I spoke to a friend last week that I had not seen for many years and we had a great time recounting all of our stories on a Zoom call with his new partner and my own girlfriend.
One of the stories concerns his worst ever bad beat and I'll post this separarely later to see if it can top the best bad anyone else can post although I'll warn you first it will be difficult.
If anyone wants to post their bad beat stories here please just go ahead.
October last year I was going to put £500 into a crypto currency called AAVE. It was at around 40p-50p. I couldn't get the buy to go through so I bought a different token instead. As of right now, that £500 would be worth £375k. 😭😭😭. Only found out around 2 weeks ago. I'll admit I cried a few times. Life changing money. If anyone beats this then I know your pain.
fucking hell thats nuts, crypto is madness right now.
It always feel like its too late to start buying some now
I missed bitcoin at $500 $3000 and then $15000 so I feel like.im.too late for that. Plenty of other cryptos around that can still go crazy. Just gotta be in them at the right time. Unlike me. The idiot. 🤦♂️
In 2003 a group my friends started going on an annual trip and it usually involved around a dozen people and although it had started as a golfing holiday the trip changed over the years as some people stopped going and new people joined.
The group had become much younger by 2011 and the golfing was partially replaced by trips to play poker and for the younger element to visit the trendiest nightclubs.
A core of the old guard always went on the trips and this story surrounds a friend called Simon who was a tremendous poker player and usually very much the centre of attention. The trip in 2011 was to Germany as there as a large poker festival in Berlin.
The Hotel that had been chosen was only a short walk from the casino holding the poker events and there were satellite events to the main event running the whole of the week we were there. Six of us decided to play in the satellites to try and win a seat and on the night after we arrived three of us had qualified. Despite having quite chunky entrance fees the satellite tournaments were really soft and I was relieved not to have to pay for the entry to the main event as it was €3,300. At €330 for the satellites it was already pretty expensive. For a few of us if we had not won a satellite event we’d have just went out with the younger guys to the clubs instead of playing the main event.
Simon, though was determined to play the main event yet his luck in the satellites was just as bad as it could be and he lost a satellite event after getting to being heads up on four out of the five nights and on the Thursday night the table was down to three players and he had a big chip lead. We were all rooting for him only to see one of the other players, a Portuguese yacht captain, catch an amazing run of cards for about five hands in a row, when miles behind each time, to knock out Simon before then almost immediately losing nearly all of the chips to the other remaining player after pushing all in with Q3 offsuit and being called by KK.
Now Simon is a lovely guy and even his good nature was tested by this run of events and especially so since the Portuguese guy was a really annoying and just appeared to be somewhat clueless and had no regard for money at all. Maybe he was super wealthy. Maybe he was just an idiot. We never did get to know.
The Friday night tournament was the last chance to qualify and by this time our whole group had qualified except Simon. The banter amongst the guys was brutal and Simon had endured the laughs at his expense all week. I think it is fair to say his mood could have been better that night. The day had been really hot and sunny and most of us were exhausted from the golf outing and the last thing anyone wanted to do was to sit inside a casino. There was a large barbeque on one of the other hotel complexes and the lure of spending time with the teams from a large female volleyball tournament held far more appeal.
Simon said he catch us all up later and headed off to the casino. Now some of this story is recounted by Simon as he was the only person in our group there at the start. Our favourite Portuguese guy was there making a real prat of himself with a girl that was likely a Russian hooker and acting like the fool that Simon thought he was.
The tournament started and Simon started well and unbelievably the yacht captain’s luck was still in and one by one the other players got knocked out until it was only the two of them left. At this point two of our group entered the card room to see how he was getting on. The stacks of both players were pretty even and we all thought lightning would not strike twice and surely Simon would beat this guy.
There had only been about half a dozen hands played and Simon looked down at his hand in the big blind and he had aces. He raised the pot and was immediately re-raised by the villain and Simon then gestured that he was going all in. The villain sat for a few moments and said “ok, I call”.
The dealer asked the players to show their cards and we were amazed to see that the villain had called with Q3s. We looked at each other and then at Simon who was staring at the table and trying not to laugh at this guy given our comical responses.
The hardest bad beat is one that you never see coming and of course who’d expect to see a rainbow flop of Q53 in this situation. The villain starting acting like a total prat and screaming out to his little Russian friend and there was no-one around who could have not noticed this guy.
Now this was not Simon proudest moment and his usual composure left him as a three was dealt on the turn giving the villain a full house. With all of these histrionics going on and as the Portuguese guy started to dance with the girl it was to all intents and purposes rubbing Simon’s nose in it.
“Watch out honey, this f***ing prick only loves gay waiters” he said angrily to the Russian girl.
The dealer then dealt the final card and produced an ace on the river to give Simon the bigger boat.
Whilst all of this was occurring the poker room manager had come across to the room just in time to see the villain cavorting around from a distance and acting strangely and to overhear Simon’s ill-tempered outburst.
We watched in disbelief as Simon was permanently banned and escorted from the card room and the chips all pushed towards the villain granting him the main event ticket instead of Simon. Despite all protests it was no use and he had been disqualified. A rather officious card room manager regarded Simon’s rant as a homophobic slur against a waiter at the casino who must have been gay.
We all just laugh now at the stuck up German card room manager who it was totally impossible to persuade that a hand like Q3 might just be called a “gay waiter” i.e. a queen with a trey.
The main event was good and two of us managed to get good finishes and nice prizes so we paid for everything else for everyone on the trip. The biggest winner was however one of our other friends who really hit the jackpot and is now married with three kids to a lovely international Danish volley ball player.