"3 x ace of spades in the deck?"

Midway through the first day of the EPT event in Deauville, France with blinds of 200/400, a huge 3-way pot developed at my table. After the river it already amassed about 12,000 chips and the board showed: Js Qs 8h 2s 6s. So with 4 spades on the table and no straight flush or full house possible it was quite obvious the best flush would win.

The first player to act (6,000 chips left) bet 3,000, so probably he had the Ace of Spades I thought to myself. The second player to act (20,000 chips left) raised to 9.000, so now I was sure he MUST have the Ace of Spades and wondered what the short stacked could have had to bet out. The last player to act now to the surprise of the whole table announced all-in for about 13,000 chips.

Short-stack calls immediately for his last 3,000 chips. Second seat also calls in a shot for further 4,000 chips. So now we are looking at a main pot of about 30,000 chips and a side pot between players 2 & 3 for a further 14,000 chips.

Before they turned their cards over I said, "there must be 3 Aces of spades in the deck, how could anything less be good?"

Seat 1 shows As 3s for the nuts, the definite winning hand.

Seat 2 squeaked in horror as he turned over two red aces for nothing more than a pair! He mumbled: "I could swear I had black Aces, yes, I slow played black aces"! Well apparently not... :-) All eyes now on Seat 3 who turns over Ts 8s!!! How on earth could he go all-in after the river? That is a very good question, but the funny thing now was that seat 3 actually won the 14,000 chip side-pot with his mediocre flush against seat 2’s pair of aces. Now that is adding insult to injury I guess....

"Quadrupling up in sunny Spain"

In September last year, I played the rebuy event during the EPT weekend in Barcelona. The rebuy phase was over and after getting no great cards I had blinded down to a little below average 3,000 chips with blinds at 100/200. I got a little impatient and when I got Qh Jh I decided to make a move and bet out 600 from UTG (Under The Gun = the first player to act). To be honest that was a very questionable play with mediocre cards from out of position. I started to question it very quickly after getting a very surprising 4 callers.

I thought to myself, “Buzzer, you better flop the royal flush here, otherwise you’re in trouble”.

Well, when the flop came, my wish was at least partly granted, Tc 9c 8d! So I had the nuts for the moment! How should I play my hand to maximize the profit without taking too many risks? Well, the decision was taken for me when the Big Blind moved all-in for about 2,000 chips. I guessed he was on the flush draw, but obviously could not fold my nut straight and went all-in for my remaining 2,600 chips myself. Pretty quickly the lady behind me announced all-in for about 4,000 chips and after some thinking one more medium stack went all-in. Believe it or not the 5th player thought about it for several minutes but then decided to fold. As I mentioned previously, the rebuy phase was over so there were several tournament lives at stake. What I feared most was obviously the flush draw. When the cards were turned here is a breakdown of what the players had and their chances of winning in brackets:

On the board: Tc 9c 8d

Big Blind: 8h 7s for low pair and the open-ended straight-draw (2.10%)

Buzzer: Qh Jh for the made nut straight (87.70%)

Lady: As Th for top pair, top kicker (2.50%)

Man: Ah Jd for the open-ended straight draw and two over-cards (7.70%)

It really was the perfect scenario for me. Not a single flush draw out there, not even a bare club for a runner flush draw! Two blanks hit the board and my straight held up giving my stack a massive boost. This is truly the only time in my poker life that I actually quadrupled up.... :-)

See you at the tables,

Buzzer