A Little Poker

OK - I'm in a productive mood, so I'm making this a double-header posting session. Who knew I had it in me?

Anyway, for everyone who complains that online poker is rigged and that you never see the kinds of hands in live games that you do online, I want to share a hand from a live session I played last night.

The scene: $1-$2 NLH w/a live $5 straddle.

Your hero: The straddler, holding K-10 off-suit.

Two players call the straddle from middle position, and short-stacked rock in SB raises to $30. Solid BB calls, as do I. Everyone else folds.

The flop: A-Q-J rainbow, giving me Broadway.

SB pushes all-in for $140 and BB raises to $400. I shove all-in for a total of $600 and BB goes into the tank before calling (he had me covered by about $80).

Hands are turned up revealing that SB is holding Pocket Jacks and had flopped a set, while BB is holding A-Q off-suit, and had flopped two pair.

The turn brings a 10 and a solid sweat as any other Broadway card now costs me the pot or chops it with the BB.

The river is a blank, giving me the win and a nice $1,300 pot.

Online, this hand would sparked a ton of chatter between both the players and the railbirds who would again point out how unlikely that three players in the blinds would get into a hand like this. Honestly, how can the game not be rigged?

But this was a live hand I'm talking about, dealt in a real card room by a professional dealer after a thorough shuffling of the deck. It was as random a hand you could hope for and yet, one of the most unlikely combination of cards was dealt to three players sitting in succession at the table.

Does this mean live poker is rigged? Not at all. In fact, it took hours of play before this hand happened, but the fact remains that this hand - or one like it - would have happened sometime soon. It's just a matter of time, and that's what many online players forget.

One of the key differences to remember about live and online play is that that online, you're dealt many more hands per hour, which means your going to see many more "action flops" along the way. It's a simple correlation.

So, the next time you take a bad beat or think how the hell could those players have been holding those cards, remember this hand because, in the end, it doesn't matter where you play. Big hands are going to happen and you're going to win some of them and lose others. Enjoy them when they end up in your favor and try not to bitch about them too much when they don't.

Now, if I can just win a hand online...

JK