I've added a new link (at right) to a blog I just found on a site that I have frequented for a long time. Steve Vai is one of the greatest guitarists around. I would go so far as to say he is the best of the best. Even if you don't know who he is, you've probably heard his music. Check him out.
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Admittedly, the title of this post is in bad taste. Here is why...
Yesterday, I had my poker play criticized by a quadriplegic guy. I sat next to him in a tournament a long time ago and have since seen him around, but this was the first time playing in a cash game with him. The tourney stint was shorter as cash games tend to go much longer with the same people. So there had to be a revalation.
This guy plays with the assistance of a friend who does not play. He lifts his cards for him to see then acts on whatever he says to do -- bet 25, fold, etc. My past impression was that he was quiet, a solid player, and a nice guy. I had assumed that he had a better perspective on the game and life since he had to "persevere" through something the rest of us have not. But it turns out he's a dick. (So I'll refer to him as Dick.)
Dick was in the 4 seat with his assistant in the 4 1/2 seat. There was a hand in which someone raised in middle position (it might have been me in the 9 seat). The 1s called and the 2s reraised. (BTW, I hate the term "reraise." A raise is a raise as far as I am concerned. But I admit it helps in describing hands in print.) It folded all the way back around to the 1s who made another big raise. It was an odd play and sent the 2s into the tank. He had only been thinking for about 20 to 30 seconds when Dick asked for a clock. The 3s seemed to be a friend of the 2s so he spoke up. DIck protested that it had been two minutes but the rest of us agreed that it had not been very long at all. We also all realized there was alot of money in the pot so a little time to think was certainly warranted. The floor man arrived and agreed with the majority (8-1 1/2...DIck's assistant had thrown in his two cents) and declined to start a clock. It didn't take much longer for the 2s to act, folding, and discussion resumed about Dick being too quick to call for time. Then he said, "I don't mind the decision. I'm just mad about your girlfriend getting involved." Dick, of course, was referring to seat 3. And that didn't go over well.
I was surprised. My perception of him was smashed. Then a very strange hand went down. Dick's handler left the table leaving the dealer to reach across and turn up the corner of his cards for him to see. He was under the gun with a straddle on. As the dealer showed him his cards, he exclaimed, "He saw my cards," with his eyes averted to his right toward seat 3. But the guy in seat 3 had been sitting forward with his head down and his view impeded by his own cap. 3s didn't say anything until directly questioned to which he simply shook head. Dick persisted a little longer but I defended the 3s as he had made no extra effort to see his neighbor's cards and it wouldn't matter anyway.
Dick finally gave up and called the $10 straddle. There were a couple other callers and I found A-Ko on the button. I raised to $55 to get rid of some of the limpers. Both blinds folded and the straddler in the 3s called. Then Dick completed a limp-reraise play declaring all-in for $210 total. It folded back to me and I thought about it for a while, trying to talk myself into calling. But I was at best in a race situation. I decided against it and folded. Back to seat 3. He thought for a moment then folded as well. Discussion broke out around the table and everyone egreed that I could have and, likely, should have called. Then Dick chimed in. He claimed to have had Aces and lectured me, "You shouldn't raise if you can't call." The 3s and I exchanged a look of bemusement. I entertained the statement and suggested that it did not actually apply to the situation at hand. He abruptly responded, "Yes it does!" Me: Done. There was no chance for a thoughtful conversation.
There were a few other times Dick made ignorrant and annoying statements throughout the night. For instance, he was called down through the turn by a player who had the nut flush and straight draws. The draws missed, they checked the river and, upon seeing the losing missed draw, he belittled the other player (a very strong player) querying, "Why were you calling?" He certainly solidified his new moniker.
SEEYa
Friday, February 23, 2007
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Busted Cherry and a Question Answered
Last week, I finally got into my first "regular" poker rotation. I started on Wednesday night and followed it up with Thursday and Friday nights, all at the Bike. I had been wanting to make the change from Commerce to the Bike for a long time but hadn't completely made the jump as there isn't always action at the Bike. But its nice enough there to warrant starting out at the Bike and moving on to Commerce if its absolutely necessary. So I finally committed to it.
Wednesday night started slowly as I waited on the list for their 5-5 NLH games (2 tables running) for about ten minutes before electing to take a seat in a 3-5 NLH game while waiting. I prefer the 5-5 to the 3-5 because the higher game has a bigger spread-limit buy-in of $300 to $500. This makes for a much better game than the $200 fixed buy-in at the 3-5 game. I played the blinds and my button before getting the call for my preferred limit and took it.
Long story short, the deck hit me, big time. I was ready to play tight and had no trouble doing so as I picked up plenty of good starting hands and connected on several flops. I also got paid off with a good amount of my nuttier hands. Then something really nice happened...
The bad-beat jackpot at the Bike requires Aces full of tens (I think) beat by four of a kind or better. Then there is the double period from 7pm to midnight (as I was told) during which the payout can be doubled if both players involved in a jackpot use both their hole cards. For the uninitiated, the jackpot is divied up as follows: 50% to the losing hand, 25% to the winning hand, and the remaining 25% is shared by everyone else at the table who was dealt into the hand (known as "the share").
I'd never been involved in any part of a jackpot and, needless to say at this point, that cherry finally got popped (please excuse the crude reference). In many cases, players get excited when they see a flop containing two Aces and a picture card. However, in this instance, no one was really paying too much attention to the hand until all the money went in on the turn with a board of x-10-2-10. The caller, in first position, quickly revealed her pocket 10's for four of a kind. The other player held his cards high a said, "we need a 2," before slapping down his pocket deuces face up. I repeated to him that a 2 would be good. It actually seemed very possible...just one of those feelings. Then, before most of the table had a chance to realize what was going on, the dealer pealed off the bestest card...the 2.
Doubled, the jockpot was just over $20K. That meant $10k to the loser, $5k to the winner (including the $800 pot), and $736 to the rest of us. Here's the other thing...having only ever seen jackpot hands hit at nearby tables (always a bridesmaid, so to speak) and seeing everyone jump up in celebration, I have long wondered how I would react to winning just a share. But that is based on the fact that shares are usually less than the average stack at a table. Well, I finially have the answer to that question. The case 2 hit the felt, the table erupted, and I sat there and said, "......................How cool." Then I low-fived the loser and the woman to my right.
That was it. Nice to win some extra scratch but nothing to lose my head over. Its still nice to have finally been involved in one. It has given me some more hope that I will likely be involved in more jackpots as I play more. How can you not like free money. I mean, I was just sitting there, minding my own, tight-aggressive business.
On Thursday, I played with a man claiming to be the father of poker pro Daniel Alaie. Then, on Friday, we had a fish who took a verbal beating throughout the night. But those stories are for another day...I'm not in writing shape anymore....I feel drained.
SEEYa
Wednesday night started slowly as I waited on the list for their 5-5 NLH games (2 tables running) for about ten minutes before electing to take a seat in a 3-5 NLH game while waiting. I prefer the 5-5 to the 3-5 because the higher game has a bigger spread-limit buy-in of $300 to $500. This makes for a much better game than the $200 fixed buy-in at the 3-5 game. I played the blinds and my button before getting the call for my preferred limit and took it.
Long story short, the deck hit me, big time. I was ready to play tight and had no trouble doing so as I picked up plenty of good starting hands and connected on several flops. I also got paid off with a good amount of my nuttier hands. Then something really nice happened...
The bad-beat jackpot at the Bike requires Aces full of tens (I think) beat by four of a kind or better. Then there is the double period from 7pm to midnight (as I was told) during which the payout can be doubled if both players involved in a jackpot use both their hole cards. For the uninitiated, the jackpot is divied up as follows: 50% to the losing hand, 25% to the winning hand, and the remaining 25% is shared by everyone else at the table who was dealt into the hand (known as "the share").
I'd never been involved in any part of a jackpot and, needless to say at this point, that cherry finally got popped (please excuse the crude reference). In many cases, players get excited when they see a flop containing two Aces and a picture card. However, in this instance, no one was really paying too much attention to the hand until all the money went in on the turn with a board of x-10-2-10. The caller, in first position, quickly revealed her pocket 10's for four of a kind. The other player held his cards high a said, "we need a 2," before slapping down his pocket deuces face up. I repeated to him that a 2 would be good. It actually seemed very possible...just one of those feelings. Then, before most of the table had a chance to realize what was going on, the dealer pealed off the bestest card...the 2.
Doubled, the jockpot was just over $20K. That meant $10k to the loser, $5k to the winner (including the $800 pot), and $736 to the rest of us. Here's the other thing...having only ever seen jackpot hands hit at nearby tables (always a bridesmaid, so to speak) and seeing everyone jump up in celebration, I have long wondered how I would react to winning just a share. But that is based on the fact that shares are usually less than the average stack at a table. Well, I finially have the answer to that question. The case 2 hit the felt, the table erupted, and I sat there and said, "......................How cool." Then I low-fived the loser and the woman to my right.
That was it. Nice to win some extra scratch but nothing to lose my head over. Its still nice to have finally been involved in one. It has given me some more hope that I will likely be involved in more jackpots as I play more. How can you not like free money. I mean, I was just sitting there, minding my own, tight-aggressive business.
On Thursday, I played with a man claiming to be the father of poker pro Daniel Alaie. Then, on Friday, we had a fish who took a verbal beating throughout the night. But those stories are for another day...I'm not in writing shape anymore....I feel drained.
SEEYa
Friday, February 09, 2007
Caramel Cider and the Estefans
At Starbucks, they usually have a chalkboard surface near where you wait for your drinks on which they put the barista's name and some info including a drink suggestion. The one I go to has this...
your barista suggests: "Festooning your guts about my living room while carving Lucifer's symbol into your rotting flesh... or how about a Caramel Apple Cicer."
There are some very interesting people working there. I am pleased to say that this has remained on the board all week.
And now, the Estefans...
I was in Las Vegas with Kid a couple weeks ago for our now (and hopefully continuing) monthly trip. On our second night, we played at Caesars. They have a terrific poker room. Its at least twice the size of Bellagio's with plenty of LCD TVs and lots of space between each table so you never have anyone bumping into you while trying to pass. Unfortunately, its located through an inconspicuous hallway snuggled between the sports book and their night club, PURE. You pretty much have to be looking for it so there doesn’t tend to be as much action as there should be for such an accommodating place.
The game I was playing in was one of only a couple 2-5 NL Hold’ems running. I got into my usual babbling act. My opponents were a good audience which means I was having fun. At many casinos these days, they put the face of their headlining acts on gaming chips. For instance, the Alladin (soon to be Planet Hollywood) has Chris Angel. Celine Dion and Elton John both have regular gigs at Caesars Palace Las Vegas so, of course, they are also on chips. I assume that Elton is on $10 or $25 chips since I didn’t see his face on any of the $1, $2, or $5 chips used in our game. But there were plenty of $5’s with Celine’s face glaring up at me.
I started groaning about how she kept staring at me. Let’s just say I’m not a big fan. Some found my angst humorous. But they really got a kick out of my joy in finding a $5 chip with Gloria Estefan on it. Or maybe I enjoyed it enough for everyone. At any rate, I started a dialogue about the merits of Gloria vs. Celine. Then I noticed that the Celine Dion chips were marked with production numbers showing x/10,000. I quickly fished out an ‘Estefan’ (as they became known) to look for the same. There it was: x/2500! That’s right! The Estefans are more rare and, therefore, more valuable than the Dions. I immediately began collecting them, putting aside any found in pots that I pulled in.
Then there was Brandon. Sitting on my left, he got in on the Estefan action and found number 0059/2500, the lowest we had found to that point. It would remain the lowest discovered all night. He had it well protected, sitting atop all $4k of his chips and cash in play. No one at the table had anywhere near enough to put him all in and that was the only way to get 0059 from him. For the next couple of hours, Brando reveled in torturing me with his prized Estefan.
Eventually, we had everyone at the table searching through their stacks for hidden Estefans. It became a contest of who could amass the most or find the lowest number. I found a total of 7 while the player to Brando’s left gladly traded the few that he found, giving Brando as many as 5 or 6, if I recall correctly. But nobody was handing any to me, damn it! I would have to get them the old fashioned way…win them. From that point forward, whenever I saw Gloria looking up from the middle of a pot, I would try to find a way to get involved so I could take it down. But, in all seriousness, I didn’t actually get out of line.
By the end of the night, the table had dwindled to Brando, his buddy Shaun, an Asian guy, me, and 1 fish. We certainly would have ended the game a half hour earlier than we eventually did had it not been for his presence. It seemed like he was actually willing to give his chips away and we were all trying to get our piece of the action. Then I made the play of the night. I picked up the Bonedoneskis (6h-6d) in the ultimate 5-handed position being early, middle, and late all at the same time. I raised to $15 using three Estefans face up and making it known. This induced a call from Brando, Asian guy, and Sean also using their Estefans. I still don’t know why the fish folded. He was ultra loose and certainly priced in to making that call from the BB. But good thing he did.
The flop was Ace high and, being first to act, I led out for $30 which included the last of my Estefans. Again, I pointed out that fact. Brando and AG called again but not so quickly this time. Now all the Estefans were in the pot. The turn didn’t change anything and I was determined to fight for Gloria. So I led out again with $45. This time, Brando thought for a bit and decided to fold leaving the action on AG (BTW, a very good player). He also went into the tank. He started talking his way through it and painfully decided to fold. AG declared that he had A-10 to which Brando announced the same holding. It was late, we were all playing well and having fun, and I was raking in all the Estefans, so I decided to show my small pocket pair. I also announced that I had “the Bonedoneskis” but they didn’t yet know what that meant. They seemed shocked at my hand but not upset because they knew I had been establishing my image all night to set up that play. At least I think they were cool about it.
Kid and I went to the nearest bar to grab a drink with Brando and Sean. Cool guys. We gave them a primer on the rules of Bonedoneskis. I think we might end up playing it at a home game in Vegas soon. Its sweeping the nation, I tell ya!
BTW, I also got number 0059 from Brando in that big pot and saved it. Unfortunately, I won’t get to flaunt it when we meet again as he has since acquired #0026. But we can be fairly certain #0009 is back in circulation since he recently spotted it. The game is afoot.
your barista suggests: "Festooning your guts about my living room while carving Lucifer's symbol into your rotting flesh... or how about a Caramel Apple Cicer."
There are some very interesting people working there. I am pleased to say that this has remained on the board all week.
And now, the Estefans...
I was in Las Vegas with Kid a couple weeks ago for our now (and hopefully continuing) monthly trip. On our second night, we played at Caesars. They have a terrific poker room. Its at least twice the size of Bellagio's with plenty of LCD TVs and lots of space between each table so you never have anyone bumping into you while trying to pass. Unfortunately, its located through an inconspicuous hallway snuggled between the sports book and their night club, PURE. You pretty much have to be looking for it so there doesn’t tend to be as much action as there should be for such an accommodating place.
The game I was playing in was one of only a couple 2-5 NL Hold’ems running. I got into my usual babbling act. My opponents were a good audience which means I was having fun. At many casinos these days, they put the face of their headlining acts on gaming chips. For instance, the Alladin (soon to be Planet Hollywood) has Chris Angel. Celine Dion and Elton John both have regular gigs at Caesars Palace Las Vegas so, of course, they are also on chips. I assume that Elton is on $10 or $25 chips since I didn’t see his face on any of the $1, $2, or $5 chips used in our game. But there were plenty of $5’s with Celine’s face glaring up at me.
I started groaning about how she kept staring at me. Let’s just say I’m not a big fan. Some found my angst humorous. But they really got a kick out of my joy in finding a $5 chip with Gloria Estefan on it. Or maybe I enjoyed it enough for everyone. At any rate, I started a dialogue about the merits of Gloria vs. Celine. Then I noticed that the Celine Dion chips were marked with production numbers showing x/10,000. I quickly fished out an ‘Estefan’ (as they became known) to look for the same. There it was: x/2500! That’s right! The Estefans are more rare and, therefore, more valuable than the Dions. I immediately began collecting them, putting aside any found in pots that I pulled in.
Then there was Brandon. Sitting on my left, he got in on the Estefan action and found number 0059/2500, the lowest we had found to that point. It would remain the lowest discovered all night. He had it well protected, sitting atop all $4k of his chips and cash in play. No one at the table had anywhere near enough to put him all in and that was the only way to get 0059 from him. For the next couple of hours, Brando reveled in torturing me with his prized Estefan.
Eventually, we had everyone at the table searching through their stacks for hidden Estefans. It became a contest of who could amass the most or find the lowest number. I found a total of 7 while the player to Brando’s left gladly traded the few that he found, giving Brando as many as 5 or 6, if I recall correctly. But nobody was handing any to me, damn it! I would have to get them the old fashioned way…win them. From that point forward, whenever I saw Gloria looking up from the middle of a pot, I would try to find a way to get involved so I could take it down. But, in all seriousness, I didn’t actually get out of line.
By the end of the night, the table had dwindled to Brando, his buddy Shaun, an Asian guy, me, and 1 fish. We certainly would have ended the game a half hour earlier than we eventually did had it not been for his presence. It seemed like he was actually willing to give his chips away and we were all trying to get our piece of the action. Then I made the play of the night. I picked up the Bonedoneskis (6h-6d) in the ultimate 5-handed position being early, middle, and late all at the same time. I raised to $15 using three Estefans face up and making it known. This induced a call from Brando, Asian guy, and Sean also using their Estefans. I still don’t know why the fish folded. He was ultra loose and certainly priced in to making that call from the BB. But good thing he did.
The flop was Ace high and, being first to act, I led out for $30 which included the last of my Estefans. Again, I pointed out that fact. Brando and AG called again but not so quickly this time. Now all the Estefans were in the pot. The turn didn’t change anything and I was determined to fight for Gloria. So I led out again with $45. This time, Brando thought for a bit and decided to fold leaving the action on AG (BTW, a very good player). He also went into the tank. He started talking his way through it and painfully decided to fold. AG declared that he had A-10 to which Brando announced the same holding. It was late, we were all playing well and having fun, and I was raking in all the Estefans, so I decided to show my small pocket pair. I also announced that I had “the Bonedoneskis” but they didn’t yet know what that meant. They seemed shocked at my hand but not upset because they knew I had been establishing my image all night to set up that play. At least I think they were cool about it.
Kid and I went to the nearest bar to grab a drink with Brando and Sean. Cool guys. We gave them a primer on the rules of Bonedoneskis. I think we might end up playing it at a home game in Vegas soon. Its sweeping the nation, I tell ya!
BTW, I also got number 0059 from Brando in that big pot and saved it. Unfortunately, I won’t get to flaunt it when we meet again as he has since acquired #0026. But we can be fairly certain #0009 is back in circulation since he recently spotted it. The game is afoot.
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