shipitfish | Some Random Poker Thoughts for the Day

I'm off to Greg's game tonight. He's getting such interest; he had to limit attendance. I knew RSVPing early was good for something. Someday, I ought to sit down and write a history of Greg's game as I've know it this far. It's one of the most interesting home game evolutions I've seen since I started playing home games (well, college dorm games) back in 1993.

nick_marden and I have been chatting again about doing an Open Source and Free Software version of Poker Tracker, which is a site-independent tool to help online players by creating a database and remember information about your own play and that of your opponents. I think Nick and I have complementary interests in the project, so collaboration would work well. I think we're in the hardest stage of Free Software development: actually starting. It gets easier and easier once you start, but the starting is the hardest part. I hope we start soon.

My final thought for the day, given that my recent entry pointed out the bad act of one player (who has graciously apologized) in Greg's game, is to turn it around and say a good thing about a player from Greg's game.

In fact, it's the player who won the hand that generated the name-calling. But, he was no way involved in the incident. He was playing the best hand, got called down, and graciously won nice pot. And this fellow, named Ken, has got to be one of the nicest players who comes to Greg's.

I know this because I've put some dirty, dirty beats on Ken. Twice, he's flopped a set when I had an over-pair. He played both well and got me all-in, only for me to catch my two-outer. One of them was a $400 pot. Ken didn't say a single word. He wasn't happy; that was obvious on his face, but he took the beat the way a good poker player should. After a few minutes, he pointed out that we both played the hand well, and the outcome was decided by the cards, not one or another's play. That's true class at the poker table.

In another hand last Thursday not yet discussed, Ken rivered me. I held AQ, flopped top pair, pushed hard all the way, even getting a raise in on the turn. Ken rivered a T to make two pair for his QT. It sucked; it always sucks to lose, and it particularly sucks to make all your decisions right and lose anyway. But, I took a page from Ken's book. Sure, I looked sad to lose that pot. But I mucked my cards and smiled. That's what he would have done, so I followed suit and was a gentleman about it. I hope that all of the people from Greg's game, who might catch this before going over tonight, will watch Ken and learn from the guy. His kind, quiet demeanor at the table deserves emulation by all of us.

In closing, I address Ken directly: I'm sorry if drawing attention to you has embarrassed you, but I presume that good words are ok to post publicly like this. I address directly to Greg: I congratulate you for being the first person, weeks ago, to point out how gracious Ken is when he takes a bad beat. I've been watching and learning ever since.