Sometimes in poker, as in life, you can’t overthink a situation. When I was a student, my mom would tell me that I was unsure about an answer on a test, my first instinct was usually the right one. In a World Poker Tour livestream this week, perhaps a player by the name of “QQQ” should have listened to my mother.
In a cash game at Dallas’ Texas Card House, the stream picked up the incredible $10/$25 cash game hand that saw four players put in $150 pre-flop to see a flop of 4c-6h-4h. It was an incredible flop for QQQ, as he held pocket 4’s, good for Four-of-a-Kind right off the bat.
Even better, player “Spooky” had pocket 6’s for a flopped boat. It was an action hand, and QQQ was already essentially a lock to win it. Player “Zak” (9c-8c) checked the $625 pot over to QQQ, who also checked to disguise his hand. “Ryan” (Ah-3s) also checked, as did Spooky.
The quartet saw the turn Ac, giving Ryan top Two Pair and Zak a flush draw. Everyone checked again, so all the action viewers anticipated would have to wait for the river.
That river was the 3h, making a Flush and a Straight Flush possible. Zak, who missed everything, checked, QQQ, sitting on his flopped Quads, finally bet $400. Ryan called. And then Spooky, looking very chill as he held his flopped Boat, raised to $1,300.
Zak immediately bowed out, and after thinking about it for a moment, QQQ slammed a $2,400 re-raised onto the table. Back to Spooky, who had to think he had the best hand, and in fact, QQQ told him that he didn’t have a Straight Flush. Thus, assuming he’s telling the truth (and though poker is a game that involves bluffs, players don’t tend to outright lie out loud about their hands), Spooky knows the only hands that beat him are Aces full or Quads.
Thus, Spooky moved all-in for $7,565.
Snap call and celebration for QQQ, right? Nope. After only a few seconds of pondering, the announcers were flummoxed as to why QQQ hadn’t called. “You’re never folding, you’re never folding. Flick the chip in and let’s move on,” one of them said.
But QQQ was stressed about Spooky’s shove and suddenly and aggressively folded, and folded his cards face up. He folded Quad Fours. The only hand that could have beaten him was a Straight Flush, which Spooky only could have had with 2h-5h or 5h-7h, neither of which was at all likely, given the pre-flop activity.
Nobody could believe it. It’s hard to figure out why the man folded what in 99.99% of cases, including this one, would be the best hand. It seems like he just overthought the situation. He saw the all-in and instead of thinking, “Oh, goodie!” he thought, “Wait…why would he do that? Is he so confident because he has me beat?” and then his brain just went to the worst-case scenario, even though that scenario was entirely unreasonable.
But that’s poker, I guess.