Dubious knockout leaves author shaking his head

Not long ago, I was playing in a $200-buy-in no-limit hold ’ em deep-stack event at the Golden Gates Casino in Black Hawk, Colo. There were more than 120 entrants, and around 65 still remained when the blinds reached 500-1,000 with an ante of 100. I was cruising with a decent stack, but then back-to-back hands left me shaking my head.

The first of these two hands was pretty straightforward. I was sitting with 75,000 when I looked down at Kd Ks and raised. The player to my left, who had 48,500, reraised me, and eventually the chips went in. He held Ah Ac, and the board ran out all low cards. It was a cooler, and though it didn’t feel good, I was just glad to have chips left.

In the very next hand, three players limped and I peeked down at As Kc. I figured my opponents would think I was tilting a bit, so I would surely get action if I raised. I did just that by making it 4,000 to go. Two of the limpers called, and the three of us saw a flop of Ad Kh 6d.

My two opponents checked, and I continued for 4,500, which left me with about 18,000 in chips. The first limper called, and the second limper check-raised all in for just 7,000 total. It wasn’t a big enough raise to reopen the action, so both my opponent and I called.

After the dealer burned and turned the 7d, my opponent checked, and I moved all in. I didn’t like the diamond on the turn — therewas a good chance my opponent held a flush draw — but at this point there was just too much in the pot for me to back down.

My opponent (who didn’t have many more chips than I had) snap-called, and my heart dropped. He must have made his flush. Why else would he call that quickly? I tabled my top two pair, and my opponent rolled over Jd 10h. Wait ... what?

That hand isn’t a typo, folks. He snap-called most of his chips with a gutshot straight draw and mediocre flush draw. I have no idea what was possibly going through his head. The only thing that makes sense to me is that he misread his hand and thought he held two hearts. Why else would he risk pretty much his entire stack against two opponents, including one (me) who had exhibited extreme strength?

The other players at the table seemed equally perplexed. Whatever his reasoning, I was one card away from recouping much of what I’d lost in the prior hand. Unfortunately, there’s not a lot of justice in poker, which was evidenced by the 2d that arrived on the river.

The lucky player made his flush to knock out not only myself but also the third player in the hand (who held As 7s for those wondering). The acronym SMH stands for “shaking my head,” and this was one of those poker hands worthy of the #SMH hashtag.