On the Mend (AC Trip Report Pt 3)
Saturday, January 28, 2006
At the Resorts, we went through the regular rigamarol. Only this time, the lovely Indian woman at the counter was willing to give us our upgrade. Word to the wise, asking for a smoking room upgrade may be easier. It worked for us. The room was an odd one. It was like they just stuck a room in whatever shape could fit in the corner. But it had 2 beds and a couch, so Roose, Hole and I were good to go. Mind you, Hole was still at work, but he planned to arrive at around 8:15pm. The $60+15 tourney, meanwhile, started at 8pm.
The poker room at the Resorts, well, it kinda stinks. It's out in the open casino, so you can hear the slot machines going the whole time. Plus, its new and not well frequented, so only 2/4 was spread. Now, I'm already a day and about 20 drinks removed from the trip, so I'm going to have to start writing in broad strokes. Bear with me.
Roose and I finally settled down to the only game in the place, 2/4 limit. The table was something from the Twilight Zone. I mean, I've heard of people referring to "No Fold'em Hold'em" but I'd never seen it firsthand, at least to this extreme extent. The beauty and the beast of it all is that when every player is limping into the pot and you are in late position, you have to call, even with 48s, because the pot odds are there. So, my $100 was down wot $50 or so, from limping into huge multiway pots and calling the flopped raise, only to fold on the turn. Fortunately for me, I was finally dealt AA and played it standard. Raise preflop, and got 5 or 6 callers. The flop was all unders, but there was a straight draw. I raised, someone re-raised. Everyone called. The turn was an Ace, so at least I didn't have to worry about two pair. I bet, the field thinned to three players. The river could've helped a straight draw, but I wasn't concerned. I bet. One player called. He had K-high. Fuckin' Bizzaro poker!
When it was all said and done, Roose and I walked from the table, with me up $30 or so. He was down. It was a good thing that I won. My bankroll needed it. I could barely afford the $75 tourney buy-in and still have $100 for more grinding afterward.
A trip to the buffet was interesting. $8.99, but the spread was something straight out of a college cafeteria. When we were done, we went back to the poker room to figure everything out. The tourney was a mess to start. No one in the place knew what they were doing.
I was seated to the 2 seats to left of Vick Mackey of the Shield (or at least his look-alike). I played the same as the day before, keeping to good hands, but also taking opportunity when available. In one peculiar hand I held KK. It occurs to me now that most of the hands I wrote about involved a high pocket pair. I guess that was because those were the main hands I was playing. I mean, I did bluff preflop with 26o in the first tourney and followed with a continuation on the flop. I wasn't entirely a rock. And my image, with my Superman shirt and loudmouth demeanor was that of a loose player. But no doubt about it, my hand selection was tight.
So, I had KK. I had been playing big pairs hard, hoping to take blinds only. A squeamish young kid limped in EP. Mackey, who I respected (it was mutual), bet out from the 100 BB to 300. I re-raised from 300 to 1K total. The kid pushed for 1,200. Mackey folded. I called with KK. The kid had A7o. I won. Mackey then mumbled something. "You know that guy?" "What?" "That'd be a great way to dump chips on a guy, if you are colluding." I took off my headphones. Mackey was a fairly tough looking guy, but damnit, I was pissed. "Are you suggesting I'm cheating? If you are joking, that's one thing, but if you are serious, you've got another thing coming." Our voices escalated. And then if fizzled out. He said he wasn't serious. He didn't think I was cheating. I was cool: "Hey, no problem man. I can see that the kid made a stupid move, but don't hang it on me." We went back to poker. In a little while, Mackey and I were back to buddies.
In another hand against Mackey, I was dealt A5d in the BB. Everyone folded to him on the button and he raised from 100 to 300. I called. The flop was AK5. I checked, hoping he'd continuation bet. He checked. The next card was a 5! BINGO! I checked, he checked. The river was a blank, I guess. It was sure as hell a blank for me. I had to get something out of this. I bet 1K, which was a little under pot-sized with the antes, but a usual bet from Vick or I. He thought for a while. "I know you don't have anything. I'm just trying to decide if you have a Q." He showed me his cards, J-high. He stood up and walked away for a bit. I started jabbering. I started with my usual line: "You don't want a peice of htis." He seemed to think some more. I decided to change it up again. See, when you want someone to call, you gotta do something. You can't just sit back and let them realize that they are fucked. "You know, it's only 1K though. You are pretty deep stacked." It still needed some time to marinate. And then: "I call." I showed A5. "You were right. I didn't have a Queen."
I continued playing smart, staying near chip leader at the table. We took a break and when I returned, I was dealt AA. I bet big and followed up big, and continue big and get paid off big. I then get JJ and get another guy all-in pre-flop to his A-little. He hit. On the very next hand I get TT and get another player all-in with his KT, but this time it holds up. Booya!
The tables were down to 2 and I went back to tight. I had to really. But i did make one move that was stupid and yet successful. It'd make you all proud, at least by the time the story is over. I held 72o. We were down to 5 players at our table, with 6 at the other. I was getting short, probably already in the rule of 10 because of the blinds and antes. I decided to make a play. On the button, I raise from 1K to 4K. The SB folds. Then I notice the BB. He is severely short, with 1K in the BB and about 1.6K behind. He had to call. With KJ, I was in trouble, until the flop. A 7 came down, and that's how I made the final table. Of course, I yelled, "HAMMER!!"
Final table time. With 10 players and only 5 spots paying, I got my game face on. Mackey made it, as did a very drunk black guy from the No Fold'em 2/4 game. He didn't know what he was doing. I'll fast forward. We are down to 5 after Drunk Black got lucky on a short stack, tripling up with his pocket 2s. He then minimum raised from 3K to 6K and another player with a short stack pushed. DB called with Tc5c. Yep, he was raising with trash. He stunk of alcohol. The other guy had 22, but DB got lucky again and hit his T. And we were down to 5. I didn't bubble, hallelujah.
I did, however, go out 5th. I held 77 and DB tried to minimum raise from my left. Only, this far into the tourney (and into the Whiskey apparently), and he still couldn't follow the rules. His min raise wasn't accepted and he was forced to just limp. As the small stack, I needed to make a move. I thought DB was playing trash again. Why wouldn't I? He min raised with T5 a moment before. I pushed for 15K. One guy and DB called. I missed the flop. DB raised and the other guy folded. And then DB showed JJ.
I was out in 5th, netting a measely $29 profit and a Resorts poker room hat. DB ended up winning the thing. Mackey took 2nd. He pissed me off I lost by saying it was a bad play. I tried to explain the min bet with T5 and he said, "Get over it man!" I wanted to kick his teeth in, but instead I went to Roose and Hole to steam.
9th out of 58 people. 5th out of 38 people. Not a bad run. Not a bad run at all.
I eventually went to play some 2/4. I ended up even there after another No Fold'em session. I met up with Roose and Hole at Pai Gow and ended up even there as well. Finally, we went to 1/2 NL. It was almost 3AM and I sat between two girls. There were only 6 people at the table, including Roose, Hole and I. The girls were clealy good players. And then I noticed something. The girl on my left looked familiar. When I was in AC for one day with Ruff a while ago. When I was there, F-Train, Joaquin, SoxLover and some other bloggers were there. I didn't know anyone really, except for Joaq and F at the time, but one of the crew was a girl...a girl who looked oddly like the girl on my left. "This might sound odd, but you look familiar. What is your name?" It wasn't Dawn though, so I assumed I was mistaken. "You look like a friend of a friend named Dawn." The girl on my right piped up. "Do you blog?" "What? Yeah. High On Poker." "Dawn is her blogging name." Yep. I bumped into a couple of bloggers at the Resorts at 3AM on a Thursday night. How random. So, without further adieu, check out their blog, I Had Outs. The girls are damn good poker players, as verified by me, Roose and Hole. Fortunately, I was able to keep out of their way.
When they left, we found out that the room closed at 3:15am. One guy at the table proposed a bet. We all would bet 25$ on the next hand, blind. It's essentially a 5-way coin flip. I decided not to play. I was there to play poker, not gamble. But Hole, having recently busted out, played my hand with his money. Roose ended up winning it with 29 when he flopped a 9. He had the worst hand preflop.
Final day, coming up...
posted by Jordan @ 1:08 PM,
1 Comments:
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At 4:47 AM,
said...
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You missed the best Resorts action. One guy called my $40 bets to the river with nothing and then complained about my betting. Another guy would go all in with just about any picture card (he just needed the one). It was a great table. When you guys sat down though, only the decent players were left and we saw right away that you guys weren't going to be calling to the river with King high. That's why we left in search of a softer game.
