A Bad Beat and Playing Pocket Queens Trigger Readers' Questions by Russ Scott on Creators.com

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A Bad Beat and Playing Pocket Queens Trigger Readers' Questions

E-mails this week from Las Vegas and Illinois deal with a strange bad beat and betting a big pocket pair in a tournament. Let's answer them.

Q: You won't believe the bad beat I saw in a card room the other day. After you read what happened, let me know if you have seen anything that weird before. — Jim T. in Las Vegas.

A: Here is Jim's description of the hand:

A popular Vegas card room gives a $500 bonus to the Omaha high-low player who makes the best hand of the day. The contest ends each day at noon, and a new one begins.

A man who seemed a shoo-in for the prize after hitting a king-high straight flush — the game's second-best possible hand — was sitting off to the side in the poker room shortly before noon, waiting to collect his $500 jackpot.

Suddenly, with the clock reading 11:59 a.m., cheers erupted at one of the Omaha tables. A woman had just made a royal flush to knock out the man's hand and claim the cash.

The man walked over to the table, looked at the cards, then at the clock and left the room without saying a word.

Well, Jim, something just as costly (but not as strange) happened to me once in a riverboat card room on the Mississippi.

A regular player I knew named Bruce walked into the casino at the same time as I. We chatted a bit, then he headed up four long flights of stairs to the poker room on the top deck. I chose to take the notoriously slow elevator.

He beat me to the supervisor's podium by about 15 feet, and I watched as he took the only available seat in the room. On his very first hand, the mini-jackpot hit and he won a $500 bonus!

So it's true: Timing IS everything.

Q: I busted out halfway through a no-limit hold 'em tournament recently after moving all-in with pocket queens in a three-way pot.

Do you think I made the right move? — Aaron G. in Moline, Ill.

A: You raised four times the big blind in early position with your Q-Q, only to see a short-stacked player (with 10-10) re-raise all-in for nearly double your bet. Then a third player (holding A-10) came over the top with another raise of about 10 times the big blind.

"I figured the last raiser was just trying to squeeze me out of the pot, hoping to go heads-up against the short stack. So, I re-raised all-in, and he called," you wrote.

Although you were ahead after the flop, the player with A-10 hit perfect cards on the turn and river to make an ace-high straight and win the pot.

"I still think I made the right move. He didn't, but got lucky anyway," you said.

I agree, Aaron. You clearly made the right move.

Yes, the guy who four-bet with A-10 could have had A-A or K-K, but he also could have held A-K, A-Q or J-J. You were getting good pot odds with your premium pair against his range of possible hands.

Besides, in a fast-paced tournament with rapidly increasing blinds, you can't wait around for better hands than pocket queens to make a move and try to build your stack.

By the way, I don't know if the guy was pulling a squeeze play or was just silly enough to think his A-10 was good in that spot, but either way, he made a correct call of your all-in bet because of the size of the pot.

Luckily for him, it worked out.

E-mail your poker questions and comments to russ@luckydogpoker.com for use in future columns. To find out more about Russ Scott and read previous LuckyDog Poker columns, visit www.creators.com or www.luckydogpoker.com.

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