Don't You Understand How Unlucky You Were?

Have you ever tried to teach your significant other how to play poker? I have, and it was a pretty frustrating experience for my wife! But what could I do? If you're going to date and marry a world champion of poker, you'd better at least have some understanding of how to play poker. My wife was very game about learning how to play, even though I would occasionally jump up out of my seat and say, "How could you make that play?" In fact, she was one of my best students ever. She somehow put up with me (that would never happen today), and improved rapidly from someone who didn't know what a straight was to someone who split two limit hold'em tournaments in back-to-back weeks – one with me! After splitting a 44-player limit hold'em event with someone at a local Indian reservation one weekend, she proceeded to end up heads up with me the next weekend in a 25-player limit hold'em event in Madison, Wisconsin. (Phil: "Honey, the money's all going to the same place – $1,600 for first and $900 for second – so do you want to just stop playing right now?" Wife: "No way, hubby, let's play for the title!" With nothing on the line except ego, I was dumb enough to beat her that day. I won, but I didn't win.) A month later, she played in a Bicycle Casino ladies event with more than 40 players, and finished fourth. So ended my wife's poker career, because being a doctor and a mother has left her little time for poker during the last 10 years.

My buddy Huck Seed got his former girlfriend, Dee Luong, into poker, and she eventually rose through the ranks to play $50-$100 and higher limit hold'em. Dee is a well-known player at Bellagio today. There are lots of successful poker couples out there, such as World Series of Poker bracelet winners Harry and Jerri Thomas from Cincinnati, Ohio, and Max and Maria Stern from Costa Rica. I have no comment here on which gender plays better in those bracelet-winning couples, but I certainly made my opinions clear to Max and Harry the day after their wives won WSOP bracelets!

When I was first teaching my wife to play poker, I decided that she was ready to play in Wayne Tyler's local $5-$10 poker game at Nora's Bar, a bit east of Madison. Within one hour of play, a local postal worker and old friend of mine named Bruce DeWitt got involved in a pot with my wife. It's a pot that I still remember well to this day, even though it happened in 1989. Bruce raised with the K 10 (pay attention to the suits here), and my wife called with A-Q in the small blind. With a flop of A A Q, my wife put in the third bet against Bruce on the flop. Fourth street brought the dream card for my wife when Bruce hit a straight with the J, for a board of A A Q J. My wife was able to cap the betting against Bruce ($40 each), and Bruce's face turned a little bit red at this point (you have to know him to appreciate this). The last card was the K, for a board of A A Q J K, giving Bruce a royal flush! My wife bet out, Bruce raised, and my wife just called, fearing that Bruce had A-K.

Wow, what a beat! Bruce needed exactly the J and the K after the flop in order to win this hand. That's 43-to-1 times 22-to-1; Bruce was a 946-to-1 underdog! My wife calmly said, "Good hand, Bruce," but I didn't handle things that smoothly; her bad beat cost me $500, and I went crazy. "Honey, that was the worst beat I have ever seen! I know you've played only one hour of limit poker in your life, but these hands just never happen in poker. Bruce was trying to bluff you out on the flop when you flopped aces full of queens. He tried to bluff you off the best possible hand. Brutal beat! How can you fade ('fade' was the buzzword in poker at the time) that?" Surprised by my wife's lack of emotions (as if everyone is supposed to be a volcano like I was), I said, "Honey, don't you understand how unlucky you were in that hand?"

I hope you enjoyed this Hand of the Week. Good luck playing your hands this week.

Editor's note: Phil Hellmuth can often be found playing poker online or teaching poker seminars at UltimateBet.com. For more information about Phil, or to read more Hand of the Week columns, go to PhilHellmuth.com.