"It's Not Rigged!"

I am sure some players think that online poker is rigged and that crazy bad beats occur only when playing online. Well, this just isn't the case. I have been playing online for several years now, and I certainly know the feeling; I have often wanted to throw my laptop straight out of the window into the swimming pool, and I am currently on my 16th mouse (my poor mouseys take quite a beating). The fact is that these outlandish hands happen in live tournaments just as frequently as they do on the Internet. I shouldn't even have to mention that you get about three times as many hands online as you do live, so there is no doubt that you will see something every day you play that makes you sick to your stomach. Unfortunately, that is no different than playing in the casinos, so suck it up and stop blaming it on the online poker rooms. They want you to be happy and play – not break your computer and cash out!

Let me give you a couple of examples. As I write this, I am playing at Bellagio's Five-Diamond World Poker Classic, and I want to share a few hands that remind me of the Internet gripes that I hear constantly.

Hand No. 1: This hand occurred when there were 14 players remaining in the $1,500 buy-in pot-limit hold'em tournament. The average stack size was about 50K and the blinds were $1,500-$3,000. Everybody folded to the button, a solid, successful, and well-respected player who had about 45K in chips before the hand started. He raised double the big blind to 6K. John Juanda, with about 26K in chips, called the 6K and raised another 15K, leaving himself with only 5K, and he was without a doubt committed to his hand. The big blind folded and, without much hesitation, the player on the button said, "OK, let's put the rest of it in!" as he reraised John all in. John quickly put the remainder of his chips in the pot and flipped over pocket jacks. The player on the button then flipped over K-7 offsuit. This raised the eyebrows of all the players at the table. The flop came down 7-6-4 and the turn paired the 7, giving the player on the button three sevens and leaving John with only two outs. The river was a brick and John finished in 14th place.

"What the heck was that?" I heard from one of the players at the table.

"Maybe he misclicked!" I replied with a chuckle.

Hand No. 2: This hand occurred when we were down to the last three players of the same $1,500 pot-limit hold'em tournament. The remaining players were Bill Seber with about 300K in chips, Gabe Thaler with about 220K in chips, and me with about 230K. The blinds were 5K-10K. I was on the button and raised the pot to 25K with the Q 3. Gabe called the raise from the small blind and Bill folded from the big blind. The flop came down 3-2-2 rainbow, Gabe checked, and I bet 45K into the 60K pot. Gabe paused, and then raised the pot to 195K, putting himself all in and leaving me with a tough decision. I had been playing with Gabe for hours, and had gained a ton of respect for his game. He plays a very straightforward style and his image at the table is that he doesn't come over the top unless he has a big hand. I had been raising quite frequently at this table and Gabe had not come over the top of me once that I could remember. However, I knew that Gabe was very capable of making a check-raise bluff if he had to, and I thought he may have been waiting to make a "big play" on me as the tournament progressed. I wondered if he had been creating this tight, never-come-over-the-top image so that he could nail me when it really counted. After thinking these factors through, I decided that this could be the spot that Gabe had been waiting for. It was an all-rag flop and the pot had some meat in it. If Gabe was able to steal this pot from me, it would put him in great shape to win the tournament. I made the call, and Gabe turned over pocket sevens. "Wow, this guy never turns over a bad hand!" I thought to myself. Well, Gabe had me in pretty bad shape until I spiked a 3 on the river and eliminated him in third place.

Knocking opponents out of poker tournaments is part of the game, and I generally never feel too bad about it – even if the players I'm knocking out are my friends – but for some reason this hand affected me a little differently than usual. I couldn't stop saying sorry to him. I felt genuinely terrible for busting him like this. Gabe played an amazing tournament and is just as nice a guy as he is a good player. If he had been able to dodge a queen or that 3, there is little doubt in my mind that he would have won the tournament, or at least would have given Bill a better run for the money than I did. Congratulations, Bill Seber, on a job well done.

Hand No. 3: This hand occurred at the final table of the 2K buy-in no-limit hold'em tournament. There were six players remaining, the average stack size was about 240K, and the blinds were 4K-8K with a 1K ante. My good friend from Vancouver, Romer Magbanua, was under the gun and extremely short-stacked with just under 50K in chips. Romer pushed all in. Brian Appelbaum studied his hand and called the 48K, leaving himself with about 60K. Another good friend of mine, Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi, quickly fired in a reraise with a full stack of 5K chips (100K), leaving himself with about 150K. The small blind folded and Gioi Luong (the chip leader at the time) announced that he was all in from the big blind! The action was now back to Brian, who announced that he was all in. As the crowd of spectators started to roar, "The Grinder" stuck his tongue out, pushed all in, and immediately flipped over pocket aces! Romer showed pocket jacks, Brian showed pocket kings, and, with a grimace, Gioi then showed the other two kings. The crowd rushed to the table to witness this unbelievable hand. When the commotion was over, the dealer pushed the monster pot to "The Grinder," leaving Romer in sixth place and Brian in fifth. That's right, there were aces, kings, kings, and jacks in a sixhanded game! It's not just the Internet where this stuff happens. Congratulations to Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi on capturing the title, the bracelet, the seat into the 25K final event, and a nice chunk of change!