K♠ (K♣)
And Tilly had filled her boat and is winning against everything…..except….when Antonius checked, Tilly checked behind!
Showing down her JJ, the looks of stunned amazement on the faces of the world’s top pros was hilarious! Erick Lindgren had a bemused smile, Phil Ivey’s slack-jawed expression stated ‘I can’t-believe-my-eyes’ and Jennifer Harman’s shock was mixed with almost disgust!
“A full house?” said Antonius. “I can’t beat that!” he laughed – to which Tilly replied, “I thought you had pocket kings.”
This was one of the most ‘OMG’ moments poker has seen at supposedly top-level play. Pocket kings call pre-flop, check call, check the turn and then check the river having hit quads??
The public derision of Tilly’s ‘thought’ process in this hand may have been a bit too much – but poker mistakes don’t get much worse than this!
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Folding to a call
As with everything Mike ‘the Mouth’ Matusow-related, it’s hard not to laugh when he gets things wrong; it always ends up being somebody else’s fault! The following hand is a case in point…
Matusow called in early position with 9♦9♠ and saw Eli Elezra raise in late position with A♠8♠, a raise which Mike the Mouth again called.
The flop came…
6♥8♣2♣
Matusow check-raised Elezra’s $1000 bet to $2500, and Elezra put the extra $1500 in, perhaps now suspicious of Matusow’s play. With the pot now standing at $7500, the turn came…
6♥8♣2♣ (2♥)
and here Matusow bet out $2500, Elezra responding by throwing in a wad of cash.
“You’re not going to bust me again with this fucking hand.” mumbled Mike, mucking his cards as he said it!
“He was just calling,” stated Howard Lederer, Eli Elezra adding a “wow!” into the mix.
The mistake? Matusow had seen the brick of dollars appear and thought he had been raised, but of course in cash games you can out in everything including your shirt, but if you haven’t actually announced “raise”, it simply amounts to a call!
Naturally, with Mike Matusow involved and the world’s top cash-game players there, it was bound to end in a debate of some sort.
“We got to get chips,” was one call, leading too Mike bemoaning the fact that players could otherwise just shove their whole stack of dollar bills into the middle, but only be calling.
Whatever, Mike lost a chunk of change because he wasn’t concentrating properly on the action – despite being in the hand with good cards. Let that be a lesson to you!
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Not protecting your hand
Poker mistakes, as we have seen, come in many shapes and sizes – but quite who made the biggest mistake in the next hand isn’t totally clear.
When Estelle Denis found herself sitting with pocket aces in the 2009 WSOP Main Event, she was no doubt extremely happy that JC Tran decided to bet out 32,000 – and she quickly moved all-in for an extra 110,000 chips.
However, before Tran could reply…the dealer swiped Denis’ pocket rockets and mucked them!
“Er, my cards!” said a shocked Denis, repeating it once more to the dealer. “Well, did you protect your cards?” said the dealer, to which Denis replied, “I’m all-in!”
Unfortunately for Denis, despite a floor manager being on hand immediately and telling the dealer to not touch anything, the dealer simply couldn’t stop messing with the muck cards! And when it proved impossible to recover her cards, the poor French lady had to forfeit the 32,000 chips it would have cost to merely call Tran’s bet.
“The dealer made a mistake, but it’s the player’s responsibility to protect their hand,” was the correct – though somewhat unsympathetic – declaration by the commentator.
“It’s a joke! I had 2 aces!” said Denis, followed by a few curse words before leaving the table to calm down.
Dealer or player mistake? Answers on a postcard please!
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Folding when the odds say you have to play
Sometimes in poker you have to ignore your opponents possible holding completely, and simply stick to the mathematics of the hand. For example, if you have 72 offsuit, and you reckon your opponent has pockets aces – but the pot is offering 10-1 – you really ought to call (tournament situation, etc. notwithstanding). You are getting the right price to play!
In the following hand, Andy Frankenberger was berated by fellow players and internet heroes alike for his decision…let’s see what happened…..
Frankenberger re-raised with Q♦ Q♠ and found himself being 3-bet by Timoshenko holding A♥K♠. When Mizzi got out of the way, Frankenberger 4-bet the pot and Timoshenko immediately 5-bet all-in.
At this point the New Yorker got confused at how many of his chips he had actually put in, but after a minute or two of counting and discussion it was clear he had committed about 211,000 and had only 90,000 behind and was getting close to 5.5-1 on his money.
Given that even if he were facing pocket rockets he would only be a 4-1 dog, it’s an easy call – he is committed to playing! However….after some thought he actually folded!
The rest of the table were gob-smacked at this decision, as were 99% of the internet poker forumites commenting on it.
Despite the fact that Frankenberger somehow managed to crawl his way back into the tournament and actually win it (!) –and he has picked up WSOP bracelets and millions in prize-money during his career – it certainly doesn’t make this play anything other than extremely bad. It ought to carry a Health Warning -Do not play like this at home!
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There are countless other cases out there where players have made the unholiest of messes with their play, but almost all of them come down to a very basic premise…if you are going to play poker accurately, you have to pay attention to all the little details all of the time! Easy for me to say of course!
