I was beating up a game at the Parx recently when a young internet player sat down and within a few minutes I could tell from his playing style and conversation that he expected to plow through the table. There’s a certain arrogance that some players have, a way of playing with their chips while they talk about poker strategy that sends a signal that they are forces to be reckoned with. I have seen many of these kids at work and have learned that the way to beat them is to let them beat themselves through overconfidence.

(As an aside I have heard that a good tell on a player’s poker skills is to observe his ability to handle chips – you know the riffling and fancy fingerwork with them. However as a contrarian I have concluded that generally a player’s dexterity with chips is inversely proportional to his playing ability. Now I’m not claiming to be a great player but I do okay and I am unable to riffle chips at all. While others were practicing the technique, I was concentrating on the game itself. Admittedly I did watch a You Tube video teaching the riffling technique but gave up after a few minutes of frustration).

In any event I saw the kid eyeing my rather hefty stack and I knew that it would only be a matter of time before he would try to raid the chicken coop.

Prevailing theory suggests that the strongest players are those who have a tight-aggressive style. I don’t fit this mold because I usually see a lot of flops which can send a signal to new players that I am a calling station and am generally a weaker player than the rest of the table. After about a half hour I was certain that this was the impression internet boy had of me.

I was involved in a few hands in this regard in which I called bets on the flop and turn only to muck the river. In each case I was on a draw at the right price and did not hit. Since internet boy did not see my cards he may well have assumed that I was flopping around, just to muck my cards to a large river bet.

After about an hour of play I found myself with pocket 7s in the cutoff seat. I would normally limp with a small pair but everyone ahead of me mucked and so I raised to 4 times the blind. The players behind me mucked except for internet boy in the big blind who called. I had a funny feeling that the call was the first step towards potentially making a move on me later in the hand.

The flop was K-J-7 with two diamonds and he checked. When I made a significant bet he made a significant raise. I decided that he did not have two pair because if he did my sense was that he would have smooth-called my bet to trap me on the turn. My reads are far from perfect but I decided that he either had a flush draw or was just going to make a play for the pot with air. I decided to smooth call his raise and peel a card. If it were a diamond I would check call the rest of the way and if not I would trap him later on.

The turn sealed the deal for me. It was another jack, giving me a full house. Internet boy made an overly large bet. I was now certain that he did not have a full house because the bet was too large. If he were holding something like KJ he would not want to push me off the hand at this juncture.

I stalled as I counted my chips, allowing enough time to pass so that it would appear that I had a very difficult decision to make. Knowing that internet boy was surely aware that a forceful call was an indication of weakness I confidently slammed calling chips onto the table as part of my triple-reverse psychology.

The river was a third diamond and internet boy moved another large stack of black chips to the center of the table. Now I was surely hoping that he was on a flush draw and this time I instantly raised, trying to look like a weak player who hit the flush. (I reasoned that if he were on a bluff he would muck anyway and if he were on a flush draw he would hopefully have high cards and call).

He seemed genuinely stunned by my action and responded to it shakily “You have pocket kings?” He then refused to act. He counted and shuffled and recounted. I knew for certain that he didn’t have a full house because the pot size would have demanded a call from any full house. Did he have the nut flush? I was hoping so because even the nut flush would be a callable hand to a player like me who could have chased a smaller flush.

Finally after an eternity he slowly pushed his cards to the dealer and I raked in the pot. And it was then that I knew that his play was totally a bluff. In an obvious attempt to save face at the table he muttered “I mucked a monster. I had pocket 7s but I’m sure you had pocket kings.”

Unfortunately I had to leave shortly after that hand but I’m sure we’ll cross paths again. At least I hope so.