I Don't Think That's What They Mean by "Aces Up"

Last week, Prudence and I were playing 1/2 at the Venetian and saw something rather unusual.  I don’t know the exact details, but I think I’ve got the gist of it. 

I was on the other side of the table, and Prudence was in seat 3.  The players involved were in seats 1 & 2.  This was all preflop.  I don’t remember who raised first, but there were a couple of re-raises and then Seat 1, the younger of the two players, put out a stack of about $100.  Seat 2 announced all in.

Both of the players had pretty big stacks, let’s say they each had over $300 when the hand started.  So seat 1 thought about it for awhile.  I got the sense he was going to call when seat 2 suddenly just turned over his cards. 

They were two Aces.

Yes, that’s right, he showed the guy his hand before the guy had decided whether to call his all in, and he had two Aces.

With that, he said to the guy who was still deciding what to do, “Is it worth it to you to call?”

Now, two things here.  First, the dealer did not tell the guy who exposed his hand that what he had just done was a no-no.  This surprised me because, in most poker rooms that I play in, even in a cash game, even when it’s heads up, it is strictly forbidden to expose your hand on like that.  And this was clearly not an accident.

Yet no warning came.

The second thing is….WTF?  I mean seriously, WTF?  There was no indication that these guys were friends.  I’m pretty sure they didn’t know each other from Adam.  And yet this guy was telling the player who had put out a $100 stack in the most blatant way possible, “Don’t call.”

It is my understanding that the object of poker is to take as much money as possible from all the other players at the table.  Had seat 1 called, seat 2 would have been getting all his money into the pot way ahead of any possible hand seat 1 had (unless seat 1 had the other two Aces, in which case they’re even—but if he had the other two Aces, that’s a snap-call).

Aren’t you supposed to be thrilled if another player wants to go all in against you when you have two Aces?  Isn’t that the ideal situation?  True, you could still lose.  Suckouts happen.  Aces get cracked all the time.

But why would you do anything to dissuade someone from calling you there?

So, was the guy being nice, or just ultra, ultra conservative?  Was he the nit of all nits?

Anyway, seat 1 stared at the rockets for a few seconds, said “fold” and turned over his hand.

Of course, he had the dreaded pocket kings.  As I said, I’m pretty sure he was going to call if the guy hadn’t shown the one hand that was better than his.  I mean, wouldn’t anybody shove there with kings (before the Aces were exposed, I mean)?  Even I would have.  Yes, me, the guy who hates pocket kings more than the Lakers hate the Celtics.  Well, maybe Willie wouldn’t have shoved there.  Willie is the only player I know who’s good enough to fold Kings.

Either seat 2 was too nice to be a good poker player, or too scared.  If you think getting a hundred bucks off the other player when you were well favored to stack him is good enough, why are you playing poker?  I mean seriously, if you’re not happy to get all your money in there with AA, you probably should find another game.