Warning: Bad Beat Stories

OK, this blog is not intended to be a bad beat log, but I want to quickly run through two awful beats I had yesterday as a kind of exorcism.

The first was in a 10+1 rebuy tourney, the cash pool for which had frozen out at 32k, with a 8k first prize. Before the beat, I think I was playing pretty well on a table with some giant stacks.

For example, one big hand had me 2nd UTG, with 32K behind and 200-400 blinds with 25 antes, I raised Kh Qc to 1200. The only the button, with 25k behind called.

The flop was Ts 3c Qs, and I led out 2800.

The button raised me 4000.

At this point I went into the tank. I thought about the hands he could have. I thought AA, QQ and KK were unlikely since I really doubted he would have smooth called behind a 3x preflop bet in the button, giving the blinds pretty favorable odds to call. The same logic applied to AK and AQ.

The hands outside of that might have hit that flop included KQ, QJ, QT, and any two spades, as well as 33 and TT (though TT certainly might have raised preflop). Q3 suited was a very distant possiblity because of the position. Spades were very consistent with the situation. 33 and to a lesser extent TT were also possibilities, especially if he were trying to protect against the spades, but since we were heads up, I would normally expect a smooth call here and a push on the turn.

Most of the range of hands I was facing were draws that I had to make pay, and of the others, only the sets and QT had me in trouble. After thinking it through, I pushed (in retrospect, perhaps I should have bet only half my stack here, enough to give a flush draw poor odds but not enough to price him in for 2 cards, with the second half going in on the turn if a spade did not hit).

My opponent called with Qh Jh that did not improve, putting me in the overall chip lead just before the second break with 250 left out of the original 800+.

Perhaps 20-30 minutes of play had me up a bit more, then down from a high of 57K to about
44K after having a couple of bluffs getting snapped off. I noted to my sweat partner Weak_Player that I had stopped getting any respect for my raises and needed to hunker down.

Three hands later it happened:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t600 (9 handed) converter

MP1 (t24068)

MP2 (t32179)

MP3 (t18783)

CO (t40854)

SoxLover (t43646)

SB (t17025)

BB (t48560)

UTG (t10439)

UTG+1 (t12402)

Preflop: SoxLover is Button with 9h, 9s.

6 folds, SoxLover raises to t3200, 1 fold, BB raises to t20400, SoxLover raises to t43596, BB calls t23196.

Flop: (t87542) Tc, 3h, Kd (2 players)

Turn: (t87542) 6h (2 players)

River: (t87542) 5s (2 players)

Final Pot: t87542

That's right, he called an all-in re-raise with 10 6 off and sucked out on me--this where we each had several hundred dollars in tourney equity (not to mention 2 and half hours of time spent). OK, you could say arguably he's pot committed--but keep in mind if he folds he's still above average. And how insane was the first raise to get himself pot committed. Moreover, he's not pot committed unless he can put me on overs or an under pair.

Notwithstanding the above somehow I did not punch through my monitor, I did not start spewing into the chat box and I did not even curse. When my wife came over and read the hand history, her only reaction was one of surprise that I had not exploded right there on the spot. I think it was a combination of 3 things: First, I had gone all in with 99 and expected a coinflip and had already begun preparing myself internally to lose. Second, the 10 came on the flop, I knew I was beat before I had time to process exactly what the moron had called me with. Third, it was actually funny.

I had hoped this reaction showed my steely new self, but a later tourney bad beat on Party did put me into a rage--for some reason the hand converter won't work for this, maybe it was too disgusted:

***** Hand History for Game 2691259597 *****
50/100 Tourney Texas Hold'em Game Table (NL) (Tournament 15631927) - Sun Sep 11 00:53:35 EDT 2005
Table Multi-Table(452388) Table 6 (Real Money) -- Seat 10 is the button
Total number of players : 10
Seat 1: The__Huncher (1430)
Seat 2: Lakenheath73 (785)
Seat 3: FABIOB123 (3760)
Seat 4: mikechec12 (3425)
Seat 5: tris96 (15)
Seat 6: hoowudoing (2510)
Seat 7: BOOGIE (1295)
Seat 8: Hibbs08 (2535)
Seat 9: YankyH8r (1105)
Seat 10: lindaniels (1570)
The__Huncher posts small blind (25)
Lakenheath73 posts big blind (50)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to YankyH8r [ Kh, Kc ]
FABIOB123 folds.
mikechec12 folds.
tris96 calls (15)
tris96 is all-In.
hoowudoing raises (275) to 275
BOOGIE folds.
Hibbs08 folds.
YankyH8r raises (1105) to 1105
YankyH8r is all-In.
lindaniels folds.
The__Huncher folds.
Lakenheath73 folds.
hoowudoing calls (830)
Creating Main Pot with $75 with tris96
Creating Side Pot 1 with $2225 with YankyH8r
** Dealing Flop ** : [ 8c, 4s, 5s ]
** Dealing Turn ** : [ 7h ]
** Dealing River ** : [ Qs ]
** Summary **
Main Pot: 75 | Side Pot 1: 2225 |
Board: [ 8c 4s 5s 7h Qs ]
The__Huncher balance 1405, lost 25 (folded)
Lakenheath73 balance 735, lost 50 (folded)
FABIOB123 balance 3760, didn't bet (folded)
mikechec12 balance 3425, didn't bet (folded)
tris96 balance 0, lost 15 [ 9c 9s ] [ a pair of nines -- Qs,9c,9s,8c,7h ]
hoowudoing balance 3705, bet 1105, collected 2300, net +1195 [ Ks Js ] [ a flush, king high -- Ks,Qs,Js,5s,4s ]
BOOGIE balance 1295, didn't bet (folded)
Hibbs08 balance 2535, didn't bet (folded)
YankyH8r balance 0, lost 1105 [ Kh Kc ] [ a pair of kings -- Kh,Kc,Qs,8c,7h ]
lindaniels balance 1570, didn't bet (folded)

I am playing the 250+25 live tourney that I won last week. It starts at 5:00. Drop me quick line today if you know me and I'll give you the details.