Wait! You were slow playing me?

Well, it had to happen. $1/$2 No Limit Omaha 8. 7 players at the table and typically the entire table limps to the flop. The flop was J, 2, 2 - I don't remember the exact betting sequence, sorry... age. I've got A, 2, 4, 5. I am certain that Jeff bet. He's always very aggressive. I called and there's one other caller. The turn yields a 3. Now I've got a set and the nut low re-draw. Jeff bets again and I call and there's one other caller. (Sound of trumpets blaring!) - The river is my fourth 2.... I check, Rick checks and Jeff bets $25. I re-raise $25 and Rick folds and Jeff calls. Turns out he flopped the nut boat with pocket J's. Yep. I thought that I was slow playing him and I was behind all the way to the river!

I love it when a plan comes together.

Why do the poker gods reward stupidity?

Last night, PKR, $1/$2 no limit... two young guys enter, I've seen them before and have never been impressed. I'm playing a little conservative, but more aggressive than normal since we're a little short-handed. I look down to AA so I raise to $17. One of the two guys calls and the flop comes Qh, 7c, 2s. I bet $20, he re-raises $20 and I call. You got it, he flopped 2 pair, Q,2. Don't get me wrong, I want this guy to call with that for the rest of his life. I just don't want him to get rewarded for it.

A little later, similar circumstances. I've got AA and raise pre-flop. The flop comes A, J, 4. I bet $25 and he pushes all-in. I call of course and he turns over J, 4. Unless he has a gun, he's not taking any of the cash out of this pot.

Oh well. Let's see what happens tonight......

Have you ever flopped the nuts, and then lose?

Of course you have -or- you're not playing much poker.... LOL. At any rate, my game Thursday night @ my office. We typically play hold 'em, but the dealer button gets to pick. The hand is, are you ready for this, $1-$2 no-limit, Omaha 8.... talk about treacherous! At any rate, I've got 10h, Jh, As, 2s and the flop comes 7, 8, 9 rainbow. There are about 6 players that see the flop so I bet a little more than is in the pot and everyone folds except Corey and he raises all-in. I put him on a set or either two-pair, but you have to call when you're sitting on the absolute best hand, right? At any rate, I call and he turns over 2 pair and rivers the boat. Yep, there you go..... so now I steam for about 15 minutes, but get over it. I didn't bring a lot of cash with me and after getting bad beat and quartered several times was running quite low. But I managed to re-build and cashed out for a little over $700. Not a bad evening, but it could have been better! Next time....

Jeff's Poker Stars - Royal Flush!

This was such a great story that I thought that it warranted a post rather than just a comment. Have a read.....

Surgesilk said...
While not technically a bad beat... it is a heart breaking tale. While playing on Poker Stars today in a 1 table $50+5 NL HE tourney...I call a smallish preflop raise holding Kc,Jc. The flop comes Ac,Qc,10c. Yep. I flopped the ultimate nuts. As two people bet into the pot ahead of me, my gonads grow tight with prospect of taking down a huge pot. As I am about to call (just call mind you, hell maybe someone will make a smaller straight flush!), my connection goes down... a Time Warner repair person outside on the box disconnected me because a previous tech put my line into the test slot...whatever that means. I am down for 5 minutes while he checks to make sure I am not an illegal hookup. My hand gets folded... where is the justice in this world? That was my first flopped Royal Flush ever.

For Dave... My AA vs. his 4h - 8h

You have to understand that Dave... well, he's no mere mortal. He loves to gamble, he loves to bet and he'll play suited connectors like pocket rockets. Well, this particular hand took place in August of 2005 at a local home game. The game is no-limit Texas hold 'em and the blinds are $2/$4 with a max buy-in of $200. I'm in early position and look down to find AA... I raise to $16 - happy just to take the blinds but then there's Dave..... everyone else folds and the action gets to Dave who is in late position. Dave raises to $40. Everyone folds between me and Dave and I re-raise All-In, approximately another $180 or so - perfectly happy to take the $$ that are in the pot right then. Well, the action gets to Dave and he turns over 4h-8h and calls. Apparently the pot odds made sense. The flop produces 2 hearts and he rivers the flush. What can I say! Dave is definitely... the Man!

I almost quit poker that night... at least till the next time.

A-K, my mortal enemy....

I played on Sunday in the $120 buy-in tourney at my favorite local poker establishment and was still about even for the day when we consolidated to one table. I had accumulated about $6,000 in chips (we started with $4,000). I drew Ah/Kh and while it looks beautiful, I've lost a lot of tourneys with AK so I made a small raise of about $500 (blinds were $100/$200) rather cautiously from early position. As it gets near the blinds, another guy, Ed Flush, pushed all in and he has me covered by just a couple of hundred $$. I am pretty certain that I have him dominated so I call. He turns over A/10 off-suit and looks beat already. The flop comes K, J, 7. Now I'm even in better position as his only outs are a Q for a straight or runner/runner tens. Unforunately the turn is a Q and he now has me dominated. My only hope is a 10 to split with him on the river and that doesn't happen. So I had get up and tell him what a wonderful play he made and move over to the cash game table..... Next time.....

a Canadian bad-beat, eh?

Well, this past week I went to Canada for our annual sales & management meeting. We were staying at the White Oaks Resort at Niagara on the Lake. While there, I slipped out one night and went over to the local Casino to see what it was like. I sat down at a no limit table with $5/$5 blinds and minimum buy-in of $100/max $400. I didn't do very well, but it was fun to watch the guy beside me run into cards the entire time that I was there.... He limped in with 8/3 off-suit, flopped 2 pair when the board went 8, 6, 6 and turned a boat with another 8, and made quads on the river. He pushed all-in and the other guy in the hand called him thinking he would be playing the board! LOL. He had about $2000 in chips in front of him and at least another $2000 in cash behind the chips where he had been chipping people back-in when he busted them! At any rate, back to the story.... I've got pocket tens and raise pre-flop to a straight $25 as there were a couple of limpers. All fold except one. The flop is 9, 8, 5 off-suit. He pushes all-in and I call. He turns over pocket sevens and hit the gut-shot on the river! LOL. And that was the high point of my time at the table. Till next time.....

OK.... the other K - 10 Suited hand....

It was about 3-4 weeks ago at the best poker house in the area (at least, my opinion). There were about 10 players in a $2-$4 No Limit Hold 'em game with a $400 max buy in. Again, mostly good players with a couple of very aggressive players at the table. I was up about $450 at the time when I got Kh-10h on the button. There were several callers and I called the $4 when it got to me and the big blind raised it to $18. There were a couple of quick callers and then one of the more aggressive players raised it to $40. The guy right behind him went all in for straight $95. There was one caller and I figured I was dominated, but it was getting close to my time to go home anyway so I called. The big blind raised it all in for another $200 and the guy right behind him called and that put him all in. LOL. Now there's about $750ish in the pot and it'll cost me another $200 to see the flop. I laugh and after much deliberation, I call. Everyone turns their cards over. The big blind has Ks-10s, another guy has an Ad-Jd and the fourth guy has Ac-7c. We're ALL on a flush draw and the flop brings me two hearts without pairing anyone else. So the turn is my 5 to the flush and everyone else is drawing dead! LOL. I know, you all want to know where I play. Email me and I'll give you the details.

I won! $120 buy-in....

It's a small Texas Hold'em tournament with 15 typically pretty good players. I was especially excited about winning this one as when we narrowed the field down to 6 players, I was the short-stack with blinds at $600-$1200 and I had only $2100 remaining in chips. There were several big hands that led to my victory but THE hand transpired as follows: Blinds are now $1000-$2000 and although I have a slight lead in chips, they are fairly evenly distributed at this time. I'm the button and call the big blind for $2000. The small blind folds and the big blind re-raises $5,000. I've got Ks-10s (a hand that has proven very profitable for me over the past few weeks, I may even post another story about this hand) and after a few seconds of deliberation, call. The flop is Ah, 10d, 3s. The big blind checks and I check. This makes me think that if he had an ace, an ace with any kicker, he would bet, but he checks, so I check. The turn is the Ac. He immediately moves all-in with another $8,500 in chips. I measure out my chips and realize that I'll have about $10K in chips even if I call and lose. But my thinking is that he doesn't have an Ace or he would have raised on the flop because of the straight draw that was there so now with the second Ace on board, I have top two pair with King kicker. I call and he flips over pocket deuces. Yee haw. The river is another 10 so I take the pot with a boat, 10's full of kings, and the tournament as I had the other guy about 10 to 1 in chips and we chopped. So there you go, I hope you enjoyed it as much I enjoyed telling it.