A Story From Bunky: A Low
Limit Jackass

07-25-2006
Gregg “Bunky” Williams

This is a true story from my live play experiences and though I probably was a jackass as well, at least I was a funny jackass (HEE-HAW )

I stroll into the Borgata poker room see a few people I know, say hello and roll up to the check in.

"Bunky for the 20-40 Hold'em"

The girl informs me that there is a list thats 8 deep. Ok, fine. I see the shift manager Sal and say hello and ask if there are any open seats at any limits while I wait. Sal points out a couple open seats on the 2-4 tables. I ask him to lock one up while I go to the cage to get chips.

I buy my 2 racks of red ($1000) for the 20-40 and I buy 60 white just to donk around at the 2-4. I go back to the table and sit down and then entire table looks at the 2 stacks of red and their jaws drop.

The older man across the table says "Got an awful lot of chips there son, you sure you have enough" he said with a wink.

"Hell, ladies and gentlemen, they way I play I may need to reload!" I winked back and sat down. I explained calmly that I was indeed waiting for a seat to the 20-40 and just wanted to sit down and have fun. They all nodded and agreed except for the "kid" in the 10 seat with a ball cap and sunglasses who let out a little "hmmph". This same kid is the typical table coach 2-4 "pro" that seems to be a recurring nightmare at the tables. He berates players with the "How can you call on the flop with that?" crap. I paid him little mind and sat back for some nice donktastic low limit shenanigans.

About a round goes by and I pretty much fold my complete garbage limp along a couple times and whiff flops and toss my no pair no draw hands when the following hand comes up.

Its a very loose passive table averaging 7-8 to the flop no raise and 5-6 with a raise. I'm in the CO and I have Ah 8h and there are 4 limper's to me. I raise. Button folds (which was my intention) kid in the SB semi cold calls, BB calls, 4 people splash chips in the pot from the next table, 3 more calls, and western union drops in some money from a wire transfer, and rest call back to me. In other words, theres a shitload of white chips in the pot and its destined to get bigger.

Flop: 8s 6h 4h (top pair nut flush draw in position can it get better?)
Yep it sure can. Kid leads into the field, everyone calls, I raise for value, Kid calls (and gives a groan) aaaaaaannnnnnnd surprise surprise, everyone calls.

Turn Kh (yahtzee)
Kid donk bets me. this time a couple people actually fold, 2 people call, and I say "Raise" and stack 8 whites in the pot. Now, the kid double takes. He looks at me, and takes off his glass to "stare into my soul" I turn away and start chatting to the lady next to me for some casual chit chat. I turn back like 20 seconds later when I didn't hear any further action and he's still "staring me down". At this point I say to him, "Look, you don't really need to stare into my soul for a 4 dollar raise in a pot this size kid." He continues to mumble to himself and stare me down looking for a "tell". We are now going on a minute and now even the people at the table are getting on his case. He looks at me one more time and I finally get a reaction from him. I blew him a kiss.

Well that did it, he three bets. :

Only 1 caller back to me and I cap. He calls, other player calls.

River bricks and he checks, other player checks, I bet, kid check raises me, other player folds, I three bet, he grumbles and calls.

"Just the nuts". He throws his hand at the dealer and mucks and the dealer pushes me the pot. He mumbles something off hand and then comes out with "I'm not afraid of Mr 20-40 you lucky fish."

"Wow, that was such an original comment, you mind if I use that one sometime?" He gets quiet and we play on. He's down to around 40 bucks though and he's tilting major. Then the death blow falls.

I pickup 99 and raise 2 limper's, and the kid three bets. lots of folds this time as they see round 2 brewing only 1 limper calls, and I just call.

Flop comes Ah 9h 2s
Limper checks, I bet, kid raises, limper folds and now we are HU. I three bet, he four bets, I call with the intention of donk betting the turn and three betting.

Turn 3h ....
and the kid looks away immediately from the board immediately and looks at his chips. I give him a quick look and bet into him, he thinks, he raises. I'm 99% sure he has the flush from the way he's reacting and they way he was forcefully betting the flop (he liked to pump draws) so I decide I'm only gonna get 4 bet if he has the flush and I have 10 outs to crack him. Sooooo, I call.

River Ad
I check, he bets, I check raise. He takes off his hat AND glasses this time and stares me down. He asks "You have Aces full?"

"I swear on my mother I don't have Aces full."
He three bets, I four bet.

"I thought you said you didn't have aces full?"

"That's correct, I don't. I have a flush."

He five bets, I 6 bet and he has only a couple bets left and he 7 bets, and I put him all in.

He flops over KQh and raises his arms in the air, I immediately flip over the 99 for the 9's full and snatch the pot right out from under him.

He looks at me, hangs his head low and walks away without a sound. I silently stack the chips and within 10 minutes get called for my 20-40 seat.

I sit 20-40 and don't think much about him and completely forget the 2-4 table when the "kid" walks up to me about 1.5 hours later and I'm up a few hundred and He says "Okay maybe I am afraid of Mr 20-40 now." He wasn't being a smart ass he was legitimately feeling completely owned.

I turn to him and the waitress was there I say what do you want to drink? He orders a beer and I order a corona and we have some chit chat. I offer to let him sit behind me and sweat my hands and watch how I play and talk to him about the finer points of what not to do to players at the table.

I win a couple pots, I get a beat or two laid on me and just get ready for the next hand and he's like whispering in my ear "Why did he call with that crap on the flop? This is 20-40 for Christ's sake!"

I give him one of Bunky's mantras.
You don't need to take a test to play higher limits, you just need to bring cash.

So after a couple hours with the kid I kinda got through to him and I've seen him a couple times since. He has since ditched the sunglasses and last I saw was doing a respectable job at playing the 6-12.

So, all is not lost for the young whipper snappers out there. Give them some time and some good solid advice and see if we can make them better people if not so much better players.

-Gregg “Bunky” Williams