November Senior Championship: Too Many Hiccups

Poker can be a game of spurts -- with several idle hands, followed by a couple with big gains.  But in the November National League of Poker Senior Championship Tuesday night, the spurts came in other ways....

:01 IN: We have J-J, and a player ahead of us raises 160.  We call, of course.  The flop is 10-5-6.  We call a bet of 30.  The turn is 4.  We call a bet of 130, fearing someone has three of a kind.  The river is 6, and we call yet another bet of 30.  After all that, our main opponent has K-5!  The overpair gives us a big gain of $1,255.

 

:12 IN: After folding cards which would have given us a winning flush and a winning straight, we have Ax-Ks.  We raise the blind 100, to 140.  The flop is 3s-6x-2s.  A player bets 200 -- enough to baffle us, and also enough to fold.

 

:16 IN: We have 3-4 in the big blind -- and then the trouble starts.  Our connection to the game freezes.  After waiting five minutes for things to resolve themselves, we "panic" -- getting out of NLOP completely and logging back in.  The process keeps us away for 12 minutes, so we escape being disqualified.  But we miss a round of blinds -- and who knows what else.

We're functioning at the 30-minute break, with $1,490 thanks to our big win.  We're #207 out of 506 players still alive.

:34 IN: Right after the break, we have 9-4.  We fold -- and then freeze #2 begins.  We get out and in faster this time, but still lose eight more minutes of playing time and another round of blinds.  We're down to $1,265.

:43 IN: We have 3-J, and feel compelled to play to avoid disqualification.  The flop is 6-K-5, and we fold to a bet.

:48 IN: We have A-3 of diamonds.  The flop is 6d-Kd-2h, providing us a great flush draw.  The table checks.  The turn is Qh, and we call a bet of 200.  But the turn is Ks, and we must fold to another bet.  (The winning player had a Q for two pair.)  It's a serious loss.

:59 IN: We have J-5 of spades in the small blind with a small stack.  We click on "fold" -- and then freeze #3 starts, with our chip stack down to a lowly 265.

"And we slow play the fold," we see a player named Wirestringer write while our connection is hopelessly sluggish.  We can't explain, because we have to get out and into NLOP again.  Another nine minutes is lost, and we return at the end of the second break.

"Apologies to Wire and all -- disconnects beyond my control," we write on our return.  Wirestringer understands and accepts that explanation.

"You could update to IE9," another player suggests.

"But we don't use that here, do we?" we ask.  We don't even have any browsers open.  (Open question: does that really make a difference?)

1:11 IN: We antes whittling away, we push all-in with A-5 and 115 chips left.  The flop is K-7-7.  The turn is K, and we feel doomed.  The river is J -- and a player shows 7-Q.  His full house knocks us out.

Believe it or not, we finished 176th out of 1,063 players -- in spite of everything, including 29 lost minutes out of 71.  It's a pretty good finish.  But it obviously left us frustrated.