A Trip to the Burbs, cont.
I get up from my fourth place finish and head straight to the kitchen where a full table awaits and I make it a 10-seater (.25/.50 NL). I buy in for $40. The mood is very light and friendly and I just plan on observing for an orbit to gauge the level of play, while soaking in the musings of my dear friend “Michael”.
I get AJ off, which isn’t that hard of a hand to fold even in middle position, but a good enough hand to play nevertheless. Still, I hate good hands early, but with two limpers in front, I made it $3 to go. One caller behind me, the BB and one limper comes along – four way pot. Axx, two diamonds. Check, check. I lead out $7. Fold, call, call. Turn is another diamond. Guh. Everyone checks, which pains me inside because I was already thinking a $10-12 bet would be plenty good if no one hit their flush, but got gun-shy. River is a fourth diamond. Double guh. Check, I check, BB bets $10. Fold and it’s to me. Two instincts come to mind. The first was call – 10 to win 45 = good pot odds and it is pretty obvious I’m oozing weakness, which would incur a bet from anyone paying half attention. The other instinct was to shove, representing a big diamond. I ignore both and fold like a little girl and the BB shows A6…. of hearts! Serves me right.
I win a small pot with a raise post flop and lay low for several orbits. I had been playing the same tight/aggressive (or tight/little girl, depending on your perspective) all night and decided at some point I needed to shake things up. The table lost a few players, so we’re seven-handed. K9 hearts, mid position, I try and see a cheap flop. Four ways. Flop misses me completely. J-high, all black, two clubs. First bet is $2. It smelled like middle pair or a flush draw. I raised to 10. Folded to original bettor who calls. Turn is a club. Caller checks and I push for my remaining $13. Villan tanks….
Meanwhile “Michael” has been trading stories with several people, and being in a hand, I haven’t been following his latest conversation. What I do know is that he turns his attention to me. The problem is I’ve got my head on my hand which is rested on the table, from the elbow up. I’m looking straight down until the Villan makes his decision. Michael begins saying to me, “Right?”… “Right?” as if I’ve been following his conversation… he then starts shaking my arm – “Hey, what are you doing... Right?” I’m not budging. “Hey?!?”…. Anyone reading this is probably wondering why I haven’t kicked him in the nuts or why no one else has said, “leave the guy alone, he’s in a hand”, but again, we’re all friendly and it’s understood Michael is well on his way to finishing his 12-pack. Besides, inside I’m half cracking up and half hoping Villan sees I’m a rock given this distraction and throws his hand away.
Villan says he thinks I’ve got him but he can’t lay down his flush and calls… I finally can start laughing while I flip over my stone bluff. Everyone is as surprised as I am that I tried to pull this hand off – even Michael, who breaks from his story and says, “Dude, what are you doing?” Villan, laughing with me, flips over Q-10 of clubs. A bit of a slow roll, perhaps as one would think raising 10 post flop wasn’t a sign of a drawing hand but rather top pair. But I guess I earned a solid table image throughout the night so maybe I had the nuts? – K9 hearts, notwithstanding.
So $40 gone in a half hour (hee-haw), but I was fine with it as I had planned on shaking things up enough to show that I’m willing to dance. So much so that with the first hand with my new $40, I limp in blind from the SB. There were already four limpers; I couldn’t afford not to play! Flop x8Q. Bet of $3 – so I guess I should look. A8. Not bad, but not good enough.
It would be the last action I would see for about two hours. Holy card-dead, Batman! Four hands of note occurred during that time. A9 of hearts. Early position raises to $4 – pre-flop! Must be a doozy and/or doesn't want a multi-way pot; 10s or Js is my guess – I muck. I see the A on the flop and 9 on the river before he tables his KJ (wtf?). I later get JJ and raise my first pot in over an hour. Everyone folds (NOW they’re paying attention). Twice I get pocket 7s. The first time I fold to Troy’s pre-flop raise of $4 – I really don’t know why the betting has gone from 3x the blinds to 8x, but he later shows me AJ, so I was fine with not racing with my second $40 – did I mention Troy doesn’t like to fold? The second 77 I raised, but was re-raised and called before it got back to me – no thanks.
The only thing that kept me entertained during that 120 minutes was Michael. Now if I had written this weeks ago as planned, I might be able to remember some of the details, but the only thing I can come up with was the H2o content in Coors Light (the highest of any domestic?) which is supposed to help sustain some sort of hydration while drinking. Makes sense – but it had ceased working in Michael’s case. On his next beer he swings his arm to his left while discussing… something…. Might have been asking Dealer chick about her job, actually, which was pretty cool to hear about. No matter, he knocks his beer right into the lap of the player sitting to his left, who was already getting mildly annoyed with the slowed pace of play. This didn’t help. But to his credit, he didn’t blow his top with at least 6 oz. of beer in his lap. Fast forward 20-30 minutes, Michael is on the phone with his wife when he mentions that we’ll be playing for a little while longer – when beer soaked guy says, “how about playing now?”… Uh-oh, tensions are a-risin’!
It probably didn’t help that Michael had about tripled his stack and was winning two pair hands with J6. Classic.
Now comes the joke move: A raised pot clearly gives Michael zero options and as he’s mucking his cards he says, “All-in, just kidding”… everyone’s eyes light up and a couple of people tell him it’s a binding statement and normally he would be forced to push. I just tell him it would be wise if he never did that again.
Next up, string-betting: Michael calls the BB then adds a dollar. We explain it has to be all in one motion or he has to say “raise” before pushing any chips forward. Soon afterwards he does it again, innocently enough. No one thinks it’s intentional. Same thing happens, we explain, he sort of understands. Later on he says, “50 cents, PLUS….” And now he’s getting frustrated with the table’s frustration. In hindsight, I should have said, “less talky-talky, more pokey-pokey” (inside joke).
By this time, however, Michael slowly but surely started giving back to the community and found himself a hair under even for the night. It was then he decided that it was time to leave, lol. He’ll tell you it was because we were offered a ride home, but that ride had been sitting there for over 30 minutes - five more minutes was clearly crossing the line. After a second attempt to have him agree to play through the orbit (four more hands), I wasn’t going to argue. I was card dead anyway, what the hell was I waiting for?
Last hand of the night – The power hand:
So in about 7 hours of play tourney plus cash games, I left up $20. Kind of like a pai-gow marathon, only without the booze. In other words, weak! Good times overall...
Coming up, the CPT (April 25th). Stay tuned.
Posts
1 comment:
Solid work. Always nice to see a rock like yourself trying for some interesting moves.
Here's to hoping I can stay awake long enough to be in the CPT stories.
Post a Comment