College Poker Scene:
Becca's Frat Game

(Intro by Ashley Adams) { I've been playing poker for over 40 years. During that time the game has changed quite a bit. When I was a kid 5-Card Draw was king. Sure, folks played stud. But for the typical home game player, draw was the most common game. It was what we all learned first.

Through high school and college in the 60s and 70s 7-Card Stud ruled. We had dozens of variations involving wild cards, passing cards, common cards and the like. But it was primarily a seven card game.

Things sure have changed. I have a daughter in college. I taught her 7-Card Stud when she was about four years old. I can still remember her impish expression when she played my father-in-law - whom she called "Zaida" for grandfather in Yiddish. He loved the game and was laughing it up as we three played some stud. He put all of his chips in with what was three-nines only to have her call him, laugh, and say in a teasing way only five year olds can get away with, "You lose Zaida." She flipped over her three hole cards and declared slowly, to prolong the joy, "King High Flush"!

Until the day he died, when I talked about poker he'd say with a laugh, imitating my girl, "King High Flush" and then laugh.

Well the poker cycle has turned another notch in my family. My daughter is playing some in college at the University of South Carolina. She's interested in doing a regular report on the college poker scene. Below is her first entry. It's a snapshot of a typical fraternity game - with all the warts you'd expect.

Read it and see if you'd like more. I tell you one thing that's refreshing. After playing in many casinos and many home games with 20-somethings, I had started to think that they were all very poker-savvy - having played thousands of hours on the computer before sitting down to a live game. This article will show you the other side of the story - how many of the young folk playing poker still don't have any clue whatsoever. }

February 6, 2006
University of South Carolina
Columbia, South Carolina
Rebecca Adams, Freshman Poker Reporter

I went to a frat house to watch the Super Bowl.� Not too original, I know.� As we watched the game on the big screen TV I noticed that there was a poker table in the other room.� I also noticed that the fraternity brothers were big fans of pounding beers during the entire game.�

When the post game show came on, and after a whole lot of beers had been pounded, I decided to try and take advantage of the situation by organizing a poker game.� I asked a couple of the "brothers" if they wanted to play. None of them could wait to sit down at the table.�

"You know her dad wrote a book on poker?" my friend Kate told the guys.� I threw her a dirty stare and told her that she should play with us so I wasn't the only girl.� She agreed.

Five of us sat down around the poker table.� We played no limit hold em - but very low stakes. We decided to only throw in a dollar each for twenty chips.� The cards were dealt and even the sober brother was easier to read than I expected.�

I was a Q and a 10 on the first hand.� I threw in 2 chips hoping for something on the flop and wanting to knock out the stray weak Ace and weak King.� No luck limiting the field. Everyone called.

The flop was Q, 6, 8.� No one looked particularly happy so I threw in five chips... which is a large amount when you're only playing with a total of twenty. �

"I think she's bluffing" a brother said and threw in five chips to call me.� Everyone else did the same thing. Perfect.� The turn card was dealt - - and unsuited 4 for Q 6 8 4.� No one seemed to have a 5 and 7, or if they did they didn't notice, so I threw in another five chips.�

The brother next to me, who said I was bluffing before, called me, but everyone else folded.� I felt confidant that I was ahead of this guy.

The final card was an unsuited 10.� I now had two pairs and decided to put myself all in (this was about seven chips). "Whatever" he said, and threw the rest of his chips in.� We flipped our cards over - he had a 2 and a 4. I won.

So pretty much he called me pre-flop and on the flop with complete nothing and then went all in with me on the turn with only bottom pair -- a pair of 4s. "Whatever, it's just a damn dollar" he told me.� He left the table to join his buddies in the other room.�

There were four of us left. I won a couple more hands against the drunken brothers (not too big of a feat because they pretty much called everything). � Eventually I was left at the table with Kate and our friend Patrick.� Kate and I had about forty chips each and Patrick had around twenty. I was dealing and ended up with pocket Ks.�

I was getting tired of playing and especially tired of folding (I am a normal college kid after all - not a professional poker player or poker writer) and was relieved to finally have something to play that might win me the tourney.� They both checked; I put in five chips, and they both called.�

The flop was Qd, Tc, 2c.� They both checked. I put in another five and they called.� The turn was the 3c.� Once again, they both checked and I put in ten which put Patrick all in.� He kind of rolled his eyes and put all his chips in.� Kate called me and I dealt the last card, a 7 of diamonds.� Kate checked and I was sure I had won the hand so I put her all in.� She called "for the hell of it" she said and asked me what I had.� I flipped over my cards and she flipped hers over.� "Oh well," she said "I guess you win" and she slid the chips and the $5.00 winner-take-all prize over to me.�

She had a 9c and a 4c.� Neither of us realized that she had a flush until Patrick pointed it out.� "Oh I guess I win then," she said sliding the chips and the $5.00 back over to her side of the table. �

This still bothers me, even today the morning after, because it leaves me wondering how she would have played if she knew what cards she had.� She probably wouldn't have checked, in fact she might have even raised a little bit.� How was I supposed to play against someone who didn't even know WHAT she was playing?� I guess it goes to show you that even when you think you're on top of your game and you have everyone at the table profiled perfectly - there are some players sitting at the table that are impossible to profile because they haven't played long enough to get in to the habit of playing a certain way.

{ My daughter just learned a very important lesson that took me many hours of casino poker to figure out. Don't waste fancy moves on clueless players. They often can't even figure out their own hands - how are they going to be fooled by what you're doing.

The bad news is that my daughter didn't win the micro tournament. But the good news is that there are clueless players like her opponents who are starting to play poker for money. I just hope they keep playing, tell all their friends, and end up in some of the games I'm in! }

Rebecca Adams is currently a Freshman at the University of South Carolina. She was raised in Boston but moved to South Carolina for school because she wanted to see what Southern hospitality was all about. She's been following in her father's footsteps, playing poker ever since she was a little girl. She's plays in home games, college tournaments, tradition family games as well as online.

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