HALF-HACKED Half-hacked may well be a term newcomers to poker will not have encountered. It’s an interesting expression with a story attached. During a game of Texas Hold’em, in a showdown or following a bluff, when the winning player shows ONLY ONE CARD to his or her opponent and mucks the other, that’s called half-hacking. A classic example of this happened during a recent Tournament of Champions in which Annie “The Duchess” Duke had a two pair (Kings and nines) up against Phil Hellmuth with a top pair (Kings). After a sequence of betting, Annie opted to re-raise Phil dramatically. After pondering for an age Phil eventually folded. Annie showed a nine and mucked her King, thereby making Phil think he had folded the winning hand. Hell burst forth from the Hellmuth mouth as is expected on those occasions when “The Mouth” finds his jaw dropped to the felt. The Duchess just grinned, and like the poker Royalty she is, inherited the pot. Phil had been half-hacked!
WHAT’S A TRAP-HAND? The classic trap-hand is the mixed Royal marriage: Hole cards of a King of one suit and a Queen of another. The reason it presents a trap is because statistically it has an excellent chance of being a second best hand. Not good news if you’ve invested in it early from late position only to find the flop bringing down an Ace which someone at a full ring table is very likely to have paired.
WHAT’S THE NUMBER ONE MISTAKE? This is the question I get asked more than any other in reference to playing online Texas Hold’em. The answer is simple but apparently not obvious to a majority of new players: Playing too many hands!
THE ACE-MAN COMETH! Top professional and WSOP Champ Chris “Jesus” Ferguson will frequently play any Ace with a medium to high kicker. This is a risky tactic which you can pull off in a short-handed cash game but shouldn’t really attempt at a full table. The odds speak for themselves. With Ace-nine for example you have better than a 50% chance of beating one random hand. Against two random hands your chances drop to just over 30% and against four random hands you’re down to 15%.
A FOUR-KING IDIOT! Four-king idiot is by far my favourite poker term saved for pronouncing judgement on that poor soul who decides to raise pre-flop with a four and a King.
