Inaugural Entry

It’s happened to nearly everyone who has become addicted beyond the point of “casual poker player”. It’s probably even happened to those casual folks as well. AND—this event (coupled with other factors, like religiously reading DrPauly’s excellent blog)—has prompted me to put my thoughts to virtual pen. What is this antagonist? The Bad Beat.

A little bit of stage setting. I was playing in a small weekend game with a few buddies. Instead of having one marathon session, we decided that a few smaller stakes winner take all NL events would work out better. I didn’t mind either way, I figured I would be leaving in the black regardless. In the first of these games, I felt like I played fairly well, amassing a nice stack, and making the final 2 heads-up. My demise in that game was a legitimate beat—one that probably would have drawn commentary like “Well Vince, they both played that hand out as it should have been played, and to the victor go the spoils”. I was dealt 77. Raised (2-3x BB) pre-flop. And the flop came 2-2-5. I bet hard into this flop, expecting that my opponent didn’t stay with those little cards. If I’m being honest—based on his play all night, I put him on A-x (with the x being a middle card: 9 or 10). The turn came 8, and I had to make a play. I figured this didn’t help his hand, so I moved all-in. He quickly called, and showed me his pocket JJ. Doh! The river was a blank, and that was that.

Now—the second game is where the fun was. I was really hard pressed to pick up any hands worth playing. Some might say that makes the game easier…your decisions are basically made for you. However, its significantly less fun to not splash around. I was proud however, that I stuck to solid play, and scratched out what pots I could. One guy sitting across from me, the “new” guy—fresh out of college, started scooping up pot after pot, and had a very nice stack built. I felt pretty good about my chances should I last long enough to battle him heads up. I felt my experience in heads-up play would bode well. So—the “new” guy puts the 3rd place finisher out of his misery, and the matchup is set. I was significantly short stacked, but I still felt confident. Within about 10 hands I had leveled the playing field…we had nearly even stacks. Then I struck gold. I had won many of the preceding hands with nothing at all…and now had the ammo to back my raising up: KK. I did my usual raise of 2x BB, and he thought for a second (its probably important to mention that I think I had gotten him on tilt by taking a bunch of hands from him)…then he went over the top all in. At this point, I only feared AA, and maybe AK. The hell with it—I called him. He turned over his 77, and I thought this game was going to go to me. The flop came 3 blanks—rainbow. The turn helped nobody, which left me needing to avoid only a 7 on the river to win. AND—wouldn’t you know it—a 7 spiked on the river. I’m sure I looked pretty shellshocked. As I said in my open—it wasn’t the first time I’ve taken a horrible beat—and I’m sure it won’t be the last. But for some reason, this one stung particularly bad. When we counted out the chips, he had me barely covered, and took the full purse. Oh well—at least it makes for a good story, right?

And hence—the name of this blog for here and forever will be—the Bad Beat Blog.