Monday, August 20, 2007

"The Inevitable Return of the Great White Dope" - Bloodhound Gang

Finally, finally I have a winning session at Foxwoods again. Solid play (and 1 oops) earn me $400+ between cash game and a $120 SnG.

I was being pretty straight forward to start off. Waited till I got A-K. Raised to 16 and everyone folded. Some kid calls me "sneaky", yeah ok. 2 hands later I get A-A and raise to $16 again. Get one caller and then someone on the button re-raises all-in for like 20 more. At this point Im not overly concerned with what he has, for good reasons, but the caller I am concerned about. Since she has sat down she pissed away $200 in about 10 minutes, then she started playing every hand (raised or not) with just the most randomest shit. She chased for the right price, and when her miracle card came on the river (by this count 5 times) she claimed that the person she beat never raised or made it not profitable for her to call (i know this is crap as she was chasing anywhere from 1 to 6 outs). She invoked what Tao of Pauly referred to as the "CAL" or Crazy Asian Lady, because she was all of the above.
So anyway back to my quandry, do I re-raise her to make the pot unpriceable for some asshat call or do I just call knowing full well she is calling (she was prepping her chips already as I thought) so I say screw it, her 16 plus his 35 was good enough for me. So I re-raise all-in. Something like $240ish total. No way she can call that with crap. She thinks about it, way longer than she should have and folds. I turn over A-A all-in turns over 2-2. Yay me.
Flop: 9-9-5 Yay! I call out "Throw me another 9"
Turn: 9 Yay Hes drawing dead
River: 2 While I did not even flinch at this card the all-inner and some at his end of the table apparently thought he caught a river to win. So there was a few seconds of confusion. But as we all know 9s full of Aces beats 9s full of deuces. And more importantly beats deuces full of 9s.

I was up and down after that, mostly up. Then I made what I have to be the strangest play of my entire poker life.
Dealt A-Ko in late position. I raise to $16 (starting to see a pattern eh?) I get 2 callers, one directly to my left says "you better hope you hit the flop". This must have confused the hell out of me because I played the hand oddly.
Flop: A-8-9. Well I hit the flop, checked to me, and I bet 20. One fold, Mr Flop calls.
Turn: X Check to me. I decide to check here to induce him to think I might not have hit my A if he has a lower pp. I think hes on the straight draw as a likely possibility but after what he said pre-flop with a call I'm just not sure If I can put him on J-10 or 6-7.
River: 10. Well if he was chasing his straight draw he might have just hit. He'd have to be holding Q-J o5 6-7 though. He bets out $35. I think, and honestly I have no idea what I was thinking other than "he must of hit that straight" even though the likely hood of that happening is small. Little more than 1/3rd of the pot here is enticing me to call. So I call. He slowly shows me a J and what I think was another card to make his straight. The next few seconds are a blank. Honestly I must have blanked out because the next thing I know My A is exposed but the K is turned face down, and they are pushing the pot my way when I come to. The river gave him a pair of 10s, not a straight. I mustve done a bad job mucking my hand (because lets face it thats what I did) and the people around the table and dealer are asking me "what happened?" I dunno, I blanked. All I could do was look at the dude to my right and say man I thought you had the straight. (Now I understand why he says what he says, but I meant why I half mucked) He says, "Then why did you call?" I felt bad because it was a donk call, but I didn't want to correct myself and make it worse by telling him I meant to muck my hand. So he was mad at me the rest of the night. Some guy to my left said, "Man I thought you mucked your hand." Apparently I did such a convincing job of not mucking that it looked more like I forcefully (i guess?) threw my cards on the table so the A was exposed. Weird, i mean I like really blacked out for a few seconds, I have no idea what happened. Lesson to you kids. Don't muck unless you are 100% certain you are beat, even then you might wanna turn your cards up.

I played a few good hands against this guy I have played with before. A-K makes a straight on the river to beat his 2 pair. I price him in just right so he makes the call. A few hands later I grab 7-7. 7 on the flop with a diamond draw. I slowplay it. Turn comes another diamond, so I beat it out to make people think I hit the flush. 1 caller, was the familiar guy I just beat. River pairs the board so I bet $35, basically doing the same thing I did a few hands ago with the nuts. He really goes into the tank, I mustve screwed with his head something fierce. He looks at me and pipes up that he made a flush. Then asks me what do I think my chances of winning are. This is such a trap, no matter what I answer/don't answer I'm giving info, but I decided to play along anyway. I say, "50%". He laughs, thinks then calls. I show my boat, he mucks. Later on he told me he had a 8 high flush. WTF?
This same guy did something really rude as I was sitting down at the table. He is heads up against a guy to my right. Guy to my right pushes all-in. He goes into the tank and is talking to him to get info. He flips over his hand to show J-J. So the guy to my right flips over his cards to show K-K. The guy then makes a comment of "well i guess im gonna fold". Everyone except for him and the guy to his right are stunned he would flip over his cards but no be calling or folding? I guess thats legal but it shouldnt be. His buddy defends this as "trying to get information", the perp rationalizes this move by saying, "I knew I was beat, I was trying to get info." If he knew he was beat, he wasnt calling. But then again, I got him to call twice when he knew he was beat.

Around 11:30 I was up $150 and decided to take a stab at a SnG, I signed up, sit in seat 5. Seat 4 just happens to be a nutjob. I still can't quite figure out if he was just a maniac, or an idiot. Maybe both? First hand is a bunch of limpers. I have A-J on the button, I raise 3 times the big blind. Seat 1 re-raises to 550, maniac/idiot to my right calls. I fold. They go at it and M/I makes the re-raiser fold, losing 3/4ths his chips in the process. He kept bullying everyone post-flop until I limp in with 5-7s (my favourite hand!) and the flop is a beautiful 5-5-3. 2 clubs. Checks to M/I to my right who bets 3/4ths the pot. I smooth call, everyone else folds. Turn: 4x I still think im in the lead with this (based on what he had been showing down after he had led out the betting.) He bets out half the pot and I re-raise all-in. He thinks, says I'll gamble with you as he turns over K-8c for a 4 flush. Please dear God do not put a club out there. River is an X and I double up.

The rest of the tourney was straightforward, mostly fold. Until a guy raises, I look to see J-J, I re-raise all-in, get a quick call from the original raiser which makes me say oh shit. I turn up my Js and he says your Js are good. He turns over K-J. I get 2 6s on the flop and call for a 3rd. I get a 3rd 6 on the turn and dodge a K on the River. Next notable hand: Someone raises, I look to see Q-Q and I push. Raiser thinks then calls with A-9o. I do my, "if your gonna put an A down, just do it on the flop" routine and I get a bright and shiny Q on the flop. Yay me. Nearly crippled myself in a battle of the blinds I turned a boat on the river and the small blind turned quad 6s. Luckily I had a bunch of chips so it knocked me down but not out. 4 handed took a while and I almost got eliminated again when the following occured: Folded to me in the SB I have K-J. I raise. BB thinks for a bit and he re-raises all-in. He doesnt have many chips and I'm thinking about calling when he flips over A-Q prematurely. I know I'm a dog but I dont want to take this 60-40 race so I fold. Everyone at the table (including the dealer) says I should have called. I just didnt have a good feeling and investing at least half my stack when I was a dog just didnt seem like a good move to me.

Eveentually It gets down to 3 hand when I grab 10-10 and beat another Ace-x. Im a 2-1 chip leader and the guy offers to chop. I decline. We play it out for a bit, 2 times I think im gonna win this thing only to have his hand beat me on the river. After the second time hes a slight chip lead and he offers a chop of 400-400. (First is 500, second is 300) I take it. Not a bad night at all.

3 comments:

Joe (aka Unimpressed) said...

Not bloggin' anymore?

1Queens Up1 said...

Meh havent felt up to it

Dillo said...

Shame Brian. Great post and it seems like you're playing (and running) goot. Hopefully you'll get the urge again soon.