Brett's One-Liner

Today I was playing $1-2 NLHE at Planet Hollywood with the Duke.

Brett was dealing and had put out a fourth diamond on the river. The pot was heads-up between the Duke and an action player, but when the fourth diamond came down the guy slowed down and checked. The Duke bet the size of the pot and then tried talking to the guy into a call, saying he knew the guy didn't have a diamond since he checked, and that he, the Duke, hadn't even looked at his own holecards this hand.

This went on for a while, and eventually the guy said, "I think we're probably chopping."

I looked at the board. I didn't see how a chop was anything but a remote possibility. It's not like this was a double-paired board where if they both had bare aces it would mean a split pot. The board contained five distinct ranks, with four diamonds. But it was obvious from this guy's tone that he was completely serious. He was really agonizing over his decision.

"You might have a diamond," he said, "but I don't think it's higher than anything on the board."

Okay, so now at least I knew how he was confused. He had misread the board and thought there were five diamonds on board, even though the other card happened to be black.

But it was clear that the illusion under which he was operating was quite complex. Because one of the diamonds on board was the deuce of diamonds. So even if there had been five diamonds out there, if the Duke had a diamond in his hand he beat any sans diamond hand.

The guy eventually folded. I couldn't help myself and confided to him, "Yeah, my read was you guys were chopping."

"Yeah," he agreed.

Brett was shuffling the cards for the next deal. When it comes to playing cards, Brett may be the best of the Planet Hollywood dealers, and he had on his poker face when he said, "Part of me died during that hand."