Pre-flop analysis sweetens pot

One of the biggest advantages the top pros hold over lesser players -- amateurs, especially -- is the ability to play after the flop.

Each street brings more cards and more betting rounds. Pot odds change. So does the context of the board. The longer a hand goes, the better the chance the experienced player can further define the range of hands an opponent is likely to be holding. It’s all about gathering information.

Sometimes, however, all the information you need presents itself in the pre-flop betting, as poker legend Johnny Chan deduced in this hand from the World Poker Tour’s $15,000-buy-in Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic at Las Vegas’ Bellagio in 2008.

With blinds at $500-$1,000, plus a $100 ante, youthful and aggressive pro Ryan Young limped under the gun for $1,000. Talented pro Liz Lieu raised to $4,000 from middle position. Action folded to Chan in the big blind, where he found pocket jacks, a challenging hand under most conditions, even more so against a raise.

“I could’ve re-raised Liz with pocket jacks, but I didn’t want to do that because I was hoping [Young] was going to re-raise with any kind of hand,” said Chan, who won back-to-back World Series of Poker main events in 1987 and ’88. “[Young] had been playing wild. I thought he was just trying to play bully.”

Chan called, leaving himself with a stack of about $30,000. As Chan hoped, Young raised to $14,000. Perhaps he limped with aces, looking to get raised so he could re-raise, or he might be trying to run out players who are gambling with marginal values.

Lieu thought for a while, then called the additional $10,000. That was all the information Chan needed to move all in. Young folded, meaning Chan had read him correctly. Lieu called with A-K offsuit. Chan took the pot when the board blanked.

“I think the most important thing was I played the hand perfect,” said Chan, co-founder of the energy drink company All In. “I’m not trying to brag or anything. I called with two jacks when I could’ve raised, but I didn’t want to raise because I wanted the guy on my left to raise to try to make a move. He not only tried to make a move, but he raised enough for Liz to tell me what she had.

“If she had kings or queens, she’d probably re-raise him because the pot had a lot of money in it, so I knew I had Liz beat. That let me know that Liz didn’t have a big pair, so now I know I have the best hand, so I moved in. Jacks against A-K made me an 11-10 favorite, but I was getting 2-1 on my money. I had to go with it.

“By calling the initial raise, I found out where everybody was.”

Table talk

Street: A round of betting after each card; for instance, the turn and river also are known as fourth and fifth streets because they are the fourth and fifth exposed cards.

srosenbloom@tribune.com