I am the luckiest bar poker player in history
And of course, by posting that headline, Wotan, the god of poker, is deemed to frown upon me for 40 days and nights.
I've played bar poker maybe eight times and won four tournaments, even though I'm an average player and sometimes get flat-out outplayed.
Case in point: Friday night at MJs in Lauderhill, I play with the SportsBarPokerTour game (a small company, with only a couple of bars).
I don't get a hand the first 45 minutes, finally get ace of hearts, 6 of diamonds. Flop comes out 10-10-7. There were 3-4 callers to the flop, but my thinking is no one hit the set, so bet like I did have a 10. So I fire out $500.
Two folds, then one caller. Uh-oh. I check the next round, and she puts me all in. I'm down to $300 or so, so pot committed. Call.
She turns over K-K. Semi-slow-played me. Ridiculously way ahead of me.
But without following it too closely, 3 diamonds are on the board, and I hold the 6d.
You know what happens. Another diamond. Not even playing for it, not even considering it.
I was so apologetic, and she took it well. Better than I would have.
I go on to win the tournament, hitting a straight on the river against a pair of aces. (An update: yes, I know it's 'units' and not dollars we're wagering, but it shows how bad of a player I am to still be thinking that way.)
This comes after my last time at MJs, when I called with a pair against two pair, honestly thinking I was ahead, only to again win a suck-out.
We all have bad beat stories, but the point is that for every bad beat story, there's a lucky win story.
So, in the name of fairness, c'mon folks. Give me your lucky win story.
Comments
Nick,
You may want to make another update to this entry of yours... A "set" is when you hold a pocket pair and you hit three-of-a-kind... You can't hit a set just holding one of the cards with two on the board...
Posted by: Andy | March 7, 2008 9:45 AM
Fair enough. I knew that, really, just didn't write it that way.
Thanks. Got a suck-out story for me?
Posted by: Nick Sortal | March 7, 2008 11:38 AM
I've never really one to complain about suck-outs... They go both ways... But if you really want to hear one... It happened to me and Flagler Dog Track the other day... I hold AK... It's raised to $25 pre-flop. I put the raiser on K-Q. I make it $90, b/c someone else called the $25. The only caller I get is the original raiser.
So two people in the pot, the flop comes 6-6-5. He checks, I bet $125. He calls.
Turn is a 5... He checks, I bet $150. I want him in the pot, b/c I have a solid read on him with K-Q. My Ace high would be good... Anyhow, he calls...
River is a 9. So the board reads 6-6-5-5-9. He bets his remaining $145. There's not much to figure out at this point, so I call...
He flips over K-9... Had no draw, or anything, but hit his 9 on the river...
Claims he stayed in b/c He felt I had absolutely nothing...
So, that would be a suck-out! Anyhow, no complaints though, I'll let him call me down like that everyday of the week, twice a day!
Posted by: Andy | March 10, 2008 9:46 AM
Thanks.
You played it like I'd have played it, firing at the pot on the thought that no one had the trips. And I'd especially be there once the 2 pair hit and I had the ace.
Your hand touches on 2 topics covered by a guy at a poker seminar I went to on Saturday: 1.) He says A-K is vastly overrated (he has a much different hand ranking system, which I may write about in print eventually); and 2.) He says if a pair hits the board, get outta there, unless you have the third.
But he was talking about purely math, and didn't factor in how we'd read player tendencies.
Posted by: Nick Sortal | March 10, 2008 11:34 AM
Nick, I agree... AK is VERY overrated... It's Ace high... People don't understand that a 7 comes on the flop the same amounts of the time as an Ace.
Posted by: Andy | March 11, 2008 2:35 PM