Just for the fun of it! (Beats)

[Moovyz]

The following is an article written for publication in Poker Digest. The magazine went out of business prior to the publication of the article. The copyright to this article remains with the author and may not be copied, reproduced or used in any way without the expressed, written permission of the copyright holder.





“The Worst Bad Beats in the History of Poker”
By Glen Peterson


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 2001,2007 by Glen Peterson