One reason why I do NOT play like Phil Ivey

One our fourm members posted this today. I had to lol. Great post!


I was in a local card room just killing time and letting my vehicle defrost a while parked down in the heated parkade when the following hand occured.

The game is $3-$6 limit Holdem. There's a Kill button but it didn't come in to play for this story.

I'm in the small blind and see I have 8s-4s. A lot of players limp and with no raises I called. The flop comes:

Jd-Jc-6h

With no spades and no hope I simply check and get ready to fold. The rest of the table seems to be afraid of the two Jacks so everyone else checks and we get a free card.

Jd-Jc-6h-Ks

Everyone checks until the dealer button who bets $6. I'm ready to fold but ever since seeing Phil Ivey muck a winning hand on TV in the 2009 WSOP I've been looking at my cards one last time before I toss the cards.

THIS TIME when I look at my hand I see Js-8s!?! I don't know where I was looking when I thought it was a 4s early on. Maybe the cute waitress distracted me?

So I have to raise, right? I raised the bet to $12 everyone folds except the dealer button who accuses me of having a King. He's been easy to read ever since I sat down so I keep quiet and he announces he can beat my kicker and calls. The river comes:

Jd-Jc-6h-Ks-2d

I'm a bit embarrassed by having misread my cards so I decided to let the guy off the hook a bit and just check. He sees this as weakness I guess and bets out $6. Normally I wouldn't try to rub it in but I felt the need to point out that I gave him a chance to get out cheap by checking, and then I raised him to $12.

It would have been interesting if he re-raised but he just called and was very unhappy when he saw my trip Jacks.

So, thanks Phil Ivey for teaching me a lesson about what to do BEFORE you muck your cards.