Sunday, November 12, 2006

The Perfect Bad Beat Story

12 NOV 06

I’m taking yet another break from poker. This break comes on the heels of watching some recorded WSOP episodes where several (most?) players remarked that they went broke numerous times before hitting the big time. Been there, done that.

On my way out after another bubble bust, I passed a player in a ring game that I had knocked out earlier from the tourney. Strangely, he asked me what happened.

Excuse me? Are you ASKING me to tell you a bad beat story?

This is unusual. Most people don’t really listen and don’t really care. This player and I are friendly, and he seemed genuinely curious (as opposed to the gloating question i.e. Ha Ha – you got knocked out, too, ya big bully. Let me hear your sob story).

My bad beat stories have been perfected. They come in three flavors:

“I ran into a set.”

“Runner runner.”

“Bigger full house.”

All of these stories are told with a shrug of the shoulders and a (hopefully) devil-may-care attitude. Interestingly, they seem to satisfy the questioner, who usually nods knowingly with a been-there-done-that smile.

So if you really need to tell me your bad beat story, it should be no longer than 5 words. After that, I’ll start charging you 25 cents a word. Seems fair.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Well said.

Bad Beat stories are entirely too lengthy and it's amazing to me how few people realize this. They're like your dreams or what you had for dinner yesterday. Fascinating as hell to you, but probably not so riveting for everyone else.