A million-dollar tournament, and your AA gets cracked by......AA! What would you do?

[riff_raff312]

This was the only way to play this hand,if his backers feel differently then they have never been kick with the runner runner flush before! this is painful just to watch let alone have to play. Everyone else at the table is thinking split and then boom and it's over the poor guy almost cried.

 

[Reload]

Tell me a better way to play AA pre flop. Are you risking it all, by limping or small raise on a big tournament, so that you let other players see the flop and might hit a banger with a stupid hand, cracking your aces?

You have AA, you go all in pre flop, that's all.

 

[gon4iypes]

Ok so they're mad.....then ask the silly donkey how he would have felt if it was the other way round and YOU made the flush.!! What then huh? Silly donkey.

 

[amitmanchanda]

Deep down, I will them “Shut up” 😡 but I know it’s not good to say to your investors.

I will tell them, his chances to win the pot was equal before flip so mathematically it was correct decision and if you are still not convinced, okay, I will play aces as you tell me to play next time to which would be slow playing and giving chance to other player to catch two pairs or trips which is most common way aces gets cracked.

 

[Balou1982]

In my opinion if my Aces get cracked by aces i would accept it like a man and make a handshake with my opponent. Maybe i would say something to him like - man this must be your lucky day and what a crazy board!
In the end there is no fault to play this hand 100times again like this because in 99 cases you won't loose it and mostly there will be a split pot!

 

[Igor G]

If in such a situation my sponsors would be dissatisfied with the result, I would tell them to look for another partner.

 

[Gallarado777]

I think he did everything right and he just had no luck with such a small chance that this would happen and it happened. Of course, we could have played the other way, but I think the result would have been about the same just played a couple more streets but we could throw it away on the river, but then we would lose the big pot and be out in a couple of hands

 

[thejuice1]

my response would be.... so, guys, if you thought you were good enough players to play in a tournament like this, youd have played yourself, not chosen to back me, right? in saying that, id then say, ok, so take my advice here... i didnt do anything wrong.. there is no way i can be behind and theres a guy raising my raises. there is no way to not get the money all in pre flop, which is when it should go all in since you cant be behind. thats just a one in a million (yeah i know the odds arent quite that high lol) beat right there.

 

[dimon4ik89]

The stack was good, almost 50 BB. If my sponsors understood poker, they themselves would understand, without my explanation, that my actions were correct. If you don’t go all in preflop with AA, then with what hand should you do it? This is the simplest bad beat that happened in the wrong place at the wrong time. People who know how to play poker should understand that there was no player error in this situation. If my sponsors had accused me, next time I would have found other sponsors and would not have had to deal with people who are incompetent in this area.

 

[Aballinamion]

The 2014 WSOP Big One for One Drop was a tournament with a $1,000,000 buy-in where Connor Drinan went all-in pre-flop against Cary Katz, and both players held Pocket Aces. Four hearts hit the board, giving Katz a flush, and Drinan was knocked out of the tournament.

Imagine that you were in Connor Drinan's shoes, with multiple backers who had put up stakes to buy you into the tournament. Some of these backers are furious, saying that you could have played the hand differently and saved your tournament seat. What do you say to convince them that you made the right play?

I say them to take a look upon the contract. And that there isn't another way to play pocket aces. This is why we play poker, to find a situation where we can either jam aces preflop or still have tons of equity to play it postflop. I would also say that I would have made the same choice a thousand times more if the chances appear.
Besides I could run some scientifc stuff, run some GTO Wizard. Flopzilla, PowerEquilab, whatever and prove it by all means that the move is right all day and all night long. We should never fold pocket aces preflop. If we fold aces preflop, we shouldn't be playing poker at all. Chess maybe?

 

[rsparente]

Pocket aces are the best starting hand in poker, I couldn't get the chance to play against mid value hands by min raising, so that was the move, unfortunately got cracked.

 

[bullishwwd]

Most any serious poker player that has any 'experience' playing poker would realize that this CAN happen, and does happen! As Mr. Forrest Gump has so eloquently stated, "it happens". Those unfortunate backers of the loser here should certainly have understood this fact and the concept of a "bad beat". They should also have realized that the good "luck" could easily have gone to their 'backed player' just as easily.

True story, when I 1st started playing on-line poker, I had my biggest loss ever (over 83 Million) on Pokerstars ... fortunately, it was only with "play chips" (but, it still hurt at the time) LOL. The hand that I lost with was AAAA when I had the hole cards of pocket Aces and the flop of A3hK, a Turn card of Ah and a River card of 4h ... my opponent had the hole cards of 5h2h. At the time, I could not immediatly understand how I could possibly have actually lost with me having Quad Aces. Seriously, it actually took me a few minutes to figure it all out and understand what had happened because I had never experienced a Straight Flush. It happens!

Poker can be so fickle sometimes and that is part of the attraction. Namaste mates.

PS: Note, I did not go 'all-in' until after seeing the flop.

 

[Popescu97]

Pff,I watched this on Youtube about 5 years ago,it s very very hard to control this like the players in cause,personally for the moment I break everything in my way and don't want to talk with nobody,but I'm not a pro like these players
For me it s a nightmare this hand and I think I can't sleep very good in the next 2 3 days

 

[AzdajaD]

I don't understand backers, when you stake someone and you are a poker player, you know that everything can happen in poker and you can forget that money 80%...😉 🍀

 

[AzdajaD]

Most any serious poker player that has any 'experience' playing poker would realize that this CAN happen, and does happen! As Mr. Forrest Gump has so eloquently stated, "it happens". Those unfortunate backers of the loser here should certainly have understood this fact and the concept of a "bad beat". They should also have realized that the good "luck" could easily have gone to their 'backed player' just as easily.

True story, when I 1st started playing on-line poker, I had my biggest loss ever (over 83 Million) on Pokerstars ... fortunately, it was only with "play chips" (but, it still hurt at the time) LOL. The hand that I lost with was AAAA when I had the hole cards of pocket Aces and the flop of A3hK, a Turn card of Ah and a River card of 4h ... my opponent had the hole cards of 5h2h. At the time, I could not immediatly understand how I could possibly have actually lost with me having Quad Aces. Seriously, it actually took me a few minutes to figure it all out and understand what had happened because I had never experienced a Straight Flush. It happens!

Poker can be so fickle sometimes and that is part of the attraction. Namaste mates.

PS: Note, I did not go 'all-in' until after seeing the flop.

Love you, Wally! Forever! 🙂❤

 

[Omaha_53]

Professional poker backer here...
Getting mad at a player for getting his money in pre-flop with AA in hold em is about the dumbest thing I've ever heard in that realm.
Anyone who got mad at that hand has no business whatsoever funding poker players. Even someone who gets mad at ANY player decision has no business funding players. If you can't accept ALL the possible decisions of your player, you just shouldn't back that player.
Go put your money in an ETF, ya worthless nits! 🤦‍♂️

Makes me wonder who Drinan had behind him. Who could possibly be THAT dumb?

 

[Ruslan L]

I will tell my sponsors the following:
I had a choice and I made a decision that I considered correct at the time. But luck is a very variable factor, and luck does not depend on me or you. The decision is made and the game is over. If something does not suit you, please contact my lawyers

 

[rachelle2291]

If you have to defend your play going all in preflop with AA then you need different backers. I would not say anything but rather just concentrate on love. Because you know the saying and I sure as heck wasn't lucky at cards.

 

[Falzee]

Judging from my own experience, going in with AA is not always a smart move. I've been beaten by trips, straights, and flushes as well. it's a tough decision to make. I will sometimes wait for the flop, but doing that always gives the opponent the opportunity to strengthen their hand. He took the chance, and didn't make it. But if he had made it, his backers would be patting him on the back. No easy answer to this question.

 

[ZenonBR]

There's no exact answer to that, if he won with a pair of Aces, his team and sponsors would be satisfied.

With the most equitable hand in the game, he only has two options, which are to bet everything or to increase, both of which are correct moves.

However, with Aces in hand, do I want my opponent to give up or pay?

If he has a QT in his hand he may end up giving up, causing me to waste this opportunity on ALL IN.
So maybe the best option would be a RAISE in this situation.

If I were ALL IN, my justification would be based on my opponent's profile, if I knew that he was an aggressive player and would call with hands like QQ, JJ, KK or AK, AQ, AJ exploring this situation.

That would be my justification.

 

[benitwapasu]

I would smack them backers right in the kisser and then hire a good lawyer and plead insanity. Any decent lawyer should be able to argue that I was just doing what any normal person would do under the circumstances.

 

[BillyR23]

I somehow missed this hand all this years and I'm on YT watching poker content pretty much daily lol, so thanks for this interesting video and thread

About the hand, I can only describe it with one word - BRUTAL ... I mean, tie is 96% and 2% to win for each player, so in this situation you have the lowest chance to lose the hand after going All In preflop* just 2%...

"Some of these backers are furious, saying that you could have played the hand differently and saved your tournament seat. What do you say to convince them that you made the right play?"

I know that some people will always be upset with losing money despite their backed player playing the right way and stuff, so I'd try to explain the way the hand went, stacks sizes and action(we had like 50BBs to start the hand, we 3bet 2.5x with the best hand preflop- which is fine and after that big 4bet from our opponent, we only had one option- to go All In...); after that, I'll explain the equity we had on each street( 98% preflop, 95% on the flop, 80% on the turn) and hopefully this will be enough- it was just a really tough hand...

 

[gabryyyel31]

When the poker Gods leave you, what else can you do bother ? Nothing but start over again and again and again until they come back to you and make it right. So I would tell them not to lose hope because the day will come when the wheel will turn as long as you don't give up.

 

[Gary_Heart]

Connor Drinan all-in pre-flop against Cary Katz, turns out both are holding Pocket Aces.
Four hearts hit the board, giving Katz a flush, and Drinan was knocked out of the tournament.

All-in pre-flop with AA? Not much to say here -
Yet some of Drinan's backers say he could have played the hand differently to save his tournament seat.

And while that is true;
I suppose most books on poker would say - bet'em and bet'em BIG - to keep odds on your side- right?
And What about Scared Money Never Wins?

What do you say to convince backers that you made the right play?
Not much to say here either;
IMHO / There are three ways to play ANY poker hand -> Slow, Let's see and Fast!
And yes AA is included.

To the rational backers who know slow playing AA often leads to a loss - I'd say thanks for hanging with me ....
To the 'furious' backers - Id say the chips needed to go in sooner than later - if you don't think I made the right decision - C'Ya.

Yes, those two hearts on the flop would have created a flush threat but hitting the turn and river only proves:
Ya Gotta Have Heart!

Good Luck All from Gary Heart

 

[tagece]

I would probably think that there is a plan from the gods for me, which is that I will die poor, no matter what I do.