The Best Play I Have Ever Seen

by Team PFT AA

At the Barona Valley Ranch Casino in San Diego, Ca I witnessed the best move I have ever seen at the poker table. It didn’t involve a big re-raise or a spectacular call; It involved playing excellent poker and also thinking outside the box.

It was a live game at the limits of $1/$2 No Limit Hold’em, and the hand began by a young player (A) calling the $2 big blind, followed by an older experienced player (B) calling right after him. The big blind checked to see the flop. Remember that experienced Player (B) has position, as he was the last one to act in the hand.

The flop came down 2…7…J all spades. After the big blind immediately checked, Player (A) made a bet of $20 into the $8 pot, and after not much thinking Player (B) made the call. After the big blind folded, the dealer put the turn card on the table.

The Q of spades hit and now put a four card flush on the board. Player (A) proceeded to make a bigger bet now of $35 into the $48 pot. This represented that he had a hand, so experienced Player (B) took some time to try and figure out if Player (A) was bluffing or not. After looking at his hole cards a few times, Player (B) hesitantly made the $35 call.

The dealer put down the 5 of hearts on the river. The pot was $118 dollars and was ripe for the taking. Young Player (A) had been aggressive the whole way and decided to make a “value” bet of $55. Immediately Player (B) started shaking his head in disgust and again re-checked his hole cards. After re-evaluating the board and still seeing the four spades, Player (B) began to shake his head further and it looked as if he was beginning to fold his hand.

With both of his hole cards still in front of him, Player (B) flipped over just the J of hearts to show that he had made top pair on the flop, and it seemed he was upset that he was outdrawn by Player (A). Immediately Player (A) was cheerful because not only was he going to win the pot, but also that he had bluffed at the flop, and caught a flush on the turn card. Now Player (A) apologetically flipped over his hole cards to show that he had made the flush on the turn, with his 9 of spades, to outdraw Player (B).

As the dealer motioned to push the pot over to Player (A), Player (B) called for the dealer to stop. Player (B) slowly began to place the $55 call to match Player (A)'s final river bet. Everyone, including myself, was confused by what was going on. Why was Player (B) now making a river call to the $55 bet? To everyone’s astonishment, Player (B) flipped over both his hole cards to reveal that he had the 10 of spades, along with his J of hearts. This made his hand the winner because he had made a higher flush than Player (A)'s 9 high flush.

Not even the dealer had recognized that Player (B) had not folded his hand before the other player showed the table his hole cards. When Player (B) flipped over his J of hearts everyone just assumed he was folding, which then induced the younger player to show everyone what he thought was the winning hand. The younger player literally gave the pot to the experienced player by not paying attention to what was going on. This turned out to be another expensive learning lesson for another young player.

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