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When I was at the Bike a few months ago, I sat down at the 5/10 NL table. The players were competent, and the game was rolling along just fine. Around 1am, none other than Jose Canseco came to the table and sat down. I have played against several pros, but never against a famous professional athlete.

Jose sat down and introduced his girlfriend. He explained with disdain that he had been playing at the 5/5 NL tables, and how he had trips beat four times on the river. He figured that he would come over to the larger stakes table to “play some better poker.”

After about 90 minutes of playing, I got tangled up in this hand with Jose:

I was in EP and held:

I made a raise to $40, which was called by a guy in seat 4. Jose makes the call, then his girlfriend calls as well.

Pot: $175

The flop delivers:

Not exactly what I wanted to see, but I had the nut flush draw nonetheless. I led out with a continuation bet of $80. The guy in seat 4 folds. Without hesitation, Canseco pops it up to $200. Jose’s girlfriend does not hesitate too long and she calls. At this point, I know I am beat, but I have the draw to the nuts.

Quickly, I calculate my pot odds:

175 + 80 + 200 + 200 makes $655 in the pot. I must call $120 more. I am getting 5:1 Pot Odds. Since I am a 4:1 to make my hand on the next card, I easily make the easy call.

Pot: $775

The turn arrives, and it is:

Blah, I hate playing out of position.

I check.

Jose decides to push all in for another $220.

Jose’s girlfrind calls, but she only has an additional $180.

I run the pot odds calculation and arrive with this:

Pot: 1175 (775 + 220 + 180)

To Call: $220

It is another easy call.

The river delivers:

Giving me the nuts. Jose throws his pocket 44 on the table and yells loudly at how bad of a player I am.

“I cannot believe this. That was terrible.”, he says as he storms off.

It goes to show you that knowing your pot odds is a critical piece of information. If Canseco had pushed all-in on the flop, I would have had to fold.

I guess he did not understand pot odds very well.

This entry was posted on Friday, August 3rd, 2007 at 2:38 pm and is filed under The Bike. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.