Just Another Bad Beat Story

There is nothing worse than listening to a bunch of guys sitting on the sidelines in a poker room griping and comparing bad beat stories. We've all had them, and we all have similar stories and they always end with someone saying something like, "I can't believe that guy called pre-flop with such garbage...". Now this isn't just another bad beat story. This is single handedly the worst beat I have ever taken to date.

Last week I was playing the Sunday tournament over at Bay 101. 97 players had payed their $180 entry fee and after hours of solid play, we were down to the last 12 players and 9 players would be walking away with a cash payout with first place paying just over $4,000 and a $345 seat to the Bay 101 Open. Second place paying $2,100 and a $345 seat as well. It wasn't a huge prize in comparison to all the stuff you see on TV, but it is a decent payoff with a $180 investment. I was second in chips with $56k in my stack and the chip leader had $64k with the blinds at 300/600. Needless to say I had a very comfortable chip stack to get me into the money and most importantly the final table in contention to win the tournament. I didn't want to get myself into any trouble with mediocre hands so I had been playing really tight at that point. I was even folding pocket pairs other than Aces and Kings if I was raised more than 3 times the big blind. Anyways, on this particular hand I was on the button. We were 6 handed and the first player to act (chip leader) had raised to 1,500 (2.5 times the big blind)everyone had folded to the button and I looked down at two red nines. I call and the small blind and big blind fold. So now we are heads up with 3,900 in the pot and the flop comes 9-6-5 all clubs. Chip leader checks to me and I get a little suspicious of his check even though I have flopped a set. The clubs had scared me a little being that the pre-flop raiser could have raised with something like AA, KK with a club, A-K, A-Q or K-Q suited and could be setting a trap. Again, we were too close to the money and now the two chip leaders are battling head to head and there is no need to go crazy in this spot. I can easily fold here if he had put in a bet since I was ready to check this one down. So I check and the 9 of spades comes on the turn giving me a 4-of-a-kind or "quads". Eureka, I just made a monster of a hand and now I think I've got him good! He checks and I decide to bet 1,500 into the pot to make it look like I'm trying a steal attempt with a value bet disguised as a bluff. Also, I'm factoring in my implied odds knowing that he would call or even put in a raise if he actually made his flush. He goes for it and check raises to 6,000 and I re-pop it up to 18,000 and my opponent calls. The river comes a harmless 2 of diamonds and now my opponent is sitting there shuffling his chips for a few minutes and decides to move all-in. I'm thinking to myself at this point that this is my lucky day and I'm about to receive a massive pot to become a huge favorite to win the tournament. I don't hesitate at all to call with the rest of my chips being that I had such of a monster hand. How can I lose, its QUADS!! I turn up my pocket nines quickly thinking I had just won the hand and then KABOOM, my opponent turns up 8-7 of clubs giving him a straight flush to beat my four-of-a-kind and just like that, I am out of the tournament. The casino goes absolutely nuts with what they had just seen. And I feel like I'm going to throw up. Literally. It felt like I got punched in the gut.

How do you put the guy on a straight flush? How can ANYONE fold a four-of-a-kind? His play had been fairly tight thus far and his pre-flop raise from under the gun seemed like the type with a holding of a high pair, AK, AQ since there were 5 more people to act behind him. Any bet higher than his 3x the big blind bet could read like a steel attempt at the blinds and it didn't seem like the case since he was folding a lot of hands prior. Also, anything higher than a 4x the big blind may not get any other callers when someone in early position puts out a raise. A re-raise from myself on the button with 9-9 would not be the right move here as it could get me into trouble if he were to have any pair higher than mine or AK, AQ and were to hit the flop. I liked my check on the flop being very careful not to get trapped in with a possible straight and flush on the board. The turn was a great card for me giving me quad nines, and when you make a four-of-a-kind, 99.5 times out of 100, you've got the winning hand.

For some reason this beat had hit me hard emotionally. I had been playing very solid poker and making fantastic reads all day long and a deep finish at a final table was right there. How can I have not seen this? I was right about my opponent having a flush, but a straight flush??? How could I have had such bad luck to run up against the only hand that can beat a four-of-a-kind? I don't think any poker player could be able to fold quads when faced with an all-in bet in front of them. I also don't think that any poker player would be able to put his opponent on a straight flush when they are holding quads. You can read all the poker books in the world and none of them can tell you how to put a read on your opponent with a straight flush.

Anyways, I just need to shake this one off, but it may take me a while.

GOOD luck everyone.

So you want to play some poker, eh?

I'm not looking to become some famous poker star with a huge endorsement deal, tons of t.v. time, and magazine covers. I will however accept a huge endorsement deal, t.v. time, and magazine cover if any of these were to be offered to me. (wouldn't you?) In this blog, I will share my my thoughts and experiences as a poker player. Wait...stop. Poker player? I'm saying that as if I spend countless hours grinding it out day in and day out. No, I'm just some guy who watched the movie 'Rounders' one too many times and decided to take a crack at the game because if Matt Damon can do it, so could I. Until I pay all my bills with my poker winnings, I'm just some shmo who plays cards from time to time. So needless to say, I have a real job working 5 days a week and squeeze in poker when some free time opens up. I am however trying to live out my version of the american dream and make some big money in this silly game called "Texas Hold 'em".

The first time I actually played poker in a casino was about 5 years ago. I was so nervous and shaky, all the other players at the table must have smelled this fish coming all the way from the parking lot. I sat down with my eager $100 in a $2-$4 limit hold 'em cash game and got my butt handed to me in under an hour. I didn't really know what I was doing and was probably involved in almost every hand because I just wanted to be in the action. I never had so much fun losing the $100 I came to the casino with. I got up from the table with the biggest smile reveling in my very first casino poker experience and my adrenaline was pumping. Even though I had lost, I was hooked.

I went home and bought a few poker strategy books and a subscription to Card Player Magazine. Doyle Brunson's "Super System" and Dan Harrington's "Harrington on Hold 'Em" are a couple of great recommendations. I started playing in some daily tournaments and cash games at the local casinos and would make a small profit from time to time. My first experience playing in a major tournament was at the 2007 World Series of Poker. It was a $2k No Limit Hold 'Em event and I went from playing in tournaments that had averaged between 50 and 100 people to a field of over 1,000! Holy smokes! This was quite the experience to say the least. I was in an arena with all the biggest names in poker and it was awesome. This was the big time. I was able to meet some of the players that I admired and had a chance to sit down and play in a bracelet event for a huge amount of money. I didn't cash, but I did outlast over half the field including some pretty notable players like Phil Ivey and Barry Greenstein. Most of all it was a great learning experience to play poker in that capacity and it made me want to step up my game, so I hit the books and practiced for free online.

Fast forward to the summer of 2009. I had received a $50 Visa gift card for my birthday and for the hell of it, decided to give online poker a shot and play around with it to see what I could do. I deposited the money and started playing low-limit single table Sit & Go tournaments. I also adopted a highly conservative bankroll management plan so that I wouldn't get involved in games that were way over my head and that I was able to survive the natural losing swings in poker. Basically I allowed myself to only buy into games that represented 5% of my total bankroll. This way I would never go bust and only play on a level my bank-roll allows me to. After about 5 months of occasionally playing online, I was able to grow my starting bankroll of $50 to just over $650. In March 2010, there was a WSOP Circuit event coming up in San Diego and some of the preliminary events were around $300. So I decided to lay it all out on the line and buy into a couple events. I figured if I lost, no big deal, I'll just invest another $50 into online poker and start all over again. This went against my rules but I felt confident enough to step up and give it a go in a big tournament.

I went down to Harrah's Rincon in San Diego to the WSOP Circuit last March and met up with my parents. They are big poker fans and love to go to casinos to play slots and other table games, so we decided to make a weekend out of it. Long story short (we'll save that one for another posting), I bought into a $340 event with 196 other entrants and finished in 1st place for a prize of $15k and a WSOP Championship Ring. What?! All those years of studying and playing for experience had finally payed off in a big way. I had put myself on the map as a serious poker player. In a single moment, I went from being a nobody to being a nobody with a WSOP title and a decent bankroll to play with.

Since March, I have played 3 other WSOP Circuit events with no cashes and a handful of local daily tournaments with a couple of small cashes and 2 final table appearances. As you can see, I'm not a young college student skipping class and spending his parents tuition money on online poker. I'm not some business guy who takes his hedge fund profits and plunks down at a poker table with expendable amounts of cash. I'm just an average guy who is trying to make something out of nothing. I think I'm off to a good start. Things could get interesting.

We'll see...