Crazy Ivan

First off, here is a pic from my trip...

Trafalgar Square. I think its a little different than what you normally get in holiday photos. I just like the way it came out.

Now on to poker and the mad Russian. After returning from England, I first played poker at Paul's house where I faired well and had a good time. Kid, Kirk, and I hit up Del Taco afterward for the traditional waisting-of-time-in-the-parking-lot-eating-bad-food-when-you're-not-even-hungry session. The following night, I played at Emeliano's house in Santa Monica...the modern version of our old home game. That was a good time, too. Jeff and I got caught up after the game. That's really cool because it looked like we might never speak again after an incident in Arizona about a year and a half ago.

I finally made my "Ali-like return" to Commerce Casino on Wednesday. The place was doing well for action. Sadly, the $400 games were filled with old guys and wild Asians. I've been playing there long enough to know who to stay away from. At first glance, The $200 games didn't appear to be much better but there were more of them running so I got on that list. The game I sat in looked like it could be tough. There were a couple wild players and a few rocks so I decided to tread carefully for a while and ask for a table change if the mood didn't suit my game. I quickly picked up a tell on the man in the 1 seat. After the board cards came out, he would look at the other players who were to act ahead of him if he didn't get any piece of it. But if he caught, he would avoid eye contact, mainly looking toward his own cards and chips. I must have been the only one to notice this because everyone else kept betting in to him when he had a hand. I didn't get a chance to take advantage of this, though as we never tangled before he left.

Then the table changed a bit. One of the wild guys left as did a couple of the rocks. They were replaced by some average weak/loose players. The wild player who stuck around turned out to be really easy to play against. He missed bets in some spots and over-bet in others costing himself plenty of money. I spent about 3 1/2 hours at that table during which time I sank to $30, added on a second buy (to $230), and built back up to $725. Then the table broke. I was playing well so I decided to check out the new table just in case it was good. Turns out it wasn't.

One thing I try to avoid is crazy players. People who are likely to play any two cards at any time for any price. It turns the game into a crap shoot. They'll lose their money almost every time but they will take some from other players before that. You don't want to be the one caught under the wheels of that truck. They take from you and give to everyone else. In this case, there were two...count 'em...2 nutty Russians in the game. There was also a wild Asian guy but I knew from experience how to handle him. I should have left as soon as I identified the situation. But I didn't. Long story short, one of the Ruskies made a hit and run with $1500 and the other stuck around to suck out on me. I found A-A in the big blind. The flop was Ac-6c-7h. I made it expensive to see the turn but the UTG player called giving Ivan better odds to call as well...not that he wouldn't have anyway. Turn was an off-suit 5. I bet $100 into $160. UTG raised the same amount and Ivan called. I had $340 behind and, although I realized I could be behind, there was no actual reason for me to think I was. I had already put UTG on a big Ace so he was out of the picture. I could only hope that Ivan was on a flush draw. Perhaps moving in would get him to lay it down. Even if he wouldn't fold, calling was not the right play. I would be pot-committed and first to act on the river. (A stop-and-go doesn't apply on the river for anyone thinking about that.) My best play was to move all-in which I did.

Ivan pretended to be iritated as if he didn't like my raise and shoved his rack of chips in the middle...out of turn. It was clear to me that he was playing an angle. He was trying to make it look like he was drawing while giving the UTG player better odds to call. After a while, he did call. Ivan's chips were already in and I was begging (inside) for the board to pair. Nope. The Russian turned over 8-9. UTG mucked saying he had A-5. While he was thinking about calling, I thought about telling the UTG players to get away from it since I knew I had him beat and was pretty sure that Ivan had us both. It would have been done out of spite which is why I didn't do it. I do have respect for the game even when others don't.

The Russian had me covered. It was 4am and I was tired. The next night I went to The Bike because I heard the action was good there right now. More on that later...

SEEYa