The One Outer: Oddest Hand at WSOP

Tens of thousands of people flock to Las Vegas each summer to experience the World Series of Poker with hopes and dreams of riches and glory.  As much of a guarantee as crowded Rio hallways and lines at the bathrooms, are stories of oddly-played hands and weird decisions at the tables.

Dozens of CardRunners Pros journeyed to Vegas this year playing in Tournaments as well as Cash Games.  We asked them:

What was the strangest hand that you witnessed or played this year at the WSOP?

Schneids - One fairly bizarre hand I played was at my final table of the $1500 Limit Holdem Shootout Event.  In it I was fairly low on chips, and Jonathon Little opened UTG, 6-handed. From the CO I 3-bet with AJ, and he called. The flop came jack high with two diamonds.  He check-raised me and I called.  Turn was a third low card diamond.  He bet I called.  River another blank and he bet and I called, leaving myself 20,000 behind at 30k/60k limits.  He had QdJd.  The hand was bizarre to me because on the flop after he checkraised me, I basically knew that if I just called down and lost it'd leave me with 20,000 chips and at least a chance to still be alive or out last another small stack, and decided that was worth it to me especially since I wasn't particularly confident I had the best hand, especially after the 3rd diamond hit on the turn (I figured flush draw, set, or slow paired over pair were all huge part of his range on the flop).  Anyway, a few hands later I picked up AQ suited UTG and put in my last 20k and did quadruple up to 80k in the BB, in which I got my 97o all in preflop vs the SB's 33 and sadly failed to improve.  It would've been fun to look like a genius for saving that last 20k behind.

[vital]Myth - The strangest hand I saw this summer during WSOP was actually a cash-game hand at a $1/2 game that my student was playing at the Rio. I was standing nearby on break from some event. Stacks were very deep, about $1,000 effective to start. My student folded preflop, and the player to his left showed us KTs and opened for $20. The player in the big blind 3bet to $60, and our hero with KTs called. On a flop of K72 rainbow, the 3-bettor checked. Mr. Show-my-hand said, very quickly, "What did he say dealer? He checked? I'm all in." Instantly. Not even a split second of hesitation between "He checked?" and "I'm all in." The bet was about $950 into a pot of $120. The big blind called quickly and showed AK. The board ran out blank, and the guy with KTs stood up looking distressed. Then he asked his opponent, "why did you check?!?!?!?!"

Wooz -

2500 NLHE Event #56.

New pasty, rail thin European geektard sunglasses trying to act cool gets sat at my table. 3 hands in...

Blinds are 200/400.  

Folds around to the cutoff.  

C/O raises to 1100.  

BTN (Pasty Euroboy) raises to 2700.  

BB ships for 9900.  

C/O snap folds. 

Pasty Eurotard tanks for 45 seconds, counts out his chips which is 11000 (90% of his stack) and calls with A3off.  

1900+ entered and there were probably 1200 left.  Top 200ish get paid. 

BB had KK and loses obv.  But still jaw droppingly stupid.

ChipsAhoya - We were in the first Omaha round of the $1,500 HORSE tournament, and I had a full house on the turn in a heads-up pot with a low possible. The river was a 2, and there was an ace on the board, so my opponent could have been counterfeited. I now had a low, so I bet, and he throws in enough chips for a raise, says "call", and then tables his hand — which I'm now scooping. The guy gets all flustered, but he had raised. I 3-bet, but unfortunately, he folded.

This was an important lesson, because later in the $2,500 Razz tournament, I announced "call" on 4th street vs. Dario Minieri and then threw in enough chips for a raise. But, the converse is a call, which was good, because I would have been 3-bet myself.

TPiranha - Nothing really noteworthy.  I had an opponent check the second nuts back on the river.  It was basically the nuts the way the hand played out.  It happened about midway through Day 2 of the Main Event.  The player had raised UTG with 84s.  The board ended up A23J5 and I believe the flop went check/check.  He bet the turn and I called with QJ.  And then I checked the river and he checked behind.  The only hand he lost to was 46 and it was almost impossible for me to have.  One of the players wanted to call the floor because it’s actually a penalty if you check the nuts behind on the river but I quickly informed him it was “only” the 2^nd nuts.

Matthew Janda - I have nothing of any interest for the hands I actually played, but Scotty Nguyen was at my table and did something pretty silly. (I made the feature table) UTG opens, Scotty 3-bets AKo in UTG+1 then folds to UTG's 4-bet. I'm not sure exact stack sizes but UTG was not very deep, probably no more than 60bb.

JimmyLegs - At the 2p2 party at the Aria a lot of bizarre games were being played including a $4/$8 HERBS (Holdem, Eight, Razz, Badugi, Stud) rotation where the 2nd best hand wins.  In 2nd best Eight, a NINE low qualifies, and the second best hi and low chop the pot.  But if there is only one low hand (or none), half the pot stays in for the next hand....... and the stakes double.  In this hand, stakes doubled to $8/$16 and then $16/$32, so with about $500 dead money in the pot to *start* the hand NO ONE COULD FOLD.  Final pot was around $2k, virtually all of which was in $1 chips. Here's the video shot by a 2p2er: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FF4GOTIfE0k

iRockhoes - Strangest hand I played was in a cash game. 

The game was a 10-20 uncapped game at the Bellagio. There was a recreational player in the big blind who was playing every hand. 

I open the button with K8o to 80. Both blinds call. (Pot 240)

The flop comes KJ4 with two clubs. 

Checks to me. I bet 150.

SB folds. BB calls fairly quickly. He was flatting with all kinds of things, including say Q9o on this board.

Turn is the 7c. (Pot 540)

He thinks for a second and checks in a way that makes it look to me like my hand is still best and that he is unsure of himself.

I bet 180 to induce or keep him in with his very wide range.

He immediately makes it 580. I think and call quickly going with my read.

River is Qo. (Pot 1700)

He checks giving up. I think about betting to extract from Qx small or whatever but I check.

He says "I missed my flush" but doesn't turn his hand over. I say ok and turn over K8o. He shows K9o with the 9 of clubs and it plays.

SplitSuit - Hand 1 of Event 30 (in SB with $4500 @ 25/50): Folds to BTN who opens $150 (the BB isn’t there, so I am the last contender). He is an older guy (probably 50′s), and I call with JJ. A strong argument could be made for 3-betting here, but flatting is certainly the safer play imo. Flop comes 9h8c6c. I check, he bets $300, I call. The turn comes a 7s and I donk for $200. I do this for a few reasons, the big ones being that it acts as a blocker, I don’t think it ever gets raised unless he has a T, and it should get me to Showdown for no more bets if I time well. He ends up folding fairly quickly, but the entire hand was extremely odd.  Coming from a cash game player this entire hand felt strange and awkward, but I also couldn't come up with a much better line, thus I took it.

Dr. Razz - I was in a big 3-way pot with one opponent having gone all-in on 4th street. The other opponent and I played to showdown, where he flipped up his cards and declared he had a 98 low. I couldn't beat it, so I mucked my cards face down. The all-in player flipped up his cards, said "nice hand", and walked away. The guy next to him started checking out his tabled hand and noticed that he actually made a 97 low and should have won the main pot. As he turned to see if he could find the guy, the dealer pushed the pot to the guy with the 98 and collected all the cards, turning them face down in the muck! Since no one could see where the all-in player went, and the cards were already mixed in, play just continued.

Steve Albini - I was playing in the 20-40 stud game at the Bellagio during WSOP. This game is legendary. It runs every day like clockwork (an antique clock) and is full of cranky old coots who would all cut each others' throats for a nickel. There's a description of this game and players in an old trip report of mine .

An unremarkable hand transpires between old coots, and nobody is paying much attention. There is a completion from an Eight, a raise from a Ten, a cold-call from a Four and the Eight, everybody else folds. The old coot showing a Ten bets until the river,  the Eight coot folds somewhere, the Four coot calls every street. The river checks, the Ten coot says "Tens," and shows his hole cards. The Four coot turns over his cards and looks away. I see that he has Fours and Deuces. I see the dealer collecting the pot and beginning to ship it, but he stops first to muck the cards. He mucks Four coot's hand and begins shipping it, but he ships it to the Ten coot, who says nothing. The Four coot is still looking away, so I said "Two Pair," and pointed to the Four coot. The dealer looks in vain at the cards he just mucked.

Now the two old coots are not about to clarify anything. The Ten coot says "I had Tens, and I still have it." The implication was that because Four coot's hand was mucked, he gets the pot regardless what he had. The Four coot says nothing. I say, "I'm not in the hand, so I feel a little weird saying anything, but that dude had Fours and Deuces." I only opened my mouth because Four coot was looking at the ballgame while the dealer was wrangling the pot, and I wanted to avoid a big kerfuffle and delay if the pot shipped incorrectly. The game halts for a couple of minutes.

The dealer says, "He showed his hand," and points to Four coot. The dealer then calls the floor. The floorman says to rack the pot (about $400) and put it aside, and he'll go check the tape. This pisses off Ten coot something fierce. "I'll bet a thousand he didn't have no fucking Fours and Deuces," he says to me. I say, "I'm staying out of this, I already feel stupid for mentioning it." Play continues for about 20 minutes until the floorman returns.

The floorman says, "This player gets the pot," and points to Four coot. I feel vindicated and Ten coot looks like he swallowed a whole cat. The floor says "He had Tens and Fours."

Ten coot is livid. "I had the fucking Tens!" The floor is unmoved. "I know, and he had Tens and Fours. It was clear on the tape," pointing to Four coot. 

I feel obliged to say something. "I'm the one who started this," I say, feeling like a real idiot now, "because I saw Fours and Deuces, but there's nobody at the table who ever thought this fellow had Tens and Fours."

The floor says to Ten coot, "I can show you the tape if you like." Ten coot, Four coot and the floor disappear for about 15 minutes. I contemplate racking up and splitting out of embarrassment, but I'm too curious. When they come back, the floor says, "give this player the pot." and points to Ten coot. "On the tape it looked like he had Tens, but one of them was a Nine."

So that's how I wasted most of an hour, pissed-off one dealer, one floor man and at least one old coot during the WSOP. 

I still think Four coot had Fours and Deuces.