Poker News

Richard Burke

Whenever his wife needs a slots “fix,” the Colonel fires up their Olds 98 and they make the fifty-mile trip to my local casino. She plays quarter slots and he plays poker.

The Colonel is retired Army or National Guard I would guess, or maybe a Kentucky Colonel. Anyway, he’s independently wealthy and doesn’t really care whether he wins or loses. Because he plays nearly every hand, when he catches cards he can really stack ‘em high; when he doesn’t he’ll contribute two racks before he cranks up the old 98 again. One afternoon in late fall the Colonel had just filled an open seat at my $4-8 Hold’Em table when this deal occurred.

I was in the Big Blind holding Td-4c. The Colonel was in middle position holding pocket Sixes. He called, as did three others, a typical number in low-limit Hold’Em. The dealer flopped Tc-4s-7d, for Two Pairs. Deciding to slow-play the hand, I checked after the Small Blind and called a downstream bet, as did the Colonel and three others. The pot held $36 after the house rake and toke-to-be.

Five-handed we saw the dealer place the 4h on the Turn for a tableau of Tc-4s-7d-4h. I checked my Fours-Full, the Colonel called a bet on my left, I raised and he and one other called. Three-handed we saw the dealer place the 6d on the River. I bet, the other player folded, the Colonel raised, I raised, and the Colonel re-raised, capping the betting. Of course I called, and mucked when the Colonel tabled his pocket Sixes, and won the $164 pot.

I was astounded. Unless he thought his pocket Sixes would prevail, hiscalls on the Flop and Turn were mistakes. His cards odds were 2 in 47, about 1 in 23, and his pot odds were $4 for $36, or 1 in 9. After the Turn his cards odds were 2 in 46, still 1 in 23, and his pot odds were $8 for $100 even after I had check-raised, much smaller than those that fill racks. None of that mattered: he had started with a pocket Pair and he had made Two Pairs on the Turn and Two Pairs is a pretty good hand in Hold’Em and his slots-playing wife hadn’t run out of chips yet and he was gonna’ call with his Two Pairs and maybe improve.

Here’s another way to look at the Colonel’s play. If, after the Flop, he had decided to see the River card no matter what, then he had two outs, twice, about 1 chance in 11. He would invest $12 for potentially a $100 pot, for money odds of 1 for 81/2. He was taking the worst of it, but not by all that much. After the Turn, his cards odds were 1 in 23, and after my check-raise, he was getting money odds of only 1 for 121/2, but that didn’t faze him because he had committed to see the River card. My check-raise didn’t scare him, instead it kinda’ made him mad, and he hoped to teach me a good lesson.

The Colonel told me he wouldn’t have re-raised with his Full House on the River if I hadn’t checkraised him on the Turn. I started to explain my philosophy on building pots when I realized that he was instructing me in poker etiquette. I just said, “Good hand, Colonel.”

Ya’ gotta’ love it.

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