Poker Night #38: The Legalist

First the good news: We finished in a three-way tie for fourth tonight at Lil' Kim's Cove. Three of us went all in at the final table -- one man with K-K, myself and one other with Q-J. But the woman with the biggest stack called with a 9, and two more 9's came up on the table. So she won it all -- and had the biggest tower of chips when I left, and only three players to go.

By rights, I should have finished 6th -- down to 25,000 at the final chip exchange, with the blinds at 5,000/10,000. But leaving with two other players artifically improves the record. So there's safety in numbers, even if you all go out together.

But what I'll remember most about this night was the man sitting immediately to my right. He knew much more about poker than I did. At least he came across that way.

Case 1: A player bets 800 in a hand. A woman goes all in with only 350. A third player calls the 800, so a sidepot is set up.

"There should be 900," Mr. K (for Know-It-All :--> ) says.

"But she bet 350," I note. My math says 3 x 350 = 1,050 is what the woman can win.

"You don't know how to do this, do you?" Mr. K replies. He explains it's 3 x 300. I admittedly don't quite grasp how he figures that, so I let it go. (The woman won that pot, by the way.)

Case 2: Blinds are at 100/200. I'm in the small blind, and the play calls to me.

IN THE POCKET: A-A.

I toss in the extra 100. "Plus 1,000," I say. Wrong.

"You're string betting," Mr. K declares -- and tells me the 1,000 has to come back. I thought "string betting" meant matching the big blind in a raise, but he won't even let me toss in 200 more.

Why? "Because you said see." But I didn't say see.

He corrects the explanation. "You said and...." Which I still didn't say. His point is that I must use the word "raise," or it doesn't count.

Other players have been informal in betting all evening, but I was the one called on the carpet -- no, felt. I pull the black chip back.

ON THE FLOP: Three smaller cards (don't remember which ones). "Now you can do anything you want to," Mr. K says. But I don't want to cause another correction.

"I will ****bet**** 1,500." He accepts this.

I eventually win the pot with the pocket aces, which he points out. But I make pains to be sure he wants me to say the word "raise" from now on. "I don't want to upset you any more."

"You didn't upset me," Mr. K says calmly. You know, he was probably right. I was the upset one -- because he invoked legalism into the hand. A nice friendly tournament suddenly (at least for me) had the stiffness of a European casino.

Case 3: Mr. K. raises in a later hand, without saying "raise." I say nothing. Many legalists tend to enforce rules for others, then forget to follow them personally. We'll get deeper into this another time.

(By the way, Mr. K. didn't make the final table.)

UPDATED SCOREBOARD: 18 final tables in 38 nights (47.4%) - 5 cashes.
YAHOO POKER TOTAL: $3,240 (Up 17 -- but without blackjack Down 74.)