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Hugely Strange Live Poker Hand
Posted By: Stick
Date: Sunday, 24 April 2016, at 9:02 p.m.
My Vegas write up is going to be long enough I believe that I should separate off this story. This is a very bizarre poker hand that I was involved in during my time in Vegas. The back story is relevant to completely understand the hand for you poker players out there.
Back Story
I stayed a few days after the tournament ended. During this time I was dying for Mr. Chow's pot stickers. By far the best pot stickers I've ever had. In fact, for dinner that night I had not 1, not 2, not even 3, but 4 orders of pot stickers. The bartenders thought it was weird/hilarious but they're so damn good! The other stuff there is really good too but I can get great steak, sea bass, etc...anywhere. Might as well indulge in the one thing I can't find anywhere else while there.
So after that, around 8pm, I was to the point of 'what am I going to do tonight in Vegas?'. That is usually blackjack or poker if I'm not hanging out with friends. I decided on some donk poker. Rather than go back to the Flamingo where their poker room is a dingy hole, I decided to stay at Caesar's even though I only planned on playing in some low limit game. The room there is much nicer. All they had was low limit limit and 1/2 NL so I joined a NL game.
I played for hours on end with a few of the same people. At times I was playing a bit wreckless because...well, who cares, it's 1/2 NL, if things go wrong you'll lose a couple hundred bucks in a hand. I kept trying to get either the guy to my left or right to flip if the blinds were folded to us. Neither of them would do it. At one point I was bored enough to shove anyway without looking, the guy to my left knew that, looked at his cards and called. He had KQ off. They ran out the board, he had caught a pair. I turned my cards over one at a time. The first card was a deuce, no help. The second card an ace, also no help but I got my money in with the best of it!
Another hand we were in later where I was bored we were both playing out of the blinds with only 3 people in the hand. The flop was 468 rainbow, that guy bet out and I shoved again with 85 off because, why not? I got him to call off his stack with 83. Unfortunately I wasn't lucky and we chopped that pot.
As the hours wore on the players in the room thinned until we were down to 1 table and playing short handed. (6-7 players) The guy to my left suggested we make the game 2/5 NL instead of 1/2. He didn't want to do it because of the increased antes but because at 1/2 NL you can only buy in for a max of $300. At 2/5 you can buy in for $1,000. He wanted more money on the table. There was minor hold out from one or two players but eventually everyone was cool with it. We made the change to 2/5 and at least 3 of us loaded up the max we could buy in for.
We played for a couple more hours probably before the following hand came up. The guy to my left was about 30 years old and clearly a winning regular if not local pro poker player.
The Hand
Action folded to the guy one off who makes it $15. I'm on the button and make it $50, I had jacks. The small blind makes it $150 and it's folded back around to me. At this point we both have between $1200-$1300 in front of us probably. Jacks are a good hand but they really shrink up when you're 4 bet preflop by someone out of position.
My thoughts at the time were, after playing with this guy for so long, that he hadn't done anything out of line like this before. He was a bit quick to 3 bet from the small blind to a late position raiser but that's generally good poker. I had to put him on a monster preflop hand. The most likely culprits are aces, kings, queens or AK. There's a very small chance he could do it with jacks, tens, or AQ suited but I didn't put much stock in this. I wasn't happy but I figured jacks were too big to not see a flop with. Maybe he did have AK and he'd miss. I can reevaluate after the flop. Maybe I'll luckbox and spike a jack? No matter what I have position for the entire hand which should help me run through the minefield.
The flop
The flop comes down 25T rainbow. This is more bad news than good news given the range I put him on. A blank flop like this holding jacks is normally a great thing but if he also has a monster I'm totally dominated with the flop leaving it tough to get away from my hand.
He checks to me. He could be checking because he has AK, missed, and is going to give up rather than make a big continuation bet when it's so obvious I'm on some sort of hand. He could also be checking because it's a perfect flop to check kings or aces with. It's so dry there's really nothing he's scared of coming on the turn. Giving a free card involves hardly any risk at all. Still, in no limit, my tendency is to bet in this type of spot. I don't want to give a free card. If any over card to my jacks were to turn up I'd be left with such a bad taste in my mouth. I decided to bet $125.
He check raises me to $300. I forced him to define his hand and define it he has. It's super unlikely that he's simply trying to outplay me at this point. I believe his hand is aces or kings. I get stubborn though and decide to see the turn. I'm putting $175 in to a roughly $750 pot so the odds aren't horrible. I'm dying to see what he does after the turn.
The turn
The turn is a 4 putting two diamonds on the board. In words, there might as well not be a turn for the most part as it changes nothing. There's the outside, outside, outside ^10 chance that he could have been making a move with AK and that would give him an inside straight draw as well as two over cards but that really isn't a factor into the hand. I still believe he has me crushed.
He bets out $300. I totally believe his story now believing I'm destroyed in the hand. I've been playing poker for hours on end and don't mind wrapping it up at this point. If I call I'm basically declaring myself all in for the hand having maybe $500 behind. That means if I call I might as well shove in case he does happen to be on AK I can perhaps push him off it but not give him a free card.
I make what I clearly know to be a bad play, the wrong play, and waste of money and shove. It's a raise of ~$500 for him to call. Immediately after I say 'all in' he snap calls. After he snap calls he utters what I already know 'kings' and I'm resigned to glancing at the river card in case a jack shows up. It doesn't, river is an ace. I say nice hand...
I'm not sure where over the years I developed 'good poker sense' or who knows what you call it but I don't release my cards. A lot of people in that situation would have probably folded after hearing the news about 'kings'. There is absolutely no doubt whatsoever in my mind that he has kings. The betting the entire hand led me to it but the snap call on the turn raise means it's 110% he has kings. Still, I hang on to my cards until he turns his over.
He turns them over. He has ... KQ off. Everyone is confused as nobody thought he had anything but kings. I turn over my jacks. Apparently his misread his cards and never looked back at them throughout the hand. He starts mutterings about 'being sick' and etc...all the normal stuff you'd say if somehow you wasted over a grand because you misread your cards. The chips get pushed my way and he rebuys for the maximum.
First, if anything of this nature ever happens to you at the poker table, the backgammon board, the wherever in the world you are and you can get away from it get up and leave. It will negatively affect you no matter what you think. That's not something you can just brush off unless perhaps the stakes you were playing for were meaningless to you to begin with. He continued to play and within' the next 15 minutes he super donked off another 4-5 hundred making what he knew to be a bad call. He then proceeded to throw his cards, get up, curse, the usual.
Second, and I don't believe this to be the case but I have to speculate about it, what if he was making a move the entire time with some mediocre hand? What if he decided to play it out like he had kings even though he didn't and then tried the snap call + lie to get me to lay my hand down. Would have been one hell of a dirty move.
Misreading your cards/the board happens. It's not common at all esp. in a situation like this with so much action but it happens to the best of them.
Stick
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