I'm going to delay the discussion of the session I put in at The Palms for a moment or two, and hope that I don't forget the adjustments I made in that game, because I did adjust pretty significantly. I just got back to the house after playing this hand in a session, and I wanted to share it because it is very interesting.
Background. An older gentleman in his late 50s or early 60s sat at my table after I had been there for about 20 minutes, and he started playing.
About 20 minutes later, when another seat opened at my table, a woman in her late 50s or early 60s sat at our table. She begins playing, and about 20 minutes after she sits she gets a visit from a friend who asks what her about some social event. The friend nods in the direction of the elderly man who joined the table 20 minutes ahead of her, and says, "we expect you and your husband to be there."
I'm not suspicious by nature, but the fact that they were married and had not acknowledged each other's presence nor spoken to one another set off alarm bells in my head. Since I was squeezed between them, I started thinking about a table change just to be on the safe side.
The table was amazingly loose passive, and peer pressure was actually being applied to people who raised. The result was that 7 of the 10 players at the table were to a greater or lesser extent cooperating in an effort to keep as many pots as possible limped pots. I was not participating, but since I had been dealt exactly 2 playable hands after my first hour and a half there, it was sort of a moot point.
Along comes the first two decent cards I have seen in an hour QJo UTG. In any normal situation, this hand is a turbo muck for me, but this was the perfect table for me to limp it and have a good chance of getting nothing other than callers. So I open limp for the firs time in 4 years (No exaggeration).
Two people limp behind me. The action gets around to the elderly man, and he leans back in his chair and is thinking and twisting his wedding ring contemplatively. There are 3 limpers before him, and he raises to 8. folded to his wife in the BB. She sits and thinks for a moment, and spins her wedding ring just like her husband did. Then she flat calls, and all 3 limpers call.
$40-ish in the pot.
I like the flop: K
T
6
Wife leads for $10. I call, one fold, one call and it's the husband's turn to act. Husband min raises to $20. Wife calls, I call, the other caller folds (yeah, seriously).
$100-ish in the pot
Turn is 4
Wife leads for twenty. I cut out $20 and pause before I bet, because i am expecting a raise from the husband and math is hard and I need a minute to calculate odds, etc. etc. As i cut out the chips, though, husband tosses a $100 bill across the betting line out of turn.
I say to the dealer, "that is a call, right?" And the dealer says, "Yes, that is correct."
The man says, "I said raise to you."
The dealer says, "I did not hear that. If you said it, I am sorry, but it is a call."
I say, "OK, I call," and stick my $20 in.
The man says, "No, I said raise. I wanted to raise to $100."
The dealer says, "well, ok."
I said, "No. Your ruling of his bet as a call influenced my decision and I acted after it. Call the floor, please."
The floor comes over and gets the story, and asks all the players at the table of he said raise. Only his wife says he announced a raise; everybody else says either he said nothing or they didn't hear him announce it if he did. I said I didn't hear him say anything, but couldn't say he didn't. This is the majority opinion--5 players say that they didn't hear him say raise, and the two to his left said he said nothing and just tossed the bill across.
The floor rules the action a call.
River is the A
There is about $160 in the pot. The wife leads for $45. I shove, the husband folds and the wife tank/calls and shows AKo.
Sidenote: The husband went nuclear on me with some nasty names. There is a lot more to tell, but I want to focus on the adjustments implied just by the hand, so I'll leave the story at that.
Also: I have left out the name of the room intentionally, and will not disclose it.