Doyle Brunson, in GSN's "High Stakes Poker," November 19, 2007. For context, it should be noted that the game is extremely loose and wild, and in the hand being played when Doyle speaks up, there has been an unprecedented check, bet, check-raise and re-raise in the dark on the flop before the dealer even puts out the three cards:
If my daddy knew I was losing in this poker game, he'd come out of the grave and beat the heck out of me.
If my daddy knew I was losing in this poker game, he'd come out of the grave and beat the heck out of me.
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3 comments:
Just watched the episode. First let me say that I love the blogs, keep 'em coming!
Now on to the episode....
It's amazing to me how these so-called "pros" can miss the most crucial things with so much money on the line.
Farha and Gold are going back and forth on this hand and between the two of them they must have asked a dozen times "If I just call here we see the flop and the turn".
How is it possible that they BOTH missed the fact that at any point either one of them could have simply stated: "OK, he raises $50K in the dark, let's see the flop and then I'll decide what to do."
It was obvious to anyone who watched that this simple strategy escaped them both. I can see Gold missing it, but for Farha, a veteran, high stakes, and wild player not to realize this simple fact is amazing to me.
The edge that either of them would gain by doing that would have been enormous, especially for Gold, once he properly deduced that Farha must have AA.
I was thinking the same thing, but only for Gold. I don't think Farha missed that. From his perspective, putting in the flop bets before the flop was actually put out has the same effect as getting the money in with pre-flop bets, which is the best strategy with pocket aces. He would have been delighted to have Gold push it all in. As for Gold, yeah, he makes the comment about "Oh no, you have the aces, I'm in terrible shape," etc., but it's clear that he doesn't really believe it. A couple of minutes after the hand ended, he admits that he was surprised when Sammy turned over aces (even though his first reaction is, "Aces, I know"). Greenstein and Brunson both say that everybody else at the table would have gone broke in that situation, so it seems that they didn't believe Farha had aces, either--which makes Gold's play a bit easier to sympathize with.
At one point, Gabe Kaplan comments, "Now everybody at the table knows exactly what both players have." At that moment I thought he was right, but with those post-hand comments, I now think he was wrong. Farha plays so many hands and bluff so much that at least Gold, Brunson, and Greenstein never gave him credit for the aces.
I disagree somewhat.
Once Jamie raised, Farha could have gleaned an immense advantage by looking at the flop for 2 reasons.
#1 He could limit the variance of the hand somewhat by gaining that extra information, especially since he now has a much better idea of what Gold is holding. For instance, if the flop comes KQx he would be able to avert disaster because Gold probably flopped a set.
#2 More importantly, think of how my move would look to Gold. Farha bets in the dark after Gold checked. Once Gold raised him, if he now elects to see the flop he is going to COMPLETELY baffle Gold because he will NEVER put him on AA at this point. Gold will assume that Farha is slowing down because he is scared of his raise.
I still respectfully disagree regarding Farha and him realizing that he could have seen the flop, but I agree that it is possible.
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