Saturday night with Amateurs !!!

Poker with amateurs can be the most daunting experience for a pro (well a semi pro who is considered pro in those amateur eyes..lol !!!). This is exactly what happened to me last Saturday night at 901 Suncity, Bangalore, when I tried my skills with few of my IIT classmates and seniors.

Now where you hold a status of pro, Not only just money but prestige and reputation are also on the stake and believe me you don’t want to lose to these guys. As one loss can bring a lifetime of humiliation and they will not spare a single opportunity to brag about how they busted you that night. And I also didn’t want to qualify for the example of a statement which says “a passionate amateur can beat a pro.” So playing with extra caution was just inevitable.

After explaining the rules, the first hand came in existence with several jokes (non-veg of course) and pranks, I had a Js, 10c. In a normal game I would make a mild raise to show the strength but here my senses did not allow for the same play style so I had to fold when Summi raised a 10/20 game to 100, few players called and flop came Jc, 10s, 7d and I cursed Summi like anything. I think I folded in most of the hands and choose to stay only with the better ones….really better ones!!!

Though I folded most of my hands and tried to establish an image of a tight player but the jokes from all the corners of the room couldn’t make it easier for me to calm down. The game was really interesting as it was a treat to watch them fight for a small pot with unusual raises and re-raises.

In one game I decided to limp in with pocket Aces and thought of cashing from those arrogant novice bastards, Sandy raised it to 30, Summi and Shayak called, HimS folded and Super again raised it to 100, well I had the best possible hand and everybody else is raising… [:-0] Am I not playing it right?? I just called to cash big from them. The flop came 7c, Kh, 3s… WOW!! Now someone with King will wanna give a shot and I was predetermined to bust the bluffer. I casually checked, Sandy checked too but Summi bet 300 (gotcha!!!) now everyone else excluding super folded, Super again re-raised it to 600…. Damn !!! How many Kings we have got in a Deck?? huh… Now I could go all in and bust both of these bastards but somehow I felt something wrong about it…something!!! I don’t know what but it was urging me to fold. To my surprise I folded my pocket Aces possibly the best hand…as soon as I folded Summi went all in, Super had no choice but to call the raise. Turn and River came Qh, 8s….Summi showed his 7 and before he could turn up the other card I swore him for getting my Aces folded but God grace he wasn’t just playing with a pair of 7 he had a 3 as well…and Super’s Kings were no good to his two pairs….That was a relief and I couldn’t admire myself more…

After a sequence of interesting hands where I was a spectator due to my folding spree, there came a hand which became the concluding hand of the evening. This time my holes were Ac, 8d… I raised it to 30, everyone just called… flop came Ah, 6h, 8h…. WOW two pairs on the flop but ‘Hearts’ were sending “Red signals”….well I wanted to give it a shot…and thought of raising it big I moved a 100 bucks chip in…Summi, Shayak and Sandy folded…great going!!! 3 down two more to go… HimS raised it to 200…Man did he strike two hearts in the hole??…No clue.. even his depressed face couldn’t help me…now Super re-raised it to 400….and I had no idea what’s going on…. These bastards don’t even know respecting a nice raise, these morons have hardly played some 20 hands in their entire life so far and they were giving me a run for money…Damn!!! Cursing all those stupid probability calculations which were of no help in a scenario like that where you liked your hand too much… With shivering hands I put all my chips in the pot going “All-in” making it another 1100 bucks for each of them to call…. Praying to God that this should make them fold their bluffs (or it is just me thinking that they were bluffing).

And on a very unpleasant note both of them came ‘All-in’ too….I cursed the moment when I took the courage of going all-in but none of that aftermath gonna stop the damage……

I showed my two pairs…HimS had two pairs (nice) but As, 6s were no good….YES!!!…now Super came with his daunting Hearts and my heart just skipped a beat…Man I hated those heavy hands of Super sliding the chip stack towards him….but hey wait..The Turn and River are not up yet…we don’t have a winner yet…

Oh yeah….in such a headlong situation I forgot the existence of the next two cards…I asked Summi to put next two cards on the board…it came 8d and Kc….wow I just hit a full house on the turn……I couldn’t bless Summi more…He after his stupid play style made my day with a ravishing ‘8’….

And King departed with full dignity and smile on his face to have a good night sleep !!!

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~ by pokerjoker01 on January 15, 2009.