Nice Call Sir!

I have been playing a bit more live poker recently as I was getting fed up with the on-line game and i didn't want to turn up cold to the £300 F/O at Sheffield on Thursday having not touched a playing card for the best part of 2 months. Although playing in a few smaller live games just prior to a decent sized tournament is reasonable preparation for getting the routine and feel back, it can also be counter-productive, especially given the huge gulf in the types of game played, their respective structures and the standard of player you are likely to encounter. I am expecting the Sheffield freezeout competition to be fairly tight (by South Yorkshire standards), you get 5000 chips and 45 minute levels (blinds start at 25-50) and the players will vary from 'reasonable' to 'pretty decent', with the odd good player sprinkled into the mix. However, the Notts £30 No-foldem holdem re-buy bingo chip chucking contest is somewhat different; 2000 chips, (blinds starting at 50-100) 25 minute levels and players that range from 'newbie' to 'useless' with a few notable exceptions that can play a little bit. Here's an example hand to give you the flavour:

About 1/2 an hour after the re-buys finish, so you're out if you make a mistake!:

Blinds 200-400, average chips is 9500. A pot develops in typical Notts style with 8 limpers (yes EIGHT). I am UTG+1 and the only player not wanting to see the flop with my 8-4o (an immediate insta-call for most of the table) but hey, i'm way too tight for these fellas!

Flop is Qh-9c-9h

Its checked round to the cut off who has around 18k and announces "Raise" and puts in 2500. Before anyone else can act one of the other players (not the dealer) declares in a not too friendly manner that it should be "3200"as this is the "pot". There's a few murmours of agreement from some and there is no thought from anyone that the player hasn't made a mistake worthy of the death penalty after all and may actually only want to bet 2500 into a 3200 pot. But as this is a Notts pot limit game it seems that betting exactly the amount of the pot is the only accptable bet in this casino - something of a local practice or custom). A player is seen to be something of a weirdo or a maverick if he starts betitng anything other than whats in the pot! FFS! Anyway....He gets 3 callers! (how many 9's in this deck!) I am starting to think there must be some big hands out here (who's trapping who?)

Turn is 8s

Its checked back round the the aggressor who again announces "Raise" and puts in 4000 (more arguments ensue about the size of the pot but they all call anyway except the guy in the SB who reraises all in for another 4500. They all call the reraise and as everyone except the aggressor is now all-in they turn their cards over.

Player 1 (the aggressor) KhJh
Player 2 (calling station 1) 10h-8c
Player 3 (calling station 2) 3-3
Player 4 (reraiser) 8h-10s

The river is the Qd and the K high aggressor takes down a monster!

Analyse that f***er if you will!

Not a 9 in site and no-one even has a Queen. The guy with 3-3, really can't be serious but he did get rivered i suppose (it's unlikely he's made a good read here though, he probably just couldn't find the fold button!) I particularly like the guy's back raise with 8h-10s (is he colourblind?) once he catches the 8 on the turn. I wondered for a minute whether he thought the guy betting out would fold for the 4500 extra into a 30k pot but i don't think anything like that would cross his mind - perhaps it was a value bet with his 9's and 8's?! - who knows, after all 2 pairs is a monster hand right?!.

Anyway, despite struggling to conceal my mirth at the above hand, I finally busted out when i pushed my 8BB's all-in with AQs from mid position only to be called by K4o on the button by a guy who only had 10BB's himself. Is this the worst call ever?! Anyway... he spiked a King and all i could say was "nice call"................................................................................ You fucking MUG!

I am still at a loss as to how he makes this call, my only idea is that he either;

1. is incredibly stupid and mistook his 4 for an A and didn't want to admit it
2. is incredibly stupid (i guess this is a given) and thought he was ahead after i had pushed all-in with Q3 15 minutes earlier to double up when i only had 5BB's and was on the button in an unraised pot. Its amazing how bad players really can't see past the cards in poker. They don't see the difference in the scenarios or situations or how stack size and position affects nearly every decision in tournaments. He probably just thought "oh this guy raises with Q3 so my K4 has him nailed - right?" -.... Wrong dickhead!

Oh well, there's always another day.

Good luck all, here's hoping you don't run into K4!