Next station, busto

Play lowlimit sngs and nothing should surprise you. But still the extreme bad play of my opponents does surprise me.

I'm playing a $10 turbo on Party. It's t400 and the bubble. One guy has less than a big blind and will be in the BB next hand.

I'm in the small blind and pick up 44. Not a great hand but when it's folded to me, it's an easy push. I have the big blind covered, and can push here with any two. He must fold unless he has aces.

Calling is the worst play ever. He is risking all his tournament equity, more than 20 bucks, and will gain less than that if he wins.

Think about it. If I have 72 and he has a pair of jacks, he must fold. He'd be an enormous favourite, but the equity he loses is too much to risk. He should just fold, because the difference in equity his blind represents is tiny. I have him covered, so a loss means he's busted, and hands ALL HIS EQUITY to the shorty.

But of course my opponents are idiots and don't think like that. They are completely level one. So they'll call in this spot with AK, AQ and big pairs. But those hands are rare, and of course, I'm ahead of AK, so if he does call, he's still behind.

He calls. Things move very fast on Party so I know I'm beaten at about the same time I know that he called. I am just gobsmacked. Needing only to fold to just about assure himself of a cash, the guy gambled with ATo.

He didn't push with it, you'll note. He didn't get it in with me *and* shorty, which would be bad but at least he needs both of us to beat him not to cash.

He flopped an ace. He doubtless feels he made a good play. After all, he won, didn't he? That's how these players think: level one and results oriented. If you asked him, he'd say he was "playing for first". You couldn't explain to someone like that that the best way to play for first is not to lay odds for all your equity.

Of course, my problem is I don't play enough games. I'll get used to very bad players making very bad plays when I've seen many more of them. I think though that a small part of me will always hate the sheer injustice of the guy flopping his ace when I played well and he played so so badly.

Maybe next time I'll just fold. It's the wrong play, but relying on my opponents to be even close to sanity has cost me yet again. Yeah, next time I fold and let the shorty get knocked out. I know it's very wrong, but right hurts when it goes wrong.