How quickly we forget the times when we lucked out, when
faced with a bad beat or suckout ourselves. I think a lot of you know that when
it comes to cards I take it a little more seriously than most do, and probably
more seriously than anyone should. I tend to get irked, pissed , raving lunatic
mad etc when I feel I have made a great move only to get bitch slapped by some
Donk catching cards.
I am by no means a perfect gentleman at the table and I tend
to feel free to berate the play of others at the drop of the hat when things don’t
go my way. But maybe I should berate myself sometimes also, cause lets face it
I have made some donkey suckouts in my time also and I am a person that tries
to pride himself at getting the money in with the best of it especially in a
cash game, but sometimes that just isn’t the case.
Neko and I decided to go to Choctaw Saturday night for some
good old fashion fishing. We arrived at 9pm
and for the first time in my experience at Choctaw there was a wait. So we hung
out for about thirty minutes before we were seated.
I am being walked to
my table when I am greeted by a familiar face GearBox Jimmy. He is a regular at
a cash game here in town and works with Arizona Don. I actually get seated
right next to him and we chat it up for a while. Talking about various topics
mainly poker related. Both of us were watching our stacks grow as the hours
went by. I got it up to $700 plus eventually and was dealt A-10 Suited.
I was late in position, the cut off, and told myself that I
have a semi pre-flop call station in the Big Blind thus if it was un-raised and
or folded to me I was going to bump it to the table norm of $10.
Well it was folded to me so I bumped it expecting on some
level for it to be folded around and end up just taking the blinds but I was still
thinking about how the BB likes to call. The small and big blind both call, a
little bit of a surprise, and thus leaving me thinking that neither had a
pocket pair but I might be out-kicked if they also have an ace.
The Flop comes out 10-3-3
two spades (I had Clubs), I am not concerned with the 3’s and am glad that I
flopped top pair. They both check to me and I fire out $25 with the same finesse
and confidence that got my stack where it was. The Small blind thinks and
calls. The BB folds after some consideration.
My instincts had been on track that day, and I immediately put
him on a flush draw or a ten with a mediocre kicker.
The dealer burns and rolls the turn out exposing a red 6. A
very good card for me as it did not complete the flush draw and just as importantly
it was not an over card. There was a moment of relaxation as the small blind
checked to me. I wanted to end this now and fired out $40.
The small blind takes his time and declares “I raise, $40
more.”
I didn’t really know what to think for a few seconds but it
all came back to me as I replayed in my mind some of the previous hands since
that gentleman had sat down at the table. I had been rather aggressive and had
been on a rush of cards. I could tell a few hands earlier that he was getting
tired of me raising and betting a lot. So I convinced myself he was on a semi
bluff. And that he was either holding a 10 with a j,q,k kicker or that he was
on the flush draw and was just testing me. I rationalized that if he had had an
over pair he likely would have raised the flop or even pre-flop.
“Don’t test me, and don’t try and steal my F’ing pot!!”, I
told myself.
I looked at his stack and he had around 60 something left. And
I knew that if I called here I would pretty much have to call the river bet
when he goes all in. So I decided to re-raise him all in. This would give me a
few other outs as he could still conceivably fold if he had nothing.
Well that didn’t work.
He immediately called, and I asked him “You got Jacks?”
He shook his head.
“Full house then?” I asked. Before I could really even
finish the full house question he was turning over his cards and said “I got a
3”….. I was a little puzzled by this, what hand could possibly have called with
a 3 in it? I was expecting him to uncover the bottom card and show an ace
suited, but instead I was greeted with the best kicker in the deck, and off-suit
deuce.
I flipped over my hand and said I just got A-10. I was praying
for a reprieve from the governor with a 10 on the river but that phone call
never came.
My bewilderment quickly turned to anger and I blurted out “Nice
hand Donk!”
Almost as quickly, inside I regretted saying it, cause in
the last 30-40 minutes he had played he had shown himself to be a decent player
and friendly enough to GearBox Jimmy who was sitting between us. But I was
angry. How could someone call with 2-3 off suit to a $10 raise pre-flop? I just
lost 135+ to 2-3o. “This wasn’t
happening?, how can someone call me like that? Why does this bull-shit always happen
to me?” All that normal whiny bull-shit flowed through my mind and ate away at
me.
Then it stuck me as I sat there that not just 30-45 minutes
ago I had taken all the chips from a gentleman that was sitting in his exact
seat, with the ever stunning and brilliant hand of 7-5o. We had gotten it all
in with that guy having the nut straight and me having two pair. I was fortunate
enough to miracle a full house on the river. But hey when I do it it’s skill
right?
No, not so much.
It’s dumb luck..
So why didn’t I blurt out “nice hand donk” to myself?
I will tell you why. Because when you get lucky you always
rationalize in your mind how it was a skillful play and forget about how it
feels when you are on the other side of the coin. Why? Because we, as poker
players, like to see ourselves as the next big thing and that we makes moves with
a purpose and a true talent and not that we are a big donk catching cards.
You always remember the bad beats because losing money hurts
more and is never overridden by winning more money. You still feel robbed even
weeks after the hand was dealt. That’s why people tell the same old Bad Beat
stories long after they happened. The same way I just wrote this long article
on a bad beat story and summed up a lucky catch in one paragraph.
Next time I lose a big hand to an inferior hand I am going to
try and remind myself of all the suck-outs I have pulled off, then smile and
nod and say “nice hand” and really mean it. Knowing me it won’t be easy to do,
but I got to try.
To the gentleman in the bright orange jacket two to my left,
I apologize and was out of line.
