Nice Hand......?

Since I live in Arkansas, it is extremely difficult to find live poker games let alone a casino within 200 miles. This is one reason why internet poker is just so dang appealing.

There are some drawbacks to this appeal one of which is the fact that any idiot can create an account and play poker. It is hard to learn the game let alone enjoy it when the game goes from being No-Limit Hold'em to No Fold'em Hold'em. This frustration is complicated by the fact that everyone wants to start an argument when they lose a hand or catch a bad beat. And most of these players are kids too.

Let me say for the record that going all-in before the flop with AA or KK when you are the short stack on the button does not require any comment after the hand. Although you have the percentages on your side to win the hand, there is no real tactic to this move other that trying to steal the blinds with brute force. I don't need some 17 year old railbird throwing me a "nice hand" comment. Just shut up kid!

A nice hand is when I have 8/5 offsuit (85o) and I raise, re-raise before the flop and push after the flop knowing that I don't have anything. Better yet, getting someone with pocket jacks to show them and then fold! That is a nice hand.

I play on Full Tilt Poker almost exclusively. The play on that site is very good, and many of the players are above average in terms of internet players. I also play on Party Poker some, but you never know what you are going to get. And even though FTP has very good players, there are plenty of idiots there as well!


And then there are Bad Beats

I have not been playing very long but I already have an amazing collection of bad beat stories. I guess every good poker player has some of these, and in many ways these are the growing pains that either teach you to be a better poker player or drive you away from the game.

If you don't know what a bad beat is, google it.

Most of my bad beats have come online, most of which were due to stupid lucky players. In most of those cases, I was able to get my money back from them plus some but it will drive you nuts and usually leads me to find another table somewhere else. Although most of my beats come online, the worst ones always come in live games with friends.

One of the worst hands (which wasn't a bad beat by the way) is in one of my other blogs, but here is a nice bad beat that I like to call Skrizewed!

One three day weekend a year, a group of about 10 guys goes out to a friend's summer home on the river and we do nothing but fish, golf, watch football and play lots of poker. It has been traditionally called "Guys Weekend". This past Guys Weekend was the first one where No Limit Hold'em was played. Typically we would play dealer's choice, so the nature of our poker games changed somewhat. Anyway we were playing a $5 buy-in tourney and all of us were in. We had two tables: one with 6 and the other with 4 players. I was at the table of four. After about six hands, one of the guys started getting restless and wanted to stop playing which wasn't really uncommon for this guy because he wasn't much of a card player and he grew tired of games very quickly.

Anyway, after a few more hands I am dealt KK. Unknown to me at the time, another guy at the table is dealt JJ. I plan to slow play the Kings since these are newbies and wouldn't call a large bet that early in a game when my impatient friend decides that he is done playing and asks what to do. I told him to go all in and turn his cards over every hand until he is out. So he does! He pushes all of his chips into the middle of the table and flips over his cards.....A 3 of diamonds and a 2 of diamonds!!!! WooHoo for me!!! My friend calls the all in, and I follow doing the same. So the flop some 10/7/3 rainbow. No Jacks!!!! The turn is a Queen. Just one more card....no Jacks please. The river card is a 2 and I am elated that it wasn't a Jack. That is when I realize that my impatient friend's 3/2 held up for two pair and beat out not only Jacks but my Kings as well. Well needless to say the impatient one had a change of attitude with his new found wealth and went on to rant about his poker prowess for the next hour. I ended up coming second in the tourney after a necessary rebuy.

I have had other beats like this one, but I had to listen to a friend rant about how he beat Mr. Poker's Kings with a 3 and a 2. It was just unbearable.

That is all.