Bluffed — and worse

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 01/05/2011 (5299 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

I gave them my word, now here it is!

We were about to go on break during the $600 buy-in tournament during the recent Manitoba Poker Championships, when a very strange situation came up.

The blinds were 300-600 and I was on the button with 98 of hearts. I had about 8,400 in chips and there was a player who limped in from the hi jack; I called as did both blinds. The flop came down KK3 with two diamonds and it got checked around to me. I decided to bet 1,000 in the hope of stealing the pot; the small and big blind folded but the hi jack called. The turn was an 8, not of diamonds therefore not completing the flush, and my opponent once again checked to me. Now that I had two pair and thought I had the best hand I bet around 1,400 and was pretty quickly check-raised all-in.

Having a tough decision for your tournament life is always difficult, and I began to really ponder my decision here. My first instinct was that he must have had a hand like K10, KJ, KQ, or maybe even 33. The tournament now was on break and a few of the players at my table had left but many others from other tables were now watching as I was trying to make my decision. My opponent began to look fairly uncomfortable and I asked him if he was going to show me a bluff if I folded. He didn’t say anything but seeing as how I was fishing for information, I told him if I fold and you show me a bluff I will write about this hand in an upcoming column.

The more I thought about the hand, for some reason I just couldn’t go with my instincts and make the call so I eventually folded. Well he quickly turned over Q5 of diamonds for a semi-bluff. Nice hand, sir! Oh well, not the first or last time I’m going to be bluffed out of a pot.

I quickly got up and ran to the washroom as the break was almost over but before I could make it there one of my buddies ran over to me and said “Marco, get back to the table. You have no chips left!”

Now this was very strange seeing as how I had folded so how could I have no chips? Well, after I mucked my hand the dealer accidentally took my remaining chips and gave them to my opponent.

We called the floor and they asked me how many chips I had after I folded. I wasn’t 100 per cent sure but I knew I had between 5,400 and 5,500. Unfortunately, the gentlemen who had my chips didn’t agree and was saying that I had just over 5k.

The floor asked me if I would accept 5k and I said “no” since I knew I had more than that. I wanted what I was entitled to, no more, no less. After all, it wasn’t my mistake.

The tournament had now resumed but my table was still not playing until we could get this sorted out. There was a very simple solution: to check the cameras. For some silly reason, though, they kept telling me that it would take too long and wouldn’t check the cameras, but I wasn’t about to start playing until I got my exact chips back.

After a few tense moments they finally went upstairs and checked the cameras and when the floor man came back to the table he told us that I had 5,475 in chips.

I wasn’t trying to create a problem, but seeing as how there are nothing but cameras in a casino I wanted to get the right number of chips back.

In the end it was really nice to see that the floor man made the right decision and was able to rectify the dealer’s mistake correctly.