Hi gang,


Taking a very, very simplified view of pot commitment, I have concluded the following 2 observations that you may or may not agree with:


1) You do not want to be put in a position where you have a marginal made/drawing hand that can be beaten and are putting in maximum $$$ to see if that hand will hold up. For example, the ignorant end of a straight with 3 consecutive cards and a flush draw on board.


2) You do want to be in a position where you are charging others the maximum $$$ when you have the very best hand/mortal nuts.


Give me a gold star for this wonderful observation (not). #1 up there is kind of a no brainer for the successful player and very easy to take for granted.


#2 is where the point of this post is heading. I think that most of you will agree that there is a certain "art" to extracting those maximum $$$ from your opponents. This is especially true if the board is highly coordinated and you hold the absolute mortal nutz. How can you do this without giving yourself away?


The hand in question is a 4-8 Hold Em game 9 handed. The texture of the game was loose-aggressive, especially when a player made a good hand. I am in the BB with red KK. Everyone limps in to the button who raises. The button guy (BG) is a fairly knowledgeable player who knows the value of a good hand multiway. He'd raise with anything from a medium pair (8s and up) or a good suited drawing hand (QJ or better) in this situation and plays extremely well post-flop. SB comes along and I flat call in the BB. Everyone else comes along for another bet.


Is there anyone here who would advocate a 3-bet from the BB? Here's where the concept of pot commitment comes in... if I 3 bet here the pot will be at the very least 7 handed considering my other opponents. They are of the type "in for a penny in for a pound" mode and will cold-call any raise with $$ already committed. Another consideration is that the button (or anybody else) will cap the betting and we'll have a "see everyone at the river" scenario where you can either win a boatload or lose most/all of what you've worked so hard for all night. In this situation, I really wanted to leave myself an out in case the flop was unfavorable and capitalize later if the flop was safe/favorable. This no doubt would be the pot of the night regardless... I held my breath.


The flop is perfect: KKT with 2 clubs. A pretty good flop for 9 players. Everyone has got to have a piece of this and they ain't going nowhere.


SB checks, I check (with the intention of doing God knows what). I seriously do not have the first clue of what I'm going to possibly do, my mind went blank. I don't have to wait long for the fireworks to begin. UTG bets out, he's been fairly shrewd and aggressive betting his draws which is what I put him on. He's raised by the guy next to him who can't wait to get his chips in. Cold calls all the way to BG who 3 bets. He's just given his hand away to me... he's got pocket TT for the flopped full house. He knows better than to call, much less raise, with any other holding given this board. He'd fold pocket QQ here with all this action and I've seen him do it. We lose the SB and I flat call 3 bets. UTG caps it off. We all call.


The turn brings a red A and an "oooooh" comes from the table and rail. For the first time I look up at the jackpot board and see about $50k up for grabs. Uh oh... Everybody's hand just got a whole bunch better with that card. I check again. UTG bets out again, gets raised, everyone cold calls to button who 3 bets again. I cold call 3 and UTG caps it again. We lose a MP player and 7 of us call the 4 bets. Is everyone committed yet? I planned to wake up and bet out on the river no matter what hit.


The pot was so huge that I couldn't even see the river card (sitting in the 3 seat), I had to ask the dealer. The river was 8 of clubs, perfect. I bet out, got raised by UTG, who was reraised by the next player. We lost 1 player who looked for about 3 minutes at his AQ before deciding to muck. The button just cold-called the 3 bet this time. I capped and got overcalled by all 5 players.


An MP player turned over his A9 of clubs for the nut flush followed by UTG who had QJ of clubs and got tied on. The cutoff I believe showed QJ offsuit but I'm not sure. The button sighed and showed TT for his flopped full house. Then I turned over my pocket KK and everyone except the button went ballistic. I didn't see the other hand mucked.


I was lectured extensively by UTG who told me I should thank my lucky stars that he didn't catch his royal/straight flush card to beat me. He was one of those grumpy old tight men who's been playing poker for the last 400 years and thinks he's God. After about the 50th "Why didn't you have the balls to bet your own hand?" I looked at him and said "Look Jackass, if you catch and beat me, I probably kiss you because you just put $25k in my pocket for the Jackpot". The table and all the rail started to laugh hysterically whereupon he got up and left. I'm told he hasn't been back since. The game broke up soon after that.


BG caught up with me about an hour later in the bar and sat down next to me. Before he even said a word a big smile was on his face and his hand was extended to me. I shook his hand and finally became acquainted with him on a first name basis. We went thru the actual play on the hand and told me that he became very suspicious of my holding on the turn when I checked and called 3 bets. He said that's why he only flat-called the 3 bets on the river hoping he could maybe save a bet on the river just in case because he was "pot committed". When he asked why I didn't 3 bet preflop, I told him that pot commitment was precisely what I was trying to avoid in this situation. It just happened that the flop came perfect to beat him.


That's the good news. The bad news is that I gave it all back when I decided to take my first stab at $20-$40 hold em (the lowest limit medium game going). I didn't have a chance to scout that game (mistake #1)before I played but got a quick lesson when I committed to AK suited vs a local pro who limped UTG with AA and just flat-called my raise (I'm on the button). He check-called the flop when the case A fell and check-raised the turn. The turn ended up costing me 4 bets because I reraised (duh) with one pair and the nut flush draw. The river brought my flush card but paired the board. He bet, I raised, he reraised I called (triple duh) and showed me Aces full. How's that for irony? Let's see that's 40 + 40 + 160 + 120... yeah that pretty much gives that pot back.


Hope everyone enjoyed this post. Sorry it's so long but I hope these examples got my point across. Fire away.


Mike