Kyle asked me if I would include a hand in my notes that was played out between himself, Rachel, and Nathan. Since it was the hand that sent him home, and since after I thought about it some it does offer an interesting point, here it is. The game is Hold’em, and I’m in the small and Kyle is in the big. Tina folds pre-flop, and Nathan goes all-in with eight dollars and change. Rachel can cover that, and promptly does. I fold. Kyle hasn’t yet looked at his cards. I tell him I’ll look and throw them away if they’re no good. It’s a ten and a ten, so I pass them on to him. He calls. The action is over so cards flip up. Neither Rachel nor Nathan has him beat yet, but both hold at least one over card, though Rachel’s Jack was duplicated by Nathan’s. Kyle gets a third Ten on the first card of the flop, to give him trips, but the rest of the cards contain an 8, a 9, and finally a Q. Nathan has a straight to the king on the river, beating Rachel’s straight to the queen on the river, and leaving Kyle’s three tens in the dust. That was when he asked me if I’d include the hand here, because it was such a bad beat for him after he got that third ten. I couldn’t think of a reason to really write about it, until I remembered that at some point Kyle asked me, before the hand was played all the way out, if I would have called with two tens. I said, “Oh, absolutely!” After giving it some more serious consideration, I think I would have had to qualify my answer a bit more. If I were sitting at the final table of the WSOP and four or five were possibly still in the action, and one bet all-in, got a caller, and the bet had me capped, I think I would have to fold. The chance for a high pair, or of being drawn out on by three or more over-cards would be just too much. I’d have to let the tens go. It’s not really even that tough a decision. Last night however, Nathan had gone all-in three times in the hour before. Rachel had called all-in with little more than just money. There was no possibility of more players in the hand, and there was no chance of a raise after the flop. I think Kyle’s decision to call with his pair of tens was just as clearly the right decision as the decision to fold with the same hand in different circumstances. Unlike in chess, in poker, we play our opponents, not the board. People who win money at poker get river-ed a lot more than they river others, and almost everyone who wins money at poker knows it.