ON THE BUTTON: Bad Beats That Make You Flush
It's hard not to get angry when a string of bad beats gets you down
May 4, 2006
By Nick Lanteri
Bodog Nation Contributing Writer
A run of bad beats, starting in September at the U.S. Poker Championships in Atlantic City, tripped a switch in my brain and has made me nuttier than most of Jack Nicholson’s roommates in Cuckoo’s Nest.
Recent violent displays of emotion at the tables, both in Atlantic City and at our Friday night home game (called the Long Island Savage Poker Tour, this is no ordinary home game), have shocked those who think they know me.
In January, I snapped at the Friday night game, breaking a toilet bowl after getting 2-outed on the river and losing to a higher set when I was about to triple up. Yeah, it was a bad scene. Or so I was told. With the toilet bowl rendered useless, 14 others were forced to "go" outside in 20-degree weather.
I didn’t mean to break the damn thing, of course. My version of the story back then was: "All I did was lift the toilet seat up before doing my business." The real version is: I slammed the seat up in a violent rage, which cracked the porcelain.
Every poker player gets his share of bad beats, and every poker player can top another's bad-beat story. Most poker players who hear details of a brutal river beat can probably blurt, “I got that beat, I got that beat,” like that scene in Jaws when Hooper says those words to Quint while they're getting sauced and comparing scars from shark attacks.
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My worst beat? It came in a live tournament and went like this: I’ve got a stack of about 9,000 chips (we started with 3,000) nearly six hours into a Limit Hold’em event at the U.S. Poker Championships at the Taj Mahal in Atlantic City. With the blinds at 200-400 and the betting limits at 400-800, I get pocket aces on the button and a loose player with a slightly bigger stack two seats to my right raises it. We cap the betting and we’re two players to a flop, which comes 2-5-10 rainbow.
My opponent leads out quickly and now I put him on pocket jacks or queens. I raise, he calls. The turn is a 7. He leads out again, I raise, he calls. The river card is a queen, but this time I get check-raised and now I get that sick feeling in my gut because I know my aces were just cracked. I call, he turns over the Hilton Sisters (two queens). My stack was crippled, and just for laughs I get knocked out a short time later to a runner-runner flush.
What can you do, right?
Okay, that's mine, what's yours? BodogNation invites you to submit a bad-beat story, and I’ll post a few of them in a future column.
On the Button Mailbag
Nick, I am a college student and have been playing cards for about two years. I have noticed that when I play Sit-N-Go's if you play by the book it comes back to bite you because people know when you are throwing out a bluff. Do you know of any ways I can change that while continuing to maintain a conservative style of play?
- Brad (Louisville)
When deciding if it is the right time to bluff, you should remember the betting pattern of your opponents. If a pre-flop raiser is betting small amounts on every street, or has checked it to you after the river, chances are he didn’t make his hand or isn't certain he has the best hand, and now is the time to move in with a sizable bet that will get him to muck.
Nick, What were you thinking? Why did you just tell everyone on Bodog how to play Sit-n-Go's? This is exactly how I play to the T. Now my secret is revealed and I may be faced with an actual challenge!
- Will (Boone, N.C.)
Will, then remind me to change gears and try to donkey some chips off of you next time we’re at the same table.
Nick, I always get knocked out on the bubble or very close to it in multi-tournaments. In fact my good friend calls me "Bubble Boy" in reference to just how many times I miss the money. Do you have any recommendations? How can I get myself to where I can continuously place?
- Chris Barentsen (Layton, Utah)
Have you ever seen poker pro Amir Vahedi say on TV: "In order to live, you must be willing to die?" Well, this applies to your “bubble” problems. You must be willing to move all-in as the bubble nears because most of your opponents have tightened up and are waiting to make it to the cash spots before opening up their games again. If you’re short-stacked and trying to post and fold your way to the money in these multi-tournaments, then you have plenty more “bubbles” in your future. Always pay attention to the tournament lobby and check the “average stack”. If your chip count is less than average, you must push all-in pre-flop with good starting hands because if you don’t get called you steal the blinds, and if you do get called, then you’re probably in a race situation. Good luck.
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Nick Lanteri is a freelance writer based in Long Island. His column appears monthly in Bodog Nation. Next month, he will write on preparing you for the World Series of Poker.
PHOTO: Erick Lindgren was ousted in the opening episode of the Fox Sports Net show Calvin Ayre Wild Card Poker (BodogNation photo).
