Joe Tehan recently shared an interesting poker riddle with his table.
Tehan explained that there is a possible scenario in hold'em in which given a particular board, there are two hands where one can be ahead on the turn, but if one's opponent is holding the other hand, one cannot possibly have the lead after the river comes.
Several expressed doubt, but Tehan had the answer. The board must read 3-3-4-4 rainbow. If one has 7-2 and one's opponent has 6-5, one leads on the turn.
But every single possible river card either gives the hand to one's opponent or creates a split pot. Think about it.
From early position, a player raised to 700. The button called, as did Eric "Rizen" Lynch from the small blind. The flop came out .
Action was on Rizen, but he apparently didn't realize it. After about two or three minutes of inaction, he finally became aware of the delay and checked. The original raiser bet 2,200, and action came around to the third man in the hand, the player seated on the button. He apparently forgot about Rizen as well. Looking right past the unmistakable Eric Lynch, he spoke to the early-position raiser: "I'll put you all in."
Because of his verbal declaration, he was required to put 7,750 chips into the pot, as it was the amount required to put the other player all in. But action was on Lynch first, and he moved all in for about 13,000 himself. The original bettor put in the rest of his 7,750 remaining chips, while the raiser cut his losses and ducked out.
When the hands were turned over, both men had top pair with a queen kicker. The all-in player held , while Lynch showed down . He could not lose the hand and was freerolling to the win with his draw to the nut spade flush.
And he found it. The ripped off on the turn, locking it up for Rizen and sending his opponent out into the crowd. With that win, Eric Lynch has chipped his way up to 40,000.
After a Peter Heyneman and his opponent got all the money in the middle, and that's when Heyneman found that his had been outflopped by the other player's pocket tens. The left Heyneman with just one last chance at salvation, and on the river he spiked the . That two-outer gave Heyneman a 59,500 stack.
"You'd better write that one down," Mel Judah said, "that was ugly."
We picked this pot up on the turn. 4,000 was already in the middle with the board reading . The big blind checked, David Singer bet 3,000 and the big blind called. The river was the . The big blind checked again, Singer bet 6,500 and the big blind called.
Singer turned up for the nut flush and the big blind mucked. He's now up to 38,000.
Marco Traniello has been pretty quiet today. He hasn't been involved in too many hands, but that could be because he has a fairly tough table with both Gary Benson and Ryan Hughes holding bracelets on his table.
On a flop of , Traniello bet out 1,100 into Hughes. Hughes made the call.
The turn came the and Traniello led for 3,300. Hughes called again.
The river was the and Traniello made it 5,200 to Hughes this time. Hughes made the call.
Traniello rolled over and Hughes mucked his hand.
After a good start, Hughes has dropped down to 29,000. Traniello is up to 30,000.
David Ewing was eliminated after raising to 5,000 preflop. A single opponent called and David moved all in in the dark. The board came and his opponent called showing pocket jacks. David was in need of help, holding , but he failed to find any by the river and was eliminated.
Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier raised it up from middle position to 800 and found a caller in the cutoff.
The flop came and Grospellier fired out 1,100. Again his opponent just flat-called. The turn was the and this time Grospellier moved all in for his last 1,500 chips and his opponent again called.
Grospellier had caught a pair on the turn with his , as his opponent might have regretted slow-playing his pocket queens. The river brought the and Grospellier doubles to 8,000 chips.
Chris Moneymaker led out for 800 preflop from early position after a player had limped in under the gun. The small blind called the bet, but the under-the-gun player moved all in for 11,425 more. Chris made the call and the small blind got out of the way.
Chris showed A-Q and would need help after his opponent showed pocket kings. An ace fell on the flop to give Chris top pair and his opponent failed to improve.
Isabelle Mercier watched the turn card come to make a board of .
She checked, and her opponent bet 3,000. Mercier then check-raised to 9,000. Her opponent shoved, and being covered by her opponent, Mercier put the rest of her chips in the middle.
Mercier showed for the flopped set, way ahead of her opponent who held .
The river was the , and Mercier has doubled up to 30,000.