A Poker Story, or a bad beat to beat all bad beats

If you are not a poker player, you will find this extremely boring. There isn't much drama here (yet).

I play quite a bit of No-limit Texas Hold'em. I believe, like Doyle Brunson, that Hold'em is the only true form of poker left. The thrill, the toxic tension, check-raising on a nut flush, the syncopating sounds of shuffling chips; it really does it for me

In poker, there are bad beats, and then there are bad beats.

I just finished up an online multiplayer tourney (not in SL) with what I believe has to be one of the most insane bad beats ever.

The setting:

Multiplayer tourney, 562 players enrolled, 58 players left, pandastrong Fairplay sitting pretty in 12th place with around 50,000 chips. I am already in the money, as top 60 postitions pay out, but not much.

At this point the blinds are $600 / $1200 and people are playing tight. If it's worth playing, then it's worth betting (pre-flop). Blinds are definitely worth taking, so there is no incentive to hold back on the betting. Even if you have American Airlines (pocket aces), you don't want someone hanging around with a low flush draw or an outside straight draw.

So I get a ticket on American Airlines and am looking to bully out any stragglers from flopping a set.

I am second to act and 3 players called the $1200 blinds. I raise $3600, hoping that at best there is one call, at worst I collect $4200 when the table folds.

I get my one call.

The flop: 2, 3, Queen - RAINBOW.

I love it. My heart stops pounding. I can relax. The only thing I *really* have to worry about is that the guy had pocket Queens. He checks, and I am not too worried about the slow play (he was first to act, and would have raised pre-flop if he had the pocket Queens). If he had Queen 2 or Queen 3, chances are he wouldn't have called the pre-flop raise.

I am GOLD.

At this point I don't want him hanging out with a queen in his hand and pairing up his second card.

There is no real flush or straight possiblity.

I go all-in.

There is a 10 second pause. He calls.

He is holding 2 3 in his pocket. 4th and 5th street don't help me, I don't get my set and nothing pairs up on the board.

He wins with two pairs, 3's over 2's.

This isn't a bad beat. This is a bad beat.

In all of my time playing Hold'em, I have never heard of anyone in a situation like this calling a huge pre-flop raise with 2 3 off-suit. A move like this is not only tourist, but it is like a chip-shredding machine.

So I come to the forums, seeking out any grinders out there to tell me of their bad beats. Good luck, I think I have you all beat.

No offense, but gambling online is a fool's errand. The subtle verbal nuances gestural cues which make no limit poker interesting are all but obliterated when filtered through the internet.

Not to mention the fact that cheating is inevitable. Considering how frequently people find security holes in applications, I would not be surprised at all to discover that someone had developed an exploit that allowed them an inside edge.

Plus, there's the illegitimacy of the casino to contend with. Were they to just close operations overnight, you'd have no legal recourse to recover your funds without openly admitting that you engaged in illegal activity (assuming it's illegal in your home region). Also, the possibility of this happening is very remote. Nonetheless, it is one more reason why I refuse to gamble online. That, and that I suck at poker.

Sorry to hear about your bad luck, though. It's always tough to go down when you're holding pocket aces.

Actually you would be suprised. There are game mechanics that almost emmulate the "tells" of a player. Length of times before an action, betting patterns, etc.

Concerning the security issues, I would much rather risk being taken by a hacker than a grifter at a real table

As far as the fool's errand goes, I do pretty well. I even hold the SL in-world record for a high-roller tourney back when Arch was running them (L$ 45k)

I wasn't complaining about losing with pocket aces - happens more often than people think. It was the way I lost with them that I thought would make an interesting story for any Hold'em players lurking about.

Pocket anything sux... even pocket aces. The problem is that you have to hit a match, giving you 3 of a kind to win in a full game. Chances are that someone will hit 2 pair, a straight or flush with 6 other hands. I have found that the high pocket pair will win maybe 20-30% of the time. That's my unoficial estimation... lol.

It might seem that way Billy, but a pocket pair vs. the next best hand (King / Ace) has a 51% chance of winning. And regardless, pocket aces is the best pre-flop hand there is. However, you are right... gotta know when you are beat after the flop and lay them down.

Are you talking about bad BETS?

With AA your preflop raise might not have been big enough then. If there was 3600 in the pot, and you've got 50k in front of you and you don't mind just taking the blinds then why not raise 10k or 20k, or go all in to catch the guy with KK or QQ who can't resist calling you to give yourself a chance of doubling up.

I'd say the other guy's play was a reasonable one. If he had a reasonable pile of chips in front of him and he could read you he's already put you on something big, so he knows you've got AA, AK, KK, maybe AQ,QQ or something. He can either play for a lucky flop like he got, or if it's rags or a possible flush or striaght on the flop and he knows you well he can outplay you with a big representative bet.

Then, why go all in on the flop? You're only going to get called if he's already beaten you, it's a fair bet at this stage he wouldn't call a large bet on the straight draw. You might have been better off placing a large bet.. 10 or 20k or something. If he calls that, you know you've got trouble, but you're still in the game.

I dont understand half of what you are saying.
But this I know:
- Poker sucks
- Gambling is pointless
- At least one person I know in SL uses a computer AI to help calculate odds and stuff

Poker is completely different from other kinds of gambling. Gambling online at casino games like blackjack, roulette, etc. is pointless imo, the house _will_ win. Poker is a game of skill, and you play against the other players not the house, so it's very different to most other casino games.

No, I am talking about bad BEETS. The kind that ruin a good bowl of borscht.



Some good points Buddha.

As to my pre-flop raise not being big enough:

I didn't lay out the table well enough in my description. I put the other guy all in, and he had around 30k. I still had 20k after this particular hand (which let me progress a bit further in the tourney after this particular beat). I wasn't telling the story of my exit from the tourney, just the story of the worst beat that I have ever seen.

The reason for my pre-flop raise amount was to have a shorter stack call me (just like he did), if a shorter stack had decent cards. He wasn't a blind, therefore he called off a fifth of his chip stack with 2 3 off-suit (the $1200 blind plus my $3600 raise). I don't know many players that would call off a fifth of their stack even if they had Queen 2 or Queen 3!

The reason for not going all-in preflop, was the fact that he could have pulled a straight or flush draw on the flop. However, once the flop showed that wasn't too probable. Another big point was not to JUST steal the blinds because you need too take some chips while you can and not progress in the tourney just by stealing the blinds alone.

The reason for going all in post-flop, was to make sure he wasn't hanging out with a lower pocket pair to pull a set. There were no reasonable straight draws, and if he was suited he would have needed a running suit on the turn and on the flop for the flush. The only probable hand he could've had to call off all of his chips would have been Queen plus high card, in which case I would've been golden. If he had pocket 2's or pocket 3's, then I would have lost to a not-so-bad beat (although again to call off a fifth of your chips with a low pocket pair seems kinda odd to me).



Awesome post Eggy:

"I dont understand half of what you are saying." -- The same goes for me when I browse through threads on scripting. I think I will go troll a few of those threads just to let everyone know that I don't understand.

" - Poker sucks" -- Awesome! Could you list some of your hobbies so that I can crap on them? This thread isn't a poll for whether or not you like poker. I was telling a story that I thought poker players might enjoy, and hoping some would post some of their bad beats. But thanks for bringing some negativity into the thread!

" - Gambling is pointless" -- I could say the same about some other hobbies I see talked about in these forums, like scripting and trolling. But I would rather say "To each his own" and not come off as a dick.

" - At least one person I know in SL uses a computer AI to help calculate odds and stuff" -- There are a lot of people that cheat in a lot of different things. Not really seeing your point here.

Anyway, not gonna be by a computer for a couple of days, so I won't be able to respond to your next bunch of debasing one-liners. Have fun, Eggy!