Beaker at a poker table........

I've decided to post my brief experience with a player who sat down at a casino poker table and managed to do everything wrong that he possibly could in my short time with him at the table. What made it all the more enjoyable was that he was a beaker (i.e. KU fan).

First, I'll go through everything that he did. Then I'll tell you why he just screamed 'easy money' to every other player at the table.

Guy sits down at a 3/6 limit table. He carefully unstacks $60 in three neat stacks of 20 chips each. He then takes the chip rack and looks for somewhere to put it. He finally puts it back on an empty table behind him. He's wearing a baseball cap with it pulled down very low over his eyes. Doesn't say anything to anyone at the table.

He gets dealt his first hand where he is the big blind. 6 people call in front of him and he just checks. Flop is A73, all different suits. Everyone checks all the way around to him and he quickly checks as well. Turn card is a 2. Everyone checks around to him and he quickly checks again. River is a 10. It's checked all the way around to him once again and he quickly checks. Everyone is very tentative to flip over their cards because no one really has anything or they obviously would have bet. Beaker is the final player to flip over his cards to reveal A8. He has a pair of aces and wins the hand.

I and one other guy laughed when he flipped it over and we enquired why he didn't bet on the hand since he had flopped aces. He said, "That's why I never play those hands. I was worried about the kicker."


OK, now let's go over just what this guy did wrong........

-Beaker did not buy in for nearly enough money for this game. $60 is only 10 times the big blind. That's not nearly enough. An early hand loss could result in him being very short-stacked and leave him tentatively playing any hand he gets after that.

-He also stacked his chips uniformly. Dead tell that he is most likely a tight player. If he was a loose player, he would have stacks that were not uniform in height or were not straightened up. I stack my chips both ways when I'm at a table depending on how I want people to perceive my play style.

-He was looking for a place to put the chip tray. A definite tell that he's a new guy. Regular player are usually just going to throw the tray on the floor at their feet unless there's a drink table next to them.

-Cap is low on the brow and no socialization. He's trying to make sure he doesn't give anything away to the better players by shadowing his eyes and not saying anything at the table. That's a dead giveaway that a scared player has entered the game.

Regarding his play on the hand.........

-After the flop, the beaker needs to bet on that ace. It lets him know what everyone else has by whether they call, raise or fold. Also, the fact that he bet may give people at the table the feeling that he's an aggressive player, which would be great considering that his play style is the exact opposite. He can always consider folding if he's reraised by another player.

-If he didn't be the flop, he certainly should have bet the turn or river. There are plenty of people that will call with worse hands than he had. Make them pay for looking at more cards.

-By far, the worst mistake he made was showing that he had top pair from the flop on without betting. It was obvious to the table that he was a very passive player. The other players now know that they can push him around with raises if they want to do so when he is one of the blinds.

-His comment afterwards that he doesn't usually play that kind of hand was a cardinal sin. That told the rest of the table that he only plays premium hands. This is a big no-no in a casino. A tight player will make money when his premium hand wins while other players call with sub-optimal hands. If he's already announced to the table through his actions with his chips when he sat down and his comments and play, no one is going to call him when he does have a premium hand and raises. He's never going to get paid off and will end up a loser even with a run of decent cards.

I did go out of my way to try to get him irritated and hopefully start playing more hands than he would usually play. I had a guy next to me that was a MU fan that I had been talking to while I was at the table. We were discussing football. I made a comment to the MU fan, making sure that it was ridiculously loud that KU football didn't have a chance at winning a single game in the Big 12. I looked over after 10-15 seconds to see that the beaker had an angry look on his face, but was trying to keep his emotions under control. Since I knew he was listening at this point, I continued the conversation with my MU friend by saying (loudly) that at least KU was unique in the Big 12 by having the only dance squad with a male dance member. I looked out of the corner of my eye to see the beaker glaring at me. That, my friends, is how you tilt a player at your table.