1 more story from a gambler's life

William · #1 06-23-2005, 11:59 AM

I think most of you enjoyed the 3 short stories I told yesterday and as I have many of them and enjoy telling them, here is one more.
If you think I am waisting my time and yours, it is boring as hell and without interest, let me know in your usual subtil way and I will stop.

About 10 years ago, the place to travel to was Austria.
As you may or may not know, Cardrooms were practically unknown in Europe (yes, yes, there were a couple in London and maybe other places, but the game was so tight and the Brits have so many strange rules, that you really had to be a sucker to travel to Great Britain to play in those games) (there was Paris as well, but that gold mine was dead).

Anyway, this was before online poker, the game was slowly spreading in Europe and as all experienced players know, everytime a cardroom opens in a place they are not used to play poker, a bunch of people that would never dream of playing in the underground clubs, but liked the game, ventured into these new cardrooms. Of course most of them had not a clue and it was a good place to go fishing. Sharks from all over the world would travel to these new cardrooms and make a killing. After a few months, the locals had learned to play and it was not that interesting anymore.

So, here I was together with 2 friends, landing in Vienna. After a ride to our hotel, a look at the morbid pamphlet advertising for one of the local escort services (God, I don't thank you enough for being Scandinavian and for the babes I see all day around me) and a few minutes to unpack, we are on our way to the Concord Card Club.
The place is full of sharks. We recognize several players we know and quickly decide to have a look at another club there is in town (I don't remember the name), less classy than the Concord, but the games should also be softer.
We arrive late in the evening, the place is crowded, 90% of the customers are chinese or vietnamese, even the food they serve is vietnamese, and we quickly find each a table of low limit Hold'Em. At the moment there are only low limit tables open. 7/8 players see the flop every time and it is very difficult to win with your good hands. You just must show the best hand at the showdown and as I am a fish at limit, I am never ahead at that table.

I have been losing my money for about an hour when a young guy walks in the cardroom. I notice inmediately that all games stop, everybody is looking at him and the house personal is practically only attending and welcoming him. After a few minutes they announce they are opening a 100/200$ table and like 30 seconds after the announcement, we are ready to start. Fortunately I and one of my companions were on the waiting list because if not, it would have been impossible to play at that table that day. I'm on seat 8, my friend is on seat 9 and the local whale is in seat 6, so all is for the best.
I soon realize that the whale and a couple of other guys bet/raise everytime it's their turn to act. Practically all betting rounds are capped and there is rarely less than 5 players at the showdown. I was dealt AA 3 times during that evening, everytime in late position/on the button, I didn't won once with them and I could never bet the hands as everytime it was my turn to act, the pot awas capped.

After many, many hours of playing both I and my friend had played close to even and I was dealt AK. Sitting after my friend, in seat 10 was a fat lady that had been drinking heavily. She was so drunk that she couldn't hold her cards, but as she was covered with jewels, and apparently was a valued customer, the manager had allowed her to keep playing, they had even an employee helping her not to fall down from her chair. As I said, she couldn't hold her cards and was waving them in front of my friend's eyes all the time. Because of the place I was sitting, I was not that favored.
So I was saying I was dealt AK and after the pot was capped preflop, the drunken lady being the button, a flop of AKT showed up. Capped again, x on turn, capped again while the drunken lady avoided falling from her chair a couple of times and the river brought another T. This time 2 players checked, 1 bets, I call and the lady raises. The first 2 players fold, the 3d player calls and I was going to do the same when my friend says discretely to me that she has a Ten, OOPS!

I can't really talk about the hand with him, that is against the rules and the floorman is already looking angry at me. It is also the first time that my friend comments on somebody else's hand while we are involved in a pot, but the lady has been waving her hand in front of him many, many times. I look desperately at the chips in the middle of the table, a little over 8K. They were probably mine just a few seconds ago and now suddenly have becommed unreachable, I felt like crying. That is poker, a cruel, cruel game but there is no reason to give the lucky lady an extra 200, so there it goes, my hand hits the muck.
The last player involved calls the extra bet, the lady turns over K9, the other player throws his hand away and my pot is pushed to the rich woman who feels the need of sharing her joy with some happy shouting.

I can't even say I wanted to kill my friend in that moment. I wanted to be angry at him but I couldn't. I asked why he had said to me that the woman had a Ten and I was told that it was what he thought she had because she had raised.
I was astonished he felt the need to share his evaluation of her hand in a moment that could cost me that much money and thought that probably I had been very stupid to listen to him, but how on earth could I immagine he would take the risk of talking about a hand in the middle of a game with over 8K in the pot if it was not to save me a bet?

I could see that he realized what he had done and I didn't mention the incident anymore, but I couldn't concentrate on my game anymore that week and ended losing all the money I had with me.
I have of course lost many times in my life, but it took a while to mentally recover from that single hand.

Who said "Protect me from my friends, I will take care of my ennemies myself"?
He was a wise man....

La Brujita · #2 06-23-2005, 12:03 PM

This one is a damn good story!

ds914 · #3 06-23-2005, 12:53 PM

Why does this remind me of the tales of Russ G at RGP?

William · #4 06-23-2005, 01:06 PM

[ QUOTE ]
Why does this remind me of the tales of Russ G at RGP?

[/ QUOTE ]

I have no idea! Why?

Lefthander · #5 06-23-2005, 01:15 PM

Similiar tone, I think.

Bad fold, BTW, if it was really 200 to win 8k.

poker-penguin · #6 06-23-2005, 01:17 PM

William, give up on the online poker is rigged ish and post stories, the rigged ish is sucky-boring and your stories are actually somewhat interesting.

bwana devil · #7 06-23-2005, 01:18 PM

[ QUOTE ]

Bad fold, BTW, if it was really 200 to win 8k.

[/ QUOTE ]

seems you missed the point of the story

xLukex · #8 06-23-2005, 01:20 PM

I don't get how you were dealt AA 3 times and couldn't play because it was capped.

Otherwise, good story. Kill your friend.

Lefthander · #9 06-23-2005, 01:21 PM

Did I get the numbers wrong? Because otherwise I'm pretty sure it's a bad fold even if she has the 10.

William · #10 06-23-2005, 01:23 PM

[ QUOTE ]
Similiar tone, I think.

Bad fold, BTW, if it was really 200 to win 8k.

[/ QUOTE ]

Hmmm, well, I only post here, so I wouldn't know anything about this other guy.

I know it was a bad fold, the point here is I trusted a friend too much and, I believe, he was careless. But no big deal, water under the bridge now....