Saturday, June 30, 2018

The best 4 words to hear at a poker table

I’ve posted previously of the 2 best words to hear at a poker table – free drinks. But 4? Who wants free drinks? More free drinks sir? Nope, this actually has to do with poker rather than beer.

We’ve all heard the expression that you can’t bluff a bad player and it’s along those lines that the 4 best words to hear at a poker table come about.

I’m a couple of hours into a mediocre session at a 1/2 table when I pick up As-Ks on the button – there’s been a number of limpers which is pretty standard for the make up of this table so I raise to $15 and get 1 caller from MP and the BB. Flop is Qs-10h-4s and the BB and MP both check. Without hitting a made hand this is one of the best flops I could have hoped for so I lead out for $25 into $50, BB folds and MP calls. Turn is 7h and MP checks and I bet $50 into $100 which is called. River is 6h and again MP checks. Now do I turn my missed everything draw into a heart flush bluff? It’s quite possible that this guy (he’d only played 1 or 2 hands since sitting down and hadn’t made an aggressive move, whilst this was the 1st pot I’d played since he joined) has missed a spade draw as well or if even if he’s got a made hand I’ve essentially rep’d an overpair all the way through – so yes I bet $125 into $200. 

I’ve effectively put him all in and I’ve only got $60 or so behind so there’s no way he can rebluff me. He thinks about it for a minute before calling. I table my missed everything and he turns over 2h-2d. WHAT THE FUCK??? So you’ve check called all the way with pocket deuces against 5 overcards, straight and flush possibilities on the board – err ok. It’s as he’s scooping the chips that he looks over towards me and says “I don’t get bluffed”. Now he thinks it means that he’s made a hero call and that he’s got me worked out and he looks smug but I know exactly what it means – I don’t like getting bluffed and I’m more than capable of massively over valuing my hand if I have anything. But he doesn’t know that I know what it means and I know that he doesn’t know that I know etc etc. 

Just as an aside – looking back at this hand it’s unbelievable that I’ve not actually hit something that’s improved my hand. On the flop I’ve got an inside straight draw (3 jacks), 2 overcards (3 kings and 3 aces) and a flush draw (9 spades) giving me a 62.4% chance of winning the hand. Had I known his hand I’d get stacks in on the flop every time.

Over the next hour or so he proceeds to call light every single time, showing middle pair, top pair on a flush board and he’s lost what he won from me and rebought more than once. Unfortunately once I rebought I couldn’t pick up a hand so didn’t see any of those chips back but I know that the best 4 words to hear at a poker table have no relevance to what the speaker actually thinks they mean.

And in the absence of getting a decent hand – “free drinks, free drinks” would be just as good 4 words to hear as well