Is he prodding to determine whether he should persist in the hand?
Is he pretending disadvantage to snare gamblers into committing a lot of chips?
Occasionally gamblers read it incorrectly and get drawn in. Once in a while gamblers deduce that it’s worth the risk to see if gamblers have the best hand.
At the Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic, at Las Vegas’ Bellagio in 2008, with blinds at $1,500-$3,000 plus a $400 ante, top pro David Benyamine played position and got the price he needed to win a showdown.
Benyamine open-raised to $8,500 from the cutoff seat with the tricky holding of pocket 8s. The button and big blind called.
“The guy in the big blind is kind of loose,” claimed Benyamine, winner of World Poker Tour and WSOP events. “He’s going to play a lot of hands, so I’m happy he’s going to play due to the fact that I think I’ll have the best of it. I was more worried about the button having an A-Q or a bigger pair or something like that.”
The flop came 2-7-Q, two hearts, presenting a flush draw and overcard to Benyamine’s pocket pair.
“The big blind leads out, but it’s only $10,000 when the pot is $30,000,” Benyamine claimed. “Obviously, I’m calling, due to the fact that if he has a 7, that’s the way he’s going to bet. He’s not going to want to check-raise, and he’s not going to take the pressure of a bigger bet from me. Taking the lead there is a good thing, but he needed to bet more. The guy on my left folded. He later told me he had 9s, so he had me beat.”
The turn came the 3 of diamonds. The big blind again led out, but for only $15,000.
“There’s $50,000 in the pot, and he’s only placing a bet $15,000,” Benyamine claimed. “He’s basically not trying anything. If he has a queen, it’s a good play if he doesn’t want to lose me if he thinks I have a pair between 7 and jack. But when he does it with a 7, it’s not a good play due to the fact that he’s not placing a bet me out of a pot if I have two jacks or two 10s.”
The river came the 6 of clubs. The big blind checked.
“I thought about a value bet on the river due to the fact that I think I have the best hand,” Benyamine claimed, “but my hand couldn’t stand a reraise. If he had played it like that with 9s, he made a great play. If he played like that with 7s, he made a very bad play.”
Benyamine checked, showed his 8s, and his opponent mucked.
“He kept me in when he didn’t want to keep me in,” Benyamine claimed. “gamblers have to know when gamblers want to keep someone in and when gamblers want to bet somebody out. That’s a time where gamblers don’t want someone in there with you. Any kind of bigger bet and I’d have to fold.”
At The Table
Check-raise: To pass on a placing a bet opportunity as a way of showing weakness, only to raise an opponent’s bet in the same round as a show of strength.
