Live and let die

October 11, 2009 by Mark Stuart

I played a live freeroll at the EPT a week ago and was reminded of why I play live poker so infreqently. Down to the final table with one seat up for grabs in a £1,000 tourney, I was doing okay in chips but everyone was getting short-stacked: it was shove or fold time.

An older guy to my left had been ribbing Greg Raymer (who for some bizarre reason was also playing) and trying to ‘outplay’ him. He talked between hands, during hands and was generally acting like a complete prick. When he did knock Raymer out by accident – bluff-shoving which actually turned out to be a value bet – I knew it was only going to get worse. In his ridiculous Cockney accident, which made him sound like one of the old gangsters in a Guy Ritchie film, he started talking about how he hates online players and how they constantly keep shoving all-in. I knew he was going to hate me.

True enough, just as I fell below 10BBs I started shipping it in and scooping up the massive blinds. He started having a go at me, saying we should play flops etc etc blah blah and I knew it was going to end with him calling me down light. As it was the final hand was my 88 vs his AT and he naturally flopped the straight. I went away thinking that in his head he probably thought the natural order was restored and the ‘correct’ play was rewarded.

My main problem with live poker is the reason most people choose to play – to make it a social game. But if you hate most people at the table (and let’s face it there’s a lot of rotters in casinos) why would you choose to play outside the house? Maybe a good compromise would be for everyone to be banned from talking…

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