I’ve made a new friend at Lucky Chances. His name is Django. (Pronounced Jango.) He’s a young, instantly likable player, very sharp and well-respected. The first dozen times we played together was in early 2007 when I played a few times a week for a few months. It was right after my book came out. I hadn’t played for a year and a half. During that time, he had become an established regular in the big no-limit game at LC.
One day, I raised preflop, he called from the blind, he checked the flop, I bet the flop, he checkraised, and I folded.
Another day, the same thing happened.
During those sessions I saw him do the same thing a couple times with draws.
So the next time I went up to play, I decided in the car that if this pattern came up again, I was going all the way with my hand if I had a pair.
And sure enough, it happened again. I had a pair (a pocket pair of eights), I opened for $120 preflop, he called from the big blind, he checked the flop, I bet $200, he made it $700, I called, he bet $1100 on the turn, I called, he bet $1700 on the river, I called, and he mucked. I won and no cards were shown.
(The flop was 9-4-2 rainbow. The turn was a queen and the river was a jack.)
He took a break right away. When he came back, he started talking to me about the hand. I knew right away I must really like this guy because I spoke.
“What’d you have?” he asked.
“I would like to answer your question, really I would, but I am incapable of telling the truth in situations like this, so there’s really no point in me saying anything.”
“You had pocket kings.” He said.
Fastforward to last week.
I hadn’t been to LC for about a year. I had been playing for a few hours, when Django took a seat in the game, across the table from me. Right away he started talking about the hand from a year ago. He asked if I remembered the hand.
“Yes.” I said. “The flop was 9-4-2 rainbow.” Before that sentence, it had been five or six years at least since I had mentioned actual cards at a poker table.
“Wow! Nice memory!” he said.
He said some more stuff about the hand that I didn’t reply to. A couple hours later, he moved to a seat right next to me. We chatted a little bit about this and that, and then he brought up the hand again.
“I’ll tell you what I had.” I said. “I had pocket threes. I decided in the car, on the way to the casino, that I was going to call you down with any pair if that pattern came up again.”
“I don’t believe you.” he said.
“I believe you.” I said.
“You believe that I don’t believe you?”
“Right.”
“Well, I had K6. Totally nothing.”
“I don’t believe you.” I said.
“Huh? Are you calling me a liar?”
“Yes. That’s what ‘I don’t believe you’ means. It means I think you are lying.”
“Well, I didn’t really mean it when I said I believed you had pocket threes.”
“I believe you.”
“But before you said you believed that I believed you had pocket threes?”
“But you forgot something.”
“What?”
“That I am incapable of telling the truth when it comes to talking about hands, or talking about talking about hands.”
“You’re a sick fuck.”
“I believe you.”
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Want more Tommy? His book, Elements of Poker, contains his best advice in his distinctive style. Buy it from Amazon or personally inscribed from his website at www.tommyangelo.com. Also at his website you can read Tommy’s blog and all of his old articles, and find information on his one-on-one comprehensive coaching program.
Related posts:
- The Second Worst Play Ever by Tommy Angelo In 2003, I intentionally folded pocket aces before the...
- Assume the Position by Tommy Angelo You’re playing live poker and you just folded before...
- On the EV of Mouse Smashing by Tommy Angelo I just got off the phone with a mouse...
- Breath Taking by Tommy Angelo Breathing in, I am aware that I am breathing...
- Stop “Protecting” Your Hands by Greg Walker “I raised pre with TT and this other guy...
| Site | Rackback | Sign Up Bonus | US |
| Absolute Poker | 30% | 150% up to $500 |  |
| Ultimate Bet | 30% | 111% up to $1100 | |
| Cake Poker | 33% | 110% up to $600 | |
| PKR Poker | 30% | 100% up to $800 | |
| Paradise Poker | 30% | 200% up to €1,000 | |
| Players Only | 33% | 100% up to $650 | |
| Fortune Poker | 30% | 200% up to €1,000 | |
| Betfair | 30% | $1500 | |
| Aced | 30% | 100% up to $500 | |
| Poker Heaven | 30% | 200% up to €1000 | |
| Poker Nordica | 30% | 100% up to $200 | |
| Carbon Poker | 30% | 150% up to $1000 | |
| Red Star Poker | 33% | 110% up to $600 | |
| True Poker | 27% | 100% up to $200 | |
| Action Poker | 35% | 100% up to $2500 | |
| Cellsino Poker | 40% | 500% up to $500 | |
| Minted Poker | 40% | 100% up to $400 | |
| Power Poker | 33% | 110% up to $600 | |
| Interpoker | 30% | 200% up to €1000 | |
| Doyles Room | 33% | 110% up to $600 | |
| Gutshot Poker | 33% | 110% up to $600 | |
| Full Tilt Poker | 27% | 100% up to $600 | |
| Fat Bet Poker | 40% | 1000% up to €500 | |
| NoiQ Poker | 30% | 100% up to €5000 |
| Site | Rake Race | Rake Chase | Freeroll |
|---|---|---|---|
| Doyle's Room | $35,000 | ||
| Cereus Poker Network* | $7,500 | $10,000 | $10,000** |
| Cake Poker | $60,000 | ||
| Party Poker*** | $50,000 | ||
| Red Star | $23,000 | ||
| Eurobet*** | $21,000 | ||
| Players Only | $16,400 | ||
| Tower Gaming*** | $15,000 | ||
| Full Tilt Poker | $10,000 | ||
| Carbon Poker | $12,000 | ||
| Betfair Poker | $12,000 | ||
| Boss Media Network**** | $5,000 | ||
| Cellsino Poker | $5,000 | ||
| Power Poker | $5,000 | ||
| Poker Nordica | $5,000 | ||
| NoIQ | €1,500 |
* Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet (UB) ** May not be available to all players *** Poker Heaven, Fortune Poker, InterPoker, Paradise Poker
Hi, my name is Bill Rini and this is my poker blog. I've been blogging about poker and the poker industry since around 2003-ish. Like most people I started out playing poker as entertainment in home games whenever we wanted to sit around and smoke cigars, drink beer, and eat pizza, and needed a good excuse. I started playing online shortly after the first online card rooms opened and it wasn't long before I was playing 20, 30, or even 40 hours a week or more. One day I received a phone call about a program manager position at Tiltware which was the company that consulted to Full Tilt Poker on software development and marketing. After Tiltware I spent about 2.5 years working at Party Poker where I was the poker room manager.
{ 0 comments… add one now }