Definitive “Cooler” Definition

I play in a bar poker league (Free Poker Network) and last night experienced what many would call a cooler. It wasn’t. I was dealt A/K off in the cutoff (one to the right of the button). Blinds were 50/100. Under the gun limped. It was folded to the guy to my right (a loose-aggressive player) who raised to 600 and is henceforth, the Villian. I had about 1650 in chips and smooth called. The small blind called all-in for less (575).

The flop was K/Q/9. The Villian led out for 700 – I went over-the-top with my last 1050. He snap called with J/T and the flopped K-high straight. And, I lost.

We’ve had several conversations within our home league (and on our podcast) as to what constitutes a “cooler”. What I experienced wasn’t a cooler but, here’s the definitive definition of what I would call a “cooler”.

Cooler (koo’lr) – When a player who has an exceptionally strong hand loses a showdown after the following occurs:

1) The hand must progress to at least the turn before any all-in bet (i.e. – no preflop or flop all-in is ever a cooler no matter who is pushing in the chips).

2) The person getting coolered must be actively working to get information on the hand and his/her opponent. This will mean that betting and/or raising is occurring. It is possible for a single round of checking (or limping preflop). This though would be fairly rare and depending on the hands in play the hand could move from “cooler” category to “badly played”.

3) The person getting coolered must be behind, but fully (and pretty legitimately) believe he/she is ahead after 4th street even though that’s not the case (i.e. – that Ace on the river that beats you is just a bad beat).

There you have it. Most everything else is either a poorly played hand (you could’ve done more/something differently to get better information – or had the info and simply refused to fold) or is simply bad timing/bad luck. Frankly, my hand above was probably a little bit of both of these.

Does your definition differ?? Let us know.

Karaoke Phil/MNted