Tags:
Hold' em, Multi-table tournaments, No Limit, Psychology
It’s early in the 2008 World Series of Poker Main Event. The blinds are at 50/100 and 'Welsh Wizard' Roberto Romanello is on the TV table with Mike ‘The Mouth’ Matusow and Greg Geller. Matusow limps with 9-9 and Roberto Romanello limps along behind him with J-J. The action passes round to Gregory Geller who raises to 600 with pocket Kings – a slightly oversized raise. Both players call and the three take the flop with 1,950 in the pot. The flop looks like a perfect cooler hand for Roberto with a super-wet As-Js-Kh.
Flopping set over set is, of course, every hold’em player’s worst nightmare and it’s very rare you should do anything other than go broke. In fact it’s one of the dangers of not raising with pocket pairs preflop early in a tournament.
The action is checked around to Geller who decides to slow-play his set of Kings. This decision has a huge effect on the following streets, as it defines his hand for his opponents and keeps the pot from ballooning. It is always suspicious to make a big preflop raise then check that kind of board. After he’s checked it’s likely his opponents will put Geller on a big hand like a set or A-K, or possibly a good preflop hand that hates this flop like Q-Q or T-T. It’s less likely he has junk, as with so many possible hands connecting with this flop he would usually bet here to represent something.
The turn is the Tc. This effectively kills the action, as any Queen now makes the Broadway straight, and all the players check. Romanello is probably cursing his luck at this point, having obviously planned to check-raise his set on the flop. He, like Geller, now feels he can’t bet this board.
Boat collision
The river completes the cooler, with the Td giving both Romanello and Geller strong full houses. Matusow understandably checks his underpair. Romanello can now finally bet his Jacks for 1,800. Geller, who has the nut boat with Aces full, quickly makes it 6,000. It’s 4,200 to call to win 9,750, giving Roberto odds of over 2-to-1 to call.
Romanello immediately recognises he has a difficult situation. What hands does Geller raise for value here? He definitely can’t raise any two-pair hand or the straight with the board paired. This leaves worse full houses – A-T and K-T – or better full houses – Aces full, Kings full – and quads. Geller’s range leans heavily towards the stronger hands he can have; he made a big raise preflop then checked the flop. It would be a very strange check with A-T or K-T but explainable with a big set. Added to this his body language and chat look strong – he initially says he won’t show his hand then changes his mind when he realises Romanello may fold.
Romanello puts it all together and makes an amazing laydown, which Matusow for one can't believe. When you analyse the hand it's easy to see how he was able to do this, but in the heat of battle getting 2-to-1 on the call there aren’t many players who could have made it.