Flushing out Jason Alexander
There isn’t a poker text in the world that would encourage you to play Q-7, even suited.
But like all things in poker, it depends -- on your opponent, your stack, your position and the odds you’re getting, among other things.
Sometimes, as former world champion Greg Raymer showed in 2009 at the $10,000-buy-in World Series of Poker main event at the Rio Hotel in Las Vegas, you get a good price to play a dicey holding into a surprise hand.
With blinds at $250-$500 plus a $50 ante, Jason Alexander, the actor who portrayed George Costanza on “Seinfeld,” raised to $1,600 from under the gun. A player in middle position called. Action folded to Raymer, who held Q-7 of clubs in the big blind.
With a big stack, Raymer had to call just an additional $1,100 into a pot of $4,400, giving him an irresistible 4-1 on his money.
“I was getting a good price to play,” said Raymer, one of the pros from the PokerStars online site. “It’s not a spot where I’m going to flop a queen or a 7 and go broke with it. I thought if I caught something miraculous, then I could win a nice pot.”
A flop of A-5-2, all clubs, would count as miraculous, giving Raymer the second-nut flush and the third-best hand behind a straight flush. He bet out $2,500.
“That was an amount where I thought I would get some action and might even give someone incentive to raise,” Raymer said. “Jason raised to $6,000, a little more than a min-raise. I’d been chatting with Jason. I thought I knew where his head was at. I didn’t think it was possible for me to make the nuts because I thought for sure he had the king of clubs for at least the nut draw. I thought there was a good chance he had exactly the king-jack of clubs. He isn’t playing big pots without a big hand.”
The other player folded. Raymer only called. “I felt that if I were wrong and he only had top pair, he could get away from the hand if I raised,” Raymer said. “There would be no way for me to make more money.”
The turn came the king of clubs, giving Raymer the nut flush.
“Now, since I know he doesn’t have the nuts or the nut-flush draw, most of what I’m putting him on is a set,” Raymer said. “So I wanted to bet an amount where he was wrong to call to try to river a full house.”
Raymer bet $13,000. Alexander folded and mucked his hand.
“If that was just a random opponent in a field like this,” Raymer said, “I think you have to play that hand a little faster when you flop the second-nut flush draw. But against an opponent you think is playing super-tight, there are only so many hands he could have.”
Table talk
Min-raise: The smallest possible raise; used to induce action, force an opponent to define the strength of his hand or disguise the true strength of the raiser’s holdings.