Crazy Bad Beat Hand
by Sammy Chang © 2018 Great Bridge Links
Back before all the hoopla about the World Series of Poker and before it became mainstream, poker was played in seedy backrooms. Before Texas Hold ‘Em became the staple game of choice among celebrities and rock stars, you’d be hard pressed to find a no limit Texas Hold ‘Em game in Seattle but there was a regular Sunday night game at the Roadhouse Casino just on the outskirts of Seattle.
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Sunday night was also service night so there would be generally a handful of casino dealers that would be looking to turn their weekly tips into a small dream or at least next month’s rent payment. I remember sitting down at around 8 PM that fateful night, bringing in about $400 in chips to the no limit game. After a couple hours of playing, I had turned my chip stack from $400 to roughly $2500 and had motioned to the pit that I was looking to cash out when a couple of casino dealers walked in looking to play. Knowing that the action was going to be fast and loose, I decided to stick around for a few more hands. Playing for another hour, my chip stack had steadily dwindled down to roughly $800 when I made a courageous call with a gut shot draw and caught the river card 5 to pull in a nice pot bringing my chips to roughly $3000.
Around 11 PM, the table had taken down a number of big money players and it started to become a game of attrition between all the steady players; winning small pots ranging from $40 to $200 when we arrived at the fateful hand of the night. I was sitting in second to last position when I was dealt J 10 of clubs; the first 4 players limped in by calling the big blind. I called the big blind, hoping to see a cheap flop, but the button player had other ideas and decided to raise the pot to $60. The initial four players all called and I was priced in so I decided to call the $60 bet.
The flop came.
ACE of SPADES / KING of CLUBS // ACE of CLUBS.
So sitting in fifth position, I had the opportunity to decide what to do. I had a potential gut shot straight with a potential 2nd high flush with my J. Small and Big Blind players decided to check the board. Player 3 decided to put in a small bet of$40. Position 4 called as well as I. The button decided to continue his initial bet by firing $250 into the pot. I was shocked when both small and big blind decided to call the raise as well as players 3 and 4. Being priced in again, I decided to call the $250 bet.
The turn card was the QUEEN of DIAMONDS.
So I had made a straight but was super wary about players 1 and 2 (small and big blind) as they had initially checked the flop before calling the bet. This time we all checked around to the button who proceeded to bet $1000. First player finally mucked his cards but Big Blind called the bet as well as players 3 and 4. I took a deep breath and reviewed all the potentials that were out there. I had potentially the third best hand;the button must have pocket queens or kings or else he wouldn’t be firing all the time but I was also concerned about the Big Blind limping in on the action all the time so he might have pocket Kings or Aces but the pot was over $6000and I had less than 2% to win the hand as I was drawing for the queen of clubs or potentially drawing dead if someone else had the queen of clubs already but with pot odds, I decided to call the $1000 bet,
The river card was the QUEEN of CLUBS.
So I had made my royal flush and was trying to decide to extract the maximize amount of chips from the players when big blind decided to check. Player 3 went all in with his remaining 500 in chips with a flat call from player 4 quickly. I was sitting there thinking, I could go all in or try to extract chips from the button so I decided to flat call the bet also. The button pushed all in for an additional 500. The big blind went all in also and the surprising play was player 4 with his all in; naturally I threw in all my chips that I had.
BIG BLIND HAD POCKET KINGS – he had a full house.
PLAYER 3 HAD POCKET ACES – he also had a full house.
PLAYER 4 HAD POCKET QUEENS – he had quads.
I turned over my royal flush and the button decided to muck his hand. To this day, that was the biggest single hand pot I have ever won.
After going through all the bets and raise as well as all the cards on the table, I have come to the conclusion that the button player must have had J 10 also and fired on the flop to try to wean out the players, made his straight like I did and fired on the river to try to overcompensate his weak hand.
But since he never showed, he could have been playing with pocket JACKS for all I know.
Photo: michal-parzuchowski-453960-unsplash