Getting Rewarded for Bad Play

In my first post I had mentioned that a buddy of mine and myself started up a poker league. Well, last night we had one of our weekly tournaments. We had 21 players. Not a bad little turn out for a Tuesday night. Just so you know we all start with 10,000 in chips, the blinds go up every 20 minutes, and the blinds start at 25/50. I was ready to play last night, BUT let me just tell you…the deck hated me last night.

Man, it was bad. I can’t tell you how many Q 2’s, 7 4’s, and 9 3’s I saw in the first few rounds. I finally took a stab and raised in mid to late position with a 5s 6s. I raised a little more than triple the blind, and got a call from the button. I hit my miracle flop: 5c 6d 10c. I bet out about a pot size bet, got a raise from the player on the button, and I re-raised all in. I knew I had him beat, and I didn’t want to see another card. The button thought for a second and then mucked. He flashed me his pocket 9’s. What’s really funny is that he asked to run it out (I have no idea why) the turn Ad and the river As. If he would have called my all in my 2 pair would have been counterfeited on the river. BUT that is why I pushed. I knew he couldn’t call.

There was one hand that really ticked me off. A donkey played against me and got lucky. Here is how it went: I am on the button. The blinds are 200/400. Seat 4 (under the gun +1) makes it 1200 to go. Seat 6 smooth calls. It fold around to me. I look down. Ks Kh. I know that I am way ahead, but I also know that seat 4 CONSTANTLY overvalues his hands. He was probably sitting on a mid range ace. Seat 6 is just a calling station he probably has a similar hand. So I announce raise, and I make it 3500 to go (about 30% of my stack). The blinds fold out, seat 4 says…”I’ve got my favorite hand. I call”, and seat 6 folds. I know exactly what seat 4’s favorite hand is. He refers to it every time we play. It’s an A 10. Yea…that’s right. An Ace FREAKIN’ 10. Here is the flop:

A ___ 10

The second card was accidentally left face down for a second. I am thinking- please be a freakin’ King so I can bust the snot out of this donkey…I know he has A 10. What idiot calls a re-raise with an A 10.

Well the middle card was flipped over. It was a 5. The donkey in seat 4 immediately moves all in. I flip my kings over and muck. He shows and Ac 10d. Yea, yea, yea. I know. Some tool is reading this thinking “that’s poker.” If that tool is you…you suck big, fat, sweaty elephant balls.

I know that people get lucky in cards. I don’t have a problem with that. Every poker player that has ever played the game has been lucky plenty of times. What I do have a problem with is donkeys getting lucky, and actually thinking they are skillful players. I have played with seat 4 a decent number of times. I have seen this guy call with hands that are way behind, hit his two outer on the river, and then brag about how he played the hand. This just REALLY bugs me.

I really don’t mind that he called. My kings are going to crush his A 10 off suit most times. I just hate that he keeps getting lucky. It is like he is being rewarded for bad play.