The ups and downs of a night at the poker

just a long rant about a night at the poker


on monday i played at my local game - i usually do quite well at it. Theres some good players there however theres a lot of poor players there too...if you can survive the idiots outdrawing you, you can usually finish in the money.

Theyve started turning people away because its too busy. On average they get about 80-100 players. I think there was just over 90 players on monday.

Game 1 : The main Game

Its a £10 buyin but the winner takes home over £500 (they dont take any rake which is quite good - its a great setup)

so its a very cheap buy in.

You start with 3,000 chips and the blinds start at 25/50 for 30 minutes and then the blinds go up every 15 minutes thereafter

the hand im about to talk about involves the guy who was directly after me. He was involved in pretty much exactly the same hands as me before this hand came up. We had both folded our blinds because of hefty reraises and we both called a hand and then dropped it after the flop came because someone reraised up to 1000 even though the pot was about 100!
Basically, i didnt have a read on the guy at all.

So im on the big blind and get dealt

The guy after me calls. Theres another caller and then somone raises 1 blind. One player calls the raise, the small blind folds and then myself and everyone else calls.

So im gonna be first to act in each round.

The flop comes

8 9 10

2 of these cards are diamonds but i cant remember which.

The blinds are at 50/100.

Ive flopped the straight. With quite a few players there and a flush draw there i want to raise high. So i raise up to 400 chips.

The guy after me ponders and then reraises another 100 chips. The guy just before the button calls and everyone else folds.

So ive got a 100 chip raise to think about. This was really messing with my head - it was such a strange raise.
Im usually quite quick in making a decision but i sat for a while thinking about this (making a decision too quickly is something im working on )

Here are the hands i thought he may have

JQ - im beat
A10 or something similar eg top pair with good kicker
89 - ie two pair
77 - ie trips
AK - maybe he had an overpair and thought i was bluffing?
Two diamonds - very possible he had a paid and a flush draw

i pretty much decided in my head that if i called theres a very good chance im gonna see a card that helps him and not me

So i decided to reraise up to 1000 chips (ie. another 500 raise to him). If he folds, superb. If he calls then at least ive made it expensive for him.
If he raises, im all in.

He reraises all in. The other guy sat for a while and then folds. I called.

Guess what he turns over..

...

yeah you guessed it

JQ

that was me out.

I loosen up a little on the monday nights due to the number of people drinking - so the chances of being up against another flopped nut hand were very low.

Also, the guy who folded had two pair 89. A 9 came on the turn which would have given him a full house if he hadnt folded.


Game 2: The Side Game

So after being put out pretty early i played in a £5 side game. 8 players with the winner taking the whole pot.
These games are crazy. You get 30 chips and the blinds start at 1 and 2 chips and go up whenever someone gets put out. The best strategy is usually to sit back and wait for a while. 4 or 5 player all ins are not too uncommon...as such i usually do ok at them by playing tight.

To illustrate how crazy they are. I had played a side game on the sunday (the day before). There were 7 or 8 players. I was lucky enough to get dealt the high card so the button was on me. Due to a combination of being dealt poor cards and see everyone else raise like crazy the first hand i actually played was when i hit my big blind. By this time there were only 3 players left and the blind cost me 10 of my 30 chips - eg a third of my stack!!!

Anyways...back to the side game on the monday night after being put out by that bas...lovely man with the higher straight

i played really well. However there was an extremely drunk guy. No one could raise him. He was calling all ins with ace rag and winning it and then reraising in another pot all the way to the river and showing J4 - ie. no pair. I finished in 3rd and the drunk guy actually won it by hitting a flush. I seriously cant put into words how drunk this guy was. Bad poker was the victor.

Game 3: Side Game Number 2

We started playing another side game with 7 players at £5 a game.
The drunk guy was still there!
I was playing ok but then lost two allins when i was huge favourite and got short stacked.
I thought i was on the way out so texted for a lift home. I was getting picked up in about 10 minutes

With 5 players left in the game my mission was simple - lose the game as soon as i can.
I couldnt lose. I called an all against a guy with pocket jacks and caught a 2 and a 5 on the turn and river to make a straight with me A4.

Before i knew it we were down to 3 players. I said to the guys 'im sorry im getting a lift so will be leaving very shortly so just split my chips up'.

So i kept reraising all in trying to bust out. And i won every one of them. No kidding. With the worst possible hands - i doubled up twice and became chip leader. I kept hitting my cards on the river and winning and eventually won with the mighty

I picked up £35 and a minute later my lift arrived to take me home!

its a cliche but it is a funny old game!

Summary

* Game 1 : Got unlucky and got put out by someone who flopped a higher straight than me. PROFIT = -£10
* Game 2 : Played really well but got my chips taken away by a mad drunk who was raising with junk and calling all ins with poor hands and winning. PROFIT = -£5
* Game 3 : Played ok and lost in two hands i was clear favourite. Then when i wanted to leave and started going all in every single hand, playing terrible poker = i won. PROFIT = £30 (£35-£5 buyin)

it was very strange going home with more money after getting gubbed like i did in the first two games!

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I believe they call this "The idiot end of the straight".

Correct me if i'm wrong but that raise may be so strange to you because it is an illegal raise. If you raise 400, if he wants to reraise he must see your bet and then put in at least 400 more for a legal raise.

Rough luck by the way, I know that situation as the sucker straight.

If you think back, I made a post a long time ago about a situation where I lost with the sucker straight flush. That was not a pleasent expierience.

Were the other players mad in your second side game that you were doing that? Most people dont have a problem with it until you beat them with rags lol

yeah it was definately the idiot end of a straight. And i was the idiot on that occasion
i know i didnt have the nuts at the time but there were only two cards on the deck that beat me.

with regards to my second game, other than the drunk guy there were 2 or 3 other poor players. They arent great players but they would at least raise with a low pocket pair or an ace - not like the drunk guy who was reraising with any two cards and no pair.

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I meant the third game (side game # 2) in regards to your all in with rags plays.

A lot of players online will say they have to go somewhere and raise all in everyhand, then double up and stick around a little longer. That angers a lot of players, I was wondering if it was the same at your live game when you were trying to get knocked out or if people really didn't mind it since they were either drunk, knew you were sincer about leaving, or were already used to it from the other drunk guy.

Sounds like a lot of fun. I take it the place is a pretty laid back style since you did not address the illegal raise issue, I assume there is betting freedom so the place won't be uptight on cheating accusations from people who make a scene just for the little things like that or other things like "string beting."

There was a televised poker event that was down to heads up between I think Johnny Chan and an old guy (amature) where they were exchanging bitter comments because of string beting and going all-in immediately after someone annouces a raise but doesn't specify how much he is going to raise. It was funny to see grown men, a pro and an amature acting like kids who are just learning how to play the game.

That was a fun read. Interesting night you had there Fonz. What I was going to comment on has pretty much been said. First off, what Ray said, you had the sucker's straight. But even with that, I'm not sure you could have folded it. Maybe played it a little slower on the flop and possibly kick it in when the board pairs, but it would still be a tough lay down. What Cowboy said is one of the things I was going to say. Your opponent shouldn't have been able to raise just 100 after a 400 bet. Oh well, I guess many of you were too drunk to notice . We have all experienced the bad beats from new players online, which I guess is just like your drunk friends. Some times the idiots never lose. That's poker. Anyone can play and anyone can win.

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