Running World Series of Poker Thread

And my bad beat of the week story goes like this:

Amateur poker league tournament. About 48-50 people in it. Down to the final two tables. Blinds are $1,000-$2,000. I've got 6 in front of me and am not in the blind. I'm looking down at pocket jacks and with a few people calling the big blind, I decide it's best to go all-in because it was the best starting hand I'd seen all night.

Guy to my left (small blind, I'm dealing) calls and everyone else gets out of the way. I happily turn over my jacks and he turns over Ah-4c. Flop 2-8-2. Turn a third 2. Lady to the left of the guy who called me folded a 2 and the groan she let out let everyone know. So I've got a boat and this guy has trip 2s. Only three cards can save him in the deck and of course the fucking Ad spikes on the river and gives him the better full house.

all I could do is shake my head and silently curse the poker gods.

 

I almost never go all-in with pocket jacks. I swear they're cursed. I quite honestly would rather have 10s. I just do so much better with them.

Superstition aside, the big problem with going all-in with jacks is that anybody who calls you is likely to have two overs on you or will have you completely dominated.

Even if they only have one over, such as a suited ace, you're still only about 70 percent to win the hand. I don't like putting all my money on the line with that much chance to get outdrawn.

Of course, in tournament poker, your chip stack will determine how you play them (and how your opponent plays you), so it can certainly be the right move.

 

You're right - Wasicka should have called there. But overall, Wasicka's play was phenomenal last year. He was the best player at the final table and had a much better day than Alan Cunningham, who was a bit off his normal game that day. And Wasicka has been great since the Main Event. He's a big time star in the game.

 

Believe me, I would've liked to have seen any other pocket pair in my hand than jacks. The damn things are cursed, however, I needed to make a move at that point as the blinds were going to be at 2 and 4,000 within the next time it came around. So, I did what I thought was right, had him dominated all the way to the river and was shown the rail when he got one of his three outs.

 

Well, as long as we're telling poker stories...

A few weeks ago I was sitting at the $1/2 NLHE $100 max. table at a casino. It's a pretty friendly table. No serious action, most of the pots in the $20-30 range. Then a youngster sits down immediately to my left and slides his Oakleys on.

Through two circuits, nothing major happens. But the kid is raising every hand and playing table bully. When it gets back to my SB, everybody folds around to me. Without peeking at the cards, I offer to chop. The kid says no, so I call in the dark. He raises $5 on the option and I call in the dark again.

Flop is 3, 10, 3. I check in the dark and the kid fires out $20. At this point, I peek and see pocket 3s for the quads. I sit, count to 10 Mississippi and call.

Next card is an 8. I check and the kid pushes all in with his last $73 (at the $100 max, you can only play with $100 per hand even if you've got $200 in front of you). I immediately call and flip the quads. He's got pocket Aces.

He starts griping about the donkey play I made calling in the dark. I just stack my chips. Finally an old-timer tells him to STFU and that if he wasn't so interested in trying to get my $1 blind he could have avoided walking into that buzzsaw.

 

Bravo Inky. Bravo!

 

Great Job.

That reminds me of a $2.50-$5 game I was playing in about a year ago.

Same thing, big blind is a young asshole raising every hand and berating everyone for their play (I think guys like this are the downside of poker on television, really. It used to be a gentleman's game).

Anyway, older dude in small blind looks at him and says "want to chop" after looking at his cards.

Young gun says no, so older dude raises to $40 -- the kind of raise that says I have a monster, fold your cards and save us the time and money.

Of course, young gun instantly reraises to $100 and older guy pushes all in for like $600 or something.

Young gun calls -- it is the rest of his stack, about another $400 -- instantly and turns over pocket Aces, the older dude is a little miffed but says something like "nice hand."

Of course, the flop comes out K-2-2 turn 4 river 7.

Young dude instantly loses his mind bangs table, screams at the older dude for being an idiot for bad play and all the nonsense.

Another guy at the table looks at him and says "maybe next time you'll chop"

He starts yelling about how this isn't a friendly game and blah blah he's there to make money to which the the older guy who is stacking his chips says "that's fine, but if you want to try and make money in this game, you'll have to buy more chips first....."

Ouch.

 

Well-done, Inks, well-done.

Chalk one up for the good guys.

 

I understand the whole "I'm here to make money" mindset. I really do, but those guys need to learn to adjust to the table. I like an easy-going, laughing table. I see it as recreation, not a life-and-death struggle. That's part of the reason I've gone away from tournament play, I didn't enjoy the atmosphere.

At that same table, I took a chop with the guy to my right when I had KK in the big blind. (And yes, I flipped them over to further anger the kid sitting to my left.) The guy to my right was a hoot. He knew all the dealers, waitresses and floormen. He was tipping for drinks for the entire table every time he got the dealer button. I prefer playing at tables with guys like him there than eight Hellmuthian Unabomber clones.

 

What did the older guy have?

 

Oh I'm sorry -- K-K

 

I get a kick out of the assholes who sit at 1-2 NL tables (or 2-4 or 3-6 limit) tables with sunglasses on and their favorite card protector and act like they are fucking Johnny Chan while giving free poker lessons to the poor souls who happen to have to be sitting by them.

One of my favorite casino stories came at Hard Rock in Tampa where the biggest game you can play is 2-2 limit -- which is basically barely even poker since just about every one sees the flop.

Anyway, there were three guys at my table from Detroit who were on a golf trip/bachelor party weekend and all three were about five sheets to the wind. But they were happy drunks and a lot of fun as they were cracking jokes and having fun. Every one at the table was laughing with them and having a good time, except one dipstick who had sunglasses on and a "Full Tilt" hat pulled down to the top of his glasses and he was playing sort of like the Alex Jacob -- real deliberate, thinking long and hard about every decision.

Finally he looks at the one drunk dude and says "I know you are here just to have a good time, but some of us do this for a living, so could you tone it down some."

Of course the drunk dude starts laughing -- along with the other nine players at the table -- and he says "you play $2 limit poker for a living? My God, you must be starving..."

The best part was, the "professional dude" couldn't win from that point on because if he entered a pot, every other player at the table called just to try and beat him. And he kept trying to bluff (if you can do that in 2-2 limit) on the river and get mad when people would call him with like bottom pair.

After he went through about $150 (which is a helluva lot at those stakes) he finally got up, pissed and miffed and walked out, much to our delight.

That session was one of my favorites of all time.