The Poker Quiz

You are one of the four remaining players seated at the final table of a large buy-in tournament. With $153,000 you are second in chips. In first position you squeeze your pocket cards and find two black Aces in the hole. You raise to $16,000 (four times the big blind) and are called by the button. Both blinds fold.

The flop comes J 4 3 . You decide to check and wait to see what your opponent does. He leads out with $30,000 bet, leaving himself with $88,000 more.

The Solution

Raise All-in.

Instead, when this situation came up at a World Poker Tour event, Mark Seif held the aces and elected to check raise his opponent $50,000 more. His opponent called. A 2 came on the turn, Seif led out for $30,000 and his opponent moved all-in for an extra $8000. He then exposed his 10 9 and caught his flush on the river leaving Seif crippled.

Sief is usually a solid player, but he made three mistakes in one by not going all in. The $50,000 raise gave his opponent correct odds to call with his draw (3:1), leaving his opponent pot committed and without enough chips to push him out on the turn. The difference between a $50,000 raise and a $88,000 raise may not seem like much, but it meant Mark Seifs tournament life.