Why you should look before you speak…

so just got back from booking a nice win at garden city. i arrived around 8:30pm and found a ridiculous list on every game but 6-12, so i was quickly sitting at (seriously) one of the BEST limit hold’em tables i’ve ever seen. anyhow, rather than regale you with silly stories of donkey players, i’ll just recount one of the greatest things that has ever happened to me at a poker table (good story, even for non-poker players):about 90 minutes into the session, a young asian guy (YAG) sits down to my left. i can pretty much tell right away that he’s at least a pretty good player, just by the way he handles his chips. well, no matter, because the other 7 at the table are all TERRIBLE with deep pockets and we can both pick on them. yet somehow, YAG has some bizarre alpha male syndrome, where he resents all other decent players at the table. very strange. he’s constantly re-raising me and trying to bully me, which i just decide to let happen for a while.anyhow, in one key hand, he sucks out on my QdQs by hitting a pair of aces on the turn (with A5 after re-raising me preflop and calling two bets on the flop). when i re-suck out on the river by hitting a flush to win a monster pot, he starts mouthing off about how lucky i got. whatever, i’ll take the pot and he can talk more. but wait, that’s not the GOOD part.

so if you read my post on “ship it!”, you’ll know how much i detest the phrase. anyhow, we get caught up in a pot. i make it three bets on the button with AhJh and he calls out of the small blind, (as do like twenty other players, many of whom run from other tables just to call me). the flop comes Kh2hTs, probably as good as a flop as i can get without hitting a pair. after it gets checked around to me and i bet, YAG’s the only caller. the turn is a blank (6c), he checks, i bet, he calls. at this point i’m pretty sure he has a shit hand, but he thinks that i’ve been on steal the whole way and is going to call me down no matter what. the Th comes on the river which is a gin card since it makes me the nut flush and he might’ve even improved his shit hand. he checks, i put on the full slow pause and act like i’m thinking about bluffing one last bullet. finally i bet and he insta-calls. i flip up the nut flush and the dealer says “he’s got the ace-high.”

at this point, YAG proceeds to proudly flip up his Ac2s (ragged pair of deuces), standing up and screaming “sorry, BUDDY (sarcastic)… ship it!” he yells it so loud that people from other tables come over to see what happened. in fact, he even starts to reach for the chips in the middle until the dealer grabs his wrist and says, “i’m sorry sir, but he has the ace-high FLUSH.” at this point YAG looks at the board with pure bewilderment on his face. i look at him, smiling while some of the onlookers laugh, and mutter “nice call.” hilarious.

moral of the story: never use the phrase “ship it!” you might look like an ass.