Weak as in Weak? Or Weak as in Strong?

Three hands of interest from a 2/5 session.

#1- My first orbit at the table. I'm in the big blind. It gets folded around to the button and he raises it up to 20. I smooth call with ace queen.

An ace comes on the flop. I check. He bets 30. I call.

Rag on turn. I check. He bets 50.

I ask him to show me his chips. I want to see how much he has left. To see how far I'm going with this ace queen here. I see around 120 left in front of him. I can afford that. I call.

Another rag on river. This time I don't check. I figure I'm going to call his bet here anyway so the much stronger play is for me to lead out for 120.

He immediately starts complaining how I must have hit two pair.

Damn. He actually has ace king.

And I really think he was going to fold it here. But this Israeli guy to my right kept egging him on by saying stuff like "He's been raising with nothing all day. Good bet. You will make him fold his nothing."

And of course the real problem here is I don't think he has nothing. I think he has ace king.

So "we" (and by "we" I mean the Israeli guy) are certainly not going to get someone to fold his top pair top kicker here by mocking them for constantly bluffing. No. Ace king is a hand he can proudly show down and then whine about if I sucked out on him.

And so he finally calls. I loved how close he came to folding it. And I really think he may have if not for all the table talk.

Still, betting and losing, rather than calling and losing, did wonders for my constitution.

#2- A few hands later this same guy's lady and I are in a pot together. I'm holding suited connectors and flop a straight flush draw. She has two rags that have hit middle pair. I should also mention there's an ace out there.

We start betting back and forth. I figure she has the ace but am happy to chase my many many outs. We eventually showdown (I miss my draw) and she starts yelling at me.

Yes yelling.

She's telling me how bad I am.

I had no need to mock her for putting all her chips in with middle pair.

But for her taking my money wasn't enough. She just couldn't stop herself from criticizing my play and telling me how terrible I am at poker. How I must be on tilt.

It was like sitting with a person who was pretending to be crazy. Except she really was.

My only regret is I didn't take a photo of her for this blog.

Oh and that I didn't throw something at her. Like my chair. Or the table.

Our government needs to make internet poker completely legal and acceptable again just so my fellow human beings don't ever have to sit with this woman.

One other note to self here: When I sat down, I took the seat of a guy who had been begging and pleading every possible way with the poker host for a table change. There was a reason why he wanted to leave this table. Usually it's because a table is tight and has no action. But in this case after sitting at this table for just 10 minutes I'm pretty sure it was to get away from this couple. Just something to consider in the future.

#3- There was a crazy guy a few seats to my left who would make it 40 dollars to go every time he had the button. On one particular occasion when he did it again I joined the party (two callers) with my suited 8,9.

Flop comes ace king 2. Everyone checks including crazy guy.

Turn is a rag. I bet 50. Everyone folds except for crazy guy who calls.

River is a 9. I have a pair. But I obviously still can't beat an ace or king. I can beat a bluff though. So I check to him. And then something really strange happens.

He smiles at me and says "I'm weak." Then he stacks up 16 red chips and shoves out an 80 dollar bet.

Hmmmm.

"I'm weak"?????????

What the hell does that mean? What is he trying to get me to do?

Usually a person who says they're weak would only have the courage to do so when they're strong. Unless he's trying to mess with my mind. And scare me into folding. By saying that he's weak.

I want to fold. And calling here seems like throwing 80 dollars away. But I just can't get over his words. "I'm weak." Why say that?

I finally look right at him and say "If you bet 80 when you're weak how much do you bet when you're strong?"

He says nothing.

I count out 16 red chips. I stare at him again and say "I'm weak too."

Now I'm not 100% sure I'm ahead here but I can definitely come up with enough reasons to make the call. His bet fits the description of someone betting the river because they know it's the only way they can win the pot. He hasn't shown any aggression since preflop. Why bet now?

I am also damn curious at this point to see his cards. To see why he played each street the way he did. 80 bucks to satisfy my curiosity.

And of course it was "only" 80 bucks out of my pocket so that you guys can read about it now.

But a funny thing happened on the way to finding out his hole cards...

He threw them into the muck.

I didn't show mine either.

Although it would have been alot of fun to see his expression.

(Not to mention the new material I'd be providing the crazy woman with to yell at me about).