Just got home from the casino. The way life works no one thought I was the best player at my table. Nope. Tonight was the opposite. After all the universe wants to keep me on my toes.
Instead of compliments tonight I got called out by a fellow player for my poor play. He said some nasty stuff to me. And to my credit I just sat there and nodded.
Sure I was dying to defend myself. But one thing I've learned is it never serves me to be right at the poker table. I don't need to win any arguments. I don't need to explain why I do whatever I do. (Those explanations are only for you my good reader). At the poker table it's better when the other players think I suck. And that I'm a luck box.
Here's what happened:
I bought in for $200. I was up to around $600. However I wasn't alone. There was alot of money on the table for a 1/2 game. Maybe 4 or 5 guys with similar stacks. Thus I couldn't really bully anyone. So to switch up my play I made the choice to do some loose calling preflop in hopes of taking down big hands. When I made these calls I put my opponents on big pairs. In fact I really hoped that's what they were holding. My strategy was if I could hit a big hand on the flop there was a chance I could win a big pot. Maybe even felt someone.
So a hand comes up where I have 2,5 suited (diamonds). The hand that I always seem to win with. There were a couple of limpers in front of me. I limped in as well from late position. The big blind bumps it up to $12. Everyone in front of me calls. There's now $50 in the middle and I have to call an additional $10 to see the flop. Okay. Sign me up.
5 of us see the 2, 8, king flop. There's one diamond out there.
Now here's where it gets funky. The preflop bettor checks.
Huh?
See how awesome it is to raise out of position?
The rest of us check as well. At this point I assume the original raiser has something like pocket jacks.
Turn is another diamond.
Now the preflop bettor decides to fire out $20. One guy calls. Everyone else folds.
There's $100 in the middle. I have to call $20 to win this $100. I'm getting 5 to 1 odds. I think I might have as many as 14 outs in the deck. (9 diamonds. 2 twos. 3 fives.) I promise you I'm not going broke on this hand but for $20 this is an EASY call.
River is a 2. Possibly the best card for me. If a diamond had come someone could have had a higher flush draw. And if a 5 had come perhaps someone could have been holding a better two pair. But I really doubt anyone else has a deuce. In fact my only fear right now is that the preflop bettor has something like pocket kings and was slowplaying. But we're about to find that out.
He checks the river. Other guy checks. I bet $40. If he raises me big I'm probably folding. If he raises me small I probably gotta call. If he folds then I don't have to show anyone my hand.
He does the weakest thing possible. He calls.
I turn over my 2,5. He mucks. Like I said he probably had something like a medium pocket pair (jacks?) and was looking me up. He got scared to bet on the flop because of the king on the board.
Anyhow it was this hand that caused the wrath of the other player. Best part is he wasn't even in the hand. But still he just couldn't comprehend how I had won a pot with 2,5 suited.
I dying to say to him "IF THE PREFLOP BETTOR BETS THE FLOP THEN I FOLD MY HAND BUT HE CHECKED THE FLOP AND LET ME SEE THE TURN FOR FREE AND I ACTUALLY HAD CORRECT ODDS TO CHASE MY FLUSH DRAW."
Instead I nodded and kept my mouth shut.
I didn't even giggle at him in the most annoying way possible.
Because I'm classy.
