The Tiltboys

Russ 1987 Rafe 1987 Mike 1987 Perry 1987 Steve 1987 Dave 1992 Bruce 1993 Tony 1993 Phil 1993 Lenny 1994 Josh 1995 Paul 1996 Kim 1996 JK 1997

"... a half-dozen recent Stanford graduates and their friends, whose escapades, fueled by Rusty Nail and Green Apple cocktails, would delight Dean Martin." Smithsonian Magazine "For a few good belly laughs, read these true tales.... Amidst their PG-13-rated stories of ribaldry in Las Vegas, there is a surprising amount of intelligent discussion of poker." New York Times "... they dress in women's clothes and go to poker rooms. They think this is of great interest to other poker players. This strikes me as a rather pathetic, or at least sophomoric, attempt to get attention." rec.gambling.poker

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Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Who Is The Player?

As a followup to Rafe's logic puzzle, I submit the following "Who is the player?" quiz:

At some point during a stud hi-lo hand at the game last Wednesday, someone made the comment "we should play where if you don't look at your cards, you can play for half price." Sure enough, the next hand someone announces "7 card hi-lo stud, if you don't look at your hand, your bets and calls are half-price." We played one hand with about half looking and half not.

Phil meant to play blind, but I'm sure you can guess that he accidentally looked at his cards and had to pay full-price, putting him on mini-tilt. But that's not the point of this story.

One hand later, Stern decides to deal the same thing, 7 card stud hi-lo, non-Perry style, but now you don't get dealt your hole cards until you decide that you're going to look. (Probably a stupid way to deal it, since you don't get the added Phil tilt expected value for accidental peeks, but it does prevent any dispute about whether someone has seen their cards.)

Player A declines to get his hole cards (as does just about everyone else). Player A gets dealt the A of diamonds. The pot gets capped about 6 ways - and of course since he hasn't looked, player A only has to pay half price for the cap - $6.

The next card Player A gets the 6 of diamonds. The other 5 or so players get mixed hands, with one person getting something like 42 offsuit. A few players ask Stern to get dealt their hole cards and look, thus subjecting themselve to full price. It gets tiltcapped with 4 or 5 players - of course, player A only has to pay half-price - $6 again.

Player A's next card is the 8 of diamonds, giving him 3 low cards and a three-flush. Another player or two ask to see their hole cards, and it gets tiltcapped 4 or 5 ways, player A now the only one paying half-price($12).

[Aside: Just before this hand, we got tired of putting in $25 chips and taking out the $1 change, so we made a rule that tiltcaps on the big betting rounds would be for $25 instead of $24. While that may seem like an unimportant detail, that rule somehow fed into the tiltcapping frenzy of this hand ... every round was tiltcapped, for no apparent reason by someplayers.)]

Player A's final upcard is a screaming 3 of diamonds, giving him A368 of diamonds - 4 low cards and four cards to a flush. But of course, he doesn't actually have any hole cards, so he doesn't really have anything yet. Another player has 3 low cards showing (something like 742), and the other two players have nothing special. It gets tiltcapped 3 ways, with the 742 player surprisingly folding, player A paying half price for another $12.

Now Stern reminds everyone that he called that if you haven't received your hole cards on 7th street and go both ways on the end in the dark, you get a free ride for the 7th street rounds of betting. Player A yells out "I see a 5 of diamonds in my future - I'm going both ways in the dark!" The crowd is whooped into a frenzy by this point - Stern having called a weirdo rules twist that wouldn't be expected to be exercised even 1 out of 100 hands (and it's not clear that it would ever actually be the correct play, since if you are going both ways and win, you'll get all the money you put into the potback anyway), and on the first hand ever, player A is going for it.

The pot gets tiltcapped 3 ways (well, 2 ways paid plus player A naturally exclaiming "tiltcap" since he didn't have to pay a dime of it - the other two players inexplicably calling the tiltcap rather than merely $6.).

The players declare, with player A of course already having committed to going both ways. The other two remaining players both go high, and show their hands ... two pair ... and a king high flush. The remaining 5 cards are splayed out and player A is allowed to select which 3 of the remaining 5 will be his down cards. He selects three cards and sets them up on the table next to each other. The other two remaining cards from the stub are shownto the table one at a time. Whiff. Whiff.

Player A turns the first of his three down cards up .... jack of spades ... whiff.

Player A turns the second of his three down cards up ... pairing his board with another 3 ..... whiff.

The crowd holds its collective breath, and player A hunkers down, pulls the edge of his card gently up to reveal it to himself ... slowly keeps turning it up..... slowly ..... slowly ..... then WHHOOOOSH ... he SLAMS the final card on the table .... "I TOLD YOU THERE WAS A FIVE OF DIAMONDS IN MY FUTURE!!!!" and starts shrieking and dancing around maniacally, as the crowd goes berserk!

Now, I ask you, who is player A?

Posted by Lennie | 1:58 PM | E-mail this post   

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