I held a poker game at my place at the end of February. It was a SNG style tourney with 9 players and rebuys for the first couple of hours. I managed to get away from some big hands that were beat (UTG calls, I raise on the button with QQ, BB calls, UTG re-raises, I muck, BB calls, flop comes J62, BB moves all-in, UTG calls. BB=QJ, UTG=AA). Other than that, I grinded and got myself HU against the UTG from that hand. This is where it gets interesting. I get dealt KK on the Button/SB. I call, he checks. He had been raising occasionally my button calls, so this play was worth the risk. Flop is J92. He checks, I bet he calls. Turn is a 7. He checks, I bet, he calls. Sorry I don't remember the exact bet amounts, but in general, he was the slight chip leader to start the hand (about 60/40) and about 1/2 of my stack is now in the pot. River is a T. He just needs an 8 for the straight. He checks, I check behind him. He says he was chasing the straight an only has top-pair and tables J8! I show him my KK, and he says good hand and I start pulling in the chips, now with a close to 3/2 chip advantage.
Was that wrong?! He's no novice. He should be able to read his hand correctly. I've played in cash games with friends where I've had to point out when someone has misread their winning hand. Either cause we're playing crazy home games with wild cards where the hand is hard to read in general, or because they are new and don't quite grasp everything. I've given up pots I was personally involved in before, so it's not like I've only corrected mistakes in hands I wasn't involved in.
In this case, I just couldn't. I got greedy, but isn't that the point in poker, to win the money? I've read "Poker winners are different" by Alan Schoonmaker PhD, and the common theme in that book is that you do what it takes to win. You shut out everything else. It is immoral to be deceitful in real life, but not at the poker table (like slowplaying AA UTG in the hopes of re-raising).
I'd love to hear opinions about this. I don't have remorse, ok maybe a little, but the difference between 1st ($140) and 2nd ($60) was just too great for me to be honest that time.
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Eddie,,
ReplyDeleteUgh. Poker is just a game. At showdown, morals and ethics take over, the hand has been completed. Cards speak then. If he tabled J8, then he should have taken the pot. If he verbally said I missed and you showed your hand, and he released and never tabled them then you should get the pot. As soon as his hand is revealed on the table, the game of "poker" is no longer being played, now is the time to be right and honest. My two cents.