The Worst Bad Beat *I* Ever Put On a Guy

Bad beats happen all the time. It's just part of the game. Every player has given and received his fair share. But whenever you're the one who takes the really bad beat, it feels like it etches a piece of itself under your skin. You may remember this line uttered by Mike McDermott during Rounders: In "Confessions of a Winning Poker Player," Jack King said, "Few players recall big pots they have won, strange as it seems, but every player can remember with remarkable accuracy the outstanding tough beats of his career." The truth in that is remarkable.

I wanted to use this post to share a bad beat that actually hurt me a little when it happened, even though I was the beneficiary. That night I had been chatting with the guy next to me who was very friendly and had been to Vegas and several places down in Florida. I was pretty curious about how the games were and such and he was being pretty helpful. He was also a very solid player, one of the better players I've seen in there. Unfortunately, the guy just couldn't catch a break. He wasn't being dealt many playable hands and when he did catch a good flop, it seemed like he always got ran down. He flopped a set and lost to a backdoor flush; He held QQ and flopped an Ace and a King, folded to some bets, and the turn brought a third Queen; He flopped two pair and lost to a backdoor straight. He would show me some hands and I felt kind of bad because it seemed like whenever he folded, he'd have won and whenever he made a big hand and stayed, he always got drawn out on. He hadn't won a pot in a long, long time. I know how that feels. Even so, he was not upset about it, never once complained, and kept a pretty friendly demeaner, just showing me some of his beats and smiling as he mucked his hand, his stack slowly dwindling down.

Now the hand comes up...

I held AK next to the Button and raised before the flop. There were several callers including the guy sitting to my left who I mentioned above. The flop brings A99 rainbow. Someone raises from an early position and there are 3 calls before it's my turn. I decide to raise, partially for value, partially to see if the first raiser had a 9 so I would know where I stood. That guy, let's call him Jim, calls two bets cold which raises my suspicion because he's a tight player and calling two bets cold meant he must have had something good. To better the story, I'll go ahead and tell you what he had: a pocket pair of 8's. Well, the turn brings an 8, making Jim a boat, by far the best hand at the table and the best hand he's had all night. He's waited patiently for this hand all night. The pot is very big by this point, somewhere around $50 or 25BB's. I'm getting ready to raise since the 8 seemed innocent, but something strange happens. The dealer quickly burns a card, and flips the river, a 4 of clubs. He had completely skipped all of us! His mind must have been elsewhere. Jim says "Whoa, Whoa, you skipped everyone, nobody got a chance..." feeling like he had finally made the hand and wasn't even getting a chance to bet it. The decision is made to back up to the Turn, shuffle the 4 of clubs back in and allow things to start again. Satisfied, Jim bets his full house on the Turn. There are calls and I'm getting the odds to try to spike one of the remaining two Aces, so I call as well. At this point, I'm thinking "ACE ACE ACE ACE" because I figure that's my only real chance to win. I'd missed it the first time, but now there was a second chance. The dealer snaps the river card out; it's an Ace of Diamonds. There's a raise, and I re-raise.

With 2 bets to go, his hand turning from a monster to losing to any Ace, Jim just looks at me, and with a painful smile, throws his cards into the muck. He went broke shortly after that.

Saturday and the Coaster

I played on Saturday for the first time ever at the card room and it was a rollercoaster to say the least. I got there about 4 in the afternoon and the house was full. Every table looked soft. I mean, at Hamilton's, you have about 3 classes of players. They are:

Retirees
Rednecks
Young guns

The retirees are passive. The rednecks vary. The young guns are aggressive. Everyone is very, very loose.

I was seated at a table who's youngest member was about 56 and everyone referred to him as the "kid". This table was very passive, not raising pre-flop ever. Even with KK, no raise pre-flop. For that first hour and a half, there were only 3 or 4 pre-flop raises and all came from me. I started limping in with lots of suited connectors and Kx and Ax suited cards from every position and managed to hit a couple big hands. By 5:30, I was up $95 (47.5BB). You know that sound rollercoasters make when you're climbing?

*click* *click* *click* *click* Throw your hands up and scream cause we're about to go over the edge.

"Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!"

The next two hours had me on a downswing as I was card dead and I just folded 90% of the time. The 10% I did get involved had me stuck with missed draws, marginal decisions, and river'd 2nd best hands. I fell back to about $40 up (20BB) and decided to move over to the straight $2 table to try to win big and leave.

Straight $2 is just limit hold'em but all the bets are $2 and don't double on the turn. It's 2/4 without the 4. I usually stay away to keep the integrity in my standard limit structure game, but the pots are larger at straight $2 so I gave it a shot. I had already thought about it in depth and decided it was a bad game because you can't protect your hand on the turn since the pot is so big by that point and the bet doesn't double. Most people that call a bet on the turn aren't adding dead money to the pot with almost any hand, even a lowly pair, so all the dead money would have to come from the pre-flop action and occasionally flop action. This mean I would need to only bet heavily on monster hands where all future calls would pretty much be dead money. That's where your profit comes from in small stakes Limit.

*click* *click* *click* *click*

Well, I moved steadily back up to $90. After that I got involved in a hand where I flopped a set, value betted it since I couldn't do anything to protect it, and lost the $50 (25BB) pot to a river'd gutshot straight. Oh well, it happends 1 out of 11.5 times.

"Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!! OH shit, a Loop!"


The next big pot saw me with AJs, flop top pair, turn top two pair, and lose to a river'd gutshot.....again. This was about a $60 (30BB) pot and it stung a little. On the flop, a player before me raised. I took the opportunity to re-raise making it 2 to go hoping to get folds or dead money. Several people still called so I knew it was value bet at best time from there on out and when the J turned I was happy to do so. I raised the river, got re-raised, knew I was beat but unable to fold such a large pot for 1 bet and paid him off. After which he replied "Man, I pulled that one out of my ass" while it took the dealer three pushes to get all the chips over to him. I think he got up and did some cartwheels after that, I'm not sure, I was too busy trying to find a window to jump out of. Don't worry, it's only a 1-story building. I just wanted to make a statement.

*The coaster derails, lands on an old lady, there are no survivors.*

I ended the night up about $40 (20BBs) for 5 hours. Below what I'm used to, but happy I wasn't down after those two hands.

That's all for now. I've vented and my soul is at rest again. I'll try to post up some constructive stuff later on.