Live poker is like a rabbit…

… behind an electric fence.

I don’t play live that often. I want to, but my life (read as wife) is pretty demanding, and with the kids schedules and my work schedule, and the time commitment it takes to haul my ass down the expressway to AC, getting the 8 hours or so it would take to have a good live game experience is just so rare for me. Playing live is something I want to do more of, but it is just so much easier to click on the computer at 9 or 10 O’clock at night, after the kids and wife have hit the sack, and get in a couple hundred hands then it is to schedule (read as beg) the time to get down to AC.

… I have an electric fence for my dog. He is really good and well trained and the ‘zapper’ is tuned way up to keep him away from temptation. The rabbits know the limits of the fence and sometimes sit just on the other side of boundary, nibbling on clover (bad lawn care) while my dog salivates just five feet away. Since my dog is a natural hunter, watching him sit there is a little disheartening. But, every once in a while, despite whatever pain he will have to endure, he snaps and just bolts through, bearing the pain for the brief instant because the temptation of chasing that rabbit is so strong. The pain is huge, to which I can attest having been unwilling to put something on my dog that I had not felt myself first (what a bad idea that was), but the pleasure of that chase is just so great that the pain doesn’t matter for that instant in time. It only happens about once a month, and when he gets home, he looks really happy. …

I was my dog last night. Despite the pain associated with HAVING to go down to AC last night (read as argument) I did it anyway. I had the bug bad. No amount of explaining can properly frame how I felt to my wife. Her arguments as to why I shouldn’t really take off at 8 O’clock on a Wednesday night to drive one hour down to AC when I had to work the next day might have made a lot of sense (read as DID make a lot of sense) but I just had to go.

I trotted up to the fence, took a deep breath, and bolted through. The zap was immense, but a few minutes later, I had a huge smile on my face as I chased down the expressway to catch rabbits down at the Taj.

I got to AC at about 9, quickly got a seat at a $1/$2 NL table, bought in for three hundred clams and went to work. I don’t have a lot of stories and I don’t want to bore you with a lot of hands, so I will jump right to the chase, I won $500, cashing out $800 at about 2AM. The table was full of Donkey’s chasing flushes and calling down with nothing. Winning $500 was easy, so I’m not saying that this was much of an accomplishment. It just was. I did have a really great time, and the guy to my right was a great guy with whom I had a ball joking with all night.

The guy was from the Pittsburgh area. 6 weeks ago, he fell off a ladder and shattered his leg. He had 3 operations and acquired a serious infection in the process. He just got out of the hospital last week after a five week stay and he went with his buddies to AC this week. He is actually still on intravenous antibiotics for the infection and he still has a great deal of pain in his booted leg. The IV is in a fanny pack, worn on his front, and the line actually goes in his arm, up the vein, through his shoulder, and into his heart. His leg is so painful that every time he bumped the boot he would let out an audible grunt of pain.

… the rabbit he was chasing must have been mighty juicy!!

A running joke the whole night was that I kept forgetting to tip the dealer when I dragged a big pot. Blame internet play. I would remember hands later and get her/him back then. I told Pittsburgh that he was supposed to kick me every time I forget… get it, kick me… his leg is a total mess… get it? Never mind. It seemed funny at the time.

Since I don’t play live very often, there was one hand that I found incredibly interesting. I find it so interesting because it was a hand I think I would have lost on the internet, but that I won live. The table was incredibly loose and was calling most raises all the way around. So, the standard raise had kept creeping up to where it had finally topped out at $20 (that’s right, 10xBB). It was the only raise that could get anyone out of the pot. I found tens in the cutoff. There were a couple of limpers and I saw the button reaching for chips. I wanted to see where I stood so I raised by the standard amount (Now $20), thinking he would re-raise with Queens or better, which he did not do. He simply called. I think raising when you know the button is going to act behind you is important with Jacks and Tens because you want to be able to bet them with confidence if the flop is junk. Without raising, you can’t rule out the button having bigger pockets then you. Since this hand was live, the fact that he reached for a raise allowed me to know he was going to raise and to make a play that helped define his hand for me. Both blinds called and the limpers bailed. I figured I could still be against Jacks or a lower pair so even with a good flop, I still had a little trepidation, but far less than I would had I called and he raised.

The flop was J83 all diamonds… a pretty good flop for me, although I couldn’t remember if I had a diamond. I was tempted to look, but I knew this was a bad idea. I didn’t want to show any weakness. Besides, I was busy watching the other players to see if they peaked at their cards. None did. The blinds checked and since I had a pretty good shot at being in the lead here, I bet, half the pot or $30.

This is when the button did the second thing that allowed me to win this hand. He checked his cards, thought for a second and called. It was obvious what he was checking for. He was checking to see if he had the Ad. There was no other reason for him to check his cards except for that reason. He didn’t remember the suit of his ace. At this point, only a hand like AdJ was scary to me, but I was pretty sure that he would have re-raised with that hand. I knew what he had. He gave me a perfect indication that he was on the draw. When the blinds folded, I knew I was in great shape. On the turn (a blank), I lead out again, betting 2/3 of the pot and he called again. The river was a blank and I made a small bet, which he did not call.

On the internet, this hand might have played out much differently. I would have bet the same on the flop, but, when he called, I would have been in a spot. Was he calling on the draw or calling with a jack? I would have had to check the turn, which he could easily pick up as weakness and exploit either now or on the river with a nice sized bluff. I would probably lay down to that bluff.

But live, he gave his hand away. He didn’t have a Jack or a made flush but he did have the Ace of Diamonds and he made it absolutely clear that he was drawing to it. I had no fear when I bet. If I diamond fell, I would have folded to ANY bet by him. I didn’t even bother to figure out whether one of my tens was a diamond or not because I knew I was gone on the river if one fell.

The rest of the table asked what I had afterwards, offering up some guesses “AJ”, “KK”, “QQ”, and “JJ” I heard. I showed my tens and got some curious looks. They didn’t know why I bet it so heavily, which is why I showed it, because I guessed that they couldn’t know why I liked my hand so much, and I guess that if I let them know that I would give some action with an underpair that they might not respect my bets later.

The rest of my hands were pretty mundane. Get a good hand. Bet it. Have the chasers chase and drag a pot at the end. Get a good hand. Bet it. Have the chasers chase. Have the catchers catch. Fold when they over bet the pot. Rinse and repeat.

I left about 2AM. I got home at 3AM.

… when my dog returns from his chase he has one more problem. Despite the big smile on his face, he now is stuck. He can’t get back in the yard because the fence is still on. So he sits out in the street and barks until we realize he is out there. Basically, he gets it on both ends. He takes the hit for leaving the yard, and, after all of his fun is done, he either has to take the hit again, or he has to patiently wait until we decide to let him back in …


I am still waiting.

Poker is like...

... a driving lesson from my Dad.

When my father taught me to drive he put me to a test. He said, "You are never allowed to pass on a two lane road."

I objected, “But dad, it is perfectly legal to pass on a two lane road when the line is dashed.”

“I realized that,” he said, “but YOU are not allowed to do it.”

“That’s crazy. Why not?” I asked.

To which he devised this test. We took our little driving test onto the nearest windy two lane road we could find. We drove on it until I came up behind a slower car. He then asked me to tell him every time I thought it was safe to pass. I did really well, getting it correct something like 49 out of 50 times.

He said, "Like I said, you are never allowed to pass on a two lane road."

"BUT DAD!," I protested, "I was right 49 out of 50 times!"

My dad said, "But son, you are dead now!"

In poker, making the Big Bluff is the same idea. It is going to win you a few hands. You will win a little bit most times when you make the Big Bluff. That little bit will feel really good, like shaving 3 minutes off the drive to your friends house because you blew by granny on Kettlebridge Road. You have pulled a fast one and the fractional gain feels so much better than it actually should. But, every now and then, when you least expect it, you will find yourself driving headon into the nuts.

A bluff doesn’t have to be huge to win. So the question becomes, why risk everything for such small gains? The player that put that beat on me re-raised all-in with NOTHING, after I had already raised the flop. That player used the Big Bluff, and sure enough, there was a truck coming his way.