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playing poker and teaching science: June 2007

playing poker and teaching science

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Location: Honolulu, HI, United States

I'm a middle school science teacher, wrestling coach, poker player, scuba diver, aikido black belt, amateur writer, and student of life. In the past I have tried to give back a little by volunteering at a children's home in Belmopan, Belize, Central America. I also love Frosted Flakes. I took a year-long sabbatical from my science teaching position in order to sail the Caribbean, retired from teaching in Indiana and now teach at a Honolulu middle school.

Saturday, June 16, 2007

It’s all Greek to me

I took another trip to the Greektown Casino in Detroit after a teacher training session I conducted a couple of days ago and my impression of the poker room was the same; it’s not very well managed and there are some very soft games.

I guess it’s a trade off.

I jumped on the $3/$6 and the $1/$2 no-limit lists when I walked in and after waiting for 30 minutes or so noticed that there were two open seats at the $3/$6 table. I was second on a list of six or seven. I mentioned this to the brush and he kindly said I could take a seat, but the other seat wasn’t called for quite some time.

I sat in the one seat next to an enormous man with a dwindling stack who would talk to himself on every hand, tipping those of us around him to what he was holding. I never lost a hand to him yet he continued to pay me off. Gotta love it.

He made a significant contribution to the game however was when he kept firing at a heads-up pot causing the player in the seven seat to fold the best hand. He flashed me 8 10 off suit and the seven seat said, “Show one, show all.”

He shouldn’t have done that.

Realizing he had been bluffed put him on mega-tilt. He called down every hand the two seat and I played with him and paid off EVERY time. He rebought for three times before I left. It was amazing.

I left after two hours up 20 big bets which seems an amazing amount playing $3/$6 without a kill.

My name was never called for the no-limit games.

Sidebar:

I think I’m a pretty decent poker player and my personal statistics prove that I’m consistently a winner. I rarely….. make that never……. Talk about another player’s style of play at the table. I don’t want anyone else to know I think I can play.

It’s pretty comical to me however when someone sits down and immediately starts talking about poker like he’s (yes, it’s always a “he”) wrote the Bible on poker and is there to proselytize to those of us willing to pull up a stone and sit at the base of his mount.

A short-stacked player moved to our table from a no-limit table and started talking about his play, his bad beats, how to play hands as he called inside straights and looked for runner-runner.

His stack became shorter.

Then I was dealt AJ on the button and limped in after seven players called. The flop brought JJ2 rainbow and it checked around to me. Naturally I bet. I got FOUR callers. The turn was a blank and I bet again.

The prophet folded to my bet as he said, “I picked up your tell.”

I have to change my game now I guess. Betting the best hand into calling stations is my weakness :-)