THE
WORST BAD BEATS IN THE HISTORY OF POKER X
By
Glen Peterson (Copyright
2001,2007)
All poker players experience bad beats.
And all poker players tell bad beat stories. And all poker players hate hearing bad
beat stories! Nothing drives a player more crazy than being on the receiving end of
another boring horrible beat… “Been there, done that”. So I offer the following 2
stories, either one or both, being sooo bad, that any other story pales in comparison.
By telling these 2 bad beat stories I hope that all poker players, after reading these
2, will say to themselves “well, my beat wasn’t that bad” and keep their recent story
to themselves.
The first story, I was playing at the table
when it occurred. The second, I did not witness but I was dealing at the casino where
it occurred and can testify to it’s authenticity.
The first bad beat I am going to tell you
about occurred in 1980. Poker was a still game played in dark, back rooms of bars
and in damp basements in the homes of players named “Puggy” and “Texas Dolly” and
“Amarillo Slim”. Very few legitimate rooms or “parlors” existed, outside of Las Vegas
and even there, the rooms were smoke-filled, noisy and smelly places that you wouldn’t
want your children to see.
The site of the first story was one of the
first public rooms in California called “Artichoke Joe’s” in San Bruno. The place
was in a bad section of town were muggings were a frequent occurrence to the players
leaving at 2 a.m. when the room shut down for the day. It was a cramped room, square
in shape and about 50 feet from one end to the other. The square table area was surrounded
by a wooded rail reminiscent of a “hitching post” where observers could watch and
players waited for their open seat. There was a large chalkboard at one end of the
room where players put their initials up for the game of their choice.
Their were only 2 games to choose from,
played a varying levels. The first was 5-card Draw Lowball and the second was 5-Card
Draw Hi. At the time, in California, it was illegal to play with exposed cards which
ruled out Holdem and Stud. Something about “Game of Skill” was the basis of these
rules, but I still never figured out how one was different from the other.
The games were 8-handed maximum. Players
dealt their own games, the deal going to the left each new hand, using Bicycle Playing
Cards that were sold by the chip/floor men that circled the room and collected “Time”
every ½ hour. The cards would be replaced whenever a card got bent or creased or when
they simply got worn from too much play. When the floors brought a new deck, everyone
at the table had to put up .20 cents to pay for the cards. The House collected .90
cents every ½ hour for the game I first started playing… 5-Card Draw Hi, $20 minimum
Buy-in, Table Stakes, No-Limit. You could bet any amount in front of you, at any time.
Ante was a white 10-cent chip, Opening bet was $1.00 minimum, open, raise or fold.
On this particular occasion I had been playing
about an hour, and holding my own, which was all I tried to do back then. I often
played my best and built a good stack of chips, only to see it wiped out on a 1-card
gut-shot by a novice player or a slow-played monster by one of the game’s “Rocks”,
guys who played 15 hours a day, every day to squeak out their meager living.
On this one hand, the player to my right
raised to $5. I folded and 2 players called. Another player, across the table, one
of these so-called “Rocks” made it $25, to go. When It came back to the original raiser,
on my immediate right, he re-raised to $60, about all he had in front of him. The
2 other callers folded and it went back to the player across the table who “went into
the tank” for a few moments and finally said “I’ll call, if you’re drawing”, meaning
he wanted to play but he didn’t want to play against a made hand. He was willing to
call as long as the raiser was at least drawing a card.
Now, I need to side-track just for a moment
to explain a key element of this Hi Draw game. We played it with a 53-card deck, all
52 regular cards with a “Bug” in the deck, a joker added, that played as any card
in a straight or flush, or as an Ace. It was a common attribute in California Card
rooms. The “Bug” was also used in all the Lowball games and it fit as any card in
a low hand. It was used to create more action and it did just that.
So, as the player said “I’ll call, if you’re
drawing” I looked to my right and the man fanned out his cards, just far enough out
for me to see. What I looked at astonished me… He had been dealt all four Aces and
the “Bug”. He had 5 Aces, the absolute “Nuts”, even higher than a Royal Flush. He
glanced at me as if to ask “What would you do?” All I could do was shrug my shoulders
as I didn’t want to give anything away. Finally after what seemed like forever, he
grabbed the “Bug” and tossed it face down in the middle of the table where the discards
usually went. Both players took 1 card. The original bettor, pushed his remaining
chips into the pot and was immediately called by the man across the way. And you guessed
it, the 4 Aces lost to a Straight Flush. The man across the way had drawn to 9,10,J,Q
of Spades and hit the 8 of spades.
The loser didn’t say a word. He slowly grabbed
all the cards on the table and began slowly tearing them up, a few at a time. He yelled
“Floor”, reached in his pocket and laid two 1-dollar bills on the table as payment
for a new deck. He got up, walked quietly away and never said a word. I never saw
him before or since that day. It was only after I told the players that he had discarded
the “Bug” that the others realized what had happened. It was not a bad play, throw
out what would normally be just “overkill” in your hand…. 5 aces, 4 aces what’s the
difference. But in this one case, it made ALL the difference. He’d lost with an un-beatable
hand.
The second story is almost as bad, if not
worse. It happened during a No-Limit Holdem Tournament at Foxwoods Casino in Connecticut.
Well into the tournament, when players often got low on chips, 2 players hooked up
into a pre-flop raising battle that went like this…
Player A, as we’ll call him, raised 3-4
times the Big Blind, under the gun. Player B called. Players C, in late position,
re-raised to about triple the first raise. Player A moved all-in, Player B thought
for a while and mucked his hand. Player C called.
The cards were turned up with Player A showing
a pair of 10’s. Player B slowly, as if embarrassed, turned over his pocket 9’s. The
flop came out 9,9,4. The late position player, though way behind, had just flopped
“Quads”.
A huge commotion began as everyone gasped
and chattered to each other. Then Player B, who was not in the hand said “Wow, and
I’m sorry to tell you but you’re drawing dead, I had the other two 10’s!”
Well in all the commotion, the dealer mucked
the stub, meaning she dumped the remaining part of the deck into the other discards.
All dealers are taught to do this by sliding them into the middle of the pile to discourage
“Rabbit Hunting”, the annoying habit of players wanting to see what they might have
caught had they stayed in the hand.
The floor person was called and it was determined,
correctly I might add, that ALL the discards were to be shuffled and the “Turn” and
the “River” cards should be dealt out.
Well, you know the rest. The two, previously
“dead-and-buried” 10’s, hit on the “Turn” and the “River”, giving the other player
“Quad Tens”, beating, the seemingly un-beatable, player‘s “Quad Nines“. Play was stopped
for several minutes as the beaten player protested, even going so far as filing a
complaint with the Tribal Gaming Commission, but it was to no avail. Neither player
finished in the money But at least they both have amazing stories to tell.
So, there they are… the 2 worst, “Bad Beat
Stories in the History of Poker“. I can’t even determine which on is worse. The odds
on either occurring, at the time, or ever again, are too staggering to comprehend.
But I know that both are far worse than I have ever experienced and therefore, I’ll
keep my own bad beat stories to myself. But I do love telling these 2!
Copyright © 2001 CheeseyPoker.co.uk
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