And Bingo Was My Name-O

Was playing some pot-limit Omaha yesterday. Am going for my Silver Star cash bonuses on PokerStars. Can’t exactly trade the FPPs directly for cash -- you still have to put in some hands to get the moneys. But clearing the bonus isn’t too arduous.

By the way, to revisit that question I posed earlier in the week -- I am not displaying my status at the tables. When I see others’ displaying that they are Silver Stars or Gold Stars or Platinum Stars or Supernovas or whatever, I suppose I tend to believe they at least have some clue what they are doing. In other words, in a game of PLO, say, I tend to expect such players to understand a little something about starting hands or how the hand values aren’t like in hold’em and so forth.

Thus do I choose not to let my opponents know of my Silvery superpowers. Now that I think about it, not displaying my status might’ve encouraged the following bit of hilarity from yesterday’s session.

I’d been playing for awhile, two-tabling at $50 max, and was starting to think about leaving. At the full-table I was up quite a bit, while at the 6-handed table I had been down for a while, but had managed to chip back up to about $55. At the latter table a short-stacked player had taken the spot to my left about 20-30 hands back. He’d bought in for just $10 and had been raising or reraising pot preflop about once per orbit.

Had a hand come up where I picked up in the small blind. A nice Omaha-8 hand, but not really the cat’s pajamas here in PLO high only. Anyhow, the table folded around to the button who raised pot to $1.75. He’d been open-raising from the button with just about anything, so I went ahead and called with my double-suited hand. That’s when Mr. Shorty (in the big blind) decided to pump it up to $7, leaving himself just $7.35 behind.

The player on the button thought a moment, then folded, leaving just me and Mr. Shorty. Feeling as though his range was pretty wide here -- looked like a definite squeeze, frankly -- I decided to gamble and so reraised enough to put him all in. He called, of course.

As we were on PokerStars, the cards didn’t get turned over until the very end. So when the flop came , I was pretty sure I’d lost the hand. The turn was the , giving me a ray of hope. And the river was the . My hand was revealed, showing I’d backdoored a flush. Mr. Shorty then chose to show his hand -- . Ouch. He was now sitting out as the $28.95 pot slid my way.

Mr. Shorty: why call with that ****... u fat bingo player

I instantly smiled. I typed back.

Short-Stacked Shamus: fat?
Mr. Shorty: u stupid fat idiot

I rarely get called fat. If I were a boxer, I’d literally be a lightweight (almost a featherweight). I think at the WSOP last summer the wiry F-Train might have been the only guy in the entire Amazon Room over whom I had any weight advantage, although to be honest I think he could probably take me. I base that assumption on the fact that F-Train is, after all, the the 33rd best razz player in the world. And razz players tend to have an ornery streak, even if it is hidden most of the time. Much more so than us bingo players, anyhow.

My opponent continued.

Mr. Shorty: yes and your fat mother 2

Hahahahaha. He left soon afterwards, and so didn’t get to see my response:

Short-Stacked Shamus: :)
Short-Stacked Shamus: that made my night
Short-Stacked Shamus: think i'll go exercise