Player's Stories

"Give Me Running Fours, Boy."

By Randy Glover (rggator)

Mike Laing is known for a lot of different things at the poker table. One of them is his wit, even in the face of adversity. Here is one of his famous quips. After betting off all his chips with a T8 to a flop of K22 and his opponent's K8, Laing stands and yells: "Give me Running Tens, Boy."

I played with Laing for a few hours at the $125, multiple rebuy, No Limit Hold Em tournament at the Orleans Open on Friday, July 22. After suffering a nasty beat at my original table, I carry my now short stack over to Seat 3, Table 49, and find my good friend Bill Moloney in Seat 5 and Laing in Seat 6. I have $900 in chips: With the blinds at $75/$150, I have to make a move soon.

First, a bit of background on why I am at the Orleans Open. I have been a member of Poker School Online for almost 5 years now. Bill and I were 2 of the original 100 or so founding members. PSO now numbers in the thousands. This year approximately 30 PSOers attended the Orleans Open. That was all it took to get me to come. It was great to hook up with old friends, see new faces, listen to new and old tall tales, and watch some great poker being played. One night six of us played in the midnight $100 NLHE tourney at the Plaza, only to run into Ron Rose (2004 WPT Champion), who Bill talks into playing in the tournament with us. [Great job on winning that one, Tim Lavelli.]

Back to the $125 NLHE rebuy event. After posting the $150 blind and seeing the Button limp and the Small Blind complete, I look down at 9s4h from the Big Blind and rap the table. The Button has been spouting a constant stream of statistics after every hand has played. I know a few statistics, his are sometimes right, sometimes wrong. The flop comes 543, all diamonds. The SB checks. I think this is a great time to represent a big hand made from the blind. I reason that if Mr. Statistics had anything, he would have raised preflop. And Mr. Statistics seems too tight to have limped with 63 or similar junk. The SB could have backed into something and is slowplaying it, but I am so short it is time to take a shot at a pot that will add 50% to my stack.

Mr. Statistics immediately calls. And, as quickly as he can, the SB calls, simultaneously flipping over his cards, the A9 of diamonds. His hands are covering his chips, so I think he is all in and I flip over my measly 94o. The Button shows his 6d6s, an overpair and a straight flush draw.

We now have 3 of us who have made an error on the same hand. I wish they would call all our hands dead and have a "do over." No such luck. The button has a tremendous advantage over the SB since he won't put another chip into the pot unless he makes his straight flush or a full house.

I wish I was as witty as Laing and think to stand and shout: "Give Me Running Fours, Boy," but I am in the "gathering my belongings from the table to make a quick exit" mode.

I pick up my PSO spinner and my water, then stand and watch as the 4 of spades is peeled off. I now have a "huge" 3 outs on the river.

Mike Laing says, "It's not over yet."

The river is the case four. This is by far the worst beat I have ever put on anyone.

Mr. Statistics announces I just put a 903 to 1 beat on his buddy. Which is not true. Had I needed to get runner, runner fours the beat would have 903 to 1. Since I had 4 runner, runner outs the odds are much lower. Not good, but way lower. Still, a nice Rainman calculation at the table.

For the next couple of hours Mike Laing is constantly making jokes at his own, the dealer's, and the other players' expense. The dealers are obviously used to Laing's humor. When one dealer is leaving for his break his says: "A pleasure Gentlemen, and you too Mikey."

Somewhere in here I double through on Laing.

I wish I could say I outplayed him, but I did not. I catch AA in the cutoff vs Mike Laing's BB hand. I make a suspiciously large raise, 4X the BB, whereas the normal table raise had been 2.5 to 3X the BB. The SB wants to see how much I have left. I push my chips out, purposely knock a few over in counting them. The SB thinks for over a minute and finally mucks (he tells me after the hand he had AQ, but says I should win an acting award regardless). Laing, however, calls and puts me in when the flop comes eight high. I flip over AA, Laing K8s. I imagine Laing put me on an AJ/AT hand, makes a reasonable call hoping to force the amateur to fold on just about any low flop. But he actually hits it, and pushes in.

I also wish I could say I won the tournament with Mike Laing's chips. I did not. Still, several hours later they begin passing out line passes and dinner vouchers for the remaining tourney players. We have 30 players left and they play 27. This is one of those déjà vu all over again situations.

The only other noon Orleans' Open event I played in was on Monday and we took a dinner break with 59 left out of 570 (they paid 54). I did not enjoy my free meal. Trust me, normally a free meal is a source of vast pleasure for me, but being on the bubble with a short stack was on my mind the entire dinner break. I did manage to squeak into the money on that one. But I made a betting error that cost me my stack shortly after they announced we were all in the money. Three people limp into the pot. I think a 4th player also limps. I am on the button with AJ. I move all in for $4000 (the minimum bet is $600), figuring I have a good chance of picking up the pot without seeing a flop. In fact, the 4th player had raised to $1800. He had me covered, so I would have never moved in on that weak a hand. Anyway, everyone folds except the raiser, who methodically counts out his chips, sees he is getting over 2 to 1 on his money and calls with TT. I put my error down to fatigue as we had been playing eight and a half hours at this point.

So, on this dinner break, I go to my room, brush my teeth, wash my face, shave for a 2nd time this day and then go to the buffet. I head up to the tourney area with 10 minutes left on the break, walk the other 3 tables and determine I am the 3rd shortest stack and cannot post and fold into the money. Soon we are down to 28. We are hand for hand. I walk around while our table is waiting for the other tables to complete their hands. I am by far the short stack. A conservative big stack raises from middle position. All fold to my BB. I look down to find A4o. Normally this is a clear fold. But I have 7 hands left after this, and likely no one will go out before I am blinded out. I am getting over 3 to 1 on my call. If he has a pocket pair I still have 3 outs to the Ace and am only a 70 to 30 underdog. It is possible he has KQs or a similar hand. I call, he flips over the expected JJ, but I turn an Ace and make the money.

I get to see some great NLHE tournament play. Almost no hand is shown down. The standard plays are raise preflop and everyone folds, or raise preflop, get 1 or 2 callers and then someone picks it up on the flop or turn.

With 4X the BB left, I push in with 55 on the cutoff, run into AQ, an Ace flops and I exit 21st.

It was a great experience sitting with Laing for those few hours. He is a funny guy, constantly making situational jokes, the kind where you had to be there. I hope you too find yourself at Laing's table one day. It was a pleasure Gentlemen. And you too Mikey.