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I slept too much, as I always do. I finally made it downstairs to the poker room, after a shower (and ankle bath, as Joe so nicely put it) and desperately needed shave, to find a bunch of bloggers in the Plaza’s noon tournament. I watched them all play for a while, and then sat down in the 1-2 NL game with $100. That didn’t last long. My third hand, I raised to $11 with AKo, and got four callers. Not really what I wanted there. I pushed all in for my remaining $89 at the $55 pot on the KTx flop. Someone thinks a little bit, and then calls, and everyone else folds. There was pretty much only one hand I want to be called with here, since I don’t think he’d call with a king but lower kicker, so I said “I hope he has QJ.” Then on the 9 on the turn, I corrected myself, “I hope he doesn’t have QJ.” The river was a queen or a jack to put a one card straight on the board anyway, and he flipped over his QJ. Why don’t I ever hit my draws like that? At least I didn’t give him the odds to make the call… he needed 2.6:1 and was only getting 1.6:1. That doesn’t really make me feel much better. I bought in for another hundred, and that didn’t last terribly long, either. More than three hands, though.
I watched the tournament a bit more, and saw Pauly suck out with runner runner spades to double up. He flopped top pair with AK vs top two with AT. I saw Bobby Bracelet and … someone else, dammit, who was it? … get busted by an “experienced tournament player” who sucked out on both of them, complete with Big Slick shirt, and standing and cheering when he won. He would end up finishing fourth, but get busted by BG’s friend Nate who would go on to win the tournament. When I left for lunch, Pauly, Derek, Chris, and Nate (and maybe others) were still playing.
I wandered over to Binion’s with Gracie, Pablo, and their friend whose name I never caught. Pablo ran to the gift shop and picked up a couple of decks of cards, and we played hold ’em for sugar packets. The very first hand, I got dealt 7♥2♥. Sure, it’s not the hammer, but it’s close enough. I raise to 4, bet my pair of 7s on the flop, and take down the first pot. I would go on to get some good hands and win quite a bit. It was my only winning session in Vegas. For sugar packets. And Equal. And Splenda. The food at Binion’s coffee shop/restaurant is very good and reminded me of some of the Denver restaurants of my childhood.
Back to the Plaza, to find only Nate and Poker Geek still alive in the tournament. They make it down to the final table, and Geek lost most of his chips with ATs vs QQ. The flop was Q55, and he was drawing to runner runner straight flush. The next hand, got in with A3 vs A2, and with a pair and high cards on the board, it was looking like a split, but then a deuce spiked on the river and he was knocked out. Nate, who was playing in only his second ever live tournament (he took third in the WPBT ACC the day before), would go on to win, and played great poker doing it. Everyone to the bar for a round of drinks.
I almost got myself ahead for the weekend. Almost. While hanging out at the bar, I wandered over to the roulette table nearby. It had a sign on it, “This is the table that Ashley Revell bet $135,300 on red, and won.” Something to that effect. For some reason, I decided I should put $20 on 23. I can’t explain it, I just figured it’d be the right thing to do. I didn’t. It hit. I walked away in disgust. That was the closest I came to playing a -EV game over the weekend.
Back to the poker room, I sat chatting with the Poker Geek and others, while watching the Mets blow out the Giants in the second game of a double header, and waiting for the floorman to set up our mixed game. It finally gets going, and it would be four innings into the latenight ESPN replay of the Mets/Giants game before I’d get up from the 7 seat. Early on, I take down a big pot, and make a comment that it would be the last pot I’d take all night. That was far from true, and for a while I was running well good and was +$120. I’d finish down $30.
I was UTG for one of my many straddles. “Live four!” It gets back around to me threebet, and of course, I have to cap it (aside – this is how it’s been done all weekend, but I’m pretty sure with the straddle it should be a five bet cap – oh well) in the dark. The flop comes down KTx. Gracie bets from the big blind, and I raise it up in the dark. There are one or two other players still in, and it gets back to me raised again. I’m no poker pro, so at this point I decided I should probably look at my cards. AJ. I have a gutshot, with a huge pot, and a rainbow board. “The pot’s too big to fold now,” as my chips go in. I call the blank on the turn, and the beautiful queen shows up on the river. “I value bet my nuts.” Gracie calls and flips up her AA. I flip up my straight, and the table goes nuts. “Okay, that’ll be the last hand I’m going to win all night.”
I’m not sure how I bled all my winnings away, but there were some other fun hands played at the table. A hand of Razz came down to whoever had the better (worse?) two pair. I drew at a low in Stud Hi/Lo, and ended up taking the high with sixes up. Two pair, sixes and threes. Playing a low hand, again in Stud Hi/Lo, I get runner runner hearts to scoop a pot against the (other) Geek. I decide not to straddle, and muck 43o UTG, only to see a 567 flop and two people hit the flop hard (66 and 77). The board didn’t pair on the end, and the whole thing woulda been mine. We had a Jason Giambi lookalike, complete with Yankees clothing, come up to the table and ask us if we were the bloggers. He sat down and played with us for a while. Apparently, he had read my blog, and of course, Iggy’s, but never Pauly’s or Grubby’s. Strange. I didn’t catch his name or blog, but I’m pretty sure someone did.
After the game finally broke, we headed up to Casino 2351. This was possibly the best part of the whole trip. Just sitting around, hanging out, having good conversations. It was there that I was told about bloglines. There that I finally got to really talk to AlCantHang, Iggy, Pauly, Grubby, tp… and others, I’m sure. Iggy offered me $100 for a domain name I registered, which I had to refuse. He’s getting it at cost. At some point during the night morning, I was trying to figure out who the first poker blogger I read was, and I couldn’t remember. Through the magic of the Internet Archive, I found that the first one I linked to was none other than Professional Poker Player Chris Halverson. He was probably the first one I read, followed quickly by Iggy, Grubby, and Pauly, I’m sure. Speaking of which, my poker blog links are sorely lacking at the moment. Many more will be added, as soon as I figure out how to change my layout to fit them all where I want.
At some point I realized that I couldn’t go to work in the condition I was in. I would need to at least shower and change out of my smoke-filled clothes first, which unfortunately meant leaving the suite that much earlier. I got a call from Orbitz telling me my flight was on time. That gave me three hours. Shortly after, I said goodbye to everyone, headed to my room for another ankle bath, and caught a cab to the airport. While there, and again in LAX, I was constantly checking the blogs of people who might have already made it home by this point. I landed in Santa Barbara at around 9:35, drove straight to work, and got there 5 minutes before the start of our quarterly meeting.
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it was great meeting and playing cards with you. i was a tad intimidated since you have this pro looking blog and all. 🙂
and thx again for hooking me up with that domain. i owe you one.
Woo hoo!
Good to meet you! You really do have to be a Professional Poker Player (TM) to play a straddle blind. It’s a good thing you looked 😉
Hey Alan,
I’m the guy who played with you at the plaza…i guess i’m the Jason Giambi look-a-like…hopefully minus the steroids. Anyway, that was an awesome “live four” with AJ to make the nut straight. Haha, that was great.
anyway, i hope you had a good trip.
http://www.terrancemlane.blogspot.com
terry
[…] And here you see, wait a minute, Boy Genius and Derek ALSO going for their chips! I guess grabbing your chips for the camera must be a guy thing. Then there’s me, Alan and Al. Notice my huge stack and shot of Southern Comfort. This is also the table Alan wrote about where he cracked my pocket aces with a straddle and a straight on the river. AAH, ALAN! I WILL GET YOU NEXT TIME! […]