Buying a players hand

A very strange thing happened the other night in our first ever live NL cash game at the club.


We were 4 handed, i had 2c3s on the button (fairly typical hand) and mucked to the UTG raise, the big blind called and saw the Th6h5h flop. All the money went in for a $475 pot. The cards were turned over and it was TcTs vs Ah9h.


The trip tens wanted to do a deal, and i suggested dealing twice (which none of them had ever heard of), but the flush wanted no part of it. So the trip tens offered to sell his hand to me. He had no more money to keep playing if he lost so i thought I could get a good deal.


Firstly is this allowed? I don't think it should be as it undermines the other players decision not to deal. If he wants people to fear getting allin with him, then these sorts of deals shouldn't be allowed IMHO.


Secondly how much would you pay? Nobody complained, so i bought the hand for what i thought was a damn good deal. I thought the hand had about a 35% chance of winning (35.55% it turned out when you considered my mucked cards). A fair price was therefore $166 and i paid him $110.

Did you win? Sounds like a fair price, but I wouldn't want to take part in a game like this.


Keep playing hard! Even with someone else's hand!

As I said i didn't think it should be allowed. But then again the player was allin, and the cards were turned over so it doesn't hurt the game too badly.


And no i didn't fill up, but yes i got all the money anyway, but that's not really the point.

What you did was essentially the same as insuring somebody's hand, which is very traditional in PL/NL cash games. I don't see how it would be disallowed. The only way to stop you is to have the dealer finish the hand so quickly that you don't have time to strike your bargain.


I've heard stories about guys who basically made their living insuring hands in big bet games in LV. They didn't play, just hung around and offered insurance when a player wanted it.


I like the price you got as well.


Later, Greg Raymer (FossilMan)

"And no i didn't fill up, but yes i got all the money anyway"


huh? how did you get all the money if you didn't fill up?

QUADS

Greg is right. insurance is rather common, and probably more acceptable that buying the hand


in this case , with two cards to come the odds against the flush draw are about 2 1/2 to 1


asume he does not want to insure the whole pot, u might offer to pay him 225 if he loses, but he pays u 100 if he does not


of course all is subject to negotiation , but u can see how it works from above numbers


good luck


and of course u didnt have to fill to win---just hold of the flush draw

I got all the money in future hands. In fact i won almost every dollar in play. This hand was a key to letting me do so, as the player who now had $110 kept playing, and without him the game would have broken up.

This is still done in a lot of big games in Texas. Often it is done by the house, but can be done by the players or the rail. Your method of calculating was correct. Some games have charts on the wall with various numbers of outs and cards remaining that list the insurance prices.


My first objection is that it can slow down the game. I liked your initial solution best. If the players are willing, have the house lop off a portion of the flop (a half, a third; it doesn't have to be counted) and then deal out the board twice - once for each portion.


My second objection is that you must be extra alert in any game where two players can bet out a third, and then be assured of getting some of their money back.