A Battle of Good and Evil

Poker games can often be a battle of good and evil. You will see people do evil things for absolutely no reason at the poker table. My friend related to me the following story yesterday, which I will paraphrase here and change the names to protect the guilty.

Luke is a professional player. He plays at Casino X frequently with a man named Darth. Darth has the annoying habit of always asking to see player's cards after he defeats them. It's generally accepted that if you beat some one you won't humiliate them by forcing them to expose their cards. For one thing, you may cause a weaker player to leave the game or, worse, become aware of how bad he is playing. Secondly, a solid player's holding will rarely surprise and therefore has little to no informational value.

But Darth is a little man with a superior opinion of himself that he continually seeks to validate.

Eventually Luke ends up in a hand with Darth. Luke flops 3 of a kind and he checks and calls Darth on the flop, turn and river. Then Luke tells the dealer not to muck his hand. Darth shows him 2 pair. Luke nods, says, "Good hand," and pushes his cards forward. Darth points to Luke's cards. "Dealer, I'd like to see those cards." The dealer flips up 3 of a kind, a winner. "Oh," Luke says, pretending to be surprised. "I thought I only had one pair."

The dealer starts to push the pot to Luke. Darth hits the roof. "Call the floor! That's bullshit! He mucked his cards!" The floor is called, but the ruling stands. The cards speak, the hand is live and Luke is the winner. Darth is led to believe if he had just kept his mouth shut he'd be $400 richer. His face turns red, smoke comes out of his ears and he proceeds to go on tilt and ends up losing 2k.

One for for the good guys.