Poker News

John Vorhaus

I just won two pots back to back, first by sucking out and then by victimizing my foe’s insta-tilt.

You know, I’m just replaying that suckout hand in my mind, and I’m not sure it was all that much of a suckout. Let me lay it out for you, and you tell me. I had red pocket jacksin middle position. The guy on my immediate left had a habit of reraising all in to steal the blinds, and I flat called, hoping he’d do that here. Not obliging me, he folded. But the guy to his left (we’ll call him insta-tilt) made a minimum reraise. I thought about coming over the top, but insta-tilt had showed a tendency to soft play big pairs, and I wanted to know where I was at before I made my move. So I just called.

The flop came Q-x-x with two spades. I bet two thirds pot to see how he felt about that queen and those spades. He just called, so I guessed he wasn’t all that thrilled. The turn was an offsuit eight. Again I bet, and again he just called. At that point I started smelling trap, and thought I might have to shut down on the river. But it came a jack, so I bet my case money and got an instant call — from pocket eights. Now you tell me, did I put a bad beat on insta-tilt, or did he kind of do it to himself by not reraising me on the turn when he made his hand? I grant you that I got lucky, but he gave me a chance to do so, so that’s that with that.

Protect your hands, campers. I think it’s better to win a sure thing big pot than to get cute in the name of grabbing the other guy’s last dime. Remember, you don’t have to get lucky (or not get unlucky) if they fold.

It’s what came next that I really want to point out, though, because it’s a textbook example of the price of psychic pain. Here I’d just put this beat on this guy (though he was an unindicted co-conspirator in the crime), so what does he do on the very next hand? Puts $20 of his last $100 into the pot. I happened to have A-K and there was no doubt in my mind that he’d call with a substantially worse hand. He was so far out of control, he couldn’t not call. If the poker gods had been kind, they’d have given him 2-7 offsuit there, just to keep him out of trouble, but they gave him K-T, which cost him the rest of his stack. In two hands he went from dominant to dust. It happens. Here’s a thought: Don’t let it happen to you.

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