Monkey Encounter

This hand occurred during the WSOP Circuit Pot Limit Holdem Event in New Orleans.

I was on the button. I was dealt a pair of Sevens. There were no callers to me, so, I raised a standard raise (3x blind). "Monkey" was on my immediate left (in the small blind). He looked over at me, and called my raise. At that time, I put him on an Ace and some other card. He had been very aggressive since getting to the table, so, I did not give him credit for much of a hand. And, I felt like I had a "very tight" image with him.

The flop was J - J - K. "Monkey" checked and I bet out half the pot. "Monkey" looked at me and asked "Do you have a King"? I smiled and said that he would need to call if he wanted to find out. "Monkey" tossed in a huge raise. I immediately went all in.

After the hands were turned up, "Monkey" went nuts. He started raving: "How can you call with that hand?" and "What and idiot" and so on. It was like I was watching Phil Helmuth on ESPN; except it was some guy I have never seen before going on about me! To say that "Monkey" was abusive is an understatement.

The dealer dealt the remaining cards, and I won the hand. Then, it got worse ...

The dealer tried to push the chips to me. But, I had put in more chips than "Monkey". So, the dealer asked "Monkey" to put in the additional $475 in chips. At this point in the tournament, that was a lot of chips. "Monkey" refused to put in the additional chips. The player to my right said "that is not right", and he called for a floor to come to the table. The floor apologized for the error, but stated that it was my responsibility to make sure the pot was right. I just sat there flabbergasted. The player on my right said that the ruling was not correct, and that I was getting screwed. I decided not to make a big deal about it; hoping we could just get back to the game. However, that was not to be the case.

"Monkey" started back in with his abusive comments. So, I asked the floor if I had to sit there and listen to the abuse. And, he simply said "no", and walked off. I was shocked. One of the other players asked what I was expecting (I don't remember who it was). And, I responded that I was expecting the management to ensure a non-abusive playing environment. "Monkey" then said that I could always leave my chips on the table and let myself be blinded off. I had finally had enough, and told "Monkey" simply to "shut up". At this point, "Monkey" said "how would you feel about a bounty?". To which I replied "do what you gotta do".

"Monkey" lost more than half of his chips in that hand, so I can understand why he was upset. But, that is no excuse for poor sportsmanship or abusive language.

About 40 minutes later, I was moved to another table. We played down to 18 players, and the tables were shuffled again. "Monkey" was once again on my immediate left. He was extremely short stacked. And, of course, he focused his aggressive play on me - raising my blinds as much as possible. I let him steal them - waiting for an opportunity to just take him out. At this point, I was not the chip leader, but I was one of the biggest chip stacks. In fact, one of the other players at the table commented that "Monkey" should try to put me back on tilt so they could get my chips. I simply responded "Good luck with that".

"Monkey" finally made his move, but ran into three other callers. He was eliminated. And, I went on the the final table.

I looked up "Monkey" on the PokerPages site, and found that he is an excellent player. So, I can only surmise that he made a bad read on me - thinking he could intimidate me. Well, that does not work every time "Monkey"; sometimes players will call you just because.

So, putting all the drama aside, I have a very simple question: Did I play the Sevens correctly?

Cheers