I played in the Wednesday night poker tournament at the Horseshoe tonight and saw something I've never seen before.
When play started, there were only five players at our table. Newcomers can buy in for the first two levels, so they put out stacks in all 10 seats. The stacks with no players post a blind at their turn, just like the live players.
In one hand, the small blind and big blind were stacks with no players. It folded to the button who mucked his hand! He forget that all he had to do was bet the minimum to pick up both blinds.
The dealer shrugged her shoulders and picked up both blinds and put it in the stack of the big blind. I play a lot of tournaments, but that was one I haven't seen before.
What would you do with this hand? The blinds were 300/600 with a 50 ante. I was on the button with ♥10 ♦10. It folded to the guy two to my right who opened for 1200 and the guy on my immediate right called.
I decided to raise to 6000. Most of the time, you will pick up a nice little pot. Also, pocket 10s are awkward to play if overcards come, so winning right now would be a good outcome.
The first guy folded, but the other called. The flop was ♦Q ♥7 ♣5. The villain immediately bet 15,000! What is going on?
From the preflop betting, K-Q is in his range. But then, wouldn't he check to me before springing his trap. He could have A-K (which I beat), but, again, the preflop betting would have gone differently. Why did he overbet the pot? Nothing added up, I decided he was full of it, and moved all in for 22,000.
The guy got this sick look on his face, counted his chips and hemmed and hawed. Everyone was looking at him as if to say, "What is going on?" He only needed to call 7,000 more to win this huge pot. Finally, he shrugged his shoulders and called.
His cards were ♣A ♠J. Yes! He figured the queen didn't hit me and was making a stab at it. That's the good news, but the bad news is that an ace came on the river, and I was out of there.
Sometimes you get knocked out of a tournament and fee awful. This time, I didn't mind, actually. I made a good read, I stuck to my read, but was unlucky. Sometimes poker is like that.
The dealer clearly did the wrong thing with the two absent blinds. She awarded chips to a player who not only wasn't there, but had a dead hand. The absent players are dealt cards, but they're dead hands as soon as the last card is dealt and there's no player there. Therefore, the button had the last live hand, and the dealer should have pushed him the pot as soon as it was the button's turn to act. It didn't matter what the button did--the pot was his.
ReplyDeleteThe Poker Grump is right on. Interesting that no one questioned what happened.
ReplyDeleteWas the guy who won the big hand a blogger? Otherwise how did he know that A-J is da nutz.
Wow, love your new header photo!
ReplyDeleteI think I'd better not play poker as "Unlucky" is my middle name!
Great read. It is so true that sometimes the best reads can give you solace as you pick up your gear to leave the tournament. Grrr. Hate when that happens though.
ReplyDelete