Live Poker - A giant ocean full of fish

May 23, 2011

The river is an 8... Making the board A-A-8-4-8, not my favourite card for my hand, AJ, as my kicker no longer plays, but maybe he has an 8? He, is a young foreigner, I believe from Kazakhstan, barely speaks English, and he has about £400 left on the river, there is £200 or so in the pot, he checks to me and I bet £175, the guy thinks for about 10 seconds and calls. I show my hand assuming he must have an 8 since he didn't insta-snap. Now he could've just mucked his hand, but he shows.... Pocket 5's!!! Disregarding the fact that he was somehow still in the pot when the river card fell, with only 5's, the man has just check-called £175 with a counter fitted pair, essentially playing the board! And on top of it shows his hand after I show the house, as if to show that he's gotten unlucky or had no choice but to call...

This is just one of the hundreds of examples of hands I have played in the different medium stakes cash games around London. It still amazes me how people can sit in these games, with descent amounts of money, hundreds of pounds, and essentially not understand the game of poker. And this is one of the many reasons I have been on an extended sabbatical from online poker.

Would you ever see a player value-shoving 200bb's with 2 pair on a board of 9-10-K-Q-X in a 1-2 game online? Maybe if it was a misclick... and no, he wasn't trying to bluff, I bet out with the mortal nuts A-J (praying he had the jack) and he shoved over the top, then when I called straight he said "omg I didn't even see the straight out there!"

Yes, online you can play 12 tables while sitting in your underpants watching "Only Way is Essex" but to me it has become apparent that the easy money lies elsewhere. The only thing I truly miss when playing live is the rake back, the Empire Casino in London, which I will go on record as saying is "One of the softest cash games in the entire planet" recently introduced a player points system which equates to about .25p p/hr, but I've basically given up my rake back, because the live cash games are that damn good!