A Bad Beat Turns Into A Good Friendship & Jedi Mind Control

I Played in some good games at The Commerce yesterday. In the morning, when I walked into the room I literally got dragged into a pot limit dealer's choice game. It was really a lot of fun. The rest of the table had been playing all night and really seemed tired. In fact we had been playing stud high and the game switched to Razz. One of the two players in the hand thought he was still playing stud high and turned his hand over after going all in and said "Full House." His opponent stared at him and replied "6-5 low." Needless to say it was interesting.

Later in the evening I joined a 10-20 No Limit game and sat next to a friend of mine Jason Suh. How we met is kind of a funny story. We were playing in a 25-50 No Limit cash game back in September at The Borgata. After playing in the game for a couple of hours, it was clear to me that he was the strongest player at the table, and I played with him once or twice at The Commerce and remembered him as a solid player. I had been playing very tight and thought I'd use this to my advantage. There was a pot that was limped around to him and he raised to about 6 BB, I was next to act and looked down at 5 6 off suit and re-raised about 4 times his bet. Everyone folds around back to Jason who thinks for a second, and smooth calls. I put him on a good pair, somewhere around JJ or QQ or even maybe AK, and thought as long as I didn't think the flop hit him, I would try and push him off it. Now remember I haven't played many hands, and when I've turned over my hand, I always had the goods. So the flop comes 2 6 9 and Jason checks to me, I do have mid pair, back door flush and a slim chance for a straight. I lead with a 75% pot sized bet and Jason bets a full pot sized bet right back at me. We are both pretty deep and I have him well covered. He has put about $4,000 in the pot so far and has approximately 14k left. I think for a moment and put him all in. I realize this is a pretty aggressive move, but he is a good player and I am pretty sure he will lay the hand down. Jason goes into the tank for 30 seconds and I'm trying the Jedi mind control trick "These are not the droids you are looking for" no wait a minute, "Your hand is no good, throw it away." Of course he calls and shows K K. So much for my good read, and I think I need more instruction from Yoda on the Jedi mind control.

Lucky for me, I sucked out with 7, 8for a straight. Needless to say Jason was a little upset and went upstairs to his room and came back with 40k to try and reclaim his lost money from the donkey who just lucked out. When he returned I had left to go have dinner. I would have to say that was the worst bad beat I have ever given. I do hate giving a bad beat because it means I put my money in bad, although I'd still rather give a bad beat then lose.

Interestingly enough, Jason and I quickly became good friends. As it turns out, he had just left the US Navy where he served on a Destroyer in the Pacific. Having served in the Navy myself I have great respect for those who have served in uniform. A few days later Jason went on to win one of the Borgata events and took home an 86K payday. Here is a link to Jason Suh: http://www.cardplayer.com/players/results/Jason-Suh/66873

I am going to play some cash games now and then the Shootout later today.

The Oracle