[vincent]

some not so cheap, and you pay with your pride.

How I learned to keep my emotions in check at the table:

20 minutes before I sat at the 3/6 full kill HE table they hit the bad beat jackpot for $15K. Guy that took the beat got $9K and proceeded to get DRUNK. Raised and reraised every pot every street with atc. Was talking trash and had the table really loose. Couldn't have asked for a better table. Played few pots the first hour, then caught a few cards and had won a couple pots and taken a couple of beats when the following scenario played out. Had AQ, flopped top two pair on a rainbow board. Capped the betting and managed to get drunk guy heads up (which was the idea from the moment I sat down. Isolate and destroy, right?). Drunk guy hit runner runner for the 7 high flush. Lost some chips there. Okay, shit happens. That makes it a kill pot for the drunk guy. Next hand AJ to me. I limp, 2 others limp, drunk guys raises, 5 to the flop. T,9,4 with backdoor flush draw for me. Checked around to drunk guy who naturally bets. All call. Turn is jack. I bet, drunk guy raises, everyone else folds, I call. river is an 8. I check call and he shows J,9 for two pair. Ah shit.

Very next hand I get AA and it's still a kill pot. I raise and it's capped with 3 players to the flop. Flop was rainbow 4,5,9. Capped again. The rest of my stack goes in on the turn. River makes a possible flush and I'm ready for the bad news. They showdown for the side pot and 3rd guy was drawing to a straight the whole time with no-pair. Drunk guy flips over his 6,9 to win the side pot, then turns to me and says something like "Ha, you can't beat this hand". So my chest puffs out and I smirk a little bit as I throw down my rockets. I didnt throw them at anyone or away from me. Just straight down in front of me. See the thing is, good cards like KEM cards or Copag's are heavy duty enough that when you throw them they will bounce a little. Especially when they don't land exactly flat. When they bounce a little, they tend to catch air and squirt in unpredictable directions. In this case, one of them went over the rail and onto the floor. Dead hand.

WTF? I've logged less than 100 hours in cardrooms/casinos, and I'd really like to blame this incident on not knowing any better, but I really do know better than to throw down my cards. At least I didn't cuss or scream or jump up and down. I had enough composure left not to embarrass myself any further. Nothing left to do but shrug my shoulders, wish everyone the best of luck and head for the parking lot. (Actually got a compliment as I was leaving for not making an ass of myself. That didn't help much at the time, but makes me feel better now.)

What a humbling reality check. I let a drunk guy who wasn't even really that good at talking smack get me off kilter enough to throw my hand.

I have read, re-read, and still read lots of books and the forums, and I mistakenly thought I was getting good at this game. I had been killing this game, not having a losing session up until this point. I had come to believe I should kill the game and got too cocky and let my emotions get the best of me.

My game is getting better. I'm not good, but I am getting better. And if it takes me throwing the biggest pot I've ever been in on the floor to learn another lesson and keep getting better, then so be it.

From that hand on I have calmly turned over my cards and practically put holes in the center of them as I pin them to the table, until the pot is pushed. Lesson learned.

[ThomasR]

Hehe, that's harsh - people look at me funny for slapping my cards down on the table firmly and resting my hand on them till I know they've stayed there.

It's just not worth the risk, especially against an idiot such as in that case. Just one of those things, I bet a card never bounces again though