An Interesting WSOP scenario...

[bigpooch]

Question: What is so interesting about this post?

Answer: Some people think that folding could be correct!

Conclusion: Some people are better off considering another
pastime!

[Luca]

Funnily enough a similar situation occured once while I was in a home tournament with my friends (although the buy-in was a little less, and their were fewer players, and no pros on my table).

Anyway, one guy goes all in before me on the first hand. I look down and see AA. All the thoughts contained in this thread rushed quickly thru my mind. Should I call and try to double up quickly, or fold and slug it out when blinds got higher, knowing my superior skill would make me favorite on my table. Its also worthwhile to point out that the chip leader after the first hand had NEVER made it into the money in this particular home tournament (which incidently were the first 3 places).

Anyway, I decide to risk it, flipped over my AA, only to my horror saw my friend had an Ace and a Joker!! I was dead in the water. AA is no match for AA suited, and he hit the flush and put me out.

So in some cases it may be the right decison to fold.
But i dont think they use jokers in the WSOP so i would call.

[blackaces13]

Just the idea of playing Hold'em with jokers makes me physically ill. Thinking of people dragging pots with 5 of a kind or having a "suited" pocket pair has actually upset me, and I'm a pretty easy going guy. Maybe I'm the one with the problem here but I'm truly disturbed by this story.

[Gildersneeze]

You aren't the only one.

We had one kid who'd only played home games with wild cards come to my home game of Hold'em, and got so mad that he refused to play when we told him that we don't do wild cards. I've had other people get mad when we played five-card draw and I gave them the proper rules for a Joker (Acts as an ace or a straight/flush filler). "Why don't I have a full house!? I have the Joker, so I have Nines full of Twos!" "No, you have Nines up, Ace high. Aces and Jacks wins." "Bulls***! F*** you, you're cheating!" "Here, look at this rules book that we play by and remember what I told you at the beginning of the damn game about how the joker works."

Ugh. I hate wild cards in general. It was always the crappiest game when my friends and I played back in the day. Five card draw, two jokers, and then the dealer could declare whatever he wanted wild (up to two ranks or the classics, like suicide kings/one eyed jacks, etc). Oh boy, 10 out of 54 cards are wild! What? Everyone's got full houses and four of a kinds? WHAT ARE THE ODDS!?

Wildcards make me twitch.

[phish]

I think that this early in the tournament, your odds of making it to the money are very small. What difference does it make if you're the first person knocked out or the 300th person knocked out if neither pays anything. You shouldn't be thinking so much about survival at this stage as you should be thinking about opportunities to accumulate some chips. And folding AA heads-up means you're giving up a good chance to double up for a chance to be the perhaps the 20th person knocked out rather than the first. Hell, I'd call in a second if everyone at the table moved all-in. I'll either get knocked out right there or have 10 times more chips than anyone else at the other tables. Survival is a consideration for later in the tournament. At this stage, you don't mind taking some chances. Remember, even the best players finish in the money in only a small percentage of all tournaments they enter. Taking shots early to accumulate a good stack will increase their chances of finishing high. It also increases their chances of finishing last, but last and middle pay the same. You'd much rather have a 20% of finishing last, 20% of finishing in the money, and 60% in the middle rather than 10% of either last or in money and 80% in the middle.
So folding AA in either of these situations, I believe will mean you're more likely to finish a couple of spots higher, but much less likely to make it into the money.

[Luca]

LOLOLOLOL

I have heard that Americans have no sense of irony but c'mon!!

The point of the (fictional) story was to illustrate the point that why wouldnt you call? What are you expecting you are up against? A joker? It is the most blatantly obvious call ever... even in a home game with jokers.

This is an absolutely clear cut call. Anyone who disagrees please tell me the reason, but I cant for the life of me understand why this scenario is even 'interesting'.

[blackaces13]

Oh, well don't I feel silly then. And I have heard that foreigners aren't funny but c'mon. [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]