Home Game Ethics Question

[randomcards]

Long time lurker first time poster, hope it is interesting enough.

I play in a weekly good ole buddy $40 tourney in PA. No horrible players, no great players, all good friends, but we take it seriously and try to win. We play by the rules but we usually forgive accidental innocent mistakes (i.e. player limps not realizing there was a raise, occassional accidental string raise).

The following hand came up last week and it's stuck in my head.

8 of 14 players left (75/150 blinds) I raise UTG with 10 [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]10 [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] to 400 (stack T4K); folded to SB (stack T4.5K) who calls, BB folds. SB is tight solid player who almost never gets out of line and is pretty easy to read.

Flop is Q[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] 9[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] 4x
SB bets 400, I should fold to him, but instead raise to 800 to see if he has the Q.
SB calls raise and I am completely done with the hand. I put him on KQ or AQ (which he has 90% of time here).

Turn is K[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] SB checks, I check behind

River is 5[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] - putting a 4 flush out
As river card is coming out, SB cuts out 800 chips and puts them in the pot almost as the last card is put in place. I am about to quickly fold almost positive he has a monster when he says "Where did the 5 come from?"

What happened was he had a brain fart and truly thought he never checked the turn and was betting the K[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] on the turn instead of the river which he never saw. He was pretty upset, but he definately checked and several other players saw it. I honestly believe it was an innocent mistake, he was upset and I hate that cause we're all trying to have fun and are friends.

Anyway with this info I am positive he has KQ for top two (confirmed later), but there is a four flush and a TON of chips in the pot relative to where stack sizes were. I thought for like 3 minutes and pushed all in over the 800. He thinks for a minute and disgustedly folds.

I felt bad about taking advantage of a mistake against a friend, and even worse when I won the tourney later when HU with another player we got all in in a coinflip and I was about to ship the pot to the other player when someone pointed out I caught a wierd straight on the river.

So what do you think.
1. You played it right, he made a mistake and you capitalized with a good read, that's just good poker.
2. You are scum, you were going to fold and you should have just folded the worst hand and been done with it.
3. Should have allowed him to rescind his last bet then went all in.
4. Other?????

[MediaPA]

I vote 3 or 2. Friendly home game. Different setting, different answer.

[grebe]

1. There isnt even a close second

It is not your fault he got confused...it is his fault and he paid dearly for it. Plus, you pulled off a great bluff. Would you have wanted your money back if he called your all-in?

I play with my brothers and my dad, and nothing gives me more pleasure than beating the absolute hell out of them in poker. If I ever thought they were playing against me soft, I would use that info against them to teach them a lesson. Poker players who play soft against others should lose their roll, then be banished to only playing Uno and War.


Good job on your win.

[scpi10]

A good read is a good read. He checked, you said everyone saw it, nice play. You need to try and win, you can't softplay anyone.

[Small Fry]

I don't have a problem with you exploiting his error so I vote either 1 or 3. 1 if you want to be cut throat about it and 3 if you want to be more friendly.

Also, when you're at a poker table you have no friends. It ain't a team sport... [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[Johnny Drama]

1

[Mazzinger]

It's hard to do something like that, specially to friends. And eventhough is a friendly game, the main object is win. You did the right thing. That's poker...

[NN_ShortBus]

If he had SAID check, but realized his mistake before the river came out, I might have let it slide at the friendly game I play, but how oblivious can you be while playing poker? He somehow "missed" a whole card? It might not be "friendly" the way you shoved him off the hand, but as far as I'm concerned, that's stupidity tax.

[randomcards]

[ QUOTE ]
If he had SAID check, but realized his mistake before the river came out,

[/ QUOTE ]

He actually rapped the table (standard), it was interpreted by me, the dealer, and all the players (3) who saw it as a check, and we have rarely had a issue with misinterpretation before. He did not catch the mistake until the river was on the table, as he was looking at his stack trying to decide what to bet on what he thought was the turn. As an additional note, if he had said something before the river was dealt, in our game we probably would have held the river and let him bet despite the error (and I would have folded).

I'm still wondering whether I was being a good poker player or a jerk...

[Small Fry]

[ QUOTE ]
I'm still wondering whether I was being a good poker player or a jerk...

[/ QUOTE ]

LOl...ultimately you were both.... [img]/images/graemlins/smirk.gif[/img] But as I already said I would have done the same