Breath Held Like Hands

By Tommy Angelo

I get pocket fives and the flop comes A-5-5 rainbow. I bet. One guy, Sam, calls. And he's the kind who has an ace. The turn is another ace, making it A-5-5, A. I bet, Sam raises, I reraise, and he calls. The river is, you guessed it, another ace. Now the board is A-5-5, A, A. I check, Sam bets, and I call the floorman.

See, there's a badbeat jackpot of $10,000. If you have quads or a straightflush and lose, you get $5,000. If you beat either of those hands, you get $2500. If you get dealt in when that happens, you split the other $2500 with the other players. Thing is, both hole cards must play. Like on this hand, with my quad fives, for me to get the $5000, Sam has to have a kicker that is higher than a five. Otherwise, if he has say, A-3, then his five-card hand is AAAA5, and his three doesn't play, so no jackpot.

And that's why I called the floorman. We're playing $20-40 here and without the jackpot, I'd fold on the river. And I'm not really interested in calling the $40 only to find out that we don't get the jackpot because Sam's kicker doesn't play. So I called the floorman and asked a question.

"What would happen if I say, 'I fold,' and then I turn my cards over and show four fives, and Sam turns his hand over and he has four aces with a kicker higher than a five, do we still get the jackpot, even though I didn't call his bet on the river?"

The floorman was baffled into silence and rightly so because this being a house-funded jackpot and all, who knows what sort of technicalities might already have been violated, plus he's got big tip potentional to think about.

Meanwhile, I'm getting powerful happy vibes from Sam. He's over there clearing his throat and winking at me, so I go ahead and call the $40 real quick before the floorman can speak up. Sam turns over A-9. I just made 5K.

The other players are pretty sure I've got the quads because of how all this was going down. I'm thinking if there was ever a proper time for a table-teasing slowroll, this was it. First I rolled one five. Jackpots are great for table unity. Everyone held their breath as if hands. But it isn't over until it's turned over. I rolled the other five and we all hooted it up.

The other players gave me tons of shit for being such a tightass, for being worried about saving $40 while on the verge of probably winning $5,000. Hey, what can I say? Sam had the ace, and $40 buys a lot of fruit plates.

That was a few years ago at Lucky Chances. This year I won another one there. The jackpot was $3,600 and I won the quartershare, $900. But I tried not to. I almost mucked my hand --- three times.

I get 6-7 of hearts in the big blind. The first guy, Jay, raises. The button calls, the small blind calls, and it's up to me.

I'm not what you would call a tight player. I'm just particular. And I particularly don't like to call, especially before the flop. With 6-7, in this situation, even sooted, I'm going to fold. But this time, fated, I called.

It's four handed with me second. The flop comes K-K-10 with two hearts, giving me a flush draw. The small blind checks. I check. Jay bets. The other players fold, so now it's headup. I checkraise. Jay calls.

You already know what the next two cards are, and what Jay's hand is, right? The turn card is the eight of hearts. I make a flush. I bet. Jay calls. The river is the nine of hearts.

I'm okay at reading people and good thing too because I'm a bit shaky when it comes to reading the board. Like on this hand, I didn't see that I had a straight flush. I'm thinking that all I have is a low flush -- my seven of hearts with the four hearts on board. I check, hoping Jay doesn't bet because he's usually cautious on the river. Jay bets. Damn. I almost muck, again. Then I figure what the hell, there aren't that many hearts higher than mine, and my river check must have looked pathetic, so maybe Jay bet with a good non-flush hand, or maybe, just maybe, this is his annual bluff. He does look a little suspicious. I call.

Jay turns over pocket kings. Quads. (Okay. So I can't read the board or the players. But I can read Poker Pages!)

I saw Joe's quads and I almost mucked, again. Instead, I paused, in the traditional way after a hopeless payoff. I looked at all of those kings. Like a deer in headlights. More like Bambi running into Godzilla's nuts. And that gave me time to notice that the 10-8-9 of hearts on board lined up nicely with the connected hearts in my hand. ChaCHING!

I looked back at my hand, then back at the board, stalling, figuring if there was ever an appropriate time for a slowroll, this was it, again. First I turned over the six of hearts. This was all magnitudinally out of character and it got everyone's attention. I suspect that they were thinking, "Tommy never shows losers. So why is he clowning around at the showdown? He must have the straight flush! But no, that can't be, because he didn't raise on the river. Hmmm."

Then I rolled the seven of hearts and talked Jay into buying me a fruit plate.

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This article was published at an earlier date on PokerPages.com and is being rerun due to popular demand.

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About the Author:

Tommy Angelo has written a book called "Elements of Poker" in which he shares hundreds of his very best ideas in a manner intended to amuse, inform, inspire, and enlighten. You can read many excerpts from EOP at Tommy's website: www.tommyangelo.com. And you can order personally inscribed copies there. Elements of Poker is also available at amazon.com.