The Future is Now

Are you saying it's from the future?
One possible future. From your point of view - I don't know tech stuff.
Then you're saying you're from the future, too, is that right?
Right.
Right.
-The Terminator

And you know what they call a... a... a Quarter Pounder with Cheese in Paris?
They don't call it a Quarter Pounder with cheese?
No man, they got the metric system. They wouldn't know what the fuck a Quarter Pounder is.
-Pulp Fiction

What if you were back in the 80s with your super-huge shoe-sized car phone and you saw some guy with a Motorola Razr? Only you don't know that the super-sleek cell phone is even a phone at all. It looks like a business-card case or a shiny bar of soap. You might shrug and move on. You might even laugh at the yokel, point at him and say, "What the fuck are you talking into?"

I mention this because I think of a hand last year at The Orleans. I made a typical raise with AKo. Had two callers, including the big blind. I made a continuation bet on the turn when my AK flew over small rags.

Then a K came on the turn. I bet, the Vietnamese guy raised me a little bit and I went all-in. He immediately called and flipped over 64o -- he flopped a straight.

Of course I was mad. How could he call my pre-flop raise with that hand?

Only now do I realize I was looking directly at the future.

No, I don't mean the future means calling raises with 64o. But occasionally this may be a playable hand, if the circumstances are right and if you know your opponent will be unable to let go of his premium hand when you hit. If you understand the texture of the table, any two cards can be deadly. A poker cat just has to know when to run away and you'll do it often with crappy cards.

Trash hands have been deadly for me as I pursue Eurobet's $200 reload bonus. I doubled up off a tight-aggressive guy with my 32s -- I was actually gunning for this 64 percent VP$IP player who also called. Flop was 22x and that was basically end of story.

Pot was large enough in another hand when i had 35o in the small blind and all these people called an early position player's raise. Of course, flop was 33x and it was enough to take all of a tight-but-inexperienced player's chips.

I made a boat off of 49o in the bb when I flopped 2 pair, let this guy with top pair of 9s bet. Then on the turn when the second 9 hit, he check raised me the minimum, and I went all-in. He called with J9 and was extremely upset when I showed the boat.

In all of these cases, players were extremely upset. What? You don't play total predictable poker like I do? My premium pairs should be respected! Bow, bow low to me!

I'm now thinking that if some play by another player who is not a total fish looks strange to you, think about it and mull it over. You may be looking at a future that you'll eventually get to.

I'm not a trash-hand player. But I have come to a place in which I know when to gamble and take chances. My stats are the same, tight-aggressive, stats as always. But my bankroll is a lot thicker, thanks to inexperienced players.

Another example -- I used to think it was strange that Mark would 3-bet re-raise to isolate a raiser in limit. Surely an easy way to blow extra chips. But now it makes total sense to me. The future is now, all among us. I just wasn't ready for it at the time.

And we often ridicule what we don't understand.