WSOP Bad Beat Story

[Vincent Lepore]

WSOP 2005 is underway --tomorrow. I played some single Table Satellites ---today. I am running bad. Bad, bad, bad. O.K., I'm not playing very confidently either. In my first satellite I finished 4th. Little did I know or expect that it would be the best finish I would have in the 7 or so satellites I would play over the past few days.

Like I said I wasn't playing very confidently. O.K I was playing like crap. So after I lost a satellite that I played with Mel Judah I quit for the afternoon and went home. At home I openned up PartyPoker and played a couple of $55 single tables just to see if I could build some confidence back into my psyche.

The last satellite I played at the Rio went something like this, I was 3rd to act at a full table. UTG limped. Blinds were 25-50. I had about T800. I limped with 9c,7c. As I threw my T50 in I looked at the UTG player and smiled. I was in a "Cute" frame of mind. Mel Judah was in the SB. Everyone else folded to him. He raised to T175. The BB and UTG folded but I, in my "cute", mode decided to call. I figured Judah was f...ing around. I know my players. The flop came 7h,6h,3d. Judah led out with a T225 bet. I, "cutely", moved in all of my remaining chippies. Oops ... "I call" says Judah with no hesitation. I, not so cutely, sheepishly, in fact, say "I was hoping you wouldn't say that" and turn over my 9,7. Judah turns over, go ahead and guess A,A, if you must. O.K, you were right. A,A. How come I didn't know that? I look down at me feet, cutely, and walk away from the table justifying my play to the cute little voice in my head that was yelling "Stupid, stupid".

O.K lets move on. So I'm home now. I'm playing a PP (not Paul Phillips) $55 sit n go. 6 players remain. I get all of my T1100 chips in preflop with K,K against Q,Q. Q on the river and I now know that I am running bad. Bad, bad, bad. So what do I do? I decide to play another one just to make sure. O.K. I finish third. I'm not running that bad I say to myself. At least I only lost the juice in these two sit n go's.

So...so I go back to the RIO, of course. I see Smoothcall playing a $175 satellite. He's the chip leader 3 handed. I say, hey if he can do it so can I so I enter a $65 satellite. I am not as wealthy as Smoothcall. O.k everything is going fine. First round. I have T1000 to start. Blinds are 25-25. Well, that's not important. I lose half of my chips with A,Ko against K,9 off. The next hand I lose the rest with 5,5 against 4,4. Bad, bad, bad...no that was not the bad beat story. The bad beat story goes like this. It's the same satellite. First round. I'm in the cutoff with Ts8s. 4 limpers to me. I limp. Button limps. 8 of us see the flop. The flop is T,8,3 one spade. It's checked to me. I reach for my stack and am about to bet when I look at the board again. I stop, put down my chips and stare at the board. I just stare for a few moments. No, I'm not trying to trap someone or decide whether to bet or not I'm just not sure anymore of just what I have. I almost never look at my cards after the flop. I know what I have and I do not ever need to look at them after the flop to make sure. But that was not the case here. I had the Ts8s. No I couldn't have the Ts8s because the spade on the board was the 8s! WTF, I thought to myself, no wonder you are playing bad you must be tired, too tired to play. I figure that I must have the Ts8c in my hand. So to be sure, before I make a bet, I look at my cards and sure enough I have the Ts and the 8s! I look at the board, in fact I get out of my seat and lean over the flop to make sure. Yup, there on the flop was the 8 of spades! So I stop play right there. I turn my hand over and declare " What we have here is fail.." No, what I said was, "call the floor we have a problem." So the floor comes over and kills the hand and gives everyone back there part of the pot and we fix the deck and continue the satellite. A few hands later I lose with the A,K and 5,5 and I am out.

So there you have it. Sure, worse things have happened. I'm sure all of you have a bad beat story you could tell us. But this one was mine. Two 8s in the deck. I have one and flop top two pair with it. It happened just as I've told you. And it happened when I was running real bad. Bad, bad, bad...but not sad. No this was a bad beat story not a sad beat story. There was nothing sad about it. In fact all I could do when it happened was laugh. Laugh, laugh, laugh... I guess some things are just not as really bad as they first appear. Life goes on. There are things that are just beyond our control and in poker bad beats are one of them. I'm home now but you know what, I can't wait to get back to the RIO and the 2005 WSOP. Good luck to you all and don't let those bad beats sadden you.

Vince