Victim of Cheating?

The question came up recently as to whether I’d ever been cheated while playing cards, and the answer is yes, twice that I know of (and who knows how many times that I don’t).

The first time was on my very first visit to Vegas, back in ’91 or so.  It was while playing blackjack at the Pioneer Casino downtown.  The Pioneer is closed today (gee, wonder why), but it’s the site of the iconic giant neon cowboy that points to himself.  This was back before they made Fremont Street a pedestrian mall; at the time it was a street you could drive down just like any other.

It was around two or three in the morning, and at the blackjack table we were all running really good.  The floorman suddenly swapped out the dealer, and the new dealer came in and hand-shuffled the cards.  This was a short shoe, with only four decks if I recall correctly.  Anyhow, after shuffling the cards, she put them into the shoe.  From where I was sitting (nobody else could have seen this), I saw that when she put the cards back into the shoe, there were a whole bunch of cards already in it!  I thought that was extremely troubling.

Suddenly, we all started losing.  Some of the players were betting big stacks, playing their rush.  They lost a bundle!  Nowadays, I’d probably raise hell with the floorman.  But this was my first time to Vegas; I didn’t know what to do, so I just cashed out and left.  Probably the best solution anyhow.

The second time was at Foxwoods.  I was playing a limit hold ‘em table, probably $8/$16 or in that neighborhood.  I was sitting between these two guys who (it was clear to me) knew each other, and I figured were probably friends who’d decided to come out to the casino together.

Well it wasn’t too long after I sat down at the table (maybe 4 or 5 button orbits) that they both got up and left together.  After they left, the dealer said that he was convinced that they had been colluding.  He said that he had just signaled for security to come to the table (how he did this I have no idea) so when they got up and left, it was in the nick of time.

They may have been colluding, but lucky for me I didn’t happen to have lost any money to them.  I guess whenever they had me bracketed I didn’t have any hand worth playing.  And if the dealer hadn’t told me about it, I’m sure I would never have known!

Las Vegas Hotel/Casinos

Just for fun, I tried to remember all of the hotel/casinos that I've stayed in at Las Vegas . . . and I'm not sure that I can remember them all!  So I thought I would just try to list them all out, roughly in the order in which I've stayed there:

• Bally's
• Golden Nugget
• Rio
• Imperial Palace (twice)
• Excalibur
• Caesar's Palace
• Venetian
• Luxor
• Tropicana

The Venetian and the Rio were "suite" rooms; otherwise they're all pretty much indistinguishable.

A Well-Played Hand

I just have to post this hand, because I am so pleased at how well I played it!

It was a $1/$3 no-limit table.  I was in the cutoff.  A new player had just come to the table and posted, so even before the cards were dealt, there was $7 in the pot.

The player under the gun cold-called the big blind.  I had been watching his game for a long time, and I really wasn’t very impressed at all.  He was one of these young guys I wrote about earlier, basically a tell machine, playing way too many hands and unable to figure out why he was slowing going bust.

The next player also limped.  I had been watching his game too, and he was a good player.  However, he’d just suffered a couple of really bad beats and had just re-bought, and was on serious tilt.  I wondered whether I would be able to take advantage of that observation.

The next player was the new one who just posted, and he checked his option.

It folded to me, and I looked down at Ace of Spades, Ten of Diamonds.  As I recently wrote, I’m not terribly fond of playing this kind of hand with a lot of other players already in.  But the pot was laying me 13-to-3 so if my hand held even a 23.1% chance of winning, it was worth a call.  Add the implied odds if the flop hit me, my position, and the fact that I really believed I could outplay at least two of the players in the pot, and the decision to call wasn’t too tough to make.

The button folded, so next up was the small blind.  She was a very tight and tentative player, and although she was getting 8-to-1 on her call she inexplicably folded!  The big blind checked, so it was five players to the flop; the pot held $16; and I had position.

The flop came Ten of Clubs, Six of Clubs, Eight of Clubs.  Ugh.  I had top-pair with top-kicker, which was pretty good, but all those damn clubs!  With my luck, somebody had already flopped the flush.  Well, at least I had position.

The big blind checked.  The young gun also checked.  Mr. Tilt thought for awhile, and put out a $7 bet.  The new guy folded, and it was to me.

That kind of bet made me think that he didn’t have the flush, or at least not yet.  I frankly thought that it was a tilt bet.  I considered a raise here, but with two players yet to go (one of whom could be slowplaying) and a hand which really wasn’t all that spectacular, I decided to play it a little timid and so I just called the bet.

Much to my surprise and interest, the small blind and young guy both folded, so it was just me and Mr. Tilt and the $30 pot.

The turn brought the Four of Diamonds; a rather inconsequential rag.  Mr. Tilt again took his time, and then put out a $20 bet.

I was more sure now than before that he wasn’t on the flush, based on my read and the amount of the bet.  It didn’t take me too much thought to call him.

The river was the Jack of Diamonds.  At this point, Mr. Tilt just checked!

Yahtzee!  I was convinced that I had him now.  What would make a good value bet?  I put $25 into the $70 pot.  After some more thought, Mr. Tilt called.

I showed my Ace/Ten, and he showed Queen/Ten.  The $120 pot was mine!

(Not that it mattered much.  A few hands later, I gave it all away when I picked up a pair of Jacks in the big blind.  The flop came Queen-Jack-Four; the button bet big, I raised, he went all-in, I called, and he turned over his pocket Queens and took the big, big pot with set-over-set.  That’s poker, folks.)

Some Odds And Ends

I've found a couple of settings for "blogger" that may make things easier for you, the reader.

One is, I found a way to allow comments that don't require you to have a Google ID first.  Some of my friends were complaining about this; they wanted to post a comment but didn't want to have to set up an ID.  Now that I have found (and changed) that setting, it should be easier to post your reactions to my posts.

Second, there is a way to have new posts emailed to you (sort of like RSS I suppose).  If you would like to have new blog entries emailed to you as they are posted, send me your email address and I will add you to a master list that I found.

Ace/Jack = Ace/Rag

One of the ways that I am really tight is in how I play an Ace/Jack or Ace/Ten (or worse) from middle to late position.

If I am first into the pot, I will raise.  But if the pot has already been raised, I’ll let it go.  And if there is even one limper, unless I have an excellent read on him, I’ll fold as well.

What?  Fold Ace-Jack from late position?  Why would I ever do that?

Well, let’s do the math.  The chance that the flop will hit my hand in any way is roughly 1 in 3.  The chance that my opponent, playing with (let’s say) a middle pair will flop a set is maybe 1 in 7.  So, that suggests I should call from late position with my Ace.

But let’s say I have Ace-Nine in late position and call two limpers.  Add the blinds, and we have five players to the flop.

Now, let’s assume one of two possibilities: (1) The flop is King-Nine-Two.  Is my hand any good?  (2) The flop is Nine-Eight-Seven with two clubs.  Is my hand any good?  (3) The flop is Ace-Seven-Four.  Is my hand any good?  Add to this the fact that a lot of players will play any Ace like it’s solid gold, and I may even be up against two pair.

So if I’m going to play Ace-rag against more than two players, or in a raised pot, I’m probably going to have to make some difficult decisions.  And being naturally lazy, I’d rather avoid having to do that.

I have an interesting little anecdote that illustrates this tendency about how I play Aces in late position.

I once played a lengthy no-limit hold-em session at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas.  I’d been at the table so long that I actually made friends with one of the other players, a young guy from Vancouver B.C. named Suresh.  He was a terrible player but a really friendly guy and I enjoyed hanging out with him.

The next morning, I decided to play at the MGM Grand for a change of scenery.  Their poker room was rather new at the time and looked pretty nice.  I sat down at a no-limit table and started to grind it out.

After maybe 15 minutes, who should happen to walk into the room but my buddy Suresh from Caesar’s!  (These kinds of coincidences always seem to happen to me in Vegas – running into co-workers, old friends, new friends, family members, etc. but it still takes me by surprise.)  The tables were full, so he put his name on the wait list and in the meantime I let him sit behind me and “sweat” my play.  We chatted a bit when I wasn’t in a hand.

One hand I was in the cutoff – one position to the right of the button – and I picked up an Ace-Six offsuit.  A middle-position player limped, and when it came to me I folded.  As I did, I heard an audible gasp behind me.  (I don’t remember any more about that hand, other than that the Board failed to connect with either of my two cards.)

After the hand was over, I turned back to Suresh, who had this shocked look on his face.  I said, “What’s wrong, why did you react when I folded?”  He said, “You folded an Ace!!”  I said, “No I didn’t.  I folded a Six with a halfway decent kicker.”  I could tell from his reaction that he couldn’t see what I was pointing out, but before I had the chance to discuss it any further a seat opened up at another table and his name was called.

T Minus Six Days (And Counting . . .)

Next Wednesday, in the afternoon, I head out to Vegas and the Main Event!

There are four Day Ones (1A, 1B, 1C, 1D) and I want to try to get into either Day 1C or 1D, which is Saturday and Sunday.  There are also two Day Twos (2A and 2B), so playing on a weekend will put me in the 2B cohort, which plays on Wednesday the 9th.  From that point, it's nonstop poker until the 14th.

I've been paying attention to the timings of the other WSOP events that have already taken place this year, and it seems as though they run through until around 2 in the morning or so (!)  I am a little worried about fatigue.  I can stay up until 2am no problem; but five or six days in a row of that might be a bit of a challenge.  So to start preparing for that, I've been staying up until around midnight each night this week, and sleeping in until about 8am or so.  I'm hoping that getting used to this new sleep schedule will make it easier for me.

For the first five nights of my stay, I'm going to be staying at the Plaza Hotel downtown.  It's cheesy and cheap -- sorta like me.  But I do like downtown Vegas for a change of pace, so I'll enjoy that time.  I might play a tournament at Binion's on Thursday afternoon -- they call it the 2nd Annual Binion's Poker Classic, although how anything can be a "classic" after only two years they don't explain.  The other games in that series have pulled in around 200-250 players and paid the top 30 or so; it will be a nice tuneup for the big dance.

On Monday (after Day 1 and before Day 2) I'm going to move from the Plaza to the Rio, where the WSOP tournament is being held.  I think it will be helpful to be able to just head upstairs and crash after the game is done each night rather than try to drive to some other hotel downtown or on the strip at 2am after an exhausting marathon poker session.

I'm really excited about this although I don't have any illusions about winning it or anything silly like that.  It would be nice to finish in the top half; actually finishing in the money is almost too much to hope for.  But basically I'm doing it just for the experience; I guess you could say that playing the WSOP Main Event on my "things you should do before you die" list.

Cinderella's Ball comes to a crashing end on Monday the 14th, when I fly back home and return to my real life.  That day is actually Day 7 of the tournament; the last day before the final table is determined.  If lightning strikes and I'm actually still in it by then, I'll change my flight and stay a day longer, but I can't imagine that happening.

As far as blog updates while I'm out there; well, I should be able to get some reports in up until Day 2 starts.  But after that, let's just say it won't be a priority.  There are, however, live updates on the WSOP website and the CardPlayer magazine website and probably a few others, so if my fans want to see if I even make it into one of the reports they can always check those I suppose.

The Best and Worst Players

Okay, you’ve just walked into your favorite cardroom, bought a rack of chips from the cage, and are being shepherded to a table to begin your session.  Maybe this is the first time you’ve been to this room, or maybe it’s your regular game but there’s a bunch of new players you haven’t seen before.  Regardless, as you sit down and look around the table, you realize there’s not one face that you recognize.  (This isn’t at all unusual, of course.)

Quick:  How do you identify which of these players are really good, and which ones are really bad players?  I’ll give you two button-orbits to reach your conclusion.

Here’s how I do it:

First of all, the answer (as I see it) has nothing to do with any of the following :

·         Size of chip stack.  Especially at a no-limit table, maybe a really bad player just won a big hand on a bad beat.  (I’ve done this more than once myself.)  So amount of chips isn’t it.

·         Age, gender, beauty, nationality, race, language, etc. – completely irrelevant.

·         Talkativeness.  Maybe a Matusow or Jamie Gold clone is at the table.  Or maybe the mime convention is in town.  It doesn’t matter.

·         Cardroom regular or first-time visitor, doesn’t make any difference.

·         Drunk or sober – believe it or not, I don’t think this makes much of a difference either.

Nope.  Here’s how I figure it out, and it really does take me about two button orbits to determine:

Who’s playing the most hands?  Who’s playing the fewest?  If somebody is playing in every pot, expecting themselves to be the next Sammy Farha, then they are playing a lot of garbage.  And unless they are Sammy Farha, they probably can’t get away from that garbage very easily.  So, in my book, that makes them donkey candidates.

It’s the tight ones you have to watch out for.  They won’t enter a pot without a decent hand.  I’ve folded pocket queens preflop when one of these folks raises from early position.  Seriously!  And more than once.  (Maybe I’m the donkey?)

A Tournament Last Night

I realize that I need more live-tournament experience if I expect to do well at the Main Event.  The once-a-month or so home games at John's house isn't enough for that.

My neighborhood cardroom, Roxy's in White Center, has two tournaments every day.  Last night I went down to their evening game, plunked down my $60, and sat down with 22 other players to see how I would do.

I came in second, for a payday of $385.  Not bad!

There was one key hand very early in the tournament that really made the difference, and I totally played it like a donkey.

Three players limped into the pot, and I was on the button with the Ace/King of Spades, so I limped too, and the four of us saw the flop.

The flop came Ace-Ace-Four, so I had top set with top kicker.  It was checked around to me, and I also checked to slowplay and let somebody else catch up.  I figured that if I bet here, everyone would fold and I would only get a small pot.

The turn was a ten.  Again, it was checked over to me, and I put in a pot-sized bet.  The big blind was next to bet, and he went all-in!  He had the smallest stack at the table, but it was still a big over-bet.  Everybody else folded and it was my decision.

Since it was so early in the game, I didn't really have a read on him, but common sense told me that he had to have an Ace-Ten for a turned full house.  (Maybe Ace-Four for a slowplayed boat, but that seemed less likely.)

I still had top set with top kicker.  Here's where the donkey part comes in.  I called!  I turned over my Ace-King, and just like I knew, he turned over Ace-Ten.

The river brought another King, which was only a 7% possibility, and my opponent was the second player out.  I jumped out to the chip lead, and I stayed above average in chip count all the way into the money (very rare for me I have to admit).

A Big Hand, Part 2

Be sure to read Part 1 before you read this entry, because it sets up this conclusion.

With a pair of Kings and Ten/Queen/Queen/Four on the board, my opponent bet $60 into a pot of a little over $100.  Action was on me to call, raise, or fold.

I called the bet.

The river brought the Ace of Hearts.  If he had been sticking around with Ace-Any, or with King/Jack (less likely), he hit his hand.  I checked.

My opponent checked behind me!

For the showdown, I showed my pocket Kings.  He showed pocket Nines and I won a big pot!

I was very surprised at this play, but he must have thought I was trying to defend my blinds with nothing or something I guess.  Well, okay, I don’t really know what he was thinking … but he nearly muscled me out of the pot.

All in all, an interesting hand I would say!

A Big Hand

This hand came up recently in a cash game, and it played out very oddly so I thought I would write about it.  Share your thoughts on it if you want.

This was a $1/$3 No-Limit table.  My image was a little on the loose side; I’d been playing a lot of hands and winning a few small pots without showing down, and at this point I was the chip leader at the table with around $350.  I posted the small blind and the cards were dealt out.

Everybody folded to a guy in late position who raised it to $10, pretty much the standard raise at this table.  He was the second chip leader with around $300 total.  I had been keeping an eye on him and I had him pegged as a slightly above-average player.  I put him on a mid to high pair, with two high cards unlikely but still possible.

It folded around to me, so it would take $9 to call the bet.  I looked down to see the King of Spades and the King of Diamonds!  Nice … but also the kind of hand that I only want to play against one player at most.  The Big Blind was relatively new to the table and I didn’t have a read on him, so I didn’t know if he’d call the first raise or not, so I decided to re-raise.  I made it $25 to go, slightly more than a min-raise.

I got my wish; the Big Blind folded and Mr. Above Average called the raise, so we went to the flop.

The flop was Ten of Diamonds, Queen of Diamonds, Queen of Hearts.  I really didn’t like this flop, particularly out of position.  Two of the potential hands I put my opponent on included pocket Tens and Ace/Queen, and this flop hit both of those squarely.  And the straight and flush draws were plentiful as well.  But it was also possible that I had the best hand.  If I didn’t bet it, I risked not having any idea where I was in the hand.  I decided to put out a nice bet, a cross between a continuation bet and a value bet, and if it got called then worry.  Out went a scared bet of $30, just less than half the pot.

Mr. AbAv called.  Uh-oh.

The turn brought the Four of Hearts, a brick if there ever was one.  Well, if my hand was good on the flop, it was still good.  But I was really starting to worry about the hand.  I decided to just check and see what my opponent did.

He bet $60, a little over half the size of the pot.

I was more than a little worried now.  Had he been slowplaying a monster on the flop?  But why do that with all the draws on the board?  Was he drawing himself?

Tune in tomorrow for the exciting conclusion to this hand!

The State of Televised Poker (and Poker in General)

I’m a little troubled by the state of televised poker nowadays, because I assume that it is a bellwether for the prospects of poker in general . . . which means not good.  Or, if you want to put it another way, the pendulum after the past several years is swinging back the other way from being too-popular to being not-as-popular.

Today on TV you can find High Stakes Poker and World Poker Tour on GSN; Poker After Dark and Heads-up Championship on NBC; the ubiquitous World Series franchise on ESPN; and that’s about it.  A lot of shows we used to have are gone, such as Ultimate Poker Challenge; MansionPoker.Net PokerDome; Poker Superstars I, II and III; Celebrity Poker Showdown; Professional Poker Tour;  and a whole bunch more.  Granted, many of these are no big loss – Fox Sports’ Charlie Rose has the effect of fingernails-on-the-chalkboard on me, and The Phil Hellmuth Show – er, I mean, the final season of Celebrity Poker Showdown – was literally unwatchable.

But now I hear that GSN will be dropping their poker programs altogether, after four seasons of High Stakes Poker and only one season of World Poker Tour.  I heard that the programming guy at GSN who bought those programs left, and his successor isn’t much of a poker fan.  WPT might relocate to another network (they used to be on Travel Channel) – but maybe they won’t?  Maybe this is the end of WPT?  And it’s already too late to film another season of HSP for the coming year, as I understand.  So we might lose two of our remaining shows.

Meanwhile, this year’s World Series of Poker is going to delay the final table four months, in part so that ESPN can build up the excitement for their program.  Does this mean that there are even cracks in the WSOP Empire?

I’m not sure what all this means, or whether I’m just making a mountain from a molehill, but there may be something happening in the world of poker that isn’t terribly healthy.

Your Advice Please, The Conclusion

I went all-in.  Player 2, next to act, raised all-in himself (uh-oh).  Everybody else folded, so it was just the two of us.

Turn – Jack of Clubs.

River – Nine of Clubs.

I had a pair of Queens.  Player 2 turned over a pocket pair of sixes, for a flopped set.  And that was the end of my tournament.

Thanks for playing along, feel free to post more comments if you want to.

Your Advice Please, Part II

I’m going to drag this out a bit longer.  Read the previous entry “Your Advice Please” to set up this next question.

I smooth-called.  Basically, I put one of my two early opponents on Ace-King, and couldn’t bear the thought of drawing almost dead to a flopped Ace or King.

The flop was Seven of Spades, Ten of Clubs, Six of Spades.  The small blind checks; it’s up to you now.  What do you do?  (For me, it was almost a no-brainer.)

In a quest to determine just how exploitive I can be, I will not post further for a few more days and let you comment on this.

A Week in L.A.

I just got back from a week in L.A., and I didn't make it to the card room even once all week!  (Arrgh!)

To be sure, I was Behind the Orange Curtain.  Mapquest says the distance from Irvine to Commerce Casino is about 45 minutes; but since the 405 is involved, it's more like twice that.  It doesn't matter whether you try to go there at three in the morning or three in the afternoon (and I've done both, so I speak from experience), travelling on Interstate 405 doubles the amount of time it takes to get anywhere.

On the other hand, I was there with my co-worker Steve from Chicago (who won the big tournament I wrote about earlier), so even though we weren't able to hit the card room together -- which I would have really enjoyed -- we did manage to talk a whole lot about poker in between our meetings with the customer.  (For those of you among my friends who doubt that I really do have a real job, this week would have certainly proved that I do once and for all.)

Your Advice Please

I was playing a tournament recently, and the following hand came up.  Actually, it is the hand that busted me.  I am posting it because I was faced with a very difficult decision, and while I think I made the right decision at the time, I blame that decision for the loss, so if anybody has any opinions about it please share them.

Actually, I just now decided to make this post a two-parter.  In this part, I will set up the decision and ask for your thoughts.  Part two will tell you what I decided, and what the result was.

It’s about midway through the tournament – by that, I mean roughly half the field has already busted out.

The blinds are 100/200 with no ante.  I have one of the smaller stacks at the table (what else is new!) but nowhere near dire.

I am the big blind, with 3730 chips.

Player 1, under the gun, folds.

Player 2 (6675 chips) raises to 600, three times the big blind.  He is a little loose but not crazy.

Player 3 (6745 chips) calls.  He is a good player that keeps losing the chip lead on bad beats.

Players 4, 5, 6, and 7 all fold.

Player 8 (3725 chips) is in the small blind, and calls the raise.  He is new to the table and I do not know much about him.

I look down and find the Queen of Diamonds, Queen of Spades.  Very nice!

So, here is the question.  You have three choices.  And no, folding is not one of the choices.

1.    =   A moderate re-raise.  But any re-raise will basically pot-commit you at this point.  (For the record, I did not consider a moderate re-raise.)

2.   =   Re-raise all-in.  You have a premium hand, there are 2000 chips in the pot ready to be taken, and even if you are called your almost certainly have the best hand at this point.

3.   =    Smooth-call the raise / slow-play.  With 3530 chips left, you can easily call the 400 and then if the flop looks scary (an Ace or King flops) you can easily get away from the hand and still have an okay chip stack.

While you thinking about what to do, think also about what your opponents might do.  For example, let’s say you consider re-raising all-in.  With some luck, that can scare away folks playing aces.  But, what if a player has Ace-King?  Will he fold preflop?  Of course not (at least, I probably wouldn’t).  So, you’ve committed all of your chips and have no escape if an Ace or King flops; whereas with a smooth call you do.

So, what do you do?  Post your strategy in the comments, and after a few days of digestion I will tell you what I did and what happened next.

Toss This Entry Into The Muck (A Poker Confession)

Have you ever mucked the winning hand?

If you say no, what you really mean is that you have, but of course don’t know it -- how would you anyhow, by definition?  At least, that is my theory.

I’ve even heard a story of Doyle Brunson mucking the winning hand against Jennifer Harman.  After his cards hit the muck, and as the pot was being pushed to Jen, he reached out and retrieved his cards from the discard pile (so the story goes), and turned them face-up.  He got pretty heated when neither the dealer, nor the floor manager, nor even Jen Harman herself would change the hand outcome to give him the pot.  (He later realized, the story continues, that they were correct in that decision and he was wrong for demanding the pot.)

I can think of two concrete times when I have mucked the winning hand – well, one of them was the tying hand – and I can’t possibly imagine anything that is more bone-headed.

One time was pretty extraordinary, and I will share it with you.

This was at Foxwoods in Connecticut, a no-limit table.  I had Ace/Nine of hearts.  I don’t recall the board cards, but my opponent made a straight on the river and I lost the hand.  I put my cards face-down in the middle of the table, having lost a very sizeable pot.

I then looked at the board again and saw three hearts!  In the split micro-second before the dealer’s hands could grab my cards, I snatched them back again (literally brushing her hand) and turned them face up.

The table was pretty boisterous about all this.  I’m not sure how many of you have played at Foxwoods, but imagine a bunch of East-coast guys playing poker and that’s pretty much what it is.  The same degree of patience and grace you find on the streets of New York City and Boston are present at Foxwoods.  So there was quite a bit of fussing about the fact that I had actually mucked the hand and was therefore not entitled to the pot at all.

Both the dealer and the floor manager who she called over said that since I had the winning hand, and since it hadn’t literally reached the muck pile yet, that I was entitled to the pot.  I didn’t say much of anything this whole time, since I wasn't certain what the casino’s rules were.  The only other guy who didn’t say a whole lot during this argument was the winner-cum-loser.  He didn’t say anything; but he did stand up and stomp around for about twenty minutes after the pot was pushed.  Boy, was he steamed!  He eventually came back to the table, played maybe one or two hands, and then cashed out and left.  I don’t think I made his day very pleasant!

This is So Incredibly Sick

This is the kind of thing that makes me want to hang up my deck of cards once and for all.

I’m at a no-limit table and been playing at it for about three or four hours when up comes this hand.  The player under the gun is a really loose goofball who will play any hand that is dealt to him.  To make matters worse (or better, depending on your point of view), he’s been on something of a roll and has built up a pretty decent chip stack.  He’s first to act, and so he just calls the big blind.  Everybody else folds around to me in the small blind, and I look down to see that I have a pretty decent hand – Suited Ace/Queen of Hearts.  I complete the blind; the big blind checks; and the three of us see the flop.

The flop could hardly be better for me – Ace of Clubs, Queen of Spades, Five of Hearts.  I’ve got top two pair on a fairly uncoordinated board.  Since I know Mr. Loose will bet anything, I decide to just check and slowplay my aces-up.  The big blind checks, and sure enough Mr. Loose puts in a pot-sized bet.  I of course smooth call, as does the big blind.

The turn brings the Three of Diamonds.  Not great – the board is starting to straighten.  I check, preparing for a big check-raise this time around.  The big blind puts out a minimum bet – I’m sure he’s on garbage – and Mr. Loose raises the pot.  Sweet!  I reraise all-in, the big blind finally folds, and Mr. Loose calls.  He has me covered, but just barely.  I’m looking forward to a pleasant double-up.

The river is the Four of Clubs, but it wasn’t a straight I needed to worry about.  It was an even less-likely hand – Mr. Loose rolled over a pocket pair of threes for a turned set.  As the pot was being pushed to him he thoughtfully said, “So, how’d you like my min-bet on the flop with nothing?”

Nice, genius.  Showed almost as much skill as hitting your two-outer.

Okay, I feel better now.  Just had to get that out of my system.

(A lot of my friends who read this blog complain that it contains too much poker-speak, and they can’t figure out what I’m actually saying.  I’m sure that this entry will be Exhibit ‘A’.)