With the enormous interest in poker these days the cardrooms are just overflowing with players. Many of these players, if not outright newbies, don't have the experience level of the regulars who have been playing for years and years. Of all the learning tools at a player's disposal, experience should never be underrated. Players may learn faster than in the past due to all of the available tools from expanded literature to televised analysis but having personally viewed over a half a million flops doesn't hurt either!
The following "good beat" story has been provided by an inexperienced player who can chalk his critical mistake up to paying tuition to better understand the game. I was having a good session and was up over two racks when it approached dinner time and my growling stomach urged me to call it a day. My stomach would just have to wait for the blinds to come around and then I would rack up and leave I was the fourth player from the Big Blind and after three folds and a peek at two black eights in my hand, I decided to raise. Two players behind me and the Big Blind called. The four of us took the flop that contained two red eights! Another 407 to 1 shot comes in....Woo-Hoo! The Big Blind bet into me and I just called as did both players behind me. The turn came a Queen and the Big Blind bet out again and again I just called. Both players behind me made their exits leaving me heads up with the Big Blind. The river was a brick and my quad eights were the absolute Brazils. The Big Blind bet out again and this time I raised. Much to my delight, I was immediately re-raised. Just as the dealer reminded us that we were heads-up and raises were therefore unlimited, I raised again. I no sooner had my chips in the pot as I heard what started to become an echo as the Big Blind said, "My raise". We continued to raise each other and with each new raise I was astounded that my opponent did not realize that he did not hold the nuts. He ran out of chips first so I called and he proudly flipped up pocket Queens to make Queens full of eights. It seemed like everyone at the table knew what I had except my inexperienced opponent. When I showed him my quad eights, he just sat there stunned for a couple of moments and then got up and left having gone through the better part of two racks in one hand. I'd like to think that my smooth calling both the flop and the turn convinced my opponent that there was no way I could have held even one eight, never mind two to make quads, but in truth I believe he was just so focused to his own nut full house that he never even considered that he was beat. No savvy, experienced player would have raised himself out of chips without holding the nuts. Couldn't happen to you? Good, I didn't think so. But it does happen to some, so start looking for the people who could be capable of this blunder. An elementary lesson but one that wouldn't hurt to state based on the enormous influx of new players in recent times.........Always know what the nut hand is! Our goal for today is something I just do by habit and that is to announce to myself what the current nut hand is at each stage of the game. That way you're always aware of what constitutes the absolute stone cold nuts If that newbie who contributed almost two racks to me happens to be reading this column, let me say, "Thanks". If you learn from your mistakes, then I'm sure that kind of spanking will never happen to you again.
See you next "TIME".
