Fucking Ten on the River

I am telling you now that there is a bad beat story in here so if you don't want to hear it close this now. With that said, here is what happened to me today. I was supposed to deal the big tournament at the "back room" today. I show up ready to work and then the head dealer Trena asked me if I would like to play if the game doesn't make five tables. I had already told myself that I wouldn't play tournaments because they can drain your bankroll, but I had a big win on Thursday so I said yes.

This tournament is a $230 buy-in for which you get $4,000 in chips, there are no re-buys or add-ons or anything of that sort, typical freeze out style tournament. The blind levels are 25 minutes each and they start at 25/25, then move to 25/50, then 50/100, and then 75/150. You get some decent play for your chips, they don't use an ante so you get that much more room. I start out playing very well, I am making good reads and am getting a lot of respect. Some of these players know me from "the basement" and I have a well known image of being pretty crazy pre-flop, but today everyone is giving me a lot of respect. I raised with a suited connector and got re raised and knew that against this played I can raise again and he will fold most of his hands. I re raise and he folds and shows pocket jacks. Later I raise with pocket nines and get called in late position by someone who thought for a while about raising me. The flop comes 7,4,3 and the suits are irrelevant. I bet out hoping to show this guy I have a good hand and that I am not just stabbing at it. He thinks for a long time and then folds and shows pocket queens. He said he just felt he was beat and I, of course tell him that I did have him beat. That is a totally sick lay down on that board I would have called in a heart beat against a player like myself.

Anyway cruising along playing fine picking good spots, we get down to 3 tables and I am still cruising along and then get down to two tables. I am showing my hands after people fold because I am running well and raising a lot. I don't really want anyone to start to think I am fucking around trying to out play me. The blinds at this point are $300/$600 and I have about $7,000 in chips. I don't have a big stack but I am doing better than the majority of the field and I am feeling pretty comfortable, they are paying 6 places and I feel that I can at least slip into the money. There are 15 people left and once we lose a few more I am really going to open up and start stealing because people really want to make the final table they won't play marginal hands because they are so determined to make the final table.

My phone rings and I look down and it's Melissa, my girlfriend, calling from work. I told her that I would call her on a break to let her know how the day was going to work. She usually gets off on Sundays at 8:30 so it is not a big deal if a game runs long or something like that, but tonight she was working overtime till midnight. She couldn't feed the dog on her lunch and didn't want to send her sister over here to take care of the dog if she didn't need to. So she asks how does it look and I explain that I am playing because there wasn't enough people to fill 5 tables. She is instantly irritated I can hear it in her tone as she asks me what time I will be done. I tell her I really don't know that I am doing ok as of right now and we are down to the last 15 people. She asks if I think it will be 7:30 or what and I tell her I don't know I hope not because that will mean I am out of the tournament.

She is really irritated now and just tells me to call her when I am done, I say ok and let her go. I am really pissed now because if I was working it wouldn't be a big deal, but since I am just playing in a tournament that is paying $3,100 for first place as opposed to working to make $300ish she gets all pissed off. If I was dealing I wouldn't have been home any sooner than if I went on to win the tournament. She doesn't really understand that if I want to make money playing poker I have to play, but whatever there is enough there for a whole different blog.

This blog is not about calling people out by name, I am not a big fan of doing that, but I am really irritated about this guy and don't care if he reads this or not, pretty sure he dosn't. There is this guy named Eddie and he plays a lot at the basement and also plays at the back room. He is right at 50 and thinks he is a just God's gift to poker. He is very vocal and makes these shitty comments all the time and can't take a beat at all. One night a guy hit a straight against him when he was all in and he stands up and punches the ceiling and then grabs my arm which pissed me off. I know of no one outside of his home game who actually likes this guy. When a dealer makes the tiniest mistake he throws a fit like it is the end of the world even thought this piece of shit has never dealt a real game or been "in the box" as it is referred to.

Dealing is harder than most people know and is a totally thankless job. If you do it right no one says, "hey man, nice job," but if you fuck up, watch out because you will have every wannabe tournament director on your ass. Once again that is another blog, lets get back to this guy Eddie. He has this way of talking to people that will make you feel kind of shitty. The first night I worked at the basement I asked him for his name and he looks at me and says, "My name is Eddie see it on the point leader board thats me number 9." I am thinking in my head "wow what a jack off." We have some history from playing in tournaments together so when I get moved to his table he makes some kind of comment about how I won't win this tournament by being a good player. I make a joke about it keeping it good natured all the while thinking in my head about how I would love to beat the shit out of this guy. Ok now that the history has been explained lets get to the hand.

The blinds are 300/600 and I got $7,000 on the nose. I have been playing pretty tight, showing my big hands down and then I look down and see pocket jacks. Jacks are a pretty hard hand to play, because you tend to lose a lot with them. You are obligated to raise and if you get called someone will pretty much always hit an over on you and then you have to fold a really good hand. Anyway, I look down and see the jacks and decide to raise hopefully just take down the pot. Before the action gets to me Eddie raises it up to a little more than 3 times the big blind about $2,000. I decide that I want to play heads up with him so I move in for $7,000 on the nose. There are still like 4 or 5 people behind me who still have cards but as soon as I move in he tells the dealer to count it.

When someone moves all-in in a no limit tournament the dealer doesn't announce the what the raise is until a player asks for it. For him to ask when there are still like 4 or 5 people behind me who still have cards it is basically announcing that there is a good chance that he will call. This is giving away information about what your move will be when it is not your turn, and is a major breach of etiquette. The guy right behind me thinks for a long time and then folds later saying that he had ace king suited. Everyone else folds around to Eddie, and he calls instantly. The call was for the majority of his chips, if he loses this hand he will be crippled and we are getting close to the final table. He counts out the money and says call. I ask him if he has a pair just to see where I am at. It doesn't really matter because since all the money is in and no more action is coming we have to turn the hands up anyway but I still want to know. He looks up at me and says, "I called you so I will be asking the questions about what you have just turn your cards up." I turn up my jacks and he turns up pocket tens and says,
"Your ahead was that so hard?" I ignore the comment and am thinking about the fact that I will have over $14,000 if I win this hand and can coast to the final table.

Lets talk about this play for a minute, I am sure that by now your know that I lose the hand, but lets have an objective discussion here. A pocket pair is a strong hand and tens are very strong there is a lot of value there, but he called instantly with them in a tournament with a stack that would be crippled if he didn't win the hand. Meaning if he lost he would have $1500 or so left and with the blinds being 300/600 and him coming up on the blinds in the next 1 or 2 hands there would be practically no way that he could go on to win this thing. I have a reputation of being an aggressive player and he knows that, but at the same time it is still a risky move. His raise was right around $2000 so it was about $5000 more to him. So he was having to put in $5000 more to win a pot of $9,900 so he is getting almost 2-1 on his money. I guess technically he has to call but just the speed with which he called I know that he didn't even think about the fact that he might now have the best hand.

Eddie doesn't race around too much in tournament especially later on this is pretty much a well known fact by any of the better players. I know that with my raise he pretty much has to call with any big hand so I wouldn't be making this move with a hand much worse than pocket tens. If I have pocket 9's there I would just call hoping to hit a set, but wouldn't re-raise him. With ace king I would make the same move, but even if I have ace king it is basically a coin flip for the majority of his chips. In a cash game I would make the call most of the time but in a tournament I just think it is a little early to coin flip. I think he saw his hand and got excited so any poker thought went out the window. I am not expecting too much from this donkey anyway.

The flop comes Ace, 2, 2 the guy who folded ace king mutters a few choice curse words and I feel much better about his folding pre-flop. The turn is a 7 and a big fucking ten on the river. He looks and says, "You just got unlucky there." I am thinking in my head, "no fucking shit moron." I keep my composure and don't say anything. I am so disgusted, I was well on my way to winning that hand and would have made the money easily. That is how it goes in tournaments, you have to get lucky to win, so I got in my truck and came home. I logged the loss in my books and called Melissa this is basically how the conversation went,
"I am on my way home now."
"Sorry about earlier."
"Its fine I am pissed off right now so I am getting off the phone."
"ohh, bye"
"bye." Short and sweet and to the point, I will probably hear about it later but I was too irritated to care right then.

I came home and ran the hands in a program called poker stove. You can put in any number of hands and have the percentages of who will win and who will lose. This is what pokerstove said;

equity win tie
Hand 1: 81.295% 81.12% 00.18% {JdJs}
Hand 2: 18.705% 18.53% 00.18% {TcTh}

Basically I will win this hands 81% of the time or roughly 4 out of every 5 times. I am irritated that I lost but I understand that it happens. I am more pissed off about who I lost the hand to. I will take bets that he doesn't even win the damn thing. So I am at home with the dog and bored out of my skull. I don't think playing online right now is a good idea so I will read or something. I will post tomorrow.

Later