THE WORLD'S #1 POKER MANUAL - Card Games

Poker Book, Increasing the Edge Odds
Charlie Holland groans. With a drooping face, he stares at the large pot. "I should've called," he
moans as John slowly pulls in the pot while laying the larger bills on top for better viewing.
What does this have to do with peeking? Nothing yet.... The next hand is seven-card stud. Charlie
drops out early to study John's technique. He stretches his neck to peek at John's hole cards. With
an air of friendship, John Finn loops his arm around Charlie's shoulder and shows him the hole
cards--John has an ace-king diamond flush.
"We'll kill 'em with this ace-king diamond flush," John says loudly.
Surprised that John announced his exact hand, Charlie looks at the cards again, then replies,
"Yeah, man!"
But actually, John is not confident of his flush because he reads both Ted and Quintin for two
pair, and all eight of their full-house cards are alive. He figures the odds are about 1 in 2 that one
of them will catch a full house. He also knows that they fear his flush and will not bet unless they
catch the full house.
Scotty Nichols, who folded early, is sitting between Quintin and Ted. With his head bobbing back
and forth, he peeks at their hands as they catch new cards. Now, the last hole card is dealt. John
watches Scotty: First his plump head points toward the highest hand--Ted's queens over jacks. He
peeks at Ted's new hole card; immediately his head snaps over to check Quintin's cards.
Obviously Ted's new card is not very interesting ... he failed to catch his full house, John figures.
Now Scotty looks at Quintin's new card. He looks again and then glances at Quintin's up cards ...
then checks the hole cards once again. Scotty does not say a word, but he may as well be yelling,
"Interesting! A very interesting catch for the full house!"
Adjusting his thick glasses, Scotty next looks at John's up cards; his eyes then dart back and forth
between Quintin and John while ignoring Ted's hand.
What happens? Ted foolishly bets $25. Quintin raises $1. Scotty covers his smiling mouth with his
hand. Expecting some lively action, he waits for John to get sucked into Quintin's great trap. And
across the table, Charlie Holland smiles; he waits for John to blast Quintin with a big raise. John
Finn folds.
Charlie rises halfway out of his seat while making gurgling noises. "You .. you know what you
dropped?" he stammers
"Yeah, a busted hand," John says, shrugging.
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