Killed by Cowboys
Anyone who has watched poker on TV might be excused for thinking it's a reasonably entertaining thing to do; but of course heavily-edited TV shows cannot portray the hours of complete boredom punctuated by five minutes of chaos that tournament poker usually is.
And it ran true to form (for me, at least) last night on my first trip to the casino for a while; certainly the first tournament I've played up there since Labour Weekend. So after 3 hours of fold, fold, fold (actually I think I did play 2 pots - yes the deck was cold), I wake up with pocket Kings ("cowboys") and first to act.
Now it was at a time when people would be starting to get desperate - there were still 20 left out of 35 starters but a lot of them, like me, hadn't made much progress and it was time to move or die. So I did the sneaky thing - limp in for the minimum bet (200 chips).
HA! It worked! "Doc", an Asian guy who usually cleans up at the cash tables and had amassed a big stack in this tournament, raised up to 800 chips and I have my victim. But then fuck me, another wants to come to the party and reraises to 2000 chips.
Hell I've only got 3000. Immediately my gut screamed to me, the dude's got aces, lay it down. But then I did a stupid thing - I thought about it. We all know Doc's been playing a lot of pots and this guy could be trying to isolate him and swat me (a shortish stack) out of the way like an annoying fly. Yeah I thought, he doesn't HAVE to have aces, he could have AK, even QQ or JJ.
So yeah baby, I'm all in. I shove my 3000 into the middle and good, I get a call from Doc. But then the other guy pushes allin over the top of him and he does have a decent stack - 7000 or so, so my gut kicks me in the arse for being a dumb mo'fo as it now really looks like I'm up against the dreaded bullets.
While Doc takes an eternity to decide to call, me and the other dude stand up and I ask him what he's got. No prizes for the answer. In the end, Doc calls and turns over QQ (!) and I wish this story had a happy ending but it doesn't - with AA v KK v QQ, the board fails to produce anything above a 10 and I'm out.
Just like in real life, bullets take out cowboys but I honestly did for a brief second think about folding them. I guess that's what separates good poker players from mediocre ones like me - the ability to lay down really good hands when you think you're beat.
And it ran true to form (for me, at least) last night on my first trip to the casino for a while; certainly the first tournament I've played up there since Labour Weekend. So after 3 hours of fold, fold, fold (actually I think I did play 2 pots - yes the deck was cold), I wake up with pocket Kings ("cowboys") and first to act.
Now it was at a time when people would be starting to get desperate - there were still 20 left out of 35 starters but a lot of them, like me, hadn't made much progress and it was time to move or die. So I did the sneaky thing - limp in for the minimum bet (200 chips).
HA! It worked! "Doc", an Asian guy who usually cleans up at the cash tables and had amassed a big stack in this tournament, raised up to 800 chips and I have my victim. But then fuck me, another wants to come to the party and reraises to 2000 chips.
Hell I've only got 3000. Immediately my gut screamed to me, the dude's got aces, lay it down. But then I did a stupid thing - I thought about it. We all know Doc's been playing a lot of pots and this guy could be trying to isolate him and swat me (a shortish stack) out of the way like an annoying fly. Yeah I thought, he doesn't HAVE to have aces, he could have AK, even QQ or JJ.
So yeah baby, I'm all in. I shove my 3000 into the middle and good, I get a call from Doc. But then the other guy pushes allin over the top of him and he does have a decent stack - 7000 or so, so my gut kicks me in the arse for being a dumb mo'fo as it now really looks like I'm up against the dreaded bullets.
While Doc takes an eternity to decide to call, me and the other dude stand up and I ask him what he's got. No prizes for the answer. In the end, Doc calls and turns over QQ (!) and I wish this story had a happy ending but it doesn't - with AA v KK v QQ, the board fails to produce anything above a 10 and I'm out.
Just like in real life, bullets take out cowboys but I honestly did for a brief second think about folding them. I guess that's what separates good poker players from mediocre ones like me - the ability to lay down really good hands when you think you're beat.
Labels: poker
posted by Rob Crawford at 9:39 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home