Very Good Player

Before I get into any more Vegas posts, I just wanted to give a thanks to all the Vegas people I hung out with last week.  There was of course Easycure and his lovely wife (continuing the blogger tradition of marrying up), Ryan and his lovely wife (see previous), BiggieFries, Pauly, Change100, CC, CJ, Wil, Jen, Linda, Jay, April, Jason, Zeem, Felicia and Glenn.  It was great to see you all.  If I forgot anyone, kick me when you see me next.  That way I’ll have a physical reminder.

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My absolute favorite hand of the trip occurred on Friday back at the MGM poker room.  There was a very large kid who sat down next to G-Rob and began to talk so everyone could hear him.  You know the type; someone who makes sure he’s heard so that everyone knows how good he is.

“I don’t usually play $1/$2, I’m mainly a $2/$5 player,” he said to G-Rob.
”Is that so?  What happened to you then?  Why are you sitting here?”

“I took a bad beat, and now I need to work my way back up to that game.  I won $600 yesterday, and if I can do that again today, I’ll be right back there,” he said, making it known that the merits of bankroll management were oblivious to him.

“Good luck,” replied G-Rob.  “I’m not a very good player, so I hope I can learn something from you.”

“I’m good.  Actually, I’m very good,” he responded.

Whenever someone tells someone else that they’re “very good” at poker, I realize that their poker universe is a only just small subset of reality.  He immediately became G-Rob’s and my target.

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That same very good player came in for a raise in early position and I looked down at T9d.  I had position and cards to bust a big hand so I called.  G-Rob also called behind (which was a very large mistake – we’ll see why soon enough) making the pot roughly $45.

Our flop was pretty much exactly the flop I was looking for – QJ3, two diamonds.  I had an open ender and a flush draw giving me enough outs to choke on.  Our very good player with about $350 in his stack bet the flop for $100.

From my perspective, I had 15-outs.  Twice.  I love these hands, maybe too much.  Add in some fold equity and I’ve got the advantage.  So I raised.

“Make it $300,” I said.

G-Rob visibly winced.  Later he’d tell me he thought I flopped a set and laid down pocket Aces.  I didn’t flop a set, but it was a good laydown on his behalf.  Had he re-raised pre-flop, I’d have folded to a re-re-raise that very good player would have made with his hand.  

Very good player went into the tank for only about 5 seconds.  “I’m all in.”

“Call.”

“Do you have a set?” he asked and showed me his pocket Kings.

If he put me on a set, it’s an odd play.  “No, but I have an uber-draw.”

“What??!?!?!  You raised on a draw???”

When the turn brought the 4 of diamonds, very good player was drawing dead.

And then very good player went Hellmuth.

“What kind of a donkey play is that?  You are horrible, raising on a draw like that, that’s awful!”  He was ranting and raving, pacing back and forth away from the table.  But more importantly, he was busto.

Normally, I’d keep quiet, and just stack his chips, but this time I couldn’t help myself.

“I’ll tell you what, why don’t you log onto Google and type ’15-outs twice’ (granted I only had 13 after he showed his hand) and see what comes back.  That’s double you, double you, double you, gee, oh, oh, gee, ell, ee.   Dot.com.”

Very good player had more work to do.