All the time, people at the poker table ask what you were holding when you drag a pot without a showdown. And I never tell. But I feel obligated to say something. I used to just say, “I forget,” which is basically the poker equivalent of telling someone to get bent. I didn’t like the sound of that though, so I took to saying, “Same thing you had: two cards.” But that tended to confuse people. So I switched to saying, “Two cards and a dream,” which I thought had a nice ring to it. The problem with that was people interpreted it as a declaration that I was bluffing. Then Mike Sexton (or some other poker announcer–I forget) used the phrase, and I didn’t want people to think I’d ripped it off.

Of course, some times people will ask if I had a hand and be dead wrong about what I had (typically when I’m bluffing). In many of those cases I’ll just wordlessly nod, thus reinforcing 1) their bad reads, and 2) their fear that I’m holding a monster any time I’m in a pot [number two applies because for some reason, people always assume the worst when they're asking about the hand you might have had].

Playing at Foxwoods last night, a new one came up, and I rather liked the results. Playing 2/5 NLHE at Foxwoods, I open raised to in EP with AQo. Two players called, and the flop came J-T-5. I fired out a continuation bet, one player folded, and another raised. He seemed weak, and with plenty of outs, I called. The turn was another five, pairing the board. I checked, my opponent bet, and reading him (correctly as it would turn out) as still quite weak, I raised all-in. He folded. Hand over.

I definitely had no intention of showing my hand after that play, but as I dragged the pot, the player to my left [who had not been involved in the hand] asked, “Tens full?” So I decided to give an honest and straightforward, if uninformative answer.

“I’d rather not say.”

The guy asking chuckled and quipped, “Actually, that says it pretty much right there.”

“Exactly,” remarked the fellow who had just been bluffed out of a large pot.

I think I finally found an answer to that question that I like.

Posted by Beck in Poker