Jan 13th - €50+€10 NL Hold'Em - Fitzwilliam (Dublin)

The term 'DONKEY' in poker circles derives from a player who KNOWS he's so far behind it isn't worth a hoot in calling but does so anyway and hoping that the poker gods around at the time take pity on his/her irrelevant play and make the 1/8 favourite in the hand look a fool by even daring to bet first. Tonight was the biggest donykey-fest of all time!

It all started around five hands into the tournament. I get A-A in LP and raise it up to 400. With blinds at 25-50 its obviously a big overbet but there always seems to be a player who thinks he can get lucky. Meet Mr Donkey! The flop comes 9-7-4 and before you can say 'bet' Mr Donkey has reached for his chips and gone all-in. Well of course I ain't passing and am happy to call. Mr Donkey flips K-7 o/s and smiles at me as a King hits the river!

Okay Dokey! These things happen. Its rebuy-time.

My 3k rebuy avoids any more confrontations with Mr Donkey, for the time being, and at the break I'm upto around 6k in chips. It'll do but, of course, it could have been better!

Shortly after the break the player sitting immediately to my left looks down at KK. Before it gets to him there's an all-in (for 3k) and a call from Mr Donkey. He goes all-in for 8k and its Mr Donkey's turn to act. Now Mr Donkey is holding 5-5 and you'd think with an all-in + a RAISE that 5-5 wouldn't look so hot but Mr Donkey has been sucking out all-night so it looks good and he calls.

The flop is 5-6-7 and everyone roars with laughter except the player with K-K who fumes but thats poker hey!

Blinds are still at 100/200 when I get A-Q on the button. There's a player and Mr Donkey in the pot already as I raise to 800. Both opponenents call. The flop is A-K-4 rainbow. Player A checks and Mr Donkey bets 1200. Now I certainly don't have either player A or Mr Donkey on a better hand than me at this moment in time so I raise all-in for another 7200. So lets look at this from a chip point of view...

In the pot already there is 2700+1200+7200 = 11100. Its 7200 to call to now win 18300. A LESS than 2/1 shot. You hold A-10...do you call?

Well Mr Donkey did...without hesitation. Not to worry though as a TEN appeared on the turn and even though I could still win with any Jack, Queen or King on the river (11 outs) I missed and was done!

There are players and there are donkeys. Beware the donkeys!

Entries -> 80 - Place -> 52nd - Loss -> €110 ($132) Profit/Loss for 2006 -> -$294