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If you are sitting at home reading this article, chances are you’re just like me – you can’t get enough of online poker. Whether you’re in it for the thrill of the game or you’re trying to make a living, playing online offers several distinct advantages over the “live” game. The online game is a faster game, which essentially means more and potentially larger pots and more risks per hour than a standard B&M (brick and mortar) game. When you see a larger volume of hands, chances are that during each session you play, you are bound to see something that leaves you speechless, shaking your head, mystified, or (shudder at the thought) having to re-buy. In this column, each week we will take a look at a different hand that fits the previously mentioned criteria. My involvement in the hand notwithstanding, I will try to remain as impartial as possible, and for the hands that I didn’t win, I will keep my bitterness to a minimum. (At least, this is my intent)

The following hand took place during the middle stages of a recent $50 buy in sit and go tournament I played in. With the blinds at $50-$100, I sat as on the button as the tournaments chip leader with $5,000 in chips. The Big Blind was in 5th place with about half my stack. I’m dealt Ks-4s, a very marginal hand but with no one calling before me, I decide to call and see a cheap flop. The big blind raises to $400. I think about it for a second. I think he might be trying to blind steal, so I make the questionable call. The flop comes down with 2 spades and the Ad. Pretty nice flop as far as I’m concerned as it gives me a flush draw. He comes out firing and bets $400. It’s an easy call for me as the reward clearly outweighs the risk. The 10h comes on the turn. Then it happens. The big blind checks. I’m thinking, he either wants me to bet so he can check-raise me or try to bluff me off the pot. No way am I betting here. If he wants to risk me seeing a free card then that’s exactly what I’m going to do. A free card when you’re drawing is always a good thing.

Then the river comes down, a beautiful 8s. The big blind checks, I bet out $500 and he raises all in. There’s now over $5000 in the pot as I quickly call. He turns over pocket 10’s which means he had 3 of a kind. My flush knocks him out of the tournament and gives me a dominating chip lead with more than a 3.5-1 edge on my closest competitor.

What was my opponents error? Well, there were many of them actually. Basically, he made his set on the turn and the way he played it was his downfall. Let’s dissect the entire hand. Firstly, his pre-flop play. At this stage of a tournament, you must move away from standard sized raises with strong hands. 4 times the size of the big blind is standard, but you must do more to protect your hands. It is much more effective to go all-in here as I limped in and wouldn’t have called such an aggressive play. So by allowing the chip leader, someone who could cripple him, see a relatively cheap flop. Then post flop. Here too, a bigger bet would have been effective. Perhaps the Ace scared him, but regardless, he should have tested me for a bigger amount and taken me off my draw. I probably would have called anything at this point however. Then, his fatal flaw. He checked the turn after making his set of 10s. He likely was trying to get cute and fancy with the intention of check-raising me, but I didn’t bite. It was obvious to me he had something so I took the free card. Lastly, his play on the river was just atrocious. He tried check-raising again with an obvious flush on the board! When I bet $500, he could have simply called and stayed in the tournament. Instead, he goes all-in and gets knocked out. This hand enabled me to go on and win the tournament and take home $1,000.

I hope you learned something from this hand. I know I sure did. Slow-playing is a bad, bad thing.

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