Feel My Pain
Warning: What follows is a bad beat story. If you have an aversion to such tales (like I do), please skip this post.
I was playing very well on PokerStars this eve, so I decided to try my new-and-improving tournament game in their “Nightly Seventy Grand” — a $50+5, $70k guaranteed … with about 1,300 players, 198 get paid.
Though I made one mistake that cost me half my stack, and one fold that was correct but woulda worked out in my favor, I was still in good chip position (about 230thish with 735 or so remaining) and my head was in the right place. No tilt factor … knew to be patient and I’d get my hand.
I had already begun thinking about the glorious post I would write upon taking down the $12k first prize — and accepting in my mind that odds were still against my actual winning, so this would more likely be a battle to see just how deep I could get into the real money — but instead I got a reminder of why poker sucks “tournament pro” must be such a terrible way to make a living.
Click below for the complete textual hand history. I can’t stop thinking about it — about an hour and a half later. I’m pretty sure I played the hand itself as right as i could (pushing all-in preflop with Aces), so all I’m left with are regrets over the hand I misplayed an orbit or so earlier. Those extra chips (I was in the top 25 at the time) probably woulda been enough to push RoryClan83 and his 44 out of there, and even if not I’d still have been alive after my Aces got so painfully double-cracked.
Instead, I gave the dumbass my distinguished opponent from Del Boca the ammunition to kill me.
(He would go on to finish in 100th place, paying $105.)
PokerStars Game #21309953753: Tournament #113516614, $50+$5 Hold’em No Limit – Level V (75/150) – 2008/10/18 22:44:44 ET
Table ‘113516614 44’ 9-max Seat #6 is the button
Seat 1: DcHustlers (3618 in chips)
Seat 2: WALLSTREET1 (10040 in chips)
Seat 3: HamOnRye (3655 in chips)
Seat 4: JustAplayer2 (5990 in chips)
Seat 5: RoryClan83 (8417 in chips)
Seat 6: jackalteo (13340 in chips)
Seat 7: shaundeeb (3165 in chips)
Seat 8: RiverDan72 (5590 in chips)
Seat 9: .dfm.dfm. (1440 in chips)
shaundeeb: posts small blind 75
RiverDan72: posts big blind 150
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RiverDan72 [Ah Ac]
.dfm.dfm.: raises 1290 to 1440 and is all-in
DcHustlers: folds
WALLSTREET1: folds
HamOnRye: folds
JustAplayer2: folds
RoryClan83: calls 1440
jackalteo: folds
shaundeeb: folds
RiverDan72: raises 4150 to 5590 and is all-in
RoryClan83: calls 4150
*** FLOP *** [8c Th 7c]
*** TURN *** [8c Th 7c] [6s]
*** RIVER *** [8c Th 7c 6s] [5h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
RiverDan72: shows [Ah Ac] (a pair of Aces)
RoryClan83: shows [4d 4c] (a straight, Four to Eight)
RoryClan83 collected 8300 from side pot
.dfm.dfm.: shows [9d 9s] (a straight, Six to Ten)
.dfm.dfm. collected 4395 from main pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 12695 Main pot 4395. Side pot 8300. | Rake 0
Board [8c Th 7c 6s 5h]
Seat 1: DcHustlers folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 2: WALLSTREET1 folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 3: HamOnRye folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 4: JustAplayer2 folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 5: RoryClan83 showed [4d 4c] and won (8300) with a straight, Four to Eight
Seat 6: jackalteo (button) folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 7: shaundeeb (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 8: RiverDan72 (big blind) showed [Ah Ac] and lost with a pair of Aces
Seat 9: .dfm.dfm. showed [9d 9s] and won (4395) with a straight, Six to Ten
Ed says:
October 19th, 2008 at 1:45am
Ok i had to follow this hand at the end in the hand history. The site you used to show the hand to us is not working right when it gets to the who got paid part. It ships both pots to the 99 guy. He only had like 1400 and some change when he pushed…but it shows him with over 12000 at the end. 🙂 Other than that…yeah…been there done that plenty.
DanM says:
October 19th, 2008 at 2:23am
ahh, you are right ed. know any better hand replayers out there?
Kevin Mathers says:
October 19th, 2008 at 9:21am
Pokerxfactor.com has a pretty good one, http://tinyurl.com/danrunsbad
DanM says:
October 19th, 2008 at 10:21am
I did like the choice of background for pokerhandreplays.
Tried to see the PXF rendition, but you have to be a registered member. I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before PokerStars makes their built-in hand replayer linkable and/or embeddable.
Kevin Mathers says:
October 19th, 2008 at 10:32am
Registration is free to use the hand replayer at PXF.
DanM says:
October 19th, 2008 at 10:37am
Right, but you can’t embed it to share with the masses, correct? Too many clicks (more than one) to register.
I know PXF is a good site and the members to it are pretty loyal … but just curious, Kev, how many poker-related sites are you a full, registered member of? (My guess: 126.)
Note to self: that might make a good post someday … which poker sites are worth registering for.
Kevin Mathers says:
October 19th, 2008 at 10:54am
Drop the 1, and it may be closer to the truth.
DanM says:
October 19th, 2008 at 1:57pm
Just looked at my fold hand … that one’s messed up, too. A chopped pot (AQ vs AQ) gets shipped to only one player, while showing the other going bust.
I guess I’ll have to find a new, better hand replayer (any other recs?) … or just pledge to never post about one of my online hands again.
Ed says:
October 19th, 2008 at 4:28pm
or just show the text. i think most of us can read. 😛
DanM says:
October 19th, 2008 at 8:48pm
The guy to my right was online pro Shaun “Not Freddy” Deeb:
http://www.tworags.com/blog/shaundeeb