I play poker with a circle of friends who are there for support, swapping poker information and just to hang out with. We also end up at the same games and same tables from time to time. When we are playing at the same table together, there a few of us that have a gentlemen’s agreement in that we will not try to stack each other while playing head’s up. This is especially true when we are at a casino versus one of our home games because the sole purpose of playing in a casino is to make money and we are there to get it from the other players, not each other. Homes games are more for the social experience than making money so it is more for bragging rights when you outplay others and leave with their money.
That being said, I had a situation come up while playing in a single table cash game with a friend of mine the other night. I was sitting two seats to his left and we were about 7-8 hours into the session. Up until that point, we stayed out of each others way. If he opened with a raise, I folded mediocre hands and let him take the lead. He reciprocated at those times when I opened for a bet. Keep in mind that one aspect of our agreement is that we will play our normal game when other players remain in the action. It is only when we become heads up that our action will slow down and we will check to each other or fire out minimal bets.
Anyways, a hand was dealt where my friend opened for a bet and got called by seat two. I called with As8s and I believe there were one or two more callers. The flop came 8cJd2h and he c-bet $20.00. I called and everyone else folded. The turn was a blank and he fired $50.00 at me knowing we were heads up. I was perplexed and also a little irritated because of our long standing agreement. I decided at that point in time he wanted to challenge me and I called his bet. The river was an 8h and he fired another $50.00 at me! I thought to myself “what the hell is going on here and why is he playing into me like this”? I knew I had the best hand and thought for a moment if I should raise his ass for the rest of his $200.00 or should I let him off easy and just call. I decided to call and tabled my hand. He showed KK and almost went through the roof he was so hot. However, because we were in the company of others, he could not express his opinion at my play and I could not ask him why he broke our agreement.
When the game broke up several hours later, I called him on the way home and he immediately laid into me about how bad I played and the fact that I should not have been in the hand anyways. My argument was the fact that it had nothing to do with the cards I held or the fact that I wanted to play that particular hand. It was all about the agreement we had that he should have made a small bet/check on the turn and a check on the river. His action would not have been interpreted as soft because the second 8 came out on the turn and that is what slowed him down. He didn’t want to hear my opinion in the least and kept deflecting to my bad play. I asked him why he didn’t slow down and he mentioned that he was stuck a lot of money at that point in time. “So you wanted to take my money to get back to even?” I reminded him that I could have cost him another $200.00 if I wanted to be a dick about it and push on the river. I got no thanks for that kind gesture, however.
I guess we will not be playing at the same table in the near future but I am standing by my action. I do not feel like I did anything wrong and think that he got caught up in his hand to the point that he ignored the fact that we were heads up. Keep in mind that if I never hit that second 8, I would have folded my hand and we would not be having a discussion about this. However, when you enter into an agreement with someone, it needs to be black and white or you will have problems down the road like I just found out. No exceptions!
