Honeymoon in Vegas—With Me! (Part 1)

Note: if you enjoyed my previous post, you might want to see the comment that the great Lee Jones himself left in response to his critique of his decision in the hand.  You can go directly to it here.  

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As you probably know, when I first started playing poker in casinos, and even when I first started blogging, I was strictly a 2/4 limit player. I was having really fun sessions and picking up amusing anecdotes to tell my friends from these 2/4 games.  And as I’ve explained often, those anecdotes I was relating to my friends turned into many of my early blog posts when those friends encouraged me to start the blog.  

Recently, I’ve been reflecting back on my days of playing 2/4 and kind of missing them.  I’m almost thinking of them as the “good old days.”

This is not because my recent run of poker has been bad—although it has.  Yes, my bankroll would likely be better off if I had been playing 2/4 limit instead of 1/2 NL during this downswing.  But that’s not the reason I’ve been thinking more fondly of those days. 

It’s because I miss the fun.  Back when I first started playing NL cash games, when the blog was just a few months old, I did a post about the differences between the limit and no-limit games.  You can—and should—find that post here.  At the time, I was concerned that if I played NL full time, the kind of fun I was having playing poker—and the kind of fun stories I was getting from it—would vanish.  That post was actually introduction to my post about meeting my now good friend Prudence.  That was key because my first session with Prudence helped me convince me that I could play NL and still have really fun, really crazy sessions that would also provide me with quality blogging material. 

It’s a good thing, because honestly, sooner or later, I really wouldn’t have had much choice but to switch to NL.  Limit poker is increasingly hard to find in Vegas.  When I first started playing it, my favorite poker room (then referred to as “BSC”) always had multiple 2/4 games going whenever I walked in (even though there were always more 1/2 games going).  It became my favorite poker room because of the great 2/4 games.  These days, they virtually never get a limit game going (it would be 3/6 if they did). It’s been over two years I’m sure since I’ve seen one there.

Now of course, I’ve played in fun, crazy NL games plenty of times since then, and hopefully those sessions made entertaining blog posts.  But games like that occur much less frequently at the NL level than at the low limit level.  And it just seems like it’s been quite a while since I’ve played in one of those really fun games.

There are two ways a poker game can fun (maybe there are more, but for now, let’s go with two). One, it can be fun because you’re winning.  Winning is always fun.  As I’ve documented here, winning has been a rather infrequent occurrence for me lately.

The other way is with a great group of fun players, or perhaps just one particularly entertaining player bringing great conversation to the table.  Or outrageous conversation.  The more outrageous, the better.  It helps if said player is female.  Female isn’t mandatory of course, but those outrageous and slightly (or not so slightly) provocative women I’ve encountered in the course of my poker endeavors make for my personal favorite blog posts, starting with Prudence. It was my pal Woody who coined the term “woman said” and I love writing posts that merit that label—they are my favorite. But I haven’t run into a “woman behaving badly” in a long time—over a year, I believe. My dry spell in scoring stories starring fun ladies runs longer than my bad run of poker.

So, in thinking of this recently, I remembered there was one story, featuring a very fun female, that goes back to my 2/4 days that I’ve never written up for the blog.  It’s perhaps ironic, because it took place just a few months before I started the blog. In fact, this story is definitely one of the ones that my friends Woody & LM had in mind when they pushed me to start the blog.  The email thread about this particular night is quite long and very entertaining in and of itself.

So why have I avoided posting this before now?  Well, I guess there are a couple of reasons. One, there is somewhat of an embarrassing element to it that I always had a problem coming up with a way to talk about to the general public (as opposed to my really close friends, where I can say anything).  Second, it took place right around the same time as a particularly painful incident in my life occurred.  Furthermore, in some odd way that I cannot reveal, this story ultimately played a small part in painful incident. 

You see, this story took place on my first night of poker in Vegas in May, five years ago.  And although I wasn’t totally aware of it at the time, by the time this trip was over I was about to enter one of the most painful periods of my life—and as I said this story played a small (but not insignificant) part in it.  Thus I had trained myself to not think about this story too much, least I relive some painful memories.  And in fact, just starting to write this post brought some unpleasant stuff back to me that I’m better off not revisiting. Sigh.  But it’s been a long time and it is time to soldier on.

So on this night, I arrived in the poker room and there were two 2/4 games, as was pretty standard for that era.  I got on the list and looked over the two games (which were right next to each other).  I couldn’t help noticing that at one table, there was an attractive young woman sitting behind one of the male players.  She had long, brown hair and was wearing kind of a flowing white dress that was rather low cut. She was slim but had a very nice figure. So yeah, she got my attention.  And when she leaned forward to talk to her man, she revealed some cleavage.  Just on the basis of having a pretty face to look at, I kind of hoped that I would get a seat at that table as there were no pretty faces—just guys—at the other one.

I took a seat at an empty table and waited to be called.  It didn’t take that long and I was called to the game I wanted.  However, when I got there, I was disappointed to see the attractive woman was gone, as was the guy she was sitting behind.  Guess that’s why the seat was open.

I played there for about an hour, sitting in seat 4.  The limit games were always 10-handed, so either 5 or 6 were my preferred seats (for purposes of vision), 4 a bit less so.  When seat 2 opened up, the floor man brought over a new player, a young guy.  Then I noticed there was a young girl with him and the floor man turned to her and said, “You’ll be first up.  What’s your name?”  She said it was “Sheila” and he put her on the waiting list.  And then Sheila pulled a chair up behind the new player to observe. 

Since it had been an hour at least, I didn’t even recognize the girl initially.  But when she leaned over to talk the guy, it suddenly came to me that this was the girl I had noticed sitting behind a player before I joined the game.  So of course I assumed that she was sitting behind the same guy as before.

In fact, the player in seat 1, who had been there the entire time, said to him as he got settled in, “You’re back, huh?”  The returning player, who we will refer to as “Bruce” from now on, replied, “Well, we had to eat sometime.”  At first I thought I might have detected a British accent from Bruce, but in fact, I soon overheard Bruce tell seat 3 that he and Sheila were visiting from Australia and were on their honeymoon. I’m always upset with myself when I make that mistake, I’ve encountered enough players from both Australia and England that I should be able to easily tell the difference.  Usually I do, but sometimes I goof, like this time.

Meanwhile, I was doing lousy at cards, barely winning a pot.  Suddenly the guy to my left, in seat 5, left the game.  Because I was losing in my current seat and because I prefer seat 5, and only for those reasons, honest, I told the dealer I would slide over to take seat 5.  I was not remembering at this point that Sheila was next on the list and would be taking the open seat.   But of course that's what happened...she took the seat that I had just vacated.

It was really fortunate.  Because it put her only one seat away from her loving groom, and basically right across from him. So they could easily converse during the game. It was real nice of me to do that, even though that's not why I did it.

However, when Sheila took the seat on my immediate right, I couldn’t help noticing the cut of her dress.  In addition to being low-cut, it had this sort of crisscross design, meaning from one side it was possible to see a whole lot of Sheila.  To see a “whole lot,” you had to be on her left side.  And as it happened, I was on her left side.  Oh dear.  I guess I should mention that it was obvious that Sheila had not bothered to put on a bra when she left for her evening of poker.  Was I perhaps in position to see something I wasn’t supposed to see?  

Spoiler alert:  I was.  You remember the famous Janet Jackson “wardrobe malfunction” from the Super Bowl, right?  Well, one time when I was conversing with Sheila, I got a better view of her than I ever got of Janet Jackson.  Oops.

Oh well, so what?  It was just a quick nip-slip.  And what did it matter that some guy she’s gonna be playing poker with for an hour or two and never see again saw it?  Back then I thought, “Wow, this is fun story to tell my friends.”  If it happened today, my thought would be, “Wow this will be a fun story to blog about.”

But what happened over the next 6 hours changed my perception a bit.  Yeah, six hours.  That’s how long I played with Bruce and Sheila. 

Now of course, being a gentleman, I spent that entire time trying my damndest to not experience another Janet Jackson moment with Sheila.  I tried really, really hard not to see anything I wasn’t supposed to see—that I had already seen—again.  And again.  And again.  You all believe that I tried really hard not to see it again, right?  You do believe me, I’m sure.

I suppose the surest way to avoid a recurrence would have been to move to other side of her.  From her right side, I’d be able to see nothing. For reasons I am unable to explain, that though never occurred to me on this night.

Ok, we’ll get back to the wardrobe malfunction later. Actually, it will be in part 2, sorry. Let’s return to the conversation.

It turned out that Sheila was a really nice, really fun, really interesting person.  The same could be said for Bruce.  Soon after she sat down next to me, I confirmed what I heard, that they were from Australia on their honeymoon.  Just Vegas?  No.....they came to the U.S. for six weeks. They flew to NY and drove across the country, and were having a great time. BTW, it was tough driving here at first because she told me they drive on the wrong side of the road in Australia just like they do in England.  Vegas was their next to last stop.  The next morning they were planning to drive to L.A. and fly home from there.  They were going to Disneyland. Sheila had been there when she was five-years-old but Bruce had never been. But they would be returning to Vegas first for one more night—a last minute decision. Saturday night was a special "Glee" show at Mandalay Bay and they wanted to come back for that since Sheila loved that show. Actually Bruce said "they" love the show but Sheila said he was just being nice, it’s she who loved the show.  They were staying Saturday nite at Mandalay Bay.  They’d had four nites in Vegas—two at Venetian, two at Caesars.  I wondered why they were at BSC in that case. Had they seen a show there? Nope, just came to check it out.  

Sheila had been watching Bruce play poker and decided it looked like fun and would try playing. This was her first time ever playing real poker.  She said she plays on her Blackberry, but that was not with real people or real money.  But she was losing so much money at the video poker machines she didn't think she could do any worse at a real poker table, and this was more social.

I asked if they had come to the U.S. immediately after getting married.  Not quite, they were married in March and Bruce had been busy in court.  So I asked if he was a lawyer or a criminal. Sheila laughed.  He’s a lawyer, as is she.  She was quick to point out that they are corporate lawyers, not those “personal injury lawyers everyone hates.”  So Bruce was in court on a case. I asked if they wear those wigs in Australia like they do in England.  She said they do!  But not Bruce and her.  It's a little different down there.  Although they are actual lawyers and work for the biggest law firm in their city, they have not passed the bar exam yet.  Sheila was hoping to soon.  It is only the barristers who are allowed to speak in court (and wear the wigs). All they can do is take notes. 

After a few minutes of chatting, Sheila introduced herself and Bruce to me by name and asked my name and where I'm from and what I do.  Sheila immediately noticed that I knew all the dealers and asked if was a local.  I said no but that I’m Vegas a lot.  

And that’s where I’m going to end Part 1.  Part 2 is now posted and you can find it here.

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Face Off in Ventura

It was a titanic battle of two Asians at PC Ventura yesterday.  The first one had joined our table after I’d been there for a good hour.  He was both a bit of an aggro and a bit of a luckbox, at least when he started out.  His stack had risen and fallen, and I’m sad to report his stack had doubled (from under $100) when he beat me boat over boat.  By the time this hand occurred, he had nearly $600.

The second Asian had joined the table more recently.  He was even more aggro, and he was only at our game for a few hands when they asked him if he wanted to move to a bigger game, but he said no, he would stay at this table. So I figured he’s probably used to bigger stakes. The two of them got into a few hands together, and seemed to be playing against each other a bit.  As far as I could tell, they didn’t know each other previously, but it’s possible that I’m wrong about that.  He had just won a big pot right before this hand and had around $500.

We’ll call the first player I mentioned Kenny and the second guy Artie.  Kenny had been away from the table for awhile and didn’t see Artie win that big hand I mentioned.  On Kenny’s first hand back from his little break, he raised to $21 after a couple of limpers.  Artie immediately said something like, “Whoa…first hand back and you make it $21?”  I don’t believe he had looked at his cards when he said that.

Meanwhile, an older gentleman, one of the tightest players at the table, had called the $21 immediately behind Kenny.  Artie looked at his cards and then said, “The bet is $21?  What’s four times $21?”  The dealer said, “No math please.”  I’m not sure if he was joking or not. Maybe it appeared another player, one not in the hand, was going to tell him, and I guess that would not have been ok.  But the guy managed to figure it out without any help and called out his raise to $85 (close enough).  It folded back to Kenny.

He complained a bit to Artie.  “What, you were giving me a hard time over $21 and you make it $85?  What’s that all about?”  Artie said something like, “Hey I’m not kidding here. I mean it.”

Kenny tanked for some time, then counted out chips and looked at his stack and looked at Artie’s stack.  And reading his body language, I thought he was going to re-raise.  But finally he said, “I’ll just call,” and counted out the $85.  The gentleman who had called the $21 folded instantly.  Apparently he only had a $21 hand, not an $85 hand.

It was heads up and the flop was Queen-high on an unconnected board.  Kenny took very little time in checking, but Artie didn’t notice that he checked.  “Is it on me?”  Assured that it was, he announced, “all-in.”

Kenny was surprised by the bet.  “What does he have, “$300?”  No, he had more than that.  He had two $100 chips which were kind of hidden (by the way, in this casino, the $100 chips are white, not black).  The dealer said it was more so he asked for a complete count. It was something like $425-$435, in that range.  So Kenny counted his own stack, and separated the amount he needed to call.  It would have left him with less than $100 if he called and lost.

Kenny was in a bit of agony.  He mentioned something about really not wanting to lay his hand down.  Or maybe he said, “I can’t lay this down.”  Artie said, “I showed that one hand.”  It was a reference to a really big bet he had made in a previous hand, and after getting the fold, he showed his hand to be exactly what he was representing with his big bet—not a bluff.

So Kenny asked, “Will you show if I fold?”  But Artie said, “Will I show if you fold?  No…I don’t do that.  I never show.  That one time was it.”

Kenny stared and stared.  He kept quizzing Artie and Artie just softly indicated he “had it” and that he wasn’t kidding.  I can assure you that everyone at the table was totally engrossed in this battle of wills.  So I was kind of surprised when someone called for the clock.  I wasn’t sure who it was.  I’m pretty sure it wasn’t Artie.  Frankly, I was enjoying the drama.  I wouldn’t have minded watching for another five minutes if not more.  It was highly entertaining.  Of course, I would have been more in favor of calling the clock if it had been a tournament setting.

It took awhile for the floor to come over for the clock, but finally he did and the countdown began.  The staring continued, Kenny kept talking, saying anything to try to get a better read on Artie.  By this time Artie had stop saying anything in response, and was looking away.

The floor said, “30 seconds,” and a few seconds later Kenny just flipped over his hand.  It was two Kings.  Artie jumped a little…..not sure if it was from the hand itself or if he was just surprised to see the hand exposed.  Needless to say, Kenny wasn’t taking his eyes off Artie the entire time. 

But he still wasn’t acting on his hand.  The floor man spoke again. “Ten, nine, eight, seven…”  I knew that if he got past “one” his hand would be dead.  Kenny was motionless and I wondered if a last second “call” announcement would escape his lips at the last possible moment.

But……no, it did not.  The floor man said “one” followed by, “this hand is dead,” And he himself put his hand on the two Kings and swept them into the muck for the dealer.  The dealer started pushing the pot to Artie.  Everyone was kind of gasping that he could lay down his Kings on a Queen-high, non-threatening board like that.    Especially since, from our observations, Kenny certainly seemed to have more than a little gamble in him.

Artie started to just slide his cards back face down, but at the last second, he flipped them over.

Of course, it was two Aces. 

Artie said, “Wow….how could you lay that down?  I would have called.”

He repeated similar comments for a quite a while and now Kenny was strangely silent.  I think at one point he said, “I saved myself a lot of money there.”  He did indeed.

Artie even pointed out that he could have still won.  He had outs, after all.  Yeah…two of them.  But he used that to justify his statement that he would have called had the shoe been on the other foot.  Another player said, “I thought he had a set of Queens,” (meaning Artie).  Kenny said, “No way, I knew he didn’t have a set of Queens.”  I agree, I don’t think he would have played it that way.

OTOH, I’m not sure I like how he played the Aces. It was a dramatic hand, but not necessarily a well played one, at least not by Artie.  You can’t argue with Kenny’s play, unless you just want to say, “Kenny was supposed to lose his stack there.”  But Artie?  His shove into a pot of a bit less than $200 was not necessary.  He probably could have gotten called with a bet of say, $150.  And been an 90/10 favorite if the hand continued.  Based on his comment though, it appears he really was concerned with losing as a huge favorite, that’s why he bet so much.

If that was his concern though, did he consider the possibility that Kenny might have played pocket Queens the exact same way?  In which case Artie was shoving into a set?  Just asking.

What do you think of Artie’s play there?

Anyway, the table was buzzing about this for the rest of the time I was there.  I enjoyed being a spectator to it.

Oh, and by the way….my original title for this post was going to be, “Aces vs. Kings—Asian edition.”  As you likely know, I’ve done “Aces vs. Kings” posts a few times (see here, here and here).  But I realized I’d be giving away the punch line of my post in the title, so I had to up with something more innocuous. 

Anyway, the pic below was taken by my pal Norm in Vegas at the grand opening of the new Wynn poker room.  It seems an appropriate pic for a post about Aces.  As far as I know, there were no guys there dressed as Kings.  Sorry.  Thanks, Norm!

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I Guess This is Why They Call it "Lady Luck"

Yesterday I traveled to Ventura to play poker at Player’s Casino.  I was seated immediately at the 2/3 game, and bought in for the usual $300, the max. The place was rather dead, which didn’t surprise me.  Memorial Day Weekend in Southern California, a lot of people go out of town.  And let’s face it, a lot of people who might normally be there to play poker may have gone to Vegas to play poker there instead.

Still there were three full tables of the game and we were never short-handed.  I recognized a few of the players, but the one that stuck out was the lady who I mentioned the last time I played there (see here).  She had that odd playing style, sometimes very aggro, a real LAG.  I knew I had to keep an eye on her.  As it happens, she never had a big stack, and played her wild game a smaller percentage of the time than two weeks ago.  But she still liked to make the occasional big bet, the big three-bet, the odd shove.  Just not as frequently.

The very first hand I was in, I was in the cut-off with King-Jack of diamonds.  A few players had limped, and I decided to limp as well.  The lady was in the big blind and I wanted to see what her level of crazy she was playing this week.  It was a marginal hand, and not really knowing many of the other players, I didn’t want to raise so early.  Sure enough, the lady made it $18, one of the limpers called so I came along.

There were two low-ish diamonds on the flop (the other card was low too) and she led out for $20.  I called.  The turn was a blank and this time she bet $15.  That was such an odd bet.  I felt like raising but was worried that she would re-raise—that was certainly in her repertoire.  I figured that since she was giving me excellent odds to chase my flush, I may as well take advantage and just call.  The river was indeed a diamond and I had the second nuts.  She checked.  I bet $25 and she folded.

Nice to win the very first hand.  I was hoping it was good omen.

I lost a few bucks chasing but was still a bit in the black when I raised to $15 in late position with King-10 of hearts.  Only the guy next to me called.  From one hand I’d seen that day, and from my recollection, he was a bit of an aggro.  So I didn’t c-bet when I whiffed the flop.  But he checked.  I was still sensing something so I kept checking and he kept checking back.  Nothing hit and my King-high was good (he said he had overs but obviously below a King).  Ok, I’ll take even though I would have ended it sooner with a c-bet on the flop.

Then came the most interesting hand of the session.  I looked down at my first pocket pair of the day, two Queens.  A tight player who hadn’t played more than two hands since I’d been there raised to $12.  I just called.  The guy behind me called and then the young Asian fellow at the table made it $35.  He had been up and down, losing his stack recently and only re-buying in for $100.  But he had hit some lucky hands both before and after busting and re-buying, and had demonstrated some interesting play.  He had three-bet pre a few times with Ace-rag type hands—and in the cases I’d seen, hit them big.  Just before this hand, he had three-bet with Ace-4 off and taken a pot with two pair against a much stronger Ace.  When his stack was below $100 he seemed to shove (sometimes a three-bet shove) fairly light.

It looked like he had around $150ish left after the bet $35, give or take. But his chips were arranged oddly so it wasn’t clear.  I had a bit more than the $300 I’d started with.  When the original raiser folded, I decided to re-raise. I felt my Queens were way ahead of his three-betting range.  I thought he very likely had an Ace but the other card was lower than a Queen and thus it wouldn’t be a coin-flip, I’d be a big favorite.  I also thought there was a pretty decent chance if a tight player like me pulled the call/re-raise move, he’d fold a crappy Ace.

There was still a player behind me.  I was a bit worried about him.  His stack was closer to the Asian’s than mine.  I decided to put another $100 on top of the $12 already out there.  I figured he’d either fold or shove, not call, and I was fine either way.  The player between us got out of the way and the Asian immediately announced “all-in.”  I snap called.  He said, “Is it Aces vs. Kings?” Gulp.  He showed me two Kings and I was certainly dreading them.  I just shoved another stack out in front of me, expecting to be down a fair amount after the hand played out.  I got unlucky there, I thought, but based on my read of this guy, I was ahead of more than half the hands he could have there.  Oh well.

The flop was all low, and rainbow….no one was catching a flush.  I saw a face card come out on the turn, but it was a Jack.  I found myself thinking, why couldn’t that be a Queen?  Of course, it could have been a King too, leaving me drawing dead.  I was resigned to the worst and then….well, wouldn’t you know, an absolutely beautiful lady hit the river.  Everyone groaned or whatever it is you do when you see that.  The guy took it pretty well. He muttered something under his breath but otherwise was a good sport.  I gave my apology.  “Sorry….not sorry.”  And as I was stacking my chips, I said, “It was worse because it was on the river, right?  Wouldn’t have been quite so bad if it had been on the flop?”  He didn’t really agree with this assessment.  OK, whatever. 

I few of the other players said things like, “That’s awful,”  “You hate to see that,” or “That’s sick.”  Really?  I found it rather inspirational, myself.  That Queen on the river was the best looking lady I’d seen in a long, long time.  And she wasn’t even naked.

When I finished stacking, I had about $510 in front of me.  The pot must have been $360-$370 or so.  I’m sure that’s the biggest I’ve dragged (in a cash game, of course), since I left Vegas at the beginning of the year.

Later I was in the big blind with Queen-Jack off and saw the flop for free. Only three of us were alive and it came King-Queen-10.  No betting on the flop and I called $17 on the turn, it was heads up.  It checked around on the river, another blank.  He had pocket 6’s and my Queens were good.

I raised to $18 after a couple of limpers with Ace-Queen suited; no one called.  Very next hand, I raised to $12 with Ace-King off, and had two callers.  The flop was 10-6-2, rainbow.  I led out with a $20 c-bet.  The next player made it $60 and the third player called.  I got the hell out of there.  There was more betting on the turn and they got it all in.  Turned out it was set over-set, 10’s vs 6’s (the 10’s just called the flop bet).  Actually the board paired on the river and the guy with the 6’s lost boat-over-boat.  Tough way to lose your stack.

I raised with Queen-Jack of spades and had a couple of callers.  The flop wasn’t bad—Ace-King-10.  There were two of some other suit.  I bet, an older gentleman, a seeming nit, min-raised.  I came over the top, he shoved, I snapped and of course he showed Queen-Jack too.  His was unsuited but he didn’t have the flush draw.  Beats losing, right?

Eventually my $200 profit had worked its way down to closer to $100.  It was getting late—I was interested in getting home in time to see the basketball game (Warriors-Thunder, game 6, what a freaking game!).  So when I posted my big blind this time, I felt it was likely my last orbit.  I had still been fairly card dead most of the day, save that one incredible suck-out that went my way.  The only other pairs I’d started with were 10’s twice, both times calling raises with them, both times folding to decent-sized bets on flops that had an Ace.  The only Ace-King, Ace-Queen hands I had I’ve already described.  The Queen-Jack where I flopped Broadway was the only suited connector I had above 5-4. 

Anyway, the big blind hand was garbage and then in the small blind, I finally saw another pocket pair.  Two Jacks.  That same Asian fellow, under-the-gun, had limped in.  After rebuying when I felted him, he had been quite a bit quieter than before.  Might have been that this was his last buy-in, or maybe he was just not getting cards he liked.  He had about $200 or so, which is what he’d bought in for after he started liking Kings as much as I do.

It folded to me and I made it $15.  The big blind folded and the Asian fellow called.  The flop was Queen-Jack-2, two hearts.  I bet $25 and he called.  The turn was a blank.  This time I put out $50.  He tanked.  But eventually called.  A low heart hit the river, and I was not happy at the scare card.  My naturally tendency there is to check.  I thought about overcoming it.

Yeah, he had tanked on the turn.  But I remembered all the times—particularly the post here—where I had misread a player taking his time, thinking it was almost a fold when it was really almost a raise.  Was this guy capable of raising me on the turn with a flush draw, thinking I might fold a one pair hand to him?  Yes, he was. 

So if I bet and he raised, would I have the discipline to fold my set?  Well, likely not.  Hard to fold a set of Jacks, especially to someone who was certainly capable of bluffing or betting a worse hand than mine.  I figured if he had hit it, a check would cost me less money, so I ended up checking. 

I was somewhat expecting him to bet, I was just hoping it was something I could comfortably call.  But he instead flipped over his hand. King-Queen, no hearts. I showed my Jacks, and he dutifully said, “nice hand.”  As I dragged in the pot, I said to him, “I thought maybe you were on the flush draw.  It would have only been fair if you rivered me back.”  He sorta-laughed. 

By then I realized he wanted to get to the showdown cheap.  If I had bet $100 on the river, he’d probably have folded.  But if I had bet $50 again, it would probably have been too cheap for him to fold.  Oh well. I’m not losing sleep over that.

Second to last hand, I got another pocket pair.  It was 3’s.  I had to call $15 to see the flop, which was Queen-4-4.  I was done with the hand.  But here’s something I’ve observed, maybe it’s just my mind tricking me.  But have you ever noticed, whenever you have a small pocket pair, and the board comes out paired, more often than not the board pair is just one off from yours?  I mean, you have two 5’s and there are two 6’s or two 4’s on the board, something like that?  Or is that just me?

I racked up and was up $202.  I wished everyone luck, as I often do when I leave, and then nodded to the Asian.  I guess I said, “sorry,” and he said, “Hey it’s ok…that’s poker.”  Good sport!  I’ve seen plenty of guys who don’t take it so well.  I said back to him, “Well, next time, you’ll get me.”  I sure hope I’m wrong about that.

My best session, believe it or not, since the first few days of the year (from my Christmas trip).  I dunno how well I played, but it was sure nice to be on the right end of the luck curve for once.  I was due, right?

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Not The Start I Wanted

This is going to be another one of those boring posts with a lot of hand histories.  Sorry about that, but you have been warned.

This was my first nite in Vegas last month, a visit to MGM.  My very first hand was Jack-10 of hearts.  Now that is a starting hand I usually play and almost always raise with if the pot hasn’t been raised to me first.  On the other hand, I always play very tight (even by my standards) when I first sit down, preferring to get a feel for the table before mixing it up—unless I get something I have to play, like a big pocket pair or Ace-King.  So my first thought was to just fold and see what was going on with this table.  Then I thought, no, you can at least limp in with it.  Then I thought, screw that.  I was in the hijack seat and it had folded to me.  If I raised, I might not see a flop and perhaps raising with my very first hand might give me an image I don’t usually have.

So I made it $8. And everyonebehind me called.  It was actually pretty funny.  We were now five to see the flop, which was Jack-10-5, rainbow. Cool.  I bet $25 and had two callers.  I wasn’t thrilled with the King on the turn but I put out $60 and didn’t get a call.

So after one hand, I was ahead for the trip.  Considering how my last trip went, I have to say the thought of standing up, cashing out, and turning right around and going home so I could call this a profitable trip did cross my mind.  But only as a joke.  Of course I played on.

Sometime later, still with a little bit of profit in front of me, I raised to $8 in late position with King-Jack of clubs.  Three of us saw a flop of Ace-3-2, two clubs (the little cards; the Ace was a heart).  Before I could c-bet a guy led out for $15.  The other player folded and I called.  The turn was good news/bad news.  It was the Ace of clubs.  So I had the nut flush but certainly not the nuts.  This time he bet $40 and I called.  The river was a blank, and I was a bit surprised to see him check.

As observant readers of my blog know, my default here is to check behind and see if my flush is good.  I started to do that and then I reminded myself how I should be value betting the river a lot more often than I do to try to get more money for my made hands.  This is a huge leak in my game.  So I thought about the action.  And I realized that there was just no way this guy, after donk-betting the flop and betting the turn, would be checking the river with a boat.  Just no way.  I mean, yeah, I suppose he could be trying to induce a bluff from me, but I just couldn’t see it. I was certain he would bet if he had me beat.  More likely he had a lesser flush or maybe trip Aces.  If he had those, he might call a bet with them.  I put out $60.  He tanked for a bit, but ultimately folded.

Still, I was happy that I bet.  It was a small victory overcoming my natural tendency to play it too damn safe.  Maybe he would have called a smaller bet.  But if he had, I’d be thinking, “He would have called more.”  At least I pulled the trigger.

I was up nearly $100 when my buddy Mike pushed in. Now Mike is famous for cracking my Kings—he was doing it long before it became a thing for me—but this time he didn’t have to give me the dreaded hand to ruin my evening.

In early position he sent me Ace-King off.  I made it $8 and the guy behind me made it $25.  The next player, an Indian fellow who had played very few hands since sitting down, called.  Two more players called.  So of course I called.  Although, with five people willing to see a flop for $25, I’m not sure what kind of flop I’d really like.

Certainly not the one we got, which was Jack-high. I checked, the preflop aggressor put out a good sized bet, and then the Indian announced all-in.  Hmm….he had a bit over $150 or so.  Everyone folded, including me, until it got back to the preflop aggressor, who wasted no time in calling (he had the guy covered).  I was thinking that the Indian must have had a set of Jacks—that would make total sense.  But no, he turned over two Aces!  The other guy meekly turned over two Queens.  He was shocked, as was everyone else, that Indian hadn’t four-bet with his Aces.  Nothing hit the turn or the river and the guy with the Aces had a nice pot. But boy, did he play that oddly.  I suppose you could say it was smart—if he four-bets preflop, he’s basically turning his hand face up, especially since he hadn’t played many hands.  And then by shoving any flop, it’s maybe his best chance at a double up.  But there’s a huge risk that someone hits a better hand.  And of course, he couldn’t know that it would be five players to see the flop.  So I can’t say if the guy was clueless or brilliant.  But in this case, it sure worked.

Mike wouldn’t deal me pocket Kings so he sent me two black Aces instead.  I raised to $8 and had three callers.  The flop was King-high and all hearts.  I dutifully put out $25.  Anyone think I shouldn’t bet there (or maybe less?).  Two folds, and then the last guy—also the last guy to call my bet preflop from the blind—check-raised all in for $125 or so.  I folded.  He showed his hand, Queen-2 of hearts, so he could get a drawing ticket for his flopped flush. 

Then Mike dealt me two Jacks.  After a limper, I made it $12.  The guy on my left called, it folded to the limper, an older gentleman from Houston.  He announced “all-in.”  But he only had $28 total.  So I called and the other guy called.  The flop was Queen-9-7, rainbow.  Hmm….Well, I’m basically heads up against the guy with a big stack.  I figured the odds were against him having a Queen so I bet $40.  But the guy behind me shoved.  He had me covered (we both started with over $150 or so).  I shrugged and figured I was beat, so I folded.  The turn was another Queen, and the river was a brick.  The old guy turned over pocket Kings.  Clearly, Mike intended to give me those Kings and missed by one seat.  He took the pot, but the other guy had already claimed the $40 I bet on the flop with his shove.  And he showed 9-7.  He said, “I only played it because it’s my lucky hand.”  No, he was not The Trooper.

So I made a good fold, and I really don’t think my flop bet was a bad idea (agree/disagree?). Of course, had I called his shove, I would have won the side pot when the Queen on the turn counterfeited his hand.  But that’s results-oriented thinking.

That was pretty much the end of the (mildly) interesting hands.  I noted one more hand, when I raised with Ace-Jack and took down a three-way with a c-bet on a Queen-high flop.

All told, what started out as a promising night ended up with a $100 loss.  My trip was not off to the positive start I had hoped for.  These losing sessions are starting to drive me to drink……

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Stolen Blinds, Dreaded Kings & a Welcome Table Captain

Yesterday I made my first visit of the year to The Bike in historic Bell Gardens, CA.  It is historic for being home to The Bike, which I believe to be the second largest poker room in the U.S.  The last time I went there, it was to check out the status of the remodeling project (see here) after they opened their hotel.  This time, I went to see their new system of poker room management which was recently installed by my employer, PokerAtlas. It is called TableCaptain and you can read about it here.  And if you want to see it in action without taking a trip to The Bike, just look at Bike’s page on PokerAtlas (here).

As you will observe, you can see all the live cash games going and also the tournament clocks for all the tourneys going on.  If you click on the waiting list, you can even see the names of the players waiting for a game.  Now, this great software is handled by a totally different side of the business than I am associated with it.  So I only know about it from my colleagues.  Until yesterday, I had never seen it in action at all.  But I knew my colleagues have been working their tails off, day and night, getting the second largest poker room in the U.S. up and running with it.

Now that they have (mostly) completed the task, I just had to go down to the Bike and see it for myself.  Oh, and also get a little poker session in while I was there, of course.

And it was really cool.  I was impressed that my old Bike player’s card, issued to me over 10 years ago, still worked and did not have to be replaced.  I was clocked in immediately when I sat down.  And here’s something neat: my picture actually appeared on the screen next to the dealer, along with my name.  I imagine there might be some players who won’t like that, since the camera that took all those pics many, many years ago was probably not the best.  And some folks might have older pics than mine!  My picture has me with darker hair and a moustache I got rid of last decade.  And aside from unflattering pics, I suppose some folks might prefer more anonymity. But the good news is the pic appears very, very small on the screen!

I was only there a few minutes when the guy next to me asked the dealer how much time he had accumulated that day.  And the dealer told him.  Hmm….the dealer can’t tell you that using some other system you might be thinking of.  That comes in handy for several reasons.  The Bike offers cash back for playing (but you have to play way longer than I ever would in a month to qualify).  Also, you get either free or discounted meals for playing so many hours.  In the game I was playing (2/3 NL), you need to play three hours (in a day) to get a free meal.

All the cash and tournament info for a room using TableCaptain that you see on the website is also available using the PokerAtlas phone app, of course.

When I first sat down, it appeared like this game was going to well exceed Bike’s reputation for wild games.  First hand I was in, a guy raised to $18, got a call, and then someone raised to $102.  The raiser called.  The flop was Ace-high and the three-bettor shoved (another $200 or so).  The other guy folded without showing.

Next hand was similar, a $16 raise, another re-raise, so I folded my Ace-4 of spades.  More betting on the flop where I would have flopped a gutshot and a back-door flush draw.  On the turn, where both players got it all in, I would have caught my wheel.  As it was, the guy who was the bigger aggressor (and shoved the turn) had a pair of Queens and rivered his set.  The other guy had pocket 9’s, unimproved.

It did get a little calmer after that.

I limped in with 9-8 offsuit, one call and then the big blind made it $8, I called but the other guy folded.  The flop was 9-7-x and I called $10.  The turn was an 8 and I called $20.  He checked a blank river and I bet $30, but didn’t get a call. 

With pocket Jacks I raised to $15, only had one call.  The flop was King-Queen-x, but my c-bet of $25 took it down.

I opened to $15 with Ace-Jack and had one caller.  The flop was Ace-high, I bet $25 and he called.  But he didn’t call my $50 turn bet on a blank.

With pocket 6’s in late position, I opened to $15.  One hand earlier I had raised to $15 with a suited Ace and gotten two callers—and had to fold to a donk bet when I missed.  This time, with the sixes, I was three-bet to $30 by the most active player at the table.  It folded back to me and I called. The flop was 10-9-9 and we both checked.  The turn was a 7 and we both checked.  The river was a Queen and he still didn’t bet.  I showed my pocket 6’s.  The other player was on my immediate left and although he didn’t show, I saw him look at his cards and it was either Ace-King or maybe Ace-Jack.  I’ll bet he was shocked as hell that I raised with those 6’s and even called his three-bet with them.  And I’ll bet he was pissed he didn’t c-bet.  I was thinking I might get a few more calls now having showed the table how I played a low pair.  And winning the pot was nice too.

Despite these hands, I was still down to about $280 (from $300) when I got—wait for it—the dreaded pocket Kings. Now, rather than tell you how well that went, I’m gonna show you.  On a previous trip to the Bike, (see here), I met Steve Miller, one of the folks behind the nifty ShareMyPairapp. And yesterday, Steve was finishing up his session at the Bike and he recognized me and came by to say hello,  And despite the fact that we here are only the seventh most awesome poker blog in the universe, he had some incredibly nice things to say about what passes for poker content here.  Thanks, Steve, you really made my day.

And running into Steve got me thinking about his app again, so I decided to give it a try with my favorite hand.  I’m embedding the video below.  But I believe due to the limitations of my blogger software, it might not fit right.  I hope it doesn’t block out any text and that you can view it.  If not, a link to see the video on the SMP site is here.

Hopefully you can all see it.  Basically, I opened to $17 with the dreaded hand.  What I couldn’t figure out how to tell the app was that the guy in the cut-off was posting a missed blind, so he was already in for $3.  That’s the reason for betting $17.  I had already decided my standard 2/3 opening to $12 was no good; I was opening to $15.  I was only called by four players.  The rainbow flop made a flopped straight possible.  Anyone think I shouldn’t have bet there?  I’m open to suggestions.  Once the board paired there were so many ways I could be beaten I didn’t see the point of continuing.  It was, after all, Kings.  Anyone disagree?  The guy behind me was the aggro at the table.  He wouldn’t have folded any draw he had.  Of course, he flopped the straight so….Short stack got ridiculously lucky with the flopped two pair and boating up.  Lucky for the guy with the straight the other guy was short-stacked.

Once again, done in by the dreaded hand.  I only noted one more hand after that.  In the big blind I had King-9, no one raised.  There were many limpers.  The flop was King-10-8, I checked/called $10.  A second King on the turn and I checked, thinking about a check-raise.  But he didn’t bet.  A blank hit the river, I bet $30 and didn’t get a call.

There was one really noteworthy thing I witnessed that I’ve never seen before in a cash game. In the past, I’ve complained, no doubt more than once, about all the walkers at the Bike. Check out this post, for example.  It’s one of the things that drove me away from there.  It seems that half the table would be made up of players who would play a few orbits, then miss a few orbits, then come back, play an orbit, and disappear for two or more orbits yet again.  Drove me crazy.  You seldom had two consecutive orbits that were nine-handed.

Last time I was there, I noticed that instead of tossing players “missed big blind” buttons when they were away, they were throwing a card that said, “Missed 1.”  I think I might have seen one time a card turned over when it happened twice in a row and then it said, “Missed 2.”  I never really knew what that meant.

But yesterday I found out.  The player next to me took off for a long time.  He got the card and next orbit they turned it over so it showed “Missed 2.”  He was still gone when the big blind would have been his again.  And so the dealer asked another player to take $3 off his stack!  And yes, they put that money in the pot (but still had the regular small and big blinds).  They actually penalized the guy—monetarily that is—for missing his blinds so often.  And indeed, they took the small blind from him next time.  And they did it again for one more orbit until he returned.  It was a whole new definition of “stealing blinds.” 

Of course, that’s the standard in a tournament.  But I’d never seen that in a cash game before.  Has anyone else seen that?  Honestly, as much as I complain about walkers, I’m not all that sure I like it.  But I definitely see the virtues.  The walkers yesterday were mostly non-existent.  Sure, players took a quick bathroom (or, unfortunately, a cigarette) break.  But it was fully 9-handed most of the day.  And I like that very much.  Let me know what you think.

I ended up losing about half my buy-in for the day.  And of course, it was the damn Kings that did the most damage.  When will I learn to just throw them away?

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