My Friday session at the T-Bird included, along with "KC", Mr. Expert and his pal Mr. Agree With Expert. Mr. Expert was in the 6s next to me (in the 7s - same seat, same table of the 'West End Comedy Team') and I soon learned both he and his 'pal' in the 5s had been playing since early that afternoon and were down a few buy-ins.
I knew that Mr. Expert was an expert because he found it necessary to comment on each and every hand he played - which was just about each and every hand. He was very informative and was clear to state playing certain cards was stupid, and was dumbfounded as to why people would play certain cards against raises, etc., and then they would, of course, catch their 2 outer or runner-runner miracle to beat him. I bit back the impulse to suggest that if he played less hands, paid attention to position, quit chasing and folded when he knew he was beat he might do better. It was clear he was an Expert, though, so I stayed quiet - I could've been wrong.
Hand after hand he would lose, more and more steam coming out of his ears. He commiserated with his buddy and kept on with the running commentary. He stated at one point he wasn't being personal - it's just that such-and such hand is stupid to play with a straight draw on the board and blah-blah-blah. The rest of the table stayed quiet and just played cards.
He criticized a young man in the 4s for playing Ace-small UTG and then in the very next hand he himself played Ace-small and won a pot. The 4s chided him about that, but, oh - his hand was sooooted. We split one pot when we filled a straight each holding K-T (mine was soooted) - he knew exactly what I had when I re-raised. Wow. I was impressed with his read.
During all this, the farmer in the 2s quietly sucked out pot after pot after pot and eventually had about 3 1/2 racks worth of whites in front of him. I was honestly impressed - he was a terrible player, but didn't seem to be bleeding back his chips - yet. I saw 3 1/2 racks worth of pure opportunity sitting over there. But, Mr. Expert continued to rail, at one point tossing his cards to the muck saying "I just can't get lucky."
One hand he berated the 2s for playing 4-5 off suit which brought him a pot after he made his straight. He mumbled "I wouldn't play that hand." I said "How many were in the hand?" He said 7. I laughed and said "with that many in the hand and late position, I'd play that hand - easy." He gave me a "you know something I don't know?" look. I smiled.
His pal eventually got even - but didn't leave. Mr. Expert went broke for the last time and finally left. The table immediately relaxed and began commenting on Mr. Expert's expertise - his pal got real quiet and didn't say a word over the next couple of hours while he bled back his chips. Miffed and unhappy, he left about midnight - he'd been there for 12 hours.
The table started having more fun when Mr. Expert left. I bantered some with the 2s and the 4s. Learned the lady next to me in the 8s (who rushed 4 miles to home and back to get $50 more to re-buy) was heading to Germany for the first time to visit her daughter. The 4s was a high school freshman math teacher who got to take a group of kids to Europe last summer. I cracked the table up when I'd come into a family pot with 2 low suited cards. The flop missed me, but was checked down, same thing on the turn. However on the river a guy across the table said something like "Well, I'm not letting another free one go by." I said "Good, 'cause I really don't wanna to show these cards."
A sociable table helps to make it tolerable when you're sitting there folding and folding and folding - which is what I do at these loose tables. I do get twinges of "how could they stay in with blah-blah-blah" after a suck-out, but I let it roll. I remind myself that most of them have never read a book on poker, or visited an on-line poker forum, or even considered there might be a strategy to playing the game. And it's fine by me, if not preferable, that they remain naive. It costs me nothing to engage in a pleasant conversation which just might keep them at the table longer as well as make it, perhaps, less painful for them as they see their chips slowly find their way into my stack.
