I finally give a bad beat

[PDosterM]

It’s ten handed 10-20 in a local cardroom. The new player to my right is a calling station who is insensitive to both raises and position. He bets with a pair or better and calls (or occasionally folds) with less.

I hold 10-9 of diamonds in the cutoff position. There are two limpers before the calling station who also calls. This looks ideal for medium suited connectors so I call, but the button raises. The big blind and original limpers all call. I’m not happy with the raise, but I’m committed now, so I call. There are six players and $125 in the pot.

The flop is an ugly 2-5-8 rainbow (and no diamond). I’m ready to muck at the first legal opportunity. We all check to the preflop raiser who bets. It’s folded to the calling station who calls. This leaves three of us to contest a $165 pot. I pause. The calling station has nothing; he would have bet into the button with a pair. The button, whom I know well, will raise from that position with a wide variety of hands such as QJ suited, AQ, and medium to large pairs. If I could snag a 9 or 10 I reasoned, I could well go to the river in the lead. With six such outs, it’s 7-1 against hitting one of my overcards, but I’m getting over 16 to 1. The extra odds seem sufficient to compensate for the fact that I can hit my hand and still lose on the river. Further, I can’t get raised like happened preflop. I call.

I don’t hit either of my overcards, but a Jack appears on the turn – still rainbow. Hmm, an open end straight draw. The calling station checks (good), I check, the button bets and the calling station calls. Now the button will often check two high cards here (which I think is a mistake), so his bet likely means he started with a pair. That means my original premise for calling was wrong, but I now have eight outs to the nut straight, and the pot is offering twelve to one plus anything I might get on the last round if the straight hits. The situation has certainly clarified. I call.

The best of all possible cards hit the river – a seven. The calling station checks. I consider a check-raise, but the button is too likely to just turn over an overpair at this point, so I bet. To my delight, the button raises. The calling station finally folds, I reraise, and the button calls in disgust.

I never saw his hand, but by his demeanor it had to be three jacks or three eights. He proceeded to give me a poker lesson regarding my poor play (which is one of the reasons he is so fun to beat). The lesson actually continued the next day when he saw me again.

I rarely get to lay such a bad beat on one of my opponents since I don’t chase much. I do have to admit that it’s kind of fun. I think if the $10 flop call was wrong, it wasn’t wrong by much. What do you think?