What's a tuckfard?

While I was looking at my gmail today at work, I saw Katitude was online. I welcomed her back (via gmail chat) and asked about her trip to western Canada. That reminded me that I haven't been to see her blog in a few days, so I navigated over there. While there I looked at her tournament pimpage, and saw there was something called the Tuckfard Open tonight.


Notice the rather large prize pool (w00t).

This was a bounty tournament and $1 from each player went into that pool. The crowd of donkeys bloggers was humongous, um, well ok, there were 10 of us. We each started with T1500 at two five-person tables. I mostly folded for the first few orbits, probably looked like a giant nit, which sometimes I am.

When the blinds were still 15/30, my stack had dribbled down to 1335, I picked up ♥9 ♦9. TrustMeclikFold raised to 105 and I called. The flop was ♦A ♦3 ♠6. Trust-me fired out a continuation bet of T110. I didn't "trust" him and floated by simply calling. The turn was the ♠2 and he checked. Aha! He blinked. No ace, more than likely. I bet T240 and took the pot of T475. A few deals later, I lost about that much, however, when I raised preflop, then made a CB myself and got raised off of it.

Then I had up ♠5 ♣5, presto! With the blinds 20/40, I was in seat 7 and there was one limper to me. I raised to T180, Bigubly965 raised to T360 and I moved all in. My stack needed a refresher and you have to play presto, right? Bigugly called T550 more and showed ♣3 ♠K! W-O-W. The board missed his king, and I moved up to T1730 -- just what the doctor ordered.

I won a few more small pots, and basically stayed out of trouble, then this one: ♣7 ♦7. With the blinds 25/50, White sockety raised to 200 and I called from the big blind. The flop was excellent for me: ♦4 ♦6 ♥2. I checked to let him make his CB and he didn't disappoint me -- he bet T640. I check raised all in and he called and showed ♥K ♦A. The next two cards on the board were the ♣4 and the ♣10 and I had won a T2595 pot, making my stack T33845.

The blinds were 30/60 and I had worked my stack up to T4830, the chip leader. Then disaster. Do you ever have certain cards that you just don't play well. Pocket 10/10 is like that with me. I had ♠10 ♥10. Bigugly raised to 180 and I reraised to T600. It would have been better just to call and see a flop. The flop was ugly: ♦4 ♦5 ♦A. I took one stab at it and bet T720. Bigugly called. the turn was the ♣9. I checked, basically giving up, and BU won the pot. My stack was still playable, though, with T3030 (third place), but I had burned some chips.

With the blinds at 40/80, I picked up ♠J ♣J. I raised to T280 and NutzCarson raised to T940 and I called for T640 more. The flop was ♦7 ♠10 ♥7. The villain bet another T1085 and was all in. I called and he showed about what I was afraid he had: ♦K ♣K, ouch. The turn card was the ♦J! W-H-O-O-O-S-S-H, that's the sound of me sucking out. I was starting to figure out what a tuckfard is.

When we were down to four handed, I was the chip leader with T5325 and had this hand in the big blind: ♦4 ♥4. Donk_tuckfard raised to T350, BigUgly called and Katitude called from the small blind. There was T1150 in the pot and it cost me another T250 to call and so I did. The flop was good for me, to say the least: ♣4 ♣5 ♠7. Katitude now moved all in for T2175. What would you do?

Why had she made this overbet? I guessed she had an overpair and wanted to take down the pot before an ace or a king came. She didn't call this big raise with a 6 and an 8 to make a straight. I suppose she might possibly be on a semibluff flush draw. I moved all in myself -- Katitude and I were having a party and the other two were not invited. After some thought they both folded (Donk_tuckfard said after that he folded 10/10) and Kat showed ♠8 ♣8, about what I put her on, but she has a redraw to a gutshot straight. My hand held up, however, and Katitude was the bubble girl. I now had a stack of T8545 -- that's Mr. Stack to you, buster, and don't mess with me.

Donk_Tuckfard knocked out BigUgly and we began heads up play. So far, I had knocked out four players. Could I claim my fifth bounty? It basically came down to this race. I had ♠A ♠J and Donk_tuckfard had ♠8 ♥8, and we were all in preflop. According to the poker odds calculator at Cardplayer magazine, I was about 47% to his 53% before the flop.

The flop was ♥10 ♦Q ♦7. The turn was the ♥K, giving me a Broadway straight and the nutz.

So, that's what it takes to be a tuckfard. Suckout with JJ vs. KK and then win the race when you are heads-up and a dog. Yep, I guess that about sums it up.

This from the Tuckfard web site:

TuckFard: A simple-minded poker player who consistently calls/raises with substandard hands (not as a bluff, but because they believe that they have a good hand) then goes on to hit those terrible cards. The TuckFard does not stop there; they will then brag to the rest of the table about what a great player they are and how they just "knew" that their Q4o was going to go runner runner for two pair. These are the TuckFards. They can be the greatest stack builder for you or set you on a month-long tilt.