How could a river 9 that made a straight and a boat look "pretty blanky"?
JR 12/26
Went up to play the 10:00 tourney only to find that it started at 8:00 and I missed it (see my other post) and wasn't happy. I guess they decided to get the tourney over early to satisfy the need for earlier cash game tables for the holidays. (Kind of interesting that they have tournies to get people there, but really can't handle the overload that they get, but whatever.)
I put my name on the 1/2 list and went to get some breakfast. I ate one of the worst omelettes I ever had and wandered back over to the rail to watch the toueny action while waiting for the rebuy period to get over so the players would start dropping out to open the tables for the cash games. Once the tables started breaking, they went quick. Before they could even get our first table full, they opened a 3/6 table and then another 1/2 table and then another 3/6 table. It actually took a couple of hours before our table was actually full. We played 8 handed for almost 2 hours despite a 2 page waitng list for the game (but they had no problem opening 2 other NL tables before filling ours).
Oor opening table featured a little bit of everything as far as playing styles. A couple of solid patieint players, a couple of clueless "WTF am I doing here?" players and a couple of aggressive wannabe youngins. There was one kid who bought in for $50, and was shoving on every other hand. ANd then he'd tell us all about our "good laydowns" and show his bluffs - the whole "I'm a real pro" routine. The guy to my left (a regular player there who's pretty solid and has been away for a month due to running bad) was gettnig real annoyed by the little punk's routine and would have done just about anything to clean him off the table.
I was pretty much staying out of the way of the action in the early going.I was actually getting my fair share of some reasonable starters, but they didn't hook up on the board and there was way too much bluffing going on around me to get involved in that game. About 3 or 4 orbits into the game, I hook up with AJ and limp from middle position (2 or 3 seats behind the aggressive punk). The flop came A46 . The agggressive punk pretends to shove and then looks up at the guy to my left: "Oh you're not in the hand, I'll just bet $20." I figured this was my cue to punish the little rugrat. "You wanna get your chips in? Let's rock!" and shoved my $90 at the pot. The guy to my left was squirming with joy and everyone folded back around to the punk who calls. I showed him what was supposed to be bad news, but he flipped up A4 for 2 pair. Great. I finally get a hand to bust this litle puke and he happened to hook up. The guy to my immediatel left (an older Asian guy) mentions that all I need is for the 6 to the board and I would take the lead. "Well of course, but that never happ..." as the dealer peeled a 6 right on to the board. Wow. I actually sucked out on a fishy! My 2 pair with better kicker held up and I actually apologized for the suck out. The steaming guy to my left belted out: "Why are you apologizing to that MF for?" (He was really agitated with that kid.) I thanked my neighbor for calling the card for me and asked him if I could get him up in the booth for my team. That got a few laughs and it wasn't too much longer before the punk kid was walkin out after his "just enough knowledge about uber-aggression to be dangerous" style did him in.
As usual, there was the our end/their end thing going on. Our end was the "(at least reasonably) solid, patient, thinking" end the other end was the "reckless action" end most of the hands were being battled by the clowns at the other end, but if one of the guys from our end got involved with them, we usually drew blood.
Don't really remember anything too specific about much of the next couple hours except that my stack was slowly but steadily growing. I managed to get a little respect from most of the table and didn't face a showdown for some time. I was just able to steadily pick up the small and medium pots when I was involved. Most of the time I had what they thought I had, but I did take a couple pots just because I bet.
A little later, there was this kid who was an open book in big bold letters. Even I could read him. Kind of nice when you know exactly what someone is holding. I was sad to see him go, but it was a pretty entertaining hand that sent him packing.
I was out and just watching. The board had a bunch of rags in which a 4 made a 6 high straight, but 47 was th nuts. There was little action until the river (which was the magic card that connected all the dots). There were 4 active players. The opener fired a $10 pot sized bet. Next guy called. The pretty solid kid to my right jumped out, called and showed his 4 before the Book had acted. He pulled his bet back and the second player made a point of telling the Book that a 4 had been shown. The Book suddenly shoved about $60 at the pot. We were all stunned and the kid to my right knew what that meant and mucked his straight. The opener also eventually got out of the way. The second player to act immediately called and showed the nuts and started lecturing the Book. "What are you thinking?" (The Book didn't have the nuts.) It turns out that the guy with the nuts was the Book's father and while he got more money out of the pot because of the shove, it was coming out of his kid's pocket. It turns out that all 4 players in the hand had the 4. Pretty wild. (The Book's dad wasn't much better than his kid and I got a little healthier off of his calling station ways for about an hour.)
The table turned over a few times and eventually the table was filling a bunch of the core regulars. It was actually a pretty fun table. There was the right balance of respect and silliness to keep the game live without it getting out of hand. There was one real live action guy at the other end of the table who was real obnoxious, but in a fun way. He opened one pot for $10 and started staring everyone down as it was their turn. I look down to find AA and stared back at him. "You staring me down?!" He nodded and I played along. "Alright tough guy, I'll raise you!" and popped it another $20. Brian (one of the core regulars) was toying with the idea of getting involved and making a play. We didn't even see still him in the hand and the other guy shoved and I called before we realized he was still thinking. That action got him out real fast. The action guy flipped up KK and winced bad when he saw the rockets. They held and I cleaned him out. (He rebought and quickly built a real nice stack within minutes. But he pretty much stayed out of my way the rest of the night
)
One of the ugliest hands of his storm trooping happened a few orbits later. The board was painted and paired and ugly and he and his neighbor had been jabbing at each other throughout the hand. On the river, the action guy checked dark and a 9 (which looked pretty blanky) hit the river. His neighbor bet eneough to get himself commited, action guy wnet all-in and was called. He flipped up 99 for a rivered boat and his neighbor's straight (made on the river) was no good and he was packing. We all gave him a bunch of shit for how stanky that was (all in good fun of course).
At one point another pretty solid kid came in asn was to my left. A little earlier he fell victim to a "called the raise because they were suited" play when his TPTK happend to fall with a pair of rags that just happened to match the suited rag in the other guy's hand. When an A hit the turn, the kid was in and was sick when the guy turned up K6. He was in a hand with 55. HE flopped a set and played it strong on the turn. The river brought a flush on the board, but he failed to see that it also paired the board. One of the flush chaser's bet and he held up his cards so that we could admire his great laydown. I caught glimpse of his cards and just as he was pitching them to the dealer, I said "You gonna lay THAT down!". He saw what we saw just as the cards left his hand and he made 3 or 4 stabs at trying to grab the cards while they were still in the air so could avoid a huge mistake. It all went down in one of those slow motion "Noooooooooooooooo" kind of scenes and was hilarious. The flush guy showed the nut flush and guarnateed that all of his chips would have been in the pot. We gave him hourly shit for that for the rest of the evening. He was a pretty solid player giving and getting the proper amount of respect and this came into play an hour or so later in a hand between the 2 of us.
I was in the SB with T8 and pitched in the extra dollar to see the flop. Flop hit 9JQ all red, 2 hearts. I hit the straight and opened for $10 hoping to take it right then and there. The soid kid had moved from my left to my right and was on the button. He called the flop bet. The turn brought a Q to pair the board. I was so worried about hearts that I wasn't prepared for a board pairing disaster. I paused and checked. The kid thought for a moment and then opened for $20. Hmmmm. While the kid was thinking, I decided to try to put a bit of a move on him if he bet. He was the right kind of player that I would know how to react to his reaction to my move. If he had the boat (or better) I had 0 outs to draw out on him, so I wanted this hand to end right here one way or the other. I fired a $40 c/r at him and he mentally stepped back a few paces and went into the tank.
He thought and thought and finally shoved his last $70 at me. Well that pretty much sealed the deal. I think he would have laid down AQ or KQ or some other non-boat hand. He was sharp enough to understand the likely implications of a checkraise, from a tight player on that kind of board. I gave it a good show and said "OK, you have the boat and I have no outs. Nice hand" and mucked. He never confirmed or denied but I'm 98% sure he had at least a boat. Wish the board hadn't paired, but it was till a fun match up and it was fun to actually "play" a hand.
A couple of odd "house" issues:
I was in a hand with one of the tight regulars (Bill) and another pretty solid kid. The kid had raised PF to $10. I called with AQs and button and Bill came in from the big blind. The flop cam A rag rag. Bill opened for $15 (the "run away" bells were going off in my head. PFR put his last $6 on top of the $15 bet. I thought a while. WIth this action I wasn't too worried about the guy behind me calling. I was concerned that I was behind Bill, but I called the $6 raise, figuring that that raise wasn't big enough to open the betting for more raises. Guy behind me folds. BIl then tries to shove. I say that the $6 raise wasn't enough to open the action. The dealer said I was wrong, that "all-in" action is allowed following a all-in short bet. WTF? Bill pulled his bet back and didn't make a big deal about it. We all talked about it after the hand and for some reason, this place allows original bettor to go all-in (and all-in only no other riase amount is allowed) following a short all-in raise. Wow. I never heard of such nonsense. (In the big picture of that hand, it wouldn't have mattered. Bill only had $11 more which I would have called, and we chopped it up with AQs.)
Another "rediculous dealer moment" occurred with the guy that I hate mmore than just about any other dealer I've ever played with. This guy has zero personality, constantly misdeals and is always watching every thing but the game he is dealing. Except when someone "may" have mucked. He reaches out and spike muck cards like a lizard on a a fly. THWAP! The cards are in the muck. One of the kids was all-in with an Ax. There was enough action between 2 other players that the kid was sure he had no chance of winning and was standing up, his hand sitting in front of his chair. With other action up until the river, the cards weren't face up. One of the others folded and the kid was saying "I have no chance..." we were saying "fli it up, you never know" (the guy left standing was the action guy who had shown plenty of bluffs). Action guy flips up Kx (for K high) and the kid started to reach for his cards. Just as he did lizard boy dealer reached over in a blinding speed of light move and scooped his cards. TCHWACK! "Wait a minute, I had an Ace!" "Babble, babble, blah, he was mucking, babble , burble, blah, blah." I was pissed off and giving him a bunch of "that's bullshit" smack. The kid was fine with it, but I would have smashed his hand if he tried that to me (of course I wouldn't hae left my cards unprotected, but still...). The action guy was all "hey, I didn't do nothin' wrong" with a chesire cat grin on his face and we agreed that he was just stacking chips the dealer awarded him. Man I that dealer. I cringe every time I see him. Should have gone to lunch/dinner/shitter/IRS audit/root canal when I saw him coming.
I had been seated around 10:00am and aside from a several one or two hand smoke breaks, I was at the table all day. Never even took a lunch or dinner break. I wasn't really sure what my plan for leaving was (I could have gotten up at any time, but was never really feeling like I wanted to be away from the table (exept for when the lizard boy dealer sat down). So I just kept playing. Finally 8:00 rolls around and I decide that I need to get up. Having to work today, I wasn't planning on staying real late (although I wish I could have, we were really having a good time all day) so I called it a night and went to grab a sando before heading home.
I had my stack up to almost $400 at one point and took a couple of hits when I got rivered by a couple of flush chasers. After that, my stack fluctuated between $200 and $300 most of the day. Never really got hammered on any one hand, but had a few chunks here a few chunks there. I had just over $200 when I cahsed out. While I woulod have like to have booked the $300-$400 the aws within my grasp, I was happy to book a small win with hopes that the door on my 2 months of cold spell is closed for a while. And it was nice to have fun at the table. My last several sessions had a few moments, but it's nice to mix some pot drags in with the yucks.
I put my name on the 1/2 list and went to get some breakfast. I ate one of the worst omelettes I ever had and wandered back over to the rail to watch the toueny action while waiting for the rebuy period to get over so the players would start dropping out to open the tables for the cash games. Once the tables started breaking, they went quick. Before they could even get our first table full, they opened a 3/6 table and then another 1/2 table and then another 3/6 table. It actually took a couple of hours before our table was actually full. We played 8 handed for almost 2 hours despite a 2 page waitng list for the game (but they had no problem opening 2 other NL tables before filling ours).
Oor opening table featured a little bit of everything as far as playing styles. A couple of solid patieint players, a couple of clueless "WTF am I doing here?" players and a couple of aggressive wannabe youngins. There was one kid who bought in for $50, and was shoving on every other hand. ANd then he'd tell us all about our "good laydowns" and show his bluffs - the whole "I'm a real pro" routine. The guy to my left (a regular player there who's pretty solid and has been away for a month due to running bad) was gettnig real annoyed by the little punk's routine and would have done just about anything to clean him off the table.
I was pretty much staying out of the way of the action in the early going.I was actually getting my fair share of some reasonable starters, but they didn't hook up on the board and there was way too much bluffing going on around me to get involved in that game. About 3 or 4 orbits into the game, I hook up with AJ and limp from middle position (2 or 3 seats behind the aggressive punk). The flop came A46 . The agggressive punk pretends to shove and then looks up at the guy to my left: "Oh you're not in the hand, I'll just bet $20." I figured this was my cue to punish the little rugrat. "You wanna get your chips in? Let's rock!" and shoved my $90 at the pot. The guy to my left was squirming with joy and everyone folded back around to the punk who calls. I showed him what was supposed to be bad news, but he flipped up A4 for 2 pair. Great. I finally get a hand to bust this litle puke and he happened to hook up. The guy to my immediatel left (an older Asian guy) mentions that all I need is for the 6 to the board and I would take the lead. "Well of course, but that never happ..." as the dealer peeled a 6 right on to the board. Wow. I actually sucked out on a fishy! My 2 pair with better kicker held up and I actually apologized for the suck out. The steaming guy to my left belted out: "Why are you apologizing to that MF for?" (He was really agitated with that kid.) I thanked my neighbor for calling the card for me and asked him if I could get him up in the booth for my team. That got a few laughs and it wasn't too much longer before the punk kid was walkin out after his "just enough knowledge about uber-aggression to be dangerous" style did him in.
As usual, there was the our end/their end thing going on. Our end was the "(at least reasonably) solid, patient, thinking" end the other end was the "reckless action" end most of the hands were being battled by the clowns at the other end, but if one of the guys from our end got involved with them, we usually drew blood.
Don't really remember anything too specific about much of the next couple hours except that my stack was slowly but steadily growing. I managed to get a little respect from most of the table and didn't face a showdown for some time. I was just able to steadily pick up the small and medium pots when I was involved. Most of the time I had what they thought I had, but I did take a couple pots just because I bet.
A little later, there was this kid who was an open book in big bold letters. Even I could read him. Kind of nice when you know exactly what someone is holding. I was sad to see him go, but it was a pretty entertaining hand that sent him packing.
I was out and just watching. The board had a bunch of rags in which a 4 made a 6 high straight, but 47 was th nuts. There was little action until the river (which was the magic card that connected all the dots). There were 4 active players. The opener fired a $10 pot sized bet. Next guy called. The pretty solid kid to my right jumped out, called and showed his 4 before the Book had acted. He pulled his bet back and the second player made a point of telling the Book that a 4 had been shown. The Book suddenly shoved about $60 at the pot. We were all stunned and the kid to my right knew what that meant and mucked his straight. The opener also eventually got out of the way. The second player to act immediately called and showed the nuts and started lecturing the Book. "What are you thinking?" (The Book didn't have the nuts.) It turns out that the guy with the nuts was the Book's father and while he got more money out of the pot because of the shove, it was coming out of his kid's pocket. It turns out that all 4 players in the hand had the 4. Pretty wild. (The Book's dad wasn't much better than his kid and I got a little healthier off of his calling station ways for about an hour.)
The table turned over a few times and eventually the table was filling a bunch of the core regulars. It was actually a pretty fun table. There was the right balance of respect and silliness to keep the game live without it getting out of hand. There was one real live action guy at the other end of the table who was real obnoxious, but in a fun way. He opened one pot for $10 and started staring everyone down as it was their turn. I look down to find AA and stared back at him. "You staring me down?!" He nodded and I played along. "Alright tough guy, I'll raise you!" and popped it another $20. Brian (one of the core regulars) was toying with the idea of getting involved and making a play. We didn't even see still him in the hand and the other guy shoved and I called before we realized he was still thinking. That action got him out real fast. The action guy flipped up KK and winced bad when he saw the rockets. They held and I cleaned him out. (He rebought and quickly built a real nice stack within minutes. But he pretty much stayed out of my way the rest of the night
)One of the ugliest hands of his storm trooping happened a few orbits later. The board was painted and paired and ugly and he and his neighbor had been jabbing at each other throughout the hand. On the river, the action guy checked dark and a 9 (which looked pretty blanky) hit the river. His neighbor bet eneough to get himself commited, action guy wnet all-in and was called. He flipped up 99 for a rivered boat and his neighbor's straight (made on the river) was no good and he was packing. We all gave him a bunch of shit for how stanky that was (all in good fun of course).
At one point another pretty solid kid came in asn was to my left. A little earlier he fell victim to a "called the raise because they were suited" play when his TPTK happend to fall with a pair of rags that just happened to match the suited rag in the other guy's hand. When an A hit the turn, the kid was in and was sick when the guy turned up K6. He was in a hand with 55. HE flopped a set and played it strong on the turn. The river brought a flush on the board, but he failed to see that it also paired the board. One of the flush chaser's bet and he held up his cards so that we could admire his great laydown. I caught glimpse of his cards and just as he was pitching them to the dealer, I said "You gonna lay THAT down!". He saw what we saw just as the cards left his hand and he made 3 or 4 stabs at trying to grab the cards while they were still in the air so could avoid a huge mistake. It all went down in one of those slow motion "Noooooooooooooooo" kind of scenes and was hilarious. The flush guy showed the nut flush and guarnateed that all of his chips would have been in the pot. We gave him hourly shit for that for the rest of the evening. He was a pretty solid player giving and getting the proper amount of respect and this came into play an hour or so later in a hand between the 2 of us.
I was in the SB with T8 and pitched in the extra dollar to see the flop. Flop hit 9JQ all red, 2 hearts. I hit the straight and opened for $10 hoping to take it right then and there. The soid kid had moved from my left to my right and was on the button. He called the flop bet. The turn brought a Q to pair the board. I was so worried about hearts that I wasn't prepared for a board pairing disaster. I paused and checked. The kid thought for a moment and then opened for $20. Hmmmm. While the kid was thinking, I decided to try to put a bit of a move on him if he bet. He was the right kind of player that I would know how to react to his reaction to my move. If he had the boat (or better) I had 0 outs to draw out on him, so I wanted this hand to end right here one way or the other. I fired a $40 c/r at him and he mentally stepped back a few paces and went into the tank.
He thought and thought and finally shoved his last $70 at me. Well that pretty much sealed the deal. I think he would have laid down AQ or KQ or some other non-boat hand. He was sharp enough to understand the likely implications of a checkraise, from a tight player on that kind of board. I gave it a good show and said "OK, you have the boat and I have no outs. Nice hand" and mucked. He never confirmed or denied but I'm 98% sure he had at least a boat. Wish the board hadn't paired, but it was till a fun match up and it was fun to actually "play" a hand.
A couple of odd "house" issues:
I was in a hand with one of the tight regulars (Bill) and another pretty solid kid. The kid had raised PF to $10. I called with AQs and button and Bill came in from the big blind. The flop cam A rag rag. Bill opened for $15 (the "run away" bells were going off in my head. PFR put his last $6 on top of the $15 bet. I thought a while. WIth this action I wasn't too worried about the guy behind me calling. I was concerned that I was behind Bill, but I called the $6 raise, figuring that that raise wasn't big enough to open the betting for more raises. Guy behind me folds. BIl then tries to shove. I say that the $6 raise wasn't enough to open the action. The dealer said I was wrong, that "all-in" action is allowed following a all-in short bet. WTF? Bill pulled his bet back and didn't make a big deal about it. We all talked about it after the hand and for some reason, this place allows original bettor to go all-in (and all-in only no other riase amount is allowed) following a short all-in raise. Wow. I never heard of such nonsense. (In the big picture of that hand, it wouldn't have mattered. Bill only had $11 more which I would have called, and we chopped it up with AQs.)
Another "rediculous dealer moment" occurred with the guy that I hate mmore than just about any other dealer I've ever played with. This guy has zero personality, constantly misdeals and is always watching every thing but the game he is dealing. Except when someone "may" have mucked. He reaches out and spike muck cards like a lizard on a a fly. THWAP! The cards are in the muck. One of the kids was all-in with an Ax. There was enough action between 2 other players that the kid was sure he had no chance of winning and was standing up, his hand sitting in front of his chair. With other action up until the river, the cards weren't face up. One of the others folded and the kid was saying "I have no chance..." we were saying "fli it up, you never know" (the guy left standing was the action guy who had shown plenty of bluffs). Action guy flips up Kx (for K high) and the kid started to reach for his cards. Just as he did lizard boy dealer reached over in a blinding speed of light move and scooped his cards. TCHWACK! "Wait a minute, I had an Ace!" "Babble, babble, blah, he was mucking, babble , burble, blah, blah." I was pissed off and giving him a bunch of "that's bullshit" smack. The kid was fine with it, but I would have smashed his hand if he tried that to me (of course I wouldn't hae left my cards unprotected, but still...). The action guy was all "hey, I didn't do nothin' wrong" with a chesire cat grin on his face and we agreed that he was just stacking chips the dealer awarded him. Man I that dealer. I cringe every time I see him. Should have gone to lunch/dinner/shitter/IRS audit/root canal when I saw him coming.
I had been seated around 10:00am and aside from a several one or two hand smoke breaks, I was at the table all day. Never even took a lunch or dinner break. I wasn't really sure what my plan for leaving was (I could have gotten up at any time, but was never really feeling like I wanted to be away from the table (exept for when the lizard boy dealer sat down). So I just kept playing. Finally 8:00 rolls around and I decide that I need to get up. Having to work today, I wasn't planning on staying real late (although I wish I could have, we were really having a good time all day) so I called it a night and went to grab a sando before heading home.
I had my stack up to almost $400 at one point and took a couple of hits when I got rivered by a couple of flush chasers. After that, my stack fluctuated between $200 and $300 most of the day. Never really got hammered on any one hand, but had a few chunks here a few chunks there. I had just over $200 when I cahsed out. While I woulod have like to have booked the $300-$400 the aws within my grasp, I was happy to book a small win with hopes that the door on my 2 months of cold spell is closed for a while. And it was nice to have fun at the table. My last several sessions had a few moments, but it's nice to mix some pot drags in with the yucks.
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