Champion of Poker

Hello,

For roughly 6 years now, I’ve been playing no limit poker. I haven’t yet encountered a really serious problem but there’s one incident that happened just recently that somehow has troubled me.

On television last week, I got the chance to watch a high-stakes cash game by which two players went all-in. On the board back then was 910J. Player A had KJ while player B had AA. Both players opted not to show cards so nobody has an idea as to who has the chance to win the pot. However, turn came and was A. River followed and eventually affirmed that player B with AA will be the winner. But later on, they agreed to draw the turn and river again and so they had a K. Obviously, player A with KJ has the winning hand. In the end, they just divided the pot.

Can you please explain to me what happened? Why did player B agreed to draw the turn and river again?

Thanks in advance.

Carlson
Carlson,

This is a normal occurrence in a cash game at high stakes. This is known as “running it twice.” The reason that a player would agree to this is because if he happens to win both run, he gets double the money. If the all in player loses both, he must come up with that amount at some point to pay to that player. If they both win one, they chop the pot. In the event the player that was all in somehow sucked out and won two times running it twice, they would win double their money.