Should I Have Given Him the Pot?

This is about a hand from last week, where I was put in an ethical dilemma. 

I’ve mentioned before that MGM has these cash drawings.  Every four hours they pick a ticket out of a drum and the person drawn picks an envelope worth between $100 and $3,000.  In order to get a ticket, you need to have a flush or better (only one of your hole cards need to play).  You don’t have to win the pot but your hand needs to be live at the end.  Trying to win a ticket for the drawing plays a major factor in this hand.

I had already earned a couple of tickets for the 10:00 o’clock drawing and there were only a few minutes left before they were to pick the winner.  Frequently at this point in the evening, the players start playing more hands than they otherwise, and also, it often becomes a limpfest as there’s almost an unspoken agreement that there won’t be a lot of raising preflop so that we’d all have a better chance to get a ticket for the drawing.  That was the case at this moment.

That explains what I was doing in this hand.  I was in late position and, with a bunch of limpers in front of me, I went ahead and limped in with Jack-deuce of clubs.  That, of course, is not a hand I’d normally play.  But it was suited and I was pretty sure I’d see the flop for only the two bucks.  It seemed like a risk worth taking.

A whole bunch of us saw the flop, which was Ace-Ace-5, two clubs.  So I had flopped a flush draw on a board with a pair of Aces.  A bit tricky.  An early position player led out for $10, about the size of the pot.  It folded to me and I called.  After all, I’d only limped in hoping to get the flush, and thus, the drawing ticket.

Only two of us saw the turn, which was a third Ace.  It would have been real easy for him to get me to fold on that board with three Aces there.  My flush draw didn’t seem very appealing.  But this time, he checked. I was only too happy to check behind him, keeping my flush dreams alive.

The river was indeed a club, a 10.  This time, he led out with a bet of $25.  With three Aces on the board, I knew there was an excellent chance I could be losing to a full house (if not quads).  I don’t know how much he would have had to have bet to get me to fold there, but $25 wasn’t enough.

In the back of my mind, I was thinking about the first drawing ticket I had won.  It was in a hand against this very same player.  I had limped in with pocket 9’s, and there were a couple of 8’s on the flop, but no 9.  I called this guy’s bet because my 9’s were an overpair.  When another 8 hit the turn, I had a boat, but I wasn’t sure if it was any good.  He bet the same size bet as he had on the flop and I called.  He checked a blank river and I showed my boat.  I not only got a ticket, but I won the pot as well.  He had King-9—absolutlely nothing.  He had fired two barrels to try to steal the pot. 

With trips on the board once again, this hand was eerily similar to the first hand he and I were involved in. But honestly, I didn’t spend that much time thinking about calling.  There was certainly an amount he could have bet that would have given my pause, would have made me think, would have made me consider if he was bluffing again or if he had the goods this time.

But $25 wasn’t that bet.  I figured even if I lost, it was worth it to get another ticket and get a (slightly) better chance to win the drawing.

I even said, as I put my chips out, “Well, I have a flush, so I have to call.”  The guy seemed dejected, may have muttered, “Oh,” and then mucked his cards.

The dealer, Brent, is one of the fastest dealers in the room.  He swooped up the guy’s cards in a flash and suddenly, the player moved to grab back his cards and was saying, “Wait, wait…..I had a full house.”

It was too late.  Brent had already put his cards with the rest of the muck and pushed me the pot.

The guy said he had a 5.

Brent said he was sorry but it was too late.

The guy claimed that he blanked out when he heard me say I had a flush and thought—for just a second—that this meant he had lost.  Of course, even if he had lost with a full house, he would still want to show his hand since he would have earned a drawing ticket.

If the guy was telling the truth, he must have just had a classic brain-fart right then.  I’m sure that, unlike a certain “minister,” he knew the hand rankings and wasn’t thinking that a flush beat a boat.

The guy looked totally dejected.  He had not only (presumably) thrown away a pot he should have won, but lost out on an entry into the drawing.  Brent apologized and tried to make him feel better by saying if a player like Phil Ivey could make a dumb mistake at the WSOP, folding a flush, it could happen to anyone (see below).

So there I was stacking my apparently ill-gotten chips, wondering what the hell to do.  Should I have given him the chips?  Should I have given him half of it?  What do you all think?

At first I was too busy hurriedly filling out my ticket to worry about it.  After I got my ticket filled out, I sat there for awhile and felt a bit guilty.

But then I thought further about it.  I hadn’t seen the guy’s hand.  No one had.  How did I know he really had the boat?  Should I just take his word for it?  People have been known to lie at the poker table. Or misread their hands.  Also, if he had turned a boat, it seemed odd that he checked the turn.  And I couldn’t help thinking that even if he thought he lost, if he really had a boat, he surely would have known to have shown his hand anyway.  There had been a lot of talk about getting tickets in for the drawing at this table for the past 20 minutes.

And of course, there’s the old rule about protecting your hand.  Every player is responsible for his own hand and making sure he tables a possible winning hand.

The more I thought about it, the less I considered doing anything about the situation.  Although I did still feel a bit uneasy about the whole thing.

A few minutes later, they had the drawing and they didn’t pick me.  I had to settle for a small wining session.  Some of that winnings may have been ill-gotten, though I’ll never know for sure.

Anyone think I should have given this guy the pot?