Originally Posted by drballs
Was at a low point in life a couple months back, Googled degen poker players, came across this thread. After countless hours, finally finish every freaking page. Most had me rofl, some had me empathise, a few had me super sad. Decided to pen down the most degen period of my life, mostly so I will have this story to look back upon and hopefully never go down that path again, also hope it provides some form of entertainment to the community here on twoplustwo.
I was a 23 yr old kid from Singapore who was studying abroad in Melbourne, Australia. I used to play at underground poker games back in my country, did pretty decently as the level of play was terrible. Built a bankroll of around AUD 6,000 playing 1/2 for a year, brought it all to OZ. Being abroad for the first time, alone and bored, Crown Casino rapidly became my 2nd home. Started off playing 2/3, buying in for 200, and crushed the tables the first 3-4 visits. Felt like a boss with my big stack and being the table captain, cashing out 2-3 racks (AUS 1000+), thought I was God’s gift to poker. Very soon I moved up to 2/5 and 5/5, where the TAG & LAG regs pummelled me back to Earth. I lost all my winnings and most of my bankroll in the space of a week.
Crushed and despondent, I went upstairs to the main casino floor, decided to spaz off the rest of my money (slightly under AUD 1,000) playing Caribbean Stud Poker, where there was a rolling jackpot of $800,000. For those that are not familiar with this game, the jackpot paid in full if you showed a Royal, and 10% if you showed a straight flush. Played every hand, didn’t give a **** what I had, called with 9 hi, 10 hi, was taking shots of vodka and not feeling a damn thing. After 30mins and with my last 100 bucks, came THE hand. It was a weekend, rowdy as ****, other 5 seats on that table were filled with Vietnamese housewives chattering amongst themselves. Dealer dealt 5 cards to each player as per normal. As per my habit, I flipped them up Omaha style, very slowly. One card at a time. First card 8 diamonds. Second card 9 diamonds. ‘Nice, I can get the bonus for a flush’. Third card 6 diamonds. Fourth card 5 diamonds. Now my heart started to pound, ‘no it can’t be, there’s no way I get this kinda luck’. Set the 4 cards down, picked up the top card and the last card, decided to peek at it Asian style (u know the kind where they rub the card like a mother****er and peep at the sides). Held my breath……………………………………….. saw the top cliff edge of a mother****ing red 7, but I don’t know if it’s a heart or a diamond. As I was the last to act, the whole table was waiting for me, the Viet ****s hissing at me to hurry the **** up. I put down my hand and declared loudly, ‘guys, I might have a straight flush’. I stood up, took the card and smacked it down hard on the table. BOOM THE 7 OF ****ING DIAMONDS BABY!!!! The table cheered, passerbys came over and I got slapped on the back like 22323x. I was dizzy with euphoria and couldn’t see straight worth a damn. The pitboss came over, looked over the cards and the deck, checked the cams, made me sign a buncha papers. Passed me 16 5k chips. I contemplated cashing them out, decided, no **** it, now that I have a roll, I’m going back to the poker table to crush those fools.
Went down to the poker room, the list on the screen showed a 25/50 PLO game going on. Walked over and saw ****ing Joe Hachem laughing and splashing chips in. Decided it will be a good story if I could stack him (note that I only had experience playing 0.25/ 0.50 PLO online prior to this). Registered and bought in for 10k. For all the stories about Joe being a nice guy, he sure is. He even apologises when he ****ing wipes me out time after time. The killer blow was when I had my last 25k on the table. At this point, Joe had 50-60k in front of him.
I potted it with JJ66r pre, he repotted me, I repopped him and he called. Flop came J 10 2. I checked, he bet ¾ pot, I raised pot, he 4bet, and I 5bet all-in. He was like, ‘aw shucks u must have jacks eh’, and called. Pot was 50k. I was like yeah, and turned my hand over. Joe: That’s good bud. Turn 4. River 2. He goes, ‘Oh my, I’m sorry mate’. Turns over……….. ****ing 22AQ. HE RIVERED ****ING QUADS IN THE BIGGEST POT OF MY LIFE!!!!!!!!!! I was so devastated I could have punched a hole right through the ****ing table. I kept my cool, said nice hand, shook his hand and walked off. Was in a ****ing trance, can’t believe I donked off 80k in 4hrs. It was 7am then…. I took a cab home… tried to sleep, but couldn’t. Decided I had to ****ing get every cent back somehow………..
Alright guys, this is part 1 of my degen story, part 2 will be up soon. I’m not a very good storyteller, so please forgive me if this bored u. If nobody expresses an interest in this story, I wont post up part 2.