An old story

I was checking for new stuff on Julius Goat's blog and re-read one of his very funny player profiles -- Pvt. Pooosh. On this reading I was reminded of a live game I played in at Darval's a long while back.

There was a new guy in the game who was bragging about how he played online poker all the time and totally killed the game. In Darval's game we would always buy in for $5 and get $50 in chips. We all knew each $1 chip was only ten cents, but we tried to play like they were real dollars. For some reason, the new guy and one other player had bought in for $20 instead of the usual $5. No biggie.

So we start with the usual $0.50/$1 blinds. First hand the new guy raises to $25. $1.50 in the pot, and he raises to $25. Of course, everyone folds. A couple hands later he does the same thing. And again. And again. Finally he says, "I thought you guys were poker players." Someone responded, "We are. That's why we're folding. Your bets are way out of proportion to the size of the pot."

He understood we thought his bets were too big, but it was pretty clear he didn't understand why. He toned it down a bit after that, once or twice slipping back into gigantically oversized bets.

After a while I asked him where he liked playing online. Based on what I'd seen of his play, I figured I'd go look him up online. He said he only played at Yahoo. Yahoo? Suddenly it all made sense. He was used to betting fake chips that had no value, so it didn't matter if he bet $5 or $5000. Both bets were actually worth $0.

I may have told this part of the story before. I'm too lazy to go back and search my own blog. Fairly early we get in a hand where I had something like A4 and there were two aces on the board. We get to the river and I make a small value bet. He comes over the top big. At this point I figure he's got an ace and is almost sure to have a better kicker. I even said out loud, "I think you have me outkicked." So I folded.

He very proudly turns up something like 97, which paired with the board. He wasn't turning it up to wave his bluff in my face. He was proud of his big two pair. There's a pair of aces on the board, and he was pushing hard with aces and sevens. Okay, noted. I also noted that he seemed a bit confused at my comment.

I won't attempt to discuss any of the rest of the action except to say that most of his chips were sitting in front of me before we were finished. And it was pretty easy pickings once I knew what he thought of as a really good hand.

The moral of the story, if there is one, is to be patient when you run into Pvt. Pooosh. Time your action just right and all his chips will become yours.