#143: “Galway UKIPT Review, Part II” aka “The Hag”

Saturday was Day 2 of the Main Event and things started weirdly for me as I attempted to trap with Aces, flatting my button to a loose player’s cut-off raise with two maniacs behind me. The BB tanked but unfortunately just flatted. The K-J-10 rainbow board was about as gross as possible and I checked with both players checking behind. The turn brought a 9 and I check folded to the original raiser’s bet. He showed QQ so I guess it was the opposite of a bad beat. If I had played the hand any other way, I would have been eliminated for sure.

That table broke and I was moved to a much softer, more passive table. The only downside to this move was the presence of a vile Canadian woman who I named ‘The Hag’ on twitter (it seems to have stuck as it was repeated by several other players including Phil Baker who also had the misfortune of being seated next to her over the weekend). She was being loud and generally obnoxious to the men at her table, making crass remarks and picking particularly on a 19 year old guy to my left. She kept asking him whether he had a girlfriend and what their favourite sexual positions were. When he ignored her, she asked him if he still lived at home and if his Mom cleaned his underwear.

The Hag got embroiled in a pot where she c-bet the flop. Her opponent moved his front stack forward without speaking and then did the same thing with the stack behind it. She instantly jumped down his throat for a string bet. The dealer acknowledged that it was indeed a string bet and she called for the floor. This would all be fine except for the fact that his front stack had 45K and the back one was his ante chips totaling about 600. In other words, it was effectively the same bet she faced either way. Her opponent offered to take the stack back but she demanded the floor, insisting “rules are rules”.

I implored her to be rational – “What’s the difference, he’s putting you all-in either way”. “I want the floor”, she argued, to which I responded “You’re wasting time! He said he’d take the stack back. There’s no need for the floor because there is no dispute”. The floor came, told her opponent to take back the second stack and she was faced with a bet of 45k and not 45,600. She tanked for about a minute, at which point I looked at the tournament director who was still hovering over the table – “Since you’re here… TIME”. He told her that she had a minute to act and she snarled at me – “I can’t believe you did that. You’re not even in the hand”. “You made us all part of this hand”, I answered. She folded angrily and I told her that she was some piece of work. She told me that I wasn’t a very nice man.