My Arch Nemesis

I recommend reading the post below to give yourself a little background.

So I made the mistake of being a compassionate human being and giving this woman the benefit of the doubt.  Not good.  Let's call it half an hour later, she has about one stack ($100) in front of her.  She's in seat 9, I'm in seat 3, so I have position on her 67% of the time.  She raises to $15 in early position.

Sidebar: a $15 raise in 1/2 (at least where I play) is a a significant raise.  The standard bets are usually $7-12.  I'm sitting with about 5 stacks, so I can afford to loosen up and see some flops, especially against players who I feel I can outplay.  Her reaction to the $15 mentioned in the previous post did give me some valuable information.  I learned that the money is important to her.  I'm not trying to sound like an asshole, but you know what I mean.  I don't think she's going to bet with nothing, and piss it away.  This means that if she checks the flop first, I can bet and she'll fold a large percent of the time (whiffing)

Back to the story, I have K9 of clubs.  Not a good hand, but I have position and sense weakness, so what the hell.  The flop is 9 blank blank, two clubs.  This is one of those flops that can get people into trouble.  I know that she bet $15, so she could easily have an over pair.  I'm not trying to lose $100 in an attempt to win $15.

She checks.  I bet $25.

This is where it gets interesting.  She takes 90% of her stack into her hand, reaches over the betting line (which is enforced) drops the $25 without saying anything, and brings the rest of the stack back with her.  The dealer informs her that all the chips in her hand need to stay out there.  Her reaction is obviously much worse then when she heard she owed $15.  This will cost her about $75.  She starts to argue, saying she didn't know the rules, that she's never played here, blah, blah blah.  The floor is called.

Here's what's going though my head.  I really didn't want to have to call a check raise all in, but this isn't that. Her reaction is telling me that she does not have a $75 hand.  Second, one thing I've learned is that these situations can give you away.  I sat there, and didn't say a word.  The dealer and the floor can work it out.  My getting passionate about it (either way) isn't going to help, and will give my hand away.  I think my 9's are good (right now) but don't really know what she has.  I have the K high flush draw and a decent kicker with the 9s, but who knows...I certainly didn't.

The floor's decision makes me a bit mad.  He warned her, let her call, and take her chips back.  Whatever.

The turn is a K.  I have top two pair with the second nut flush draw.  Ok, now I'm good.  She checks.  I bet $50.  She calls.  She has about $20 behind.  The river pairs the board, but it doesn't matter. I bet the rest, she folds, showing AQ of clubs (nut flush draw).

I win the pot, but it doesn't feel good.  Should I have demanded the money stay in?  Should I have even been in the hand?  Did I play it right?

By my calculations, this woman now owes me $35.

Arch Nemesis

She starts talking.  She goes on and on about how she plays so much poker, and has never heard of a place that enforces the line.  She says the line should have a "bet line" label so people would know.  Blah, blah, blah.  The dealer warned her, the floor warned her, I warned her, and she somehow saved herself her whole stack.  You'd think this would be enough to teach someone right? Wrong.

About five hands later, she's in the hand, I'm not, and neither is the one seat.  The same exact thing happens (new dealer).  She puts her whole stack across (doubled up twice) to make a small call.  I look at the guy in seat one who sees it as well.  We don't say anything.  Etiquette says let the players in the hand/dealer handle it.  Which is exactly what we did.

The hand ends, and seat one says, "you know you did it again right?" she goes off.  She yells many things.  How it doesn't make a difference.  That we need to leave her alone, that we shouldn't say anything that she's just playing for fun.

I love bad players.  I try to keep them happy, I want them to sit down next to me (on my right) and have the most fun they've ever had losing money to that really nice kid in the Purdue hat.  But I can't stand people who run their mouth for no reason.  I'm thinking "Lady, you f'ing owe me.  It's because I allowed you to be here, that you are still here...stfu" as she continues to talk and talk and talk.  I decide that no matter what happens, I want all her chips.

Well, I don't get them.  She turned that $20 into about $150 (not through me).  Because of the $35 I let her get away with, she was able to walk away with the stack and a half.

I am the rightful owner of that $150, and I'll be waiting.

The Worst $15 I've Ever Spent

Poker players Winning poker players are the cheapest of the cheap bastards.

At any given time, you'll see players eating the free crackers that came with the salad they ordered four hours ago.  You'll see them arguing over the menu, complaining about the chicken fingers at $6.99 being a huge ripoff.  You'll see players with $1000 stacks stiffing the waitress on her $1 tip etc.

I'm playing 1/2 ($1 small blind $2 big blind) No-Limit Hold Em.  I have about $500 in front of me, and I'm going to tell you about the worst $15 I've ever spent.

Into the 9 seat comes a late twenty-something year old woman.

When someone new comes to the table, I'm checking them out.  It's crazy to think of the kinds of things I observe and pick up on these days.  First off, she's a woman, she's African American, she's wearing a t-shirt and some kind of athletic/warm-up pants.  She also buys her chips at the table, using an unknown number of $20 bills.  Oh, and I've never seen her before.

What does this tell me?  I'm willing to bet one of my stacks that she doesn't play poker regularly.  Regulars know that in this poker room (and many others), the house tries to get you to buy your chips at the window prior to sitting down at the table.  Second, regular poker players usually carry big bills.

None of this matters.  She hasn't played a hand yet.  I'm just giving an example of the kinds of things I catch running through my head.

Back to the story.

The chip runner comes over and takes her cash.  She's immediately the big blind (BB).  She has a "Money Behind" button in front of her and no chips.  I limp in, a player to my left raises to $15, she calls, I call.  To the flop we go (three of us).

Lady checks, I bet, both players fold, and the dealer pushes me my $30 pot.  A minute later, the chip runner returns with her chips.  The dealer asks for the $15 she owes me, and I see confusion.  She tells the dealer that she didn't know it was raised to $15.  That she had 7-2, and wouldn't have called $15.  The dealer informs her that she still owes the $15, that the raise was announced and she called.

Here's where Rhino (incorrectly) starts to feel bad.  I can tell that she's sincere.  This was clearly a mistake.  I tell her to keep it.  Dealer throws it to me anyway, and I toss it back to her and tell her to be careful next time.

BAD Rhino, BAD.

This turns out to be the worst decision I made all day (including the hero call that cost me $100 with top pair no kicker later that evening)

This woman would go on to become my arch nemesis.

More to come on this subject in the next post.

Intro

I am not a writer.  Five words I hear myself saying more and more at work lately.  I decided to start blogging for a few reasons. First, I think it'll help me with my writing.  Second, having a centralized location for lessons learned at the poker table will help me improve my game.  Finally, my friends know that I play poker, but they don't really know what that means.  I figure this is a good way for them to learn more about this hobby of mine.

If you're going to read any further, here are a few things you'll need to know:

1. Grammar, style, and format (maybe even spelling) will not be great here.  I don't know sentence structure, I still don't know what an "active voice" is and I'm going to throw random commas into run on sentences for no apparent reason.

2. I am not the smartest player out there.  I know enough math to make educated decisions, but do not make all poker decisions based on the numbers.  Do not hold this against me.  I will make bad calls and I will make bad folds.  I'm going to write about them, and may still be wrong.  If this bothers you, use it against me the next time we play together.

3. I'm going to be honest about my reads and impressions of players.  My intention is not to be offensive, cocky, or to sound like an asshole.

4. Some of the amounts of money mentioned here will be ridiculous.  I'm going to be honest about wins and losses.  I pay my bills, I save money, and assure you that I am making smart reasonable decisions when it comes to my discretionary funds.

5. I really only play on the weekends.  My goal is to post after every session, but this could mean days/weeks between posts.

Rhino