Splash the Pot (trip report)

[Felix_Nietzsche]

On selective football games in my card room, the house will pick two tables and splash the pot for $100. So on a $1/2 NLHE table, there will be $103 in the pot preflop. One of of three things happen:
1. The table adopts 'civilized' rules and there is a checkdown.
2. The table adopts 'barbarian' rules and it becomes an all-in fest with people moving all-in with hands like T6o
3. Something in between 1 and 2.

Our table got splashed the 1st quarter and the table agreed to 'civilized' rules. So no one looked at their hand and everyone checked the hand down with 96o winning the pot with a boat (66699).

In the 2nd quarter the table got splashed again and one player said he didn't like 'civilized' rules so it was agreed to play by 'barbarian' rules. I made the decision to win this pot with regardless of my cards.....

I was in LP and everyone else had just limped in. After looking at my T9o, I moved all-in for $150 and announced, "I will show my hand" (hoping the table would think I had a good hand and fold all around. Two people folded and the damn button went into the tank. After a full minute and being scared he would call, I prodded him by saying, "Look, I promise you I would show you my hand and I will keep my word". He folded. Everyone else folded and I flipped over T9o to take the pot. The table hated my guts. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

The dealer laughed and said, "It was so obvious you were bluffing". One of the better players at the table said, "I'm very ticked off about this but I just wish I had the guts to have done the same thing you did".

Afterwords the table went on tilt and every player was gunning for me. The 'good' player went on the worst tilt. My $150 grew to just under $600 because I kept getting lots of action and I showed down hands. And called big bully bluffs from the tilt players. I bought three cookies from the waitress and splashed the pot with the cookies to lighten the mood a little. It helped a little but not much. I won't be able to make this play in this card room anymore. Later I caught the dealer on his break and asked him what my tell was. He gave me an invaluable 5 minute class on classic bluffing tells that dealers commonly see. The information was quite valuable and I'm positive it will save me a lot of money in the future... I tipped him $5 and left that night with a nice win....

Moral of the story [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]
1. Dealers see a lot of plays at the table and if they can hep you with their game, then seek their help.
2. If you don't mind playing at a table with 8 players gunning for you, then make this play. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

P.S.
Before the splashpots, the player to my right had basically been potting every river. Either he was hitting every hand or he was bluffing a lot. I felt he had been bullying me but I kept folding preferring to over-respect him than to make a play on him. After the splash pot, his game fell apart and his $400 stack went to zero. Every 15 minutes he was shooting hateful glances at me. I don't think my trickery was that out-of-line but it seems my opinion was in the minority.... After all, in person psychology, giving false tells, reading tells, is what makes B&M poker more fun than online poker. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]