Page 10 - July 2007 • Southern California Gaming Guide

Jim Mercurio: Poker
LOut of Position, Out of Control
ately, I have been harping on how much is sucks to play out of position. When you are out of position, you lose control. You don’t know if you are getting a free card, how much you are paying on the next street, and if you are going to be paid o when you make your
hand. Recently, I played a hand out of position, which turned out okay, but shows you that with playing out of position, you sometimes have to give up control and let destiny take over.
I had a partial buy-in of $150 at an aggressive Commerce 3–5 blind game, and I limped under the gun with KK, hoping to back-raise. Two players, including a hyper-aggressive kid on the button, called. e small blind folded and the big blind checked. e op came 369 rainbow. Checked to him, the button res $15 into the pot. e blind folds, and I see that the guy between us has his hand already half-way in the muck, so I know it’s going to be heads up.
If we were playing multi-way in a heads-up pot, I would hate to play this hand out of position. Imagine the holdings that would contest here: Open-ended or double-gut shots: 45, 78, 57; gut-shot straight draws: 24, 25, 47, 58, 7T, 8T; reasonable two pair draws: 9T, 89, A9, A6, 67. So in a multi-way pot, with this range of hands, a 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, T and ace are scare cards. So I would have no idea of where I stood if any of those cards fell.
An aggressive player who just saw the entire eld check put out a bet. His range could be any of the above draws, a pair, a monster or two over cards. I thought I was probably ahead. Although multiple opponents
could have 2–3 of the above drawing hands and I could be an overall dog against the eld, here I am heads up. It’s a scary board, but if I am not already beat, he can have only one of the drawing hands. Which means, even if I put him on a robust draw like 45 I am still ahead roughly 70–30.
Normally, I wouldn’t play this hand against a great player, because of the uncertainty. If he has me beat, I am paying him o and if he misses, I am not getting squat from him. But I made some assumptions based on my pro ling of this player as aggressive. I gured one way or another most of our money was going to get in the pot. So if I am right, 30% of the time I am going to lose my entire stack and 70% of the time I will double up. But here is the scary part. I am not going to have a clue which one it is until all of the cards are dealt. I have to completely give up control, hope I am right and that he puts all of his money in.
He did put all of his money in with a hand that I could beat and I scooped the pot. It’s not fun to play this way. I made a decision and had to go with it and then the rest of the hand was completely out of my
control. If I had lost or been outdrawn, I couldn’t gripe about a bad beat. is is how I chose to play it out of position.
I let the poker gods take over and they were on my side. is time.
Buy Jim’s lm Hard Scrambled at www.hardscrambled.com or if you like his column, contact him at jim@jamespmercurio.com.
Page 10
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA GAMING GUIDE
July 2007
Poker: Wired Aces and River Rats