The poker name for the highest non-flush straight is Broadway - Ace, King, Queen, Jack, Ten. This hand is a great hand when you get it, as any other straight is likely to pay you off and you know you have the pot won if there are no flush, full house or quad options on the board. So when a player has a draw to a Broadway, they usually play it down to the river.
Of course, Phil Hellmuth, Doyle Brunson, T.J. Cloutier, Chris Ferguson, Layne Flack and Erik Seidel are not your average players. Each of these have five or more World Series of Poker bracelets and the skills that go with that distinction. In this hand Erik started things off with a raise to $600 with:
... TJ was the only caller, holding:
... His hand wasn't the best, but he was on the big blind and so got a discount to play.
The flop was:
... TJ picked up the lead with top pair, and bet out $1,200. The blinds were still low, $100 and $200, and each player had begun with $20k in chips and cash, so this was not an unusually large amount to call. Yet, Erik folded his hand. He had a gut shot draw to what would likely have been the nuts, but he was not willing to tangle and risk money this early in the event.
Of course if he knew that TJ had a Jack he probably would have called. If the Jack that Erik needed to make Broadway fell, TJ would have had two pair, and probably gone broke on the hand.
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