Poker Hands From Episode 15 – TRun it twice

Poker is experiencing a renaissance of late, which is bringing a lot of new players and new playing styles to the game. But in episode 15 we get a sneak peak of one of the time honored traditions of poker: running it twice.

First a little context: running it twice happens when someone goes all-in and the players in the hand agree to draw the remaining cards twice and a player must win both combos to win the full pot. The idea of running it twice to prevent huge swings in a player’s bankroll and also acts as a defense of bad beats.

Running it twice isn’t widely seen nowadays. Online and computer poker don’t offer players the option to run it twice, and it isn’t seen in tournaments. The only place it still resides is in cash games. Though just because a hand is run twice doesn’t mean it always works.

Runner, Runner

Right away in the first hand of the episode we get a hand where it is run twice. It’s Christian Harder with K ♦ 9 ♦ against Joe Cashen’s Q ♥ J ♥. After the flop of 9 ♥ 6 ♥ 4 ♣, Harder re-raises Cashen, forcing him to go all in. After a little banter back and forth, Cashen tells Harder, “I’ll run it twice with you. I’m fair.”

The first turn and river is 10 ♣ 8 ♦ giving Joe Cashen the win and host Todd Hansen saying, “He went runner runner for the straight.” The second turn and river aren’t much kinder to Harder, with 4 ♥ 5 ♥ giving Cashen the flush.

A gentleman’s agreement to run it twice

Sometimes AA can’t be beat

Tom Schneider and David Baker go head to head with Schneider holding pocket aces while Baker “has a huge hand” with A ♣ K ♠. Schneider flips over his cards and Baker immediealy laments his decision. Schneider and Baker discuss it for a moment and Baker takes up Schneider’s offer to run it twice.

Since all the action was pre-flop, we see the hand played out twice. Baker comes close on the first board of 5 ♣ 10 ♠ Q ♦ 9 ♥ 9 ♦ but can’t make the straight. The second board of 6 ♠ 3 ♦ 7 ♥ K ♦ 5 ♠ didn’t help Baker either, showing that sometimes you just can beat pocket aces.

Two flops, two wins for Tom Schneider