this guy comes and sits down after ive been playing for about 4 hours. This guy looks like a drug addict with a beer in hand, sits down and in the first hand looses 100 dollars calling with a mid pair on a flush board. Walks away for about 15 min then comes back and wins a bunch of pots. He doesn't stack his chips just pushes it towards him, doesn't protect his cards at all i could literally turn my head and look at his cards! which i didn't just because it takes something out of the game for me!

On top of this he acted like he never played before, didn't post blinds, put in too much, also too little. But it was the perfect cover because idk how this guy did it but in about an hour he was up 600 dollars. He would dump a couple pots just for show. But after a couple hands i knew this guy was slow playing the people and i was right because he got some guy to go all in on him for about 500 with top pair when he had a straight. And the other player had 2 pair. After that everyone else knew they just got played. He even started commenting come on man you should have known better than that.

All i can say is WOW! That guy had playing the player down to an insane level. No one could put him on a card even when people thought they had the strongest hand we were scared playing against him!

Has anyone else ran across this kind of player? sorry for the long post!

/fry Not sure if level ... or troll.

I've seen players like this before, and my experience is that they tend to just be drunk/high degenerates with some knowledge of the game. Most of the times they play they lose money, but because of how volatile their style is, when they manage to catch a few hands they get paid off big. You probably just witnessed him hit a few hands, not "play the players".

Coming in to a table acting drunk and stupid and donking off a min-buy, reloading for the max, and then catching the unwary is a standard Vegas play. Most folks aren't good enough actors to pull it off on experienced players, and it's very hard to stay in character for long durations. As well, just because you get the brayng masses to call your pre-flop all-in while you hold KK and they hold AQ doesn't mean they aren't going to snap you off. So I don't think it's a particularly profitable gambit, though I suppose it might be fun for those who enjoy the social engineering aspects of the game.

I don't use my ipad at the table but I do often use my phone to browse the web when I'm bored. I'll usually only be oding it after I folded the hand already.

FWIW, the reason I use my phone is not because "I don't *really* know how to play poker..." it's because it gets boring sometimes watch player debate over trivial decision plus having played online where I'm getting 530 hands/hr, going to just 30/hr means I feel like I have so much free time. I try to study the table as much as I can, but at some point I'm going onto espn.com to read about sports.

Place: Venetian 5/10NL, most stacks deep with avg >$5k.

With about $2-$2,500 in pot already, player 1 bet $400 with about $2k behind on the board of J846r, player 2 with big stack that has him covered puts in a raise with 30+ bills effectively putting player 1 all-in. Players tanks forever to the point where it was perfectly reasonable to call time. Just when it looked like he would fold, player two (without first peeking) casually flashes his down card, a 3c and almost as quickly sheepishly turns in back down. Player 1 gives a wtf look as does the rest of the table-mates and announces "what could you have?" and snap calls with J9.

River comes another J he scoops the nice pot while player 2 shows 53 and claims he misread his hand. Everyone is laughing.

I hope that no one in the 2+2 community was directly affected by the shootings in Aurora, CO; I know there's quite a few B&Mers out there.

A tl;dr BBVesque entry...

Early in the game I spew off $200, essentially all of it to the 1-seat who keeps playing ATC and hitting two pair with the likes of J4 and T3 against my top pairs or suited-connector two pairs. He's a luckbox. And he smirks and somehow swaggers in his chair when he wins so he's not my favorite person at the table.

I top off my stack and as happens, statistics catches up and I drag myself back to being solidly positive. Some of that, but not the majority, comes from the 1-seat. He's started glaring at me during this and finally comes right out and says "I'm getting really tired of you taking my chips". I LOL and point out that I gave him a buttload of those chips earlier and was probably still not even with him. Yeah, ok, he had forgotten that, so he decided maybe it was ok. I'm trying to figure out if he's seriously ticked off that he's lost 50BB to me after winning 100BB, but I believe he is.

It gets very late and finally he and a friend decide they have to go to bed. Both announce "last hand". His friend folds UTG and racks up. I limp with a small pair. It gets to the button, which is on our friend in the 1-seat, and he asks the dealer "how do I do that button straddle thing?" Dealer explains he has to do it BEFORE he looks at his cards. He says "I haven't looked". Dealer explains he also has to do it before 5 people have acted in front of him. "I haven't looked!" "It's too late sir--action is on you, you can fold, call, or raise." He raises to $15. My spidey sense are tingling (duh).

We see a beautiful raggy flop that gives me bottom set. I check, button bets $15. I make it $65. The 1-seat tanks, starts counting and recounting chips in various forms, and starts talking (mostly to himself, I think). Time to social engineer--the guy doesn't like me and he's oozing macho ego. I tell him "this is your last hand--you really don't want to get into a big pot now." "WHY NOT?!" "Well, because you have a lot of chips--leave now and you're a big winner. You'd really hate to bust after announcing this is your very last hand." He almost insta-raises to $130. And he reiterates "I haven't even looked at my cards" so I KNOW he still thinks he's playing me. I take the requisite 10 seconds and grab a stack of green that'll cover him and slap 'em down. Snap called. And he chuckles "I lied--I really did look at my cards". No kidding, Sherlock?

Dealer deals it out. I table my set. 1-seat proudly slaps down AA and says "I have ACES!" Dealer says "yes, but he has three fives". "But I have aces!" "I know--you have one pair and he has three of a kind". "But... aces!?! I lost with aces?" "Yes sir."

As I'm silently stacking chips he walks out and as he passes by he glares at me and tells me "that wasn't nice". His friend is standing there and tells the guy "he TOLD you during the hand you should fold--He TOLD you that you were going to go bust and you did it anyway! Why are you mad at him?" That didn't improve the guy's mood.

Some days I love this game.

Great stuff.

Not thread worthy but rant/doh observation about a small room in a rural area:

In one week I encountered several of the stupid rules that people complain about here-

1. There is a magic muck
2. I believe that OPTAH is a foreign concept. To test this theory to its extreme, in a HU pot I wasn't involved in, I bet another player who was also not in the pot $1 that the aggressor had made quads on the turn. Wager accepted. No admonishment at all.
3. Out of turn declarations are not binding, but the player loses the right to make an aggressive action. Despite this rule, any chips that cross the betting line must remain in the pot and constitute action even if out of turn.
4. After several limpers preflop in a tourney, button goes all in for less than the big blind. BB is not allowed to raise despite not yet having acted in the hand.

Soliciting advice for other things I can do to amuse myself in this game. Ideas?

#1 is standard for a poorly run private room. Please tell me this isn't a casino.
#2 isn't standard, but is pretty common for low stakes, particularly if you're not being loud about it.
#3 is stupid
#4 is full blown ******

Advice to amuse yourself? Kind of depends on if this is someplace you plan on playing often. You might try to angleshoot the hell out of some small pots just for shtts and giggles - call out hands way stronger than yours to get a fold to the magic muck, Losev/Cantu pump fake, single chip raising without verbalizing and my favorite - brutally slow rolling someone. Obviously these are ******* moves, so I wouldn't burn bridges too bad, but they can be fun.

I saw a guy slow roll a set under aces for AIPF on Monday that was unreal. Guy had turned a set of 9s after AA flipped pre. Sat there staring at the board for a solid 20 seconds shaking his head. Dealer had both hands on the $800 pot ready to push to AA when guy opened his hand. I almost pissed myself laughing so hard.

Yes it is a casino. I do want to continue to play there because there are nights of insane good games and don't really feel like angling other players or being dickish to anyone other than the floor. I suppose I could angle pots like you suggest then ship chips across the table (yes, allowed there) or settle up in the parking lot, while making a point that whatever rule I just exploited is in fact stupid.

Not the same place as above, but another casino a bit up the road. Two gems from last night in an uncapped NL 1/2 game:



1. An all in raise of over half the original bet amount reopens betting to the first raiser. OK, misapplied limit rule, I won't lose too much sleep. However-

2. The room has a betting line that has a magic plane. Any chips crossing the line, even in hand and not released, are committed to the pot. In practice, this isn't applied to using oversized chips to call a bet and change is routinely made in the normal fashion. On to the hand- Bet from an EP player on the flop to $28. Button, out of turn, places two green chips into the pot which everyone, including button, understands to be a call. The player with the action raises to $180 all in. Ruling: Button has committed $50 to the pot, he may now call or fold.

W
T
F

Do you think the floor doesn't understand the rules, or do you think he's just so bored at his job that he likes to do stuff like this to liven up things a bit?

I think that the floor is the pit supervisor with no experience at poker who lets the regs run the game and make up rules as they go along.

I am considering writing a short letter to the casino management to explain the situation from last night and provide a link to RROP and the TDA. There is a big (for the area) $50k gtd tournament coming up there that I plan on playing in and I'd like to know most of the important rules before I get there.

Ok...for a bit of background...I am a rec player who has donked around with small amounts online and played tons of limit live and quite a bit 1/2 NL with a couple of short sessions at 2/5 just to check it out.

I was up at the casino over the weekend and decided to sit in at 2/5 and see if I could actually play with these guys.

This game was deep stacked and hyper aggressive. I bought in for $400 and played tight and watched for a while.

I saw no less than 8 people get stacked in a couple of hour span (most of them reloaded)....pot sizes ranging from $1000 to $2700.

Pre flop raises were all over the place from $15 to $175...averaging $30 to $50 I would say.

A few interesting hands:

Flop Q98r....initial raiser leads out...Player B raises...Player A thinks...shoves (effective stacks $700)...Player B calls...set over set...Qs vs 9s...no JT in sight...would have held.

Limped pot ...Flop TT5...I am in early position with a tight image and decide to take a shot at the pot with K8h..hoping no one has a T. I get called in two spots. I am done with it.

Turn is a 7. Player A bets out ...I fold LDO...Player B raises. Player A shoves...Player B calls and shows 77 for the turned boat. Player A shows the Doyle Brunson 10-2 and loses. Two outer on the turn...but even so...do you go broke with no kicker here?

This next one still has me shaking my head:

The two big stacks at the table are head up...effective stacks $1300 and they are very close to even stacks. One of the guys is in the process of racking up for the day.

The board comes out AQJxx with 3 diamonds...so the flush got there and the straight draw got there. There has been some betting on all streets and on the river Player A (not the guy racking up) bets $200. It looks like a defensive bet from a scared naked Ace to me.

This is where is gets weird. Player B (the guy racking up) shoves over the top.

Now Player A goes into the tank for a long time...obviously thinks this guy getting ready to leave could be making a move...and finally talks himself into a call with a naked A. (He said he had AJ...but he never tabled and someone saw his cards...AT)

Player B takes down the $2700 pot with AQ for top two.

I mean I get the $200 bet on the river with the Ace....but you have to bet/fold in that spot when the guy stuffs it in on you.

Anyway...I ended up doubling up to $800 making some donk plays...trapping money before the flop with my big hands...raise $25...3 callers...I have AA...shove and take down the $100 with no post flop risk...I didn't have 10bi behind me so I wanted to chip up small with no risk. Flopped a set of Ts late and didn't bet enough on the flop and turn..(lol bet sizing) and checked back the river like a girl when the board ran out T98xx...fearing a straight would repop me on the river and I would puke.

All in all it was an interesting experience. I guess guys who play 2/5 and up all the time will be like "ho hum...happens every day"

Also I realize table dynamics will be different for every table. This hyper aggro table seemed like a good spot to make some money if you were cautious...but you definitely had to sack up and risk some money pre flop with your playable hands....$30 to $50 opening raises were the norm and the straddle was on alot of the time.

Umm, what do you want us to say, OP? Some games are like that. I see it all the time in 1/2, and occasionally in 2/5. Obv bad game if you don't have a BR, and dream game if you can handle the variance.

Um, ok? We can see that nobody has JT.

Were you surprised that people got in almost 150bbs without the nuts or something...?

To be honest, yeah..kind of....also kind of surprised with two guys stuffing in 225bb with one pair and two pair hands with straights and flushes possible.

Meh, most games I play are exactly like that if not looser.

Which is why I play.

^^^^

Bought aviators just cuz. I might not ever wear em at a table, but if I do I don't wanna screw myself.

If I'm playing with someone trying to be really "cool", shades, music buds in the ears, hoodie.....and they seem really active, opening a lot of pots, making big squeeze bets, lot of postion play, ect.....I sometimes tell them that I can see the reflection of the cards in thier glass'. Actually, I have only done this a twice that I can remember, both times I had ulterior motives to my claim.
I told them, w/ the most honest, concerned & sincere voice and tone I could do...."dude, I can see the reflection of the cards in your glass', just thought I'd mention it to you as a courtesy".
Both times I said this to players my true motive was that I wanted them to stop being so aggressive because I was outta postion and wanted to play more hands, and I wanted to them to *think* that I could, or maybe could see the relfection, but in any case - more than anything I wanted to them to be slightly distracted and choose thier hands more selectively and quit stealing so much...so it would give me more of an opportunity to steal some more....and both times I did this it worked

lol sneaky bastard. I guess that's a no then

I haven't, but then again I can't recall a time when I tried.

Someone said it to me several years ago when I was doing well in a tournament. Knowing that he could not see, I said, "Great! Now the odds will be close to even between you and me."

Classic!