Charity Begins at Home

A man came back from a break to our live-action pot-limit hold'em table when I was in Tunica recently. He had been walking when I joined the game. He sat back down in front of his rather large stack, removed the "overs" box that was on top of his chips, and resumed play.

On his first hand back, he straddled $50, which was the wrong amount for the Mississippi straddle in our $5-$10-$15 blind game. The standard straddle was $30. A man behind him put in a pot-sized reraise based on the incorrect straddle amount. Then, all hell broke loose. The floorman was called for a ruling on the raise. Could the bet stand? Would the pot have to be adjusted down to the correct straddle amount and subsequent smaller raise? And then, the unthinkable occurred: The player who straddled realized he was at the wrong table.

Let's review. The guy straddled the wrong amount and got raised based on that wrong amount. And now, it turns out he's playing someone else's chips. He was really playing at the table next to ours. And, there was the one small detail that he was playing Omaha at his table, but hold'em at our table. If this had been noticed a few minutes into the hand, it could have been a disaster. Imagine if this guy had then reraised and gotten all in. He wasn't playing his own chips. Would he have been liable for the pot? Would the house be liable?

In any case, the house declared a misdeal and the hand was dead. I think the guy who sat down at the wrong table had queens. If I was the other guy in the pot, I think I might have at least demanded the $50 from the guy - or, maybe I wouldn't; I'm not sure.

I played in a fascinating charity event at the St. Regis Hotel in New York recently. As a benefit to help fund the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute, a bunch of Wall Street types held a $2,500 multiple-rebuy tournament. First prize was the use of a Gulfstream IV private jet for 72 hours. I couldn't resist. I've never had use of a private jet, and I wanted to. Annie Duke, Russ Hamilton, and Phil Hellmuth were celebrity participants. They couldn't win the prize, and were there as a lure to the Wall Streeters to play with the champions. So, even if I could just get down to fourhanded with those esteemed champions, I would win the prize even if I couldn't beat them.

Someone remarked that the net worth in the room was about $15 billion, which I know can't be accurate. But there were 105 apparently well-financed participants. The total amount of money raised came to $550,000, or slightly more than two buys per player. I limited myself to one $2,500 buy-in, which I'm not counting against my rapidly dwindling poker bankroll.

The first hand was folded around to me, one off the button. I put in a standard-sized raise with K-Q. Everyone folded, including Phil Hellmuth in the big blind. That was no big deal, obviously. But then Phil asked the woman to his left, who had been first to act, what she folded. He thought he might have seen her hand, but he couldn't believe what he saw. "Aces," she casually remarked. She folded A-A from first position. That's about the general level of play I saw throughout the event.

Annie Duke, who was at another table, told me about a hand in which she raised preflop with A-Q offsuit. The flop came queen high and Annie bet out. A guy with K-8 offsuit called her bet, going all in in the process. Annie politely asked him why he had called all in with such a weak holding. He answered, "I was trying to bluff."

I rejoined Phil at another table later in the tournament. A guy next to me, who just wouldn't protect his hand no matter how much I begged him to, treated me to the following spectacle: Phil raised preflop, and the guy called with 9-2 from the big blind. The guy check-called Phil on the flop with nothing. He then hit a deuce on the turn and check-called Phil's pot-sized bet again. On the river, the guy bet out a very minimal underbet of the pot. Phil was forced to call with his A-K. I almost had to be hospitalized from laughing so hard. Phil had a momentary flash of anger on his face, but quickly regained his composure. Don't look for this one in any of Phil's upcoming "Hand of the Week" columns.

In fact, Phil went above and beyond the call of duty later by grabbing the microphone and announcing the entire final two tables. My one bullet wasn't enough, alas, and I'll be going jetless again this weekend.

Performance Update Through Mid-March

Bankroll on Feb. 13: $38,500

Bankroll on March 11: $21,700