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 he Guardian Poker Column |
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| Victoria Coren |
| Wed 2 February 2011 |
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Poker: At last, I break my Deauville duck
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It might have been an online win, but it still counts
It was the usual story for me at the EPT Deauville: great tables, brilliant line-ups, couldn't win a bean. I go to that tournament every year because it's a nice train journey and a beautiful town, but I've always left poorer than when I arrived. Ugh, almost like a normal holiday.
But just as the week was ending in gloom, depression and superstition that Deauville is "unlucky for me", I made a final table and won $10,500. It was online (in a $109 rebuy tournament with 372 players), so – like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz – I could have been at home all along. But it still happened within the walls of Deauville, so my superstition is allayed. |
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One hand from that final provoked much curiosity among the spectators, and triggered several questions on my Twitter feed. Six-handed, a short-stacked player moved all in for 11,000 and I reraised to 40,000 from my 190,000 stack. A third player then four-bet to set me all in and I folded. People were astonished that I would with nearly a quarter of my chips in the pot.
Here is the reason. A player was all in. My pot-sized reraise indicated that I had a proper hand to knock him out (it was a pair of tens). The exit of any player was worth $1,000 to everyone remaining. It would be crazy for a third opponent to bluff or gamble, when he could a wide range – as high as AQ - and jump up the prize ladder. And this opponent had proved a tight player so far. I felt sure he held one of the four higher pairs that left me cold. Sure enough, when I ed, he showed JJ.
I'd have been sad if he had 99 or AK. But I am happy with the reasoning: when facing an all-in, always consider every psychological factor.victoriacoren.com
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