Bad Beats in Poker: We all get them handed to us, and not only do we lose the money, but everyone goes on tilt for at least a hand or two so we can lose more of our poker bankroll!
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Monday, May 16, 2005
May 16, 2005
Source: New Haven Register
A jack and a six, and they're not even the same suit. That's my hand.
A 50-person no-limit Texas Hold'Em tournament and I'm at the final table. It's down to two people: me and Donald Lee from Philadelphia.
It's 1:30 a.m. and about 80 people, including Kenny (Deon Richmond) from "The Cosby Show," are gathered around the table, which sits in the middle of Foxwoods Resort Casino's poker room. While pros and amateurs look for the right hand all around us, Don and I try to figure out what cards might finally end this more than six-hour tournament.
Texas Hold'Em is the very popular seven-card stud variation featured on various TV shows, including Travel Channel's "World Poker Tour." And, believe me, there are plenty of things to think about during each hand.
To figure out what to do with my jack and six, I think about all I've learned over the last 17 hours at the World Poker Tour's Boot Camp.
Held at Foxwoods Saturday and Sunday, 50 folks from all over the world anted up $1,495 to learn the nuances of poker from a couple of the sport's best players: WPT Ladies Invitational champion Clonie Gowen and poker professional Rick Fuller.
"Poker's always situational," explains Gowen, who's been playing for almost two decades. "When I was learning poker, I thought I knew how to play, but it wasn't until many years later that I found out how to really play poker. If I was able to take a class like this, I would have saved tons and tons of money."
The WPT Boot Camp is a two-day event that limits classes to around 50. My fellow classmates and I spent from 9 a.m. till 5:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday listening to engaging lectures and participating in various labs that helped us understand common poker situations.
"Basically, I want to get more knowledge," says Wendy Garner of Hamden, who plays poker online a few times a week. "I do it as a hobby and I picked it up quick, so I started playing more and betting a few bucks here and there. I'm doing (the camp) to get the knowledge to make it possible to play in games at casino tables."
Garner's reason for taking the course is similar to most who attended. "The people who tend to come to the Boot Camp," explains the event's co-founder Ron Rubens, "are people who like poker, maybe play a lot online, but have been intimidated by playing in casinos. I think they are looking to have a great time and improve their poker game. If they are going to do it, wouldn't it be better to win more?"
The Foxwoods event marks the fifth for Rubens and company, and, he says, the thing that has been most surprising is how many people use poker as a social experience.
Sarah Jacobs of Shelton came with her father, Dan, and says the social aspect is her favorite part of poker. "It's recreational and there are a lot of younger people," she says, "so it's become really fun. And if I'm addicted to poker and love doing it, I might as well get good at it. It's really an investment."
Jacobs started playing poker at a very young age and her background and proficiency in the workshops led Gowen to choose her as someone she thought would make the final table of our tournament.
My real lack of experience became clear during a preliminary 10-person game Saturday. This was supposed to help us get ready for the big 50-person, multi-table event. Well, it took me 19 hands to lose; I was the second person eliminated at my table.
Needless to say, I wasn't a favorite to make the big tourney's final table, which is formed when only 10 players are left from the game's initial five tables.
But here I was with my jack and six and at that table.
Somehow I survived the early play and thanks to basically drinking two cups of coffee at once, I managed to stick around - and stay awake - for the final table.
I started in the middle of the pack, chip-wise, in the finals. I bid aggressively any time I had a decent hand and, somehow, amassed a lot of chips. I think I might have been yawning when I realized I was the chip leader.
After that, I started betting big, sometimes without any kind of hand. Players started dropping one by one until it was just Don and me.
My jack and six versus whatever he's got in his hand.
After the three-card flop and the turn, I have nothing, still a jack high. Don doesn't bet at all, so I know he's got nothing, too.
On the river, my jack comes out.
I decide to check to him, hoping he'll think I still have nothing and try to steal the pot with a large bid. He does it by saying "all in." I immediately call and hold my breath. I'll win if he has nothing.
He turns over his cards: queen and four.
I win, and if I can win something like this, you know that the WPT Boot Camp worked.
During the entire tourney, I thought about odds, outs, pot odds, "folding the nuts," raising three times the blind, bad beats and more. They're words I had never even heard before, and after six hours of playing, I will probably have nightmares about it for days.
Patrick Ferrucci can be reached at pferrucci@nhregister.com or (203) 789-5678.
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# by Poker Absolute @ 8:12 AM
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