A lot of no-limit hold 'em tournament hands get played heads-up. But in deep-stack events, where you start with an amount of chips worth twice the price of your buy-in, you will find yourself in multi-way pots.

The difficult part is when you're out of position. Perhaps you're in the middle and perhaps you believe you can beat the player in front of you, but you're not sure about the player behind you. A raise might accomplish it, but your hand might not be able to withstand a re-raise.

The answer might be a quick call, as top cash-game and tournament pro Brad Booth showed at the World Poker Tour's $15,000-buy-in Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic at Las Vegas' Bellagio in 2007.

With blinds at $50-$100 and starting stacks at $30,000, Darrell Dicken, the successful Internet player known as Gigabet, open-raised to $300 from under the gun. Jamie Gold, the 2006 World Series of Poker champion, called on the button. Young Phan called from the small blind.

Booth called from the big blind with A-4 offsuit.

The four players took a flop of 9-4-3 rainbow.

Phan and Booth checked. Dicken made it $1,000. Gold called. Phan folded. Booth called with a pair of 4s.

"There are a lot of scare cards on the turn that I can win the pot with, and also, at that time, I thought my table image was good," said Booth, one of the pros from the Full Tilt Poker online site. "With Jamie in there, I kind of thought I could win that hand regardless. My particular table image to Jamie is probably that he thinks I'm not putting my chips in bad, so I can manipulate certain situations that I need to, board-permitting."

The turn came the king of clubs. All three players checked. The river came the 9 of spades. Booth and Dicken checked again. Gold, who had position and also has a big reputation as a bluffer, bet $1,800. Booth called immediately. Immediately. That was the key.

"I know I have to call fast because I know Dicken has a piece of it," Booth said. "I know he doesn't have the three 9s. I know he's not going to be able to overcall."

Dicken folded, Booth showed his 4s and Gold mucked his cards.

"I think the main lesson is to call fast so you don't get overcalled behind you," Booth said. "In that spot, to me, it was very, very obvious that Jamie was bluffing, so I have to auto-call so I don't allow the person on my left to overcall with a better hand.

"You have to play both players in that spot. You cannot delay-call in that spot because if you delay-call, it allows the other player to process things, and he'd call with two pair or something."

Table Talk

Under the gun:

The player seated to the immediate left of the big blind and required to act first before the flop.

user comments (0)