Poker News

Ashley Adams

It was, by all accounts, a miserable game. The players were miserable, the game was deadly boring, the rake was too high, the stakes were too low, and I was exhausted. I really shouldn’t have been playing in this $1-5 game, but two friends without much in the way of poker-playing money wanted to play. And I had taken them down to the casino. So I felt obliged. The two of us sat down in this game. Obligation is a drag sometimes.

I was in a funk. I had just left a wild and rocking $20/40 Stud game - where I had gotten rocked. I still had the remnants of my $1,900 stake - about $800. The players at this $1-5 table immediately seized on this as an excuse to rib me. “Slumming” they asked. “Don’t you know we’re only the low rollers” they queried. I would have considered it just good natured kidding but I was in a foul mood and didn’t appreciate it at all. What a bunch of miserable players I had to sit with.. The game was awful. The $1.00 forced bet was generally called without a raise. If anyone did raise by the full $5.00 amount everyone else would generally fold. Most of the time this wouldn’t have bothered me, but I was stuck and figured that I needed to make up some of my losses with these buffoons at $1-5. I resented their tightness as an effort to deprive me of making money. Miserable rocks.

I got a hand. (9h9s)6c. OK, not much of one but something. The $1.00 bring in was to my right. The passivity had bothered me so I decided, great stud player that I knew myself to be, to raise. I raised to $6.00, the maximum allowed at this table. Everyone folded. I won the $5.00 in antes and bring ins. “Hah!” I snickered to myself. “What rubes”. “I’llsteal them blind” I thought.

The next hand I was dealt (AhJs)9c. The bring-in was to my left. Four callers to me. Among them was an Ace and a King. I raised to $6.00 and the King called me. I received a 3c. The King got a suited Ten. He was high and checked. “I’ll steal this moron’s money now” I thought arrogantly. I bet $5.00. He nervously called.

I kept this up until the River. He’d check and I’d bet. Neither of us appeared to improve. I kept hoping my powerful image and great skill would convince him to fold. He didn’t. He called me with a pair of Kings and won a large pot for this game.

About a dozen hands later, after I had folded everything, I was dealt (AhKh)As. A low card brought it in, a few players called and it came to me. I decided to get tricky and called instead of raising. Five of us saw Fourth Street. One of my opponents paired his door-card. He nervously bet $3.00. Two people called as did I. On Fifth Street none of us improved - though I got a third heart. The pair of 9s bet $5.00 everyone folded but me. I figured I’d test how strong he really was. I raised. He called.

Neither he nor I seemed to improve on Sixth Street. He bet. I called.

On the River I caught Two Pair. He bet. I raised with my Aces Up, convinced that he didn’t have trips. He re-raised me - something unheard of in this game. I tossed in a final $5.00. He had 9s Full and took down the largest pot I had seen in that game.

I said to myself but loudly enough for everyone to hear, “What a miserable game.”

No one said, “The only thing miserable about this game is

you”! But they should have.

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