I played an average poker tournament, at one of the local casinos. An easy deep stack game consisting of $175 buy-in, a player field of 134, and approximately $20,000 in the middle.
I caught a full house early and was able to double my chip stack. This was great because I didn’t see one descent starting hand for the next 2 hours. Needless to say, by this time I was short on chips and was looking for the chance to make a move.
I was in the big blind with pocket 3’s, with one player limping and one player raising. I knew the only chance I would have was getting the raiser heads up. I could have folded, but being short stacked, I had only one round left and out of chips anyway.
I pushed all my chips in the middle. Both players called. At that point, I figured I was beat. The flop was J,4,6 of spades. First player checked, the original raiser then shoved all his chips in the middle, which forced the last player to fold. We are now heads up, and I knew my odds of winning were history. As we stood up, I congratulated him on the win, and showed my pocket 3’s. He turned over pocket queens.
For whatever reason, the dealer thought the hand was over and began gathering the cards and started shuffling. “Whoa!” I said, “I still have a draw.” It was my luck that both 3’s were black, his queens were red. After about 20 minutes of camera reviews, floor supervisor had the dealer lay back the original cards, to finish the hand.
The next card turned was a 3, which now gave me the winning hand. Even worse, the river card was a spade, which added insult to injury. Of course I raked in a massive pot, exactly what I needed to survive this game. The player was pissed, had all sorts of nice things to say.
The break started and players shuffled out of the room. Many were gathering to find out what the fuss was about. This player went on and on about the bad dealer, poker room policies, getting ripped off, and so forth. It was almost like listening to a child, when you steal their candy. I couldn’t help myself and I felt this was a hidden opportunity. I walked over to him, put my hand gently on his shoulder, as to get his attention. In front of all the other players I said, “What until you see the next hands I play.” With that, I turned and walked away.
Granted the dealer made a mistake, we all do. I did feel bad about winning the hand like that, but not really. There are plenty of hands everyday, I get screwed on. It’s part of the game. You can’t look at poker as… a one game plan, rather a several game plan. There is something to intimidation. After I said that in front of everyone, knowing what just happened, made players a little shy towards me. When I raised, everyone but the sucker folded. As I took the chips, I kept up pressure forcing every player to make a decision, or second guess the decision they made.
I love playing poker so much, even playing for Jelly Beans excites me. If you don’t have sincere passion for the game, you’ll never get beyond breaking even. Final table pays better than bottom prize. I went home with a profit that evening, and more added to my reputation, as well.