REAL WORLD GUTSY PLAY Occasionally it’s a good idea to take a look at just how poker professionals play when they’re under pressure with millions of dollars at stake at the end of a big poker tournament. A recent example played out this month at the World Poker Finals. Here’s a blow by blow of the last few games. It was heads up between EG Harvin and Nenad Medic. At the river the board was showing Two-Five-Three-King-Ace. Nenad bet $450,000 and EG called. Nenad flipped over King-Three making two pair and taking down the pot. The next hand brought Ace-Queen-Ten with the flop. Nenad checked and EG bet $200,000. Nenad called and the turn threw up an Eight. Nenad checked and EG bet $300,000. Nenad called and the river produced another Ace. Nenad checked and EG bet $600,000. Nenad called and EG flipped over Queens making Royal Trips and clawed back some of his hundreds of thousands of lost dollars. Things were hotting up and the next game delivered a Five-Five-Three flop. Nenad bet $150,000 and EG crunched back with $500,000. Nenad paused for breath and then called. The turn produced a Nine and a $1,000,000 bet from EG. (I hope these tournaments keep defibrillators handy?). Nenad, understandably, paused for what seemed like the half-life of plutonium. Nenad called. There was an intake of breath from the audience that almost sucked both players from their seats. EG showed Ace-Jack hoping his Jack “kicker” to the Ace would be enough with the two pair on the board. Nenad had gone the whole distance with his Seven-Five to find himself with a Full House of trip Fives and paired Nines. The kind of guts you’d expect from a guy who is now WPF Champ, and, oh, yes, $2,000,000 richer. If you study what these two players were doing throughout this drama you can learn a lot about the psychology of poker and how you play aggression with the only thing that can overcome it: Cool!
TWO CARD HOLD’EM Let’s assume you are a relatively inexperienced player and you come up against a top line professional in the late stages of a big tournament. What strategy should you employ to try and pull off a David versus Goliath stunt? My answer is always to play “two card Hold’em”. For a start you know for certain a professional is going to be able to out-play you towards the end of a hand. So what do you do? You wait for two high cards or a wired pair and bet all your chips pre-flop. The classic exponent of this strategy was Neil Furlong who won a World Series of Poker bracelet pretty much pulling this particularly gutsy play throughout his run up to the final table and eventual triumph. If you’re facing a poker giant you may as well go for broke and “two card” is one of the better tactics available.
