Who was I playing against?

[C Horse]

Hello everyone, nice forum. I had a sort of interesting poker experience that I still haven't quite figured out that I'm hoping for some insight on.

Several months ago I was in Montana on business. I went to a small casino where they had a 8-10 person 3-6 hold 'em game. I bought in for $200 and sat down.

After getting acclimated, I determined that the players were ok, but there was money to be made. Kinda strange game though. For example, when one guy didn't raise the river with a nut hand Old Man with Big Stack loudly berated him. "Why didn't you raise? You had the nuts! Do you even know what the nuts is?!!"

Even stranger to me was that there were "house players". I hadn't played in a game with house players before. There was a sign that said "House players will be identified upon request" but I didn't ask. I thought that I knew who the house players were for various reasons. For example - sometimes they would deal, they would leave the table if a customer came - etc. Anyway, it didn't look like they were trying to make a secret of it. Plus, there were enough locals at the table that I was comfortable with it.

Anyway - I'm doing ok, up 20 bucks or so, when Old Man with Big Stack says "oh hell, Steve's coming - be ready to get raised" Then the conversation turns to Steve who it sounds like is very aggressive, could be maniac, but left the table up $500 the night before.

Anyway, shortly Steve shows up. He turns out to be a skinny white guy - mid 20's. He either has quite an act or is the most obnoxious guy in the world. The guy is ranting and raving about current events (Kobe Bryant) cursing about hands immediately etc. When he showed up, the feel of the table changed dramatically.

So Steve loses a little, wins a little, then shifts gears into an extremely aggressive mode. He straddles, raises pre-flop on about about 75% of hands etc. apparently without considering position for about half an hour. That led to lot of folding and grousing. At some point Old Man with Big Stack started calling after saying "hell, we're gonna have to call if we wanna play at all with this ass playing"

After that, the table loosens up and there is lots of pre-flop action. So now, there are huge pots, lots of capped bets and Steve is winning about 50% of the hands. When there is a showdown, Steve almost always flips a big hand.

I'd been playing tight, but when I finally got Big Slick I played it and got beat by Steve's aces. Now, this whole time Steve is winning he is still loud, bitching, etc. He has such an antagonistic relationship with the dealers that I'm surprised he's allowed to play there. At one point he had a several minute heated discussion with one dealer over a minor procedural matter (can't remember what it was).

At one point, after Steve beat me with nice hole cards again, I gave his cards a long stare, then the dealer a real long stare before I mucked. After that, he continued aggressive and somewhat hot for 3-4 hands before I caught pocket kings. He reraised and I capped pre-flop. He raised the flop, house player folded, I reraised, and Steve folds. Only thing is, rather than just tossing the cards, he pushes them in with his index finger over the top. As he pushes them in, he lifts the front edge just enough so that I can see one of his cards - 7 [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]

This experience left me with a lot of questions. The main one is "who is Steve?"

What do you guys think? maniac, cheater, houseplayer, houseplayer and cheater, good card player, lucky card player, ass, guy with an act., etc, etc.

I still haven't figured it out. Any thoughts? - CH

[spamuell]

It seems to me that steve has been taking advantage of B&M pattern mapping techniques. Search the forums for "log8" if you don't know what I'm talking about.

[C Horse]

Ha - log8, interesting threads.

In a seven card stud game with a crappy shuffler predicting cards isn't too difficult. I don't believe it for hold 'em though.

I calculated this guy's winnings at about 35BB per hour across two sessions of three hours each.

Obviously a super aggressive player on a rush will do well.

When that guy is distractingly obnoxious, seated next to the dealer, and has an extremely antagonistic relationship with the dealers but is still allowed to play it makes ya wonder.

[Jezebel]

[ QUOTE ]
When that guy is distractingly obnoxious, seated next to the dealer, and has an extremely antagonistic relationship with the dealers but is still allowed to play it makes ya wonder.


[/ QUOTE ]

Makes you wonder what? It sounds like every nit I've every played with.

[bigpooch]

Maybe I am paranoid, but I often suspect cheating first!

[symphonic]

Just make a note to the floor next time to keep an eye on him and the dealers.