The Price of Entertainment

There was a guy at my table this past weekend who kept getting into pots with the attractive woman sitting next to him.

She'd raise preflop. He'd call. And smile.

And then she'd bet the flop or turn and he'd fold.

Once or twice he even showed his top pair while mucking.

Why show that?

I don't think he's sending the table a message he can make a big lay down.

Sure he might be sending her a message of what a good sport he is and all.

Yet if she's really looking for a mate at the poker table, don't you think she'd want someone who was better at managing his money?

Earlier this week I wrote about laying down a straight on the turn to a woman's lead out bet after a 3rd diamond hit the board. What I meant to write was that I was merely soft playing her.

You know letting her win the pot because maybe she's got a couple of kids at home.

I'm not completely sure why I felt the need to show her my cards.

I guess I thought it increased the likelihood that she'd show me her cards. Which she still didn't.

The most haunting thing about the hand is sitting here thinking at worst I could have lost 450 dollars. So regardless of what the correct poker play was for me in that spot, from an entertainment standpoint, it made perfect sense to call.

To learn her cards. To have an end to this story.

Hopefully we'd have had some sort of race. I'd either win or lose a decent sized pot.

And then we'd have a lesson. A moral.

If she held a flush children everywhere would have learned that I should have listened to her warning when she led out with a bet on the turn.

If she was bluffing children everywhere would have learned that you can't trust women who play poker.

And best of all we'd see her hole cards and learn what cards she held when she made this move. To see the hand from her point of view. For us to understand for eternity.

Who knows how much that information could be worth over time?

And all this would have cost us was 450 bucks.

But no.

Instead we learn nothing.

Because you guys are too cheap.