Worst player as opponent

Compared to Turning Stone, I have found the $4- $8 game at Foxwoods easier to beat. I don't win at Turning Stone. I have only lost twice out of 13 times at Foxwoods. My trip there on Sunday was a perfect example. In the beginning I was down and stayed down for a couple hours. At one point I was $100 down. But then I won some pots and finally one huge pot. I left $205 ahead for the day.

I did not get good cards. In that entire time my higher pocket pairs were kings one time and jacks one time, My big win was K-5 of clubs. But my opponents were not very good. There were a few good players, generally rocks but at one point a very aggressive player. The rest were passive and predictable or just plain terrible.

For example":

One guy bet his "straight" right through the river and turned it over while we all explained it was missing a middle card. Another time he called his pair of kings to the river and turned them over and we explained that his other card, a jack, made a straight. He also got his hand mucked by the dealer because he pushed out his unprotected cards (he sat next to the dealer.) He was the BB. We let him take back his BB $4.

Three older women came and played a while. At one point I had not played a hand in over an hour and decided to see what a raise might do. I held A-2 and there was a 2 on the flop. I checked and one of the older women bet. The ace was a club. There was a club on the flop. I certainly did not want to pay on the river, but I was ready to play. I raised. Well, she grumbled and grumbled about how she hated check-raisers, but I did not manage to push her out. I looked right at her when I checked the unhelpful turn card. My eyes said. "I'll check raise again" So she checked. The river was an Ace and I bet my tow pair, and she called. I had gotten my cheap view of two cards. I won. But then she was really grumbling. How had I check raised on a pair of deuces and then just caught on the river? Of course, I loved it. Her grumbling woke up the others to think that perhaps I did play badly at time after all.

One of the other women got in a long discussion with her neighbor as to whether 8-5 seemed to "come up a lot." "Don't you think that happens,"she asked me. I hardly knew how to answer. "Sometimes," I said.

But the worst player at our table, well... the worst player I have ever seen at any table........ was this Black guy from some country in Africa who did not know the game or the language, and was a very slow learner. We tried to tell him to go play 2-4, but he either did not know what that meant or wanted this game. He did not know, or learn, how much to bet and needed to be told each and every time. He rarely knew when it was his turn. He held up the game. But he did contribute. A good Black player next to him would explain after each hand what he might have done better, but his English was so bad that he could not really understand much of it. Once he bet his pocket threes on the river when there were two higher pairs on the board because he thought 3 pair must have an advantage. He could not understand the power of an ace in your hand when the flush was there. He could not get it that a pair on the board meant a possible full house. Once he asked me "What wins that" pointing to a guy's four deuces. He did not understand straight flush, but he did get it that he had not had a hand that would have beat the 4OAK. All that would have been bad enough, but he was on the end and his vision was so bad that he could not see the cards. Every once in a while he would stand up and study them, sometimes with reading glasses which must have been useless, but it was clear that he often confused suits.

Of course, he did get lucky, especially when some players thought they should just bet and call him no matter what. He did recognize some hands. But it was sad. I guess he played thru about $300. He bet nearly every hand.

He was very useful because the other Black player was hard to figure, so as he explained how he would have played each hand, I got a good sense of his own play. He advised the guy to be very careful when I bet because I only played premium hands so if I was in the pot, watch out. That Black guy had trip nines when I took the biggest pot of the day that I was in, probably $150. I held K-5 or clubs and got caught in squeeze betting both before the flop and just after. Two clubs were on the board. The turn gave us a king so I had a very good full house draw and a very good flush draw and the pot was packed full. I called. When the river was a club, the Black guy bet his nines and it was my turn. There were two people after me. I knew that if I raised after having showed no strength, it would give away my flush and might push the Black guy out, as he respected my play. I also knew that there was the full house possibility. I just called. The next two people called me. I can't imagine with what. I did not see their hands. But I sure liked raking in those chips.

My good gambling buddy, Louisiana Mudgriff Dan, had sent up a couple of Foxwoods matchplays, so I took one for $25 to the craps table. I had had a few too many Myers Rum and was tired. I missed my first chance to bet and was glad because the guy crapped out. Then the guy next to me took the dice and he was a setter. And he had the throw. His dice just hit the crack at the end of the table and barely rolled back. Point 8. Next roll 8. And I scooped up my $50 win.

I went to the buffet, but the line was too long. I'd miss my bus. So I played my buffet coupon as a $10 matchplay but it lost. Damn/ Gambled away my supper. Nothing but cheese and crackers and a peach on the bus ride home. But the cheese was this fancy sage cheddar I had bought for company, and the crackers a whole grain specialty I had left from Hawaii. So I did not feel so bad riding home with cheese and crackers and $245 of new money in my wallet.

Well, I hope to play with all of you soon.
Good gambling.
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