I Love Novice Players (does anyone have a funnier rookie story?)

[grandgnu]

So I'm playing against this kid who's folded the nut straight and a full house before (god I love newbies) but is prone to calling large bets with nothing.

We're three-handed and I raise pre-flop 3x the BB with A/Q. He calls with K/2. Flop is 6/Q/A rainbow and I check and he checks. Turn is a Jack putting two clubs on the board. I bet about half the pot and he pushes all-in.

I ponder whether he holds K/10 but call and see him flip over K/2. He says he has a straight! I explain to him that you can't go J/Q/K/A/2 for a straight, the Ace can't be both high and low. No 10 on the river and he's out.

A straight, my god man, I'm dying here!

[speclj]

Funny stuff! My brother who is also a HUGE newbie, is very prone to calling huge bets and then showing down straights composed of four cards instead of five.

[FlipPokerFever]

actually....the J,Q,K,A,2 straight confusion is quite common. Some variations allow this "wrap-around" straight

[dblgutshot]

Funny n00b story that happened to a friend. Playing 4/8 at the local casino, someone is new and doesn't really know whats going on. He calls the final river bet and just holds onto his cards. Everybody is waiting for him to show and saying "Let's see your hand!"

Finally he turns his hands around and opens his palms face up. He was 'showing his hand'. WHole table burst out laughing.

[fishfeet]

[ QUOTE ]
"Let's see your hand!"

Finally he turns his hands around and opens his palms face up. He was 'showing his hand'. WHole table burst out laughing.

[/ QUOTE ]

Now that is CLASSIC!

[jzpiano14]

[ QUOTE ]
Funny stuff! My brother who is also a HUGE newbie, is very prone to calling huge bets and then showing down straights composed of four cards instead of five.

[/ QUOTE ]

That's what I like to call a small straight...but we arn't playing Yatzee are we? /images/graemlins/grin.gif

[JKDStudent]

A new guy to our home game was using the little card that came in a deck to reference what hands beat what. The board made it pretty obvious that I had a straight. He called my bet with trips. Why? Because instead of reading the card left to right, left to right, he was reading it straight down. He thought his trips beat my straight.

That was a nice pot.

[EliteNinja]

Oh man, this thread is classic!
BWAHAHAHAHA! /images/graemlins/grin.gif

[theRealMacoy]

so we had a friend of ours who lives in vietnam sit in for our regular game. he is half french and half vietnamese and pretty much embodies a french james dean (very cooool with everything). he isn't too bad at poker and is used to playing for a lot higher stakes, although totally different types of games (e.g., they play some kind of crazy pineapple variations). at the start we go over low hands for his and other newbies' benefit. later on, after playing quite a number of low games (razz, lowball draw) we play night night chicago (low hand and lowest spade in the hole). he is betting large and heavy from second street onwards, generally reraising any raises. finally he is heads up on the end against one of the better TAP in the game. i figure it for a split hand because he is showing two pair so he must have the low spade. at showdown he turns over a full house (fours over threes) and no low spade. the other player takes it all with a 7 perfect and the 9 of spades for low. he thought that lowball meant using low cards to make your hands! i guess he had been playing that way for the previous hour and it hadn't been noticed. after this, he finally got the low figured out but still ended up making a hefty donation to the rest of our league.

cheers,
the real macoy

[jtr]

Some funny stories in this thread.

Not saying I'd give the money back in any of the examples above or anything, but I feel a little uncomfortable taking money from someone when it was a basic confusion about the rules of the game that cost them the pot. I feel a whole lot better taking cash from someone who is 100% clear on the rules and just made a bad decision within them. Anyone else feel the same way?

Love the one about the guy showing his hands.

[PinataUT]

no 'round the corner,' 'skip straight,' or 'blaze?'

[Uethym]

I'm playing a microlimit game with some friends who are new to poker -- from my left, it's Ryan, Jason, and Ben. Ben is *really* new, and using one of the hand ranking cards for reference.

It's dealer's choice, and somebody calls some goofy 7-card stud variant with a gajillion wild cards. At 5th and 6th street, the betting is getting pretty wild, and Ryan seems to think he's unbeatable. When 7th street comes, he sets it aside without looking at it and immediately bets out. Jason raises, Ben reraises, a couple of other spuds call, and Ryan caps, a bit less confident than before.

Ryan flips up quad sevens (three 7's and a wild). Jason shows a Jack-high straight flush (2 wilds), followed by a King-high straight flush from Ben (also 2 wilds). The others account for the remaining three wilds with weaker hands. Ryan is shellshocked. But as Ben reaches for the pot, I stop him and tell Ryan to turn over that 7th street card he set aside.

Sure enough, it's the case 7.

Now Ryan reaches for the pot, only to have Ben's hand clamp down on it, as he looks at me and says, "I don't see five-of-a-kind on this chart!"

Good times.

[Lottery Larry]

Skip straights are a pain in the butt, especially when the group gets less than sober.

Never heard of 'blaze?' however. ?

[Lottery Larry]

Ben's hand clamp down on it, as he looks at me and says, "I don't see five-of-a-kind on this chart!"

I bet that was a long argument

[PinataUT]

Blaze
1) A hand consisting of five face cards. It has no ranking in cardroom poker, though sometimes does in private games. The term is often used by lowball players to embellish their hard-luck stories. 2) A nonstandard hand sometimes given value in a private or home game, consisting of five face cards, ranking between two pair and three of a kind.

Usage: Like in sentence "That guy just got his second bicycle, and what'd I get? Another blaze."

[ropey]

Similar story...funnier? maybe...

A novice player in my home game about a year ago made a similar hand. Well...this particular player couldn't hide a big hand; he was nervous, shaking, a plethora of tells that would indicate he had a very big hand...big enough that you didn't want to be in the pot with him.

So the board has a few broadway cards, and there is a bit of action, and it is clear to everyone at the table that our novice has made something very big. He bets, he bets, he bets...and the hand does not go to a showdown, as nobody needs to see this novices hand; it is written all over his body language that he has something huge.

He wasn't forced to show his hand, because there was no showdown...but he couldn't resist showing the monster that he had just made. He proudly flips his cards over and says, "I've got the wrap-around". And with that, his Ace high took down several superior hands, with either his great acting, or shear ignorance.

-ropey

[Lottery Larry]

BTW, how is a wraparound ranked? is it 2AKQJ (and does that beat or lose to the wheel, which is 5-high) or KQJA2 (and does that beat normal king-high straight)?

That's why they're a PITA- the fights that can get started late-night are horrific. Add in the fact that the losing hand often feels cheated, even if they weren't, and wraparounds just aren't worth the hassle IMO.

[Bulldog]

Home game, one of my friends had a cousin in from out of town who says he played once or twice. We are playing a NL hold'em freezeout. Maybe the third level, nobody out or way way ahead or shortstacked. Preflop three players raising, me, another guy, and the new guy. I get all in, other guy calls, and new guy decides to fold. We flip up KK and AQ. My KK holds up, New guy says he should've called, and so I ask him what he should've called with. His folded cards are still basically in front of him, so he flips up AA. /images/graemlins/blush.gif

[theRealMacoy]

[ QUOTE ]
Some funny stories in this thread.

Not saying I'd give the money back in any of the examples above or anything, but I feel a little uncomfortable taking money from someone when it was a basic confusion about the rules of the game that cost them the pot. I feel a whole lot better taking cash from someone who is 100% clear on the rules and just made a bad decision within them. Anyone else feel the same way?

Love the one about the guy showing his hands.

[/ QUOTE ]

I totally agree with you about wanting everyone to know the rules. In our game we do everything possible from going over house rules, providing hand ranking charts, reviewing low hands, et. I love taking people's money but not because they didn't know the rules. In the example I described it was funny because he is a good friend of ours, we laid out 5 low hands for comparison and teaching at the start of the night, and throughout this particular hand we explained/reminded him that the best LOW hand would win. All the way along he was saying low hands were clear to him....then he shows basically the opposite of a low...the full house.

cheers,
the Real Macoy