There is something that happens to many poker players toward the end of a tournament. If you are fortunate enough to make it to the top 17 out of a starting field of 305 in a $1500 buy- in tournament, something inside of you begins to change. Everything slows down. You can hear your heart beating. You suddenly become aware of your breathing; the position of your hands. Your feet feel heavy. Nothing feels permanent, and nothing seems real. You FEEL that every decision you make will seal your fate. And you feel like every time you raise the pot, you may be playing for all of your chips, which isn’t a good feeling at all.  Players tend to limit play to high Aces and pocket pairs, which gives very little credit for your ability to actually “play” the game, essentially as you are just racing for first place.

Recently, I found myself in such a position at Commerce Casino’s $1500 buy in event. I had played a mega satellite the day before the two-day event and was now at one of the four remaining tables with a median stack. The field was tired and we were all playing fairly tight when I looked down to find AK suited in early position. I had about $80K and bet out a $15K raise-- three times the big blind. A chip stack of about $90K in late position looks down and pushes. I knew if he pushed, I would call even before he made a move forward. Everyone folded to me and I called. We raced and I won, turning an Ace. I was thrilled.

As the tournament slowed we all were waiting for our races to hit in turn. However, now I’m 3^rd in chips for the tournament.  My goal was to make the final table and of course win the tournament, when this hand came up. It so completely confused me that it compelled me to ask several of my player-friends what they would have done in the same position.

What would you do?

To recap: You are third in chips in a tournament where first place is $144,000. You have been running well and winning races. You would prefer to “play” more hands, but the mood of the field seems to be a raise and a push resulting in a race. There are 17 players left and all players are playing tight and slow and waiting for hands.

Everyone has folded to you in the cut off. You look down to see A-Q suited hearts. You make a standard raise of three times the big blind and the small blind says “I’m only going to look at one card”.  He looks down and pulls the corner of one card up and says “All in.” He has four stacks in front of him.  (I calculated it about $80K).  With that size stack, if you call and lose you will still have $64K left. You think he is putting you on a position raise, and with only looking at one card and pushing, you decide A-K can be the only hand he can hurt you with. What do you do?

I chose to call the All-in.  He turned over both cards to reveal pocket 9’s. He smiled at me as if to say, you believed the old “I only looked at one card trick.” I called, he won!  And to make it worse, he had stacked his chips so that he had much more than what I had calculated it to be. Most players stack in stacks of twenty. He had stacked in a stack of 30. His six stacks turned out to be 120K and I was now crippled. That was it, I was done. Two hands later I had pocket 7’s and went up against AK. I was walking, stunned and confused. It was a painful lesson. 

I called Jan Fisher on the way home, who was trying not to break out in laughter over my foolish call. “Why would you put all of your chips at risk there? You didn’t have to make that call. Of course he was tricking you when he said he was looking at one card! It is an old trick and frankly it doesn’t work that often.”

For those of you faced with the oldest trick in the book -- Don’t fall for it! Learn from my mistake. Surprisingly, when I asked others what they would have done, many said they would have done the same. Fewer than half of the players I polled said they would have folded in this situation.  This is the only comfort I take from the situation.