The Hammer

For months now, I've been wanting to play a hand with 72o, also known as the best damn hand in poker, and The Hammer.

I see the humor in playing it. (Who wouldn't love beating a superior hand with a 72o?)

I see the psychological and strategic reasons for doing it. (What people think you have, should not always be what you have. Bluffing with 72o is in many ways less risky than bluffing with something like QTo. If you win a showdown with 72o, nobody at the table will be able to put you on a hand for the rest of the session or tourney. Your opponent(s) may go on tilt.)

But since I mainly am sticking to Party's $10+1 SNG's at this time, it's a tough hand to bring myself to play. Usually the risk is too great, because I'm desperately fighting the rapidly increasing blinds and trying to survive. Still, I've used The Hammer as a mental cue... when it pops up in front of me, it reminds me that in a lot of cases winning a SNG or tournament is not so much about how you play good starting hands, it's about how you play the awful ones. You're rarely going to take 1st place based on cards alone, unless the deck is pummelling you in the face with monster hands (which does happen too sometimes). When that 72o is dealt, it says to me "psst: you may not want to do it here or just yet, but you're going to have to get some chips with nothing at some point. be aware of that, k?"

Now the experienced among my readers will obviously know a) what I'm talking about, and more importantly b) what are the situations conducive to making a move with nothing. I bring this up, because I don't want to mislead someone into making a horrible play for a loss. Making something out of nothing is one of those intermediate skills that you just have to get a feel for... it's not recommended for novice or beginning players.

So I've stolen some blinds before with 72o... it's not a horrible hand to do so with actually. Usually if I try it, I've got to have decent position (on the button with only the SB and BB still to act is best), a pretty solid table image (having made standard large raises before and showing AA, KK, QQ, AKs, etc a few times is a big advantage), and I have to be aware of the still to act players' stack sizes. If they're way low, they could go all in with almost anything and beat my pitiful hand.

The point of this post however isn't about how to play smart, it's about playing really really really stupid... and gaining a lot of laughs and a ton of advantage:

***** Hand History for Game 1107714035 *****
100/200 TourneyTexasHTGameTable (NL) (Tournament 6774612) - Wed Oct 27 13:22:07 EDT 2004
Table Table 11474 (Real Money) -- Seat 1 is the button
Total number of players : 7
Seat 1: UFHoss33 (760)
Seat 2: AdamL (870)
Seat 5: TheDuker (645)
Seat 7: ME (2950)
Seat 8: cas56 (1350)
Seat 9: Vich21 (845)
Seat 10: cheburashka2 (580)

I'm sitting very nice with T2950 after grabbing some dead money with pocket Queens and busting 2 people out on one hand.

AdamL posts small blind (50)
TheDuker posts big blind (100)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to ME [ 7s, 2d ]

The Hammer has arrived. I contemplate for just a second, and decide to run with it under the gun.

ME raises (300) to 300
cas56 raises (1350) to 1350
cas56 is all-In.
Vich21 folds.
cheburashka2 folds.
UFHoss33 folds.
AdamL folds.
TheDuker folds.

So I am raised for about half my stack. Call or Fold are the only options against a lone opponent. In theory, my 72o will win what? 30-some percent of the time? Let's have some fun.

ME calls (1050)
** Dealing Flop ** : [ 6d, 2s, Tc ]
** Dealing Turn ** : [ Qc ]
** Dealing River ** : [ 4d ]
Creating Main Pot with $2850 with cas56
** Summary **
Main Pot: 2850 |
Board: [ 6d 2s Tc Qc 4d ]
ME balance 4450, bet 1350, collected 2850, net +1500 [ 7s 2d ] [ a pair of twos -- Qc,Tc,7s,2d,2s ]
cas56 balance 0, lost 1350 [ Kd Ad ] [ high card ace -- Ad,Kd,Qc,Tc,6d ]
cas56 finished in seventh place.

Oh the humanity!

ME: THE HAMMER
UFHoss33: YOU GOTTA BE SHITTIN ME
UFHoss33: LOL THAT WAS AWESOME!
ME: hahahah
Vich21: holy shit
UFHoss33: thats havin a set of nuts there
UFHoss33: all in with 72

The truly amazing thing was the way the rest of the tournament played out: I got action on every big hand I made, and nobody even dared to raise my blinds, probably for fear of my dominating stack, and because they knew a steal attempt was risky against a tricky loose cannon. It seems conflicting, but I really felt as if when I wanted action, I was able to easily get it, and when I didn't, I was able to easily push and get opponents to fold. Part of that is having a dominating stack I am sure, but I milked my table image for all it was worth and took an easy 1st place. (just one 1st place away from my year end goal)