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When I play in a cash game, as new people enter the game I am sizing them up from the moment they approach the table. I watch how they carry themselves, how they handle their chips, do they have blinders on, or are they sizing up the rest of the table as well. A young woman quietly approaches the table. A 1/2 No limit game at the Cherokee Casino near Tulsa, Oklahoma. As she is seated she scans the table. Seeing who has chips and who is short stacked. I can tell she is evaluating each person. I would guess she is labeling them and then will watch their play to see if the original label really applies. She watches every hand. Paying attention to the hands whether she is involved in the hand or not. As I watch the rest of the table I can tell that few people know what I already know. This young lady can play poker.
I will be cautious if I get in a hand with her. I did get mixed up in a hand with her. I had pocket deuces and hit a set with a board of J 2 5… She lead out and everyone folded but me, I called and the turn brought another Jack. She led out again and I raised fairly strong. Even though I had filled up, I would be satisfied to end the hand here, because if the board paired again, or she hit her kicker I was bust. She laid it down. Not many people can lay down trips. Lord knows I have watched people go broke with much less. The real reason for this story, the real beauty of this story follows. Ray had a seat at the table. Ray is a poker dealer. Many poker dealers attempt to outplay everyone in every hand and Ray is no exception to that generality. I mean he knows the right plays to make, but, you cannot make the power bluff every hand, eventually you will run up against someone who has a monster and you will go broke. Ray sits down and begins his power poker session, pounding away at pot after pot. Raising every hand he enters regardless of what his cards are and then refusing to let go.
Well here comes Monica in a hand with him. Several people had entered the pot to Ray's $12 pre-flop raise, because they had gotten so used to his loose raises. So the pot had about $50 in it when the flop came 10 4 5. Ray bets $25 and Monica raises strong, $50 more. Ray goes into the tank. He can't believe she raised him. His aggression has caused his dilemma, because he cannot tell if she is making a play at him or if she has flopped a monster. His own aggression and the table image he has created could make him think that she has no hand and simply believes that he doesn't really have a hand. The problem Ray has is that he has flopped top pair with top kicker and he had no idea if it is any good. He takes a long time to decide, and Monica begins to taunt him. She says, go on Ray lay it down, we all know you are going to. He flashes his 10, no one says anything. When she sees the ten, she gets quiet. Now everyone at the table begins to think she may have been making a play at him. That she may be behind in the hand. Ray calls. The turn comes another 4. Ray checks, Monica checks. Now everyone is convinced that Monica was making a play at Ray and he is ahead. The river comes, a brick, but Ray checks and Monica bets out $90. Ray calls and Monica shows Quad fours. What a monster. What a hand, and so well played. I am convinced she got every dollar out of that hand she could, that her check on the turn got her the call on the river. Ray was toast for the rest of the night until he went broke. He let that hand bother him and he developed a leak that would not stop. Watching a patient player play a hand and a play it with precision, extracting every possible chip they can out of a hand is a beautiful thing to see, unless you are in Ray's seat.
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