Underfunded and Outgunned by the Bealer Boys

 It's hard playing poker against the Bealer Boys. I played against them for a second time this weekend. The game is $1 - $3 No Limit. The Small Blind is $1 and the Large Blind is $3. Buy-in is $100 - $300 or half the largest stack on the table. Easy Game.

Except when you sit down with the Bealer boys. The Brush calls you to a table and you realize if you took out all the hundred dollar bills in your wallet and both pockets, you still would not have enough to buy in at half the largest stack on the table for this game.

Tonight is a prime example. I sit down with John Bealer on my right. Now, I am not sure how long John Bealer was been playing today, but he has roughly $2,400 in $5 and $25 chips (red and green) in front of him. So much for the $300 max buy-in. So much for buying in for half the largest stack.

In the moment, I wonder if its even worth sitting down at the table. But these are the Bealer Boys, and it doesn't look and feel right to stand up and walk away. I may not have much of a poker image, but it is important to maintain what little image I do have as a poker player.

There is this extra natty little thing called the "Straddle", which at this table is done on the button by all players, except me. The Straddle is a Preflop raise on the button, effectively raising the first bet from $3 to $6, starting with the small blind.

To make matters worse, the smallest stack among the Bealer Boys is a little over $1,200. Preflop betting is generally $20 to $35, or roughly a little less than ten percent of my buy-in. This makes the price of poker pretty steep for me, just to see a flop.

One would expect with high $ Preflop betting, there would only be a few players in the pot. No, not when playing with the Bealer Boys. The game is loose. Except for me, everyone is loaded up and hunting for bear. Preflop pots were running $100 and over. Flop and turn bets are moderate considering, as the table is so loose.

Three rounds in and I have only paid my blinds, throwing away junk and playable hands (in a normal game) alike. I am wondering about the sanity of my judgment to sit at this table. This is a $1 - $3 table converted into $6 - $12 by the Bealer Boys, with their excessively large stacks. Any hand I may enter, any one of them could put me all in preflop, just for laughs.

After about ninety minutes of throwing away hands and watching pots dragged in by pitiful holdings, I finally get a hand. I have Q,Q in late position. When the play gets to me, it's $35 to see the flop; with three players in the pot before me, I call the $35.

Flop is Ks, 8d, 3h. Good flop for me. First player checks, second to act, Billy Bealer puts out $105. A strange bet I think. I've played with Billy Bealer before and he is generally a straight forward player with little bluffing in his bag of tricks. After contemplating a few seconds, I put Billy Bealer on K,K or better, which makes my Q,Q look smaller than it did a few seconds before the flop. I fold, last to act folds.

I'm down about 25% of my buy-in, or just a little over $100 now. I can see the end in sight and it's not pretty. I will be all in on my next hand, if there is a next hand on the way.

Enjoyment is turning into agony. I lament all the hands I would have played, if it was a normal $1 - $3 game and not a high stakes franken-game. I am in small blind and miracle of miracles, there was not a button straddle. I am second to last to act. By some freak of nature, it is only $20 to see the flop.

I have two red aces. It's decision time. I think if I raise preflop, it will be reraised, and I will be all in on the flop. If I call the $20 and the Big Blind doesn't raise, I am first to act on the flop. 

I call the $20 and Big Blind does not raise. Flop comes down 4, 4, 8, rainbow (all different suits). This is a pretty useless flop for anyone not holding a 4. I think for a few seconds and make a large almost pot size bet. Billy Bealer should be proud.

As it's one of a handful of hands I have bet with in two hours and one of the few I played beyond the flop, the Bealer Boys all fold to me. I play a few more hands and retired for the night.

In retrospect - which is more rational than 'in the moment', I never should have sat down in that game, when all I was willing to buy-in for was maybe less than 1/3 the smallest stack, and perhaps a large bet for the largest two stacks.

On a side note, John Bealer went up $2,400 in those few hours. It all came from three players with more cash and less common sense than I have. Billy Bealer went up about $700, and went back down. As for me, I made a two dollar profit. I think that was a 'gimme' by the Bealer Boys. Next Hand...

Empathy, Integrity, Real Life

 

I couldn't sleep tonight, too much coffee while I was out and about today. I did one of those rare things, I went to a few poker forums to see what if anything has changed. They are about the same as they were when I was active on one of the poker forums.

One interesting header caught my attention, it was a thread about empathy and poker. The poster was going through the problem of playing poker with people who he inwardly felt sorry for because he understood or felt what they were feeling.

I resembled that remark early in my poker playing days. It was back when limit poker was king, and there was no no-limit poker to be found that an average person could afford to play.

I think I had recently made the transition to Holdem as I realized that I could make as much money winning one nice pot in Holdem as I could beating my head against the wall playing Seven Card Stud. Those were heady days.

There was a rather old couple who played the about the same time I played, and often we would be at the same table. Besides the fact they made poor decisions, they flashed their cards by holding them up in the air. They should not have been playing for money.

The preferred to sit near the middle of the table which meant at least four of the players at the table could see their cards every hand. I told them a few times what they were doing, but it had no lasting effect. I arrived at a point when I would fold my cards if I saw their hands in my sense of fair play.

Other players at the table did not share my skewed sense of ethics. While they would not lean back and look at the old couples cards, they were not above taking their money when they saw their respective hands waving in the air and knew they were ahead.

After some weeks of my high and mighty stand, the light bulb turned on. The old couple lost every time they played. They knew they were going to lose their money before they even sat down at the table. The other players at the table took their money and used it against me, betting and raising when they normally would check it down. It was not their money they were betting in the strictest sense of the word.

This was keeping my play in a defensive mode. I had my meager stacks of chips and most of the other players had their chips plus some of the old couples chips. I determined in the moment, that if the old couple wanted to play, they were playing knowing they were going to lose. Just because I did not want to take their money did not mean they were not going home broke.

In less than five minutes I changed the way I played against the old couple. I too was not craning my head to see their hands, but neither was I looking away. I had warned them several times previously, and they were aware of what they were doing.

Of course my win rate increased. On the bright side, the other players willingness to bully me also decreased for the simple reason their win rate had dropped and mine went up.

I still have some empathy and sympathy when I play though. When I know someone is playing with money they really should not be playing with, I do not feel bad taking their money because I know they would be happily taking mine if they could. I feel bad for them when the shock they feel at going broke to standing up and walking away sets in. That is usually about seven seconds.

Gambling in some ways is the last great democracy. No one forces anyone to the table, makes them buy chips, or tells them they have to play. If they did not lose their money at say, the poker table they would lose it somewhere else. Perhaps poker is the healthiest option for them about where to spend their money.

Personal decisions do not always fly the banners of ethics and integrity. Most of our daily decisions are small and insignificant, others are life changing. Big decisions are often gritty and stained with dirt and discomfort. Our best decisions are hopefully carefully thought out. Many of our decisions though are not always on the moral high road. Much like life.