Four-Betting Light

There's more than one way to four-bet light. In one way, you can four-bet with a poor hand (deuce-seven off, jack-deuce etc.). In another, you can four-bet for less than a legal raise.

In a recent hand, Marco Leonzio did the latter.

Leonzio opened to 10,000 from early position, Sergey Baburin called two spots to his left, and Mark Herm three-bet to 34,500 in position. The action folded back to Leonzio, and the Italian pulled back his original bet. He then cut out 45,000 in blue T5,000 chips, and tossed them forward.

"He called?" Baburin asked the dealer.

It looked like the dealer shook his head "no," and a befuddled Baburin folded. Herm, who was confused as well, moved all in for effectively 80,000 or so, and Leonzio instantly called.

Herm:
Leonzio:

The flop fell , leading Herm to scrunch his face, and the turn brought the . Leonzio was one card away from elimination, but the spiked on the river to give him a winning pair of queens.

Leonzio jumped out of his chair, gave a whoop, and actually clapped our reporter on the back while celebrating. He more than doubled to around 165,000 chips, while Herm slipped to around 170,000.

Not to worry, according to Herm's Twitter account, he doubled a few hands later: