Riviera stories

There's a pool tournament going on at the Riviera, as happens a few times a year. Such occasions are basically the only times that I play there, because the games become extra juicy. Tonight was no exception. In addition to being profitable, it generated four stories that I thought were worth telling.

1.

I had Qc-Kc and raised to $10. Two callers, and I had position. Flop was 5-9-7 with two hearts. Both opponents checked, so I bet $20. One folded. The guy on my right called. I thought a flush draw was his most likely hand. Turn was an offsuit 8. He checked again. I bet $40, hoping to dissuade him from chasing his draw further. He called again. I didn't think he would do that with a naked draw, so concluded that I had probably been wrong and that I was up against some sort of made hand. On that basis, I decided that unless I caught a pair with my overcards, a bet on the river would probably just be throwing more money away. I planned to bet at a jack or queen, but otherwise give up. River was an offsuit 6. I just glanced at it long enough to see that it wasn't one of the cards I wanted, then focused my attention on my opponent. He thought an unusually long time while I stared at him, then checked. I checked behind.

At that point, my only hope was that he had, in fact, been on a flush draw and had missed. I waited for him to show his cards. J-9. Top pair. Well, that's it, then. I lose. I flicked my hole cards back to the dealer, who buried them in the muck.

I turned back toward the center of the table, took another look at the board just before the dealer swiped it away, and realized to my horror that I had completely missed the fact that the 6 on the river had completed a straight on the board. My cards were good for half of the pot if I had just turned them face up.

D'oh!

That mental lapse cost me a bit over $70. My only consolation is that I make this sort of mistake at an average rate of about once a year (as far as I know; I suppose there could be other instances of it that I never notice). Given the number of hands I play, that's an error rate that is small enough to be forgivable, and just large enough to prove that I'm human.

2.

In one hand, I got all in on fourth street against another player in a dominating situation: My K-Q versus his K-9 on a king-high board, with him having no straight or flush possibilities. (I don't remember the other cards. I write down the details of hands that I think will make good blog stories, but I didn't think this one would at the time that it happened.)

River: 9, giving him two pair to my one--a pure three-out hit for all the marbles.

Sigh. Oh well. Rebuy!

About 15 minutes later, there was an eerily similar recurrence. He and I again managed to get all of our chips into the pot on the turn. This time, however, he had the dominating situation: Q-7 versus my A-K on a board of A-Q-7-3.*

River: K, giving me a higher two pair than his.

To make the sweet revenge even sweeter, this pot was much bigger than the previous one, having been swelled by a bunch of pre-flop action.

After paying me off, he began grumbling about his rotten luck, getting screwed by a three-outer. (I had actually had eight outs, but I didn't bother correcting his math.) After about 30 seconds of his little tantrum, I decided that I could have a bit of fun with it and simultaneously maybe give him just enough extra needling that he'd go well out of his way to target me for payback later, which tends to make for very profitable situations.

So I smiled sweetly and said, "I don't remember you complaining this way a little while ago when you rivered the three-outer against me."

His face clouded, and he insisted, "I never caught a river card against you like that!"

Some people have amazingly short memories.

3.

I noticed this part of the sign announcing high-hand bonuses:



I'm not much of a believer, but I would sure pray to a Saint Flush if one really existed.

4.

In a hand that did not involve me, the flop was A-6-6. The pre-flop raiser bet at it, folding his opponents, and showed his A-K before mucking. A player next to me told his neighbor, "Dammit! I folded A-6! He had top pair/top kicker. I think he would have put all his chips in against me, and I would have won!" He then paused a second and added, "Unless he caught his king, of course."

Well allrighty then! Nice to know that I'm not the only one capable of putting his inner moron out on public display!

* I'm acutely aware that this makes twice in a short period of time that I was all-in with just top pair, a practice I normally try to avoid. In terms of both how the action unfolded and who was involved, there were extenuating circumstances in both cases that made it more justifiable than it would otherwise be. But an exposition of those additional considerations would just bog down the story, so I'm omitting them.