EPT
"You are a mother fucking fish, hahahahaha," exclaimed a 6'0 bulky gangsterish acting 30+ year old Korean as I raked in the pot. Sure, sometimes when your opponent overbets the pot on the turn and all you hold is a three high flush draw you should fold (actually almost always), but hell...this guy's shit talk had been getting on my nerves. I had to chase it down and I got lucky. At the local 5/10 underground no-limit game people usually kept their manners, took beats like men, and didn't talk shit. Not this guy. Literally the meanest looking Korean guy I have ever seen this guy was cracking rude jokes all night on everyone. He even took the liberty of telling one of the lesser attractive girls playing that she looks like when she was a kid she had downsyndrome and started recovering from it but just quite didn't make it all the way better.
This guy had it all...not only did he run his mouth but he angled like a mother fucker. For those who don't know what angling is...it's illegal actions in poker done to extract information from your opponents. Like showing them one of your cards when they just went all-in to see how they react, or motioning like you're going to call and then pulling back before your chips touch the table, or acting like you're going to fold. Every hand was a friggen act from this guy, and I could tell he was a proud proud proud korean. He certainly did not like me. His rude behaviour pissed me off, but to be frank, I didn't have the balls to tell his huge gorilla of a man to shut the fuck up. So I did the next best thing I could in the situation. Take his money.
Cards were hot as hell for me that night. After I chased him down with that flush draw earlier in the night he gave me zero credibility. Plus the non-stop flow of beer I was consuming made him think I'm not the average run of the mill tight-ass nut-running player. Little did he know alcohol makes me play better. I busted him up completely. When I didn't have it he folded and when I had it he didn't believe me. Everything was going perfect, a combination of skill and good cards for me. It seemed like the other 6 people at the table weren't even playing. It was just me and him re-re-reraising eachother every other hand creating monster pots everywhere with him always coming up one straw short. I was up over two thousand on him after a couple hours and he had simmered down quite a bit and became incredibly quiet. Not only that but his game had tightened up completely, he was only playing quality hands at that point.
"What happened? You've been quiet for an hour now," I asked.
"......." He just looks at me as if I'm an ant for a few seconds, then says "You know what, how about me and you go play heads up right now on the other table, 10/20 blinds."
I had a lot of cash on me at that time and was feeling pretty damn cocky, drunk, and I was sure that he was a crappy player so I responded,
"10/20? haha...20/40 minimum."
"Oh, I see how it is kid." So then we cashout our normal playing chips at the casino, get our cash and ask the casino manager for a set of play chips. We weren't going to use the casino chips. We were going to use play chips and have it strictly between us to pay eachother. We both started with 4,000$ worth of chips and got a pretty girl who works there to deal for us for 50 bucks.
I was on my A-Game. Most people with big mouths play the same way in poker, atleast live. When people who have big mouths and talk a lot of shit in real life find someone who will stand up to them, they often clam up and show their true colors---they are pussies. This goes exactly the same in poker. Big mouthed players will often be super aggressive, bet like crazy, but in the face of confident re-raises they will automuck their cards. I slowly chipped down at his stack with selective HU aggression, and found myself sitting with 6200$ and he had 1800$ left. I look down at 64 of clubs in the big blind. He raises it up to 160$ and I call. Flop slides out 4-4-8 with two spades. I check and he bets 500$. I instantly move all-in and he calls with A-8. I rake in the pot and he says "Ok this just got real buddy...30/60 blinds," and he takes 8,000$ more worth of chips. I had never even played 20/40 no limit online, let alone 30/60...so this was indeed a pretty big game for me. But I wasn't concerned he was playing like a complete monkey.
We went back and forth for two more hours but I kept gaining a slight edge more and more. Seemed dull for a while until we got into another big pot. I raise with 33 to 240$ and the flop hits 3-Q-7. He checks the flop and so do I (mistake). Turn hits with a blank 2. He looks me in the eye, something he hadn't been doing much of, and it was just a small pot. I knew he had something here. He bets 500$. Earlier in the night when I was bluffing him once I announced my bet amount loud and proud, something I normally don't do, and afterwards showed him my bluff. So, loud and proud I announced "Two-thousand." He laughs and instantly moves all-in for 8,000$. I call without hesitation and he flips over Q-2 two pair, and my 33 takes down the pot with a black ace on the river. 16,000$ pot, biggest pot I had ever won in real life in my life. Damn it felt good to bust this guy up. I was up twelve grand and he stands up gets a drink and comes back and takes 10,000$ more in chips. His face was sweaty and heavy sweat drops were rolling down his nose.
He remained quiet after saying "If I lose 20 grand I'll pay you tomorrow don't got the cash now." It was over now. I raised to 240$ with AKo and he calls instantly. Flop slams down A-K-8. He bets 400$ and I call. Turn is a 2 and its a rainbow board. He bets 400$ again and I call again. Pot is now about two grand and the river hits with a 7. I have the nuts. He checks and I bet 2,000$ confidently....
"Kid, who do you think you are?" He asks as he slides in 5,000$ worth of chips for a 3,000$ reraise. Something was definitely not right about this bet, he had something for sure...but in a heads-up situation when the pot is laying you this crazy of odds and you have such a monster of a hand, folding is not an option. I call and he shows pocket eights for a set of eights and I'm flabbergasted not only at the situation but at how strangly he played it. 6,000$ of my chips were gone and now I have 10k left and he has 16k. No big deal I'm still up 6 grand on him.
For the next two hours I play the best heads up poker I can possibly do. But no matter how hard I tried I couldn't win. He was playing a very confident aggressive style and was getting some good cards. But it wasn't luck on his part. He was making several really really nice plays. He got me down to 6,000$ in chips and he had 20k. I didn't rebuy cause I was still up on him and didn't really wanna lose more than 4,000$. I was tired...his raises were thundering down on me. I was getting owned in every way possible. He really really started seeming like a fucking good player.
"YOU CAN'T FUCK WITH ME BUDDY, I FUCKING OWN YOU, WHITE SACK OF SHIT GET THE FUCK OFF MY TURF." he yelled with sweat still rolling down his nose and dripping on the table. I remained calm but the dealer girl looked a little bit frightened.
"WHAT, YOU GOT NOTHING TO SAY TO ME BUDDY?," the ape-man stands up like king-kong and tells me how much he owns me with his eyes huge as hell and bloodshot.
"Theres nothing to say, we are playing cards, so may we continue?" I ask cordially.
"HAHAHAHA OKAY LETS GO."
Very next hand he hits a flush on a river that gives me two pair as well and he takes down another 5,000$ pot. This pot put me 500$ down from my initial buyin and him 500$ up.
The human baboon then rolls his sleeves on his hoodie up, wipes the sweat off his forehead, and stands up. Walks right up next to me and shoves his face into mine with his eyes big as hell again. "HAHA LITTLE PUNK YOU WERE UP OVER TWELVE G'S AND YOU LOST IT ALL," he exclaims loudly and proudly as his head wavers back and forth. "EVERY TIME I BLUFF YOU FOLDING THE BEST HAND AND EVERY TIME I HAVE IT YOU CALL LIKE A STUPID FISH. YOU FUCKING SUCK, IM GUNNA TAKE EVERYTHING. IM SENDING YOU BACK TO AMERICA BUDDY." I tried to stay calm and hold my ground,
"No you're not."
".....????"
"You're actually being mean now, I don't like that, I quit. Take your 500 bucks. Well played nice match," I said calmly as I expected him to pick me up by my neck and throw me into the wall.
And then the unexpected happened.
The villain stands up straight, quirks his eyebrows, and slowly sits back down in his chair. He uses his hoodie to dab the sweat off his forehead and looks at me with a smile. Then, with a normal volume and demeanor, he says "So, you're telling me, after you were up that huge and lost all the way back down to down 500 bucks, and after all that shit I talked, you can just walk away like that?"
"Yeah I guess so..."
"I fucking respect that man, no hard feelings this is just my heads up act, its how I put pussies on tilt and clean them out. Let me take you to lunch -- it's on you anyways" he says with a smile.
I was completely baffled, but kinda relieved at the same time.
So we go have lunch together in his car and I find out that this guy has been playing poker professionally for over ten years. One of the nicest people I've ever met off the table. But on the table...he transforms and abuses every edge he can. He tells me about the 'big games' he knows of and that he can get me into them. I re-learned a common lesson that day...don't judge a book by it's cover.
