Etiquette & The Poker Player

Is there anything more annoying for a poker player than the slow roll? Not much, but I can tell you that in the last two tournments I played in, there were two different jerks at the tables and, unfortunately, they were both at MY tables. Phooey.

Jerk #1 was in the early tournament. He was just simply rude and sarcastic all the time. One time he flopped a set and when the hand was over a newer player said, "Nice trips". Jerk #1 had to make sure that the newer player was berated for not knowing the difference between a set and trips. I have told players the difference also, but I like to think I was nicer about it than this guy, who said something like, "Maybe you should go back to your poker books and start over."

Jerk #1 was exactly that - a jerk - during the entire tournament and I was super annoyed that he took third place, but glad he didn't make any real money. After he left the room, the player who knocked him out was congratulated wholeheartedly by the other player. The dealer indicated to the poker room manager that there had been many complaints by many players about Jerk #1. He told anyone within ear shot that if we had future problems with Jerk #1 that we should let him know and he would take care of it.

Jerk #2 was in the second tournament. The player in Seat 1 won a hand from him and he began to berate Seat 1's play. Seat 1 tried to defend himself in what I thought was a friendly manner but Jerk #2 was having none of it and after a couple of back-and-forth exchanges, Jerk #2 said the "f" word. Seat 1 indicated that he did not appreciate that, at which point Jerk #2 used the word again. The dealer then got involved and fireworks ensued. The floor finally had to be called over. Jerk #2 then tried to defend his use of the word and the floor would have none of that either. Jerk #2 was told to shut up or get out. To his credit, he was well behaved for the rest of the tournament. However, the episode was annoying.

Why do people have to behave this way? I can understand someone getting frustrated about the outcome of a hand because we have all been there, but I see no reason to berate other players at any time. Good manners are always important, but in a social game like poker, bad manners should never be tolerated. Just wanted to get this off my chest!!

Soft Playing is Cheating: Play Hard or Don't Play

The title of this blog was borrowed from Chapter 42 of Daniel Negreanu's book, "Hold'em Wisdom for All Players". Some of my friends and I have been discussing "soft playing" lately, so I would like to quote some of Daniel's "wisdom". I will say that I agree with it.

"What I'm about to say may surprise you. You might be a cheater and not even know it.

If you are in a poker game for money and are taking it easy on one of your buddies, you are cheating yourself, your friend, and every other poker player in the game. I realize that's a bold statement, but it's absolutely true.

In the poker world, we have a term for this type of play. It's called soft playing. When two friends, spouses, relatives or flat-out cheaters don't bet against each other, they're soft playing.

Soft playing destroys the integrity of the game of poker and it's wrong, dead wrong. [Bold and italics are mine.]

Poker is not a team sport. It's every man for himself. It's perfectly okay to root for your buddies and hope they do well, but when it's time to play the game, you have to give it your all.

. . . [and] for fairness to prevail, you have to play hard against everyone at the table. That includes Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Betty and Little Timmy. I mean, really, if you can't check-raise your own mother, what kind of player are you anyway?

Soft playing is, more often than not, totally innocent. But you need to be aware that there are snakes out there . . . . "

Thanks, Daniel. And having said all that, I still admit that I was wrong for betting into my friend Phil when I had a made straight flush on the river and was definitely going to get paid high hand money. I just got caught up in the moment.

On the whole, however, I agree with everything Daniel Negreanu said in Chapter 42 and this book in general is a great addition to anyone's poker library.

Light at the end of the tunnel?

Boy it was tough in December. Although I did not play that much due to saving money for Christmas and stuff, it was still annoying not to cash very often. I had no extra money at all as I usually do. I was totally bummed.

Going into the new year, it has been difficult to stay focused. At the Sunday 8:00 a.m. tournament at the Crazy Moose, I made it to my SIXTH final table in a row without a cash! Yes, it is wonderful to make it to so many final tables because we know we cannot cash if we don't, but then to get consistently knocked out in 6th, 7th, 8th or 9th (and not 4th or 5th) is extremely annoying.

At the Sunday 10:00 a.m. tournament, having not given up at all, I finally cashed sort of. I got my money back for finishing 5th. After the past couple of weeks, this was a monster weight off my chest.

Then the next night I decided to play the little $15 tournament at the Cable Bridge and took my portion of a 3-way split of first place. I hope my slump is over!! I am going to try the deep stack at The Island tonight so wish me luck!!

The Crazy Woman On My Left

The December Tournament of Champions was rolling along quite nicely when I ran into the person I refer to as "the crazy woman on my left". OMG. Nuts, I'm telling you. She was limping into any pot if she had any face card. It didn't matter what her other card was. She was so lucky it was sickening. She won with K-5 offsuit twice in a row. I knew she was getting lucky. I knew she had me out-chipped. Nonetheless, I decided to play a pot with her. Oops.

I had A-K suited (diamonds) with blinds of 50-100. I raised to 250 UNDER THE GUN and the crazy woman called. I was not happy that she called, but oh well. There were a total of six players in the pot before the flop. Apparently, no one believes me when I raise under the gun.

The flop was K-3-8 with 2 diamonds. Excellent flop for me with top pair (top kicker) and 4 to the nut flush. The pot had approximately 1500 in it so I bet 1200 right away deciding not to slow play. The crazy woman called and everyone else folded, which was nice, but I still had crazy woman to contend with.

The turn brought the 4 of clubs. No harm no foul - at least that's what I thought. I decided to check and see what crazy woman would do. She pushes out a HUGE stack of chips that put me all-in. Good grief. Even though I said out loud, "You probably called my pre-flop raise with K-3 offsuit," I decided I was pot committed and went all-in. OMG. I almost called her hand perfectly. She had K-4 offsuit and had hit 2 pair on the turn. I was just amazed. However, I could still hit another K or ace or any diamond and it was still possible for me to get a bigger 2 pair. No such luck. Another stupid 4 hit the river and she knocked me out of the TOC with a full house.

God save me from mad dogs, Englishmen and crazy women on my left. I had to vent.

Trouble With Traps

My downfall in two recent tournaments was not being able to see a trap. Both times, the players limped into a multi-way pot with pocket aces and trapped me good when I flopped top pair with top kicker. I think these traps were difficult for me to see because I personally would not limp with aces in that situation and I do not understand how other players can do so. In both of these instances, it worked out for them, but in the long run, why would you want to pit your aces against more than one or two opponents?

I guess I should be happy that they play that way because eventually it will come back to bite them in the you-know-what. I cannot say that I have never limped with aces, but the situation has to be perfect. Just the other night I had them on the button and it was just me and the two blinds, so that wasn't so bad. Even then there was a flop of 10-10-4 and it scared me that one of the blinds might have a 10, which luckily they didn't and I did win the pot, but it wasn't very big. Oh, well. As Stu Unger used to say, with aces it's always better to win a small pot than lose a big one.

Wasting a Vacation Day

I played (if you want to call it that) in the senior's tournament at the Fall Poker Round-Up in Pendleton on Tuesday. I used a vacation day for this and truly wish I hadn't wasted my time. I played a grand total of four hands. I won with A-K (did not see a flop after my raise) and won with pocket 3s (flopped a set; I bet on the turn and everyone folded).

I had KK in the big blind with SIX pre-flop limpers so I raised to 300 with blinds being 25-50. I thought this was a pretty good raise and I was right because I got everybody out except one guy who reraised to 1125. I just shoved it all in. The guy had the only hand I didn't want to see (AA) and was just waiting around for me to do exactly what I did. It wouldn't have made any difference if the raise was before or after the flop because with a queen high flop, all the money was getting in anyway. Naturally, I lost and was down to 950 in chips. This was only because I won the two previously mentioned hands.

My last fiasco (and totally my fault) was calling in the small blind with Q8 offsuit (nobody raised). The flop was 2-2-3. Nobody bet. The turn was an 8 so I had two pair with a queen kicker. I went all in again. The same guy that had limped/trapped me with AA now called me with 10-10, which he also didn't bother to raise with before the flop. If he had raised I never would have called with Q8. I was gone. I didn't even have any luck with my $20 slot machine investment. Phooey!!

The only good thing about my vacation time was that I took a total of two days off and got back on the horse to take 4th place in the Wednesday morning tournament at the Moose for a small win. It made me feel better though!

Good and Bad

I played in the Tournament of Champions on Sunday at the Cable Bridge. I was going along smoothly with 6100 in chips after the first break and blinds of 200-400. My first mistake was to raise to 1400 in early/middle position with AJ offsuit, which I could have easily folded or limped in with. A guy on the button went all in for a total of 3400. I thought he might be making a "button raise" because he was pretty active on the button. My second mistake was calling him. He had pocket kings and they held up. Just like that, I was down to 2700 in chips and after the blinds I only had 2100.

My next (and fatal) mistake was not having enough patience to wait for a better hand that A3 offsuit to go all-in with about 2 hands later. I got called by - you guessed it - pocket kings. They held up again and I was toast. I was so irritated with myself that I went home and ate a big bowl of ice cream with tons of chocolate sauce to make myself feel better.

However, it is hard to keep me down for very long and I decided to pick myself up, dust myself off and get back on the horse right away. I went back and played the little $15 tournament at 7:00 and I won it! I must pat myself on the back for this because it was seriously tough to win this tournament. At one point, with the blinds at 3,000-6,000 I was all-in with KQ hearts and it held up. There were still 6 players left at that point and I had no chips to speak of. When there were 3 players left I had only 21,000 chips and the other 2 guys had the other 83,000 chips. Yours truly took them down - yippee!!

I feel much better now - and I get to play in another Tournament of Champions in December! :)