The Next Time You Get Run Over........

.........by some doofus in Low Limit, think of this hand.


I know with the events unfolding in Manhattan and elsewhere this morning, that poker seems pretty insignificant, but life goes on, and I wanted to share this hand with you. 3-6 HE last night, game has just started, so not a great read on the texture of the game just yet. Couple of new players in the game, one seated directly to my right in Seat #7. I do see his cards on one hand where he calls the other new player in the game down all the way to the end with As7s on a flop of 9c-5d-5h, turn card is the 2c, river card the 7d. Pays the guy off all the way, and I'm thinking that maybe this guy hasn't played much HE before!


Anyway, on the hand in question, I am in the BB with JdTc, unraised, 5 limpers plus this guy on my right limps in from the SB. Flop comes down Th-Ts-9h. SB checks, I bet.


Other New Player (ONP) downtable calls, cutoff seat, a truly horrible woman player also calls, as does the SB. Turn card is the 8s. SB checks, I bet again. If I get raised, I have outs. ONP calls, woman in cutoff folds, SB calls.


River is the 9s. Now to be honest, I did not notice immediately that this made running spades. I just knew that my trips had now made a full house. SB checks, I bet, ONP calls, and SB check-raises me! Now this is less than 5 minutes after I watched this guy call the other guy down with basically nothing, so I can't see this guy making some sort of real sophisticated play at this point. My immediate reaction and read on the guy is that he had been limping along with a 9, and boy, now he's made a full house and he's raising! I did contemplate for a split second smooth calling to try to induce the player downtable to overcall (Lord knows what HE was on), but thought, what the hell, I would just as soon have the SB's extra $6 as the ONP's money, and I went ahead and re-popped it. If he shows me quads', or the str8 flush, so be it.


The ONP calls! and so does the SB! I turn over my hand, the ONP shows 9d4d, and the SB comes up with Ks4s and the comment, "Maybe I shouldn't have done that!"


So, kids, the next time someone runs you over with some sort of improbable runner-runner perfect-perfect, just smile, thank them for being in the game, and remember, it's just a short term loan. They will soon put the money back into circulation on hands like this one.

It's really easy to wax philosophical about the bad beats being the reason why the games are so good after you win a big hand and the pissers are paying you off. Still that doesn't put the money in my pocket after some 46 chromosome monkey catches the 40 to 1. I'm a winning player(keep the records) and this isn't sour grapes(I know wrong metaphor) but anyone who tells me "that's what makes the games so good" after $400 gets pushed towards the wrong person can shove it up their ass.

Well, angry young man, I am also a winning player ( I have the records, too) and I have taken just as many 40 to 1 hits as anyone, believe me. I am not waxing philosophical just because the lame-o's pushed me some extra cash. He could have just as easily showed me the 7s6s and it would have been another "will listen to bad beat stories for food" analogy.


But if you don't want to line up to play in this type of game, I don't know what to tell you. Is your poker career going to END on the next hand?

"I'm a winning player(keep the records) and this isn't sour grapes(I know wrong metaphor) but anyone who tells me "that's what makes the games so good" after $400 gets pushed towards the wrong person can shove it up their ass."


The "wrong person?" I don't know what kind of hold'em you play, but at my cardroom, the best hand wins the showdown. Would you rather see this scenario? (from my own bad beats biography.)


Dealer: "Open."

You: "Trip eights."

Fish: "Threes full."

Dealer: "Threes full of eights takes it."

You: "What the F@!#$?? Hey dealer, he didn't have a damned thing with that pair of threes until the river. I flopped trips. Now come on, who really deserves to win this hand?"

Dealer: "Oh, you're right, sir. I was about to push this pot to the wrong person. I'm sorry Mr. Fish, but only good poker plays win at this table."

Fish: "Well if that's the way it is, I'll just go play slots!"

(Mr. Fish and all the other suckers leave the table and are replaced by players who promise to play as well as you or better.)


Thank God players don't have to pass a test before they sit down. No one particularly likes taking a bad beat, but if bad players never won hands like this, they'd stop trying to do it. Just part of the game.

First off, I thought Dunc's post was well thought out and made a legitimate point. These chasers are the same people that are going to give Dunc a bad beat next time. However, as Dunc rightly pointed out, hands like this one make it apparent how these people really are paying you off in the long run. This IS what makes the game good, and Dunc correctly realized this and did a good job of describing the phenomenon as it occurred on this hand.


As for you, I think you have some serious issues that you need to work out, and soon. There is never a "wrong person" for the pot to get pushed to. Thinking this way shows that you really don't get it, and don't understand how the game really works. As long as your opponent is not drawing dead, you can NEVER be more than a 45:1 favorite from one round to the next. This means that your opponent WILL DRAW OUT ON YOU SLIGHTLY MORE THAN 2% OF THE TIME. When you flop set over set, that other guy will hit his one outer, and make the quads, slightly more than 2% of the time. AND – You will get stomped, smashed, destroyed, killed etc on that particular hand. Anyone who understands the game well will know that there is never a particular player who is "supposed to win the pot", and consequently, the pot can never be pushed to the "wrong player". You are simply a favorite or an underdog, nothing more. The cards owe you nothing, therefore there can't be any "right" or "wrong" player to win the pot. Being bitter over losing to a longshot, especially if they weren't getting anything close to the correct odds to draw, is counterproductive, self-defeating, and downright irritating to those of us who have a better handle on reality and understand the true nature of the game.


Oh, and by the way, humans have 46 chromosomes (23 pairs). I don't know how many monkeys have, but if monkeys are playing at your Holdem table, you should quit your bitching, even if they catch a miracle card and take from you the pot you were "supposed to" win.


Dave in Cali.

Would you rather the bad players leave, and better players take their place? I welcome bad players at my table, let them chase their -EV hands. I know in the long run, playing +EV situations will make me the money.


I used to get emotional over a bad beat, now I don't. I still get emotional (read: go "woohoo" inside) when I make a good or great hand and win a nice pot, though. /images/smile.gif


- Tony

however, i finally grew up (at least most of the time)...


1. i realized that it is near certainty that someone is going to make a longshot hand and win a big pot, hell it happens every hour of virtually every game i play in....if ya know this then get real, accept temporary fluctuations which are a known certainty...


2, i feel feeney"s book inside the poker mind clicked for me...i read his book and said to myslf "it's time to grow up"... (i still have my occasional outrages tho)


3. it is hard to go to the next level of poker play without getting in tune on this...harnessimg your powers positively, rather than whining..even only internally....


4. good post and gl...

I'll tell you right now, you can't be emotional over cards. About two weeks ago I lost $500 in AC in $5-$10 in a matter of 90 minutes. How did this happen?


AA cracked twice

KK cracked twice

QQ cracked after making my set

Top two pair on the flop being cracked twice


It happens, after 90 minutes, my final hand was AA and my friend had come to get me to grab dinner. I said "wait a minute, I need to get this hand cracked". Sure enough someone on 96o caught the 6 on the flop, and another on the river.


I got up, wished everyone good luck, and then bitched to my friends for the next 30 minutes about the great hands I had been getting and the bad beats I was taking.


Maybe at a table with more skilled players (or players who dont take that many chances) I would have come out a big winner.


In the long run I am a winner at poker. I'm up more then I'm down, and I enjoy the game. However, part of the game is patience, part of the game is taking bad beats, if you can't handle that part of the game you aren't going to enjoy poker.

You sure you were playing 5-10 and not 2-4? With hands like those you should have lost close to 2 bills unless you won some hands in between.

500 in 90 minutes? Ow! I lost 300 in 30 minutes at the trop in AC. Same scenario, great hands with great flops and lousy rivers. Perhaps we should start a new club, the "Ow! My Ass!" club.... You are right though about how to handle it. Bitch to your friends afterwords! Call 1-900-BAD-BEAT!

Whenever my AA gets creacked by that 2-3o, I take get their phone # and offer to send a limo to pick them up /images/smile.gif

That post just put a smile on my face. In fact, it's so well written, I can't believe I didn't write it. top-notch!