"Don't Let Him Look at Your Boobs"

Flattery will get you…...somewhere.

In response to the post here, one of my readers, xdex7, posted a comment complimenting me for doing a good job with my tournament summary and thanking me for posting it.  He said that most of the blogs he reads don’t do tournament summaries. That got my attention because the tournament wasn’t even the main part of that post.  I actually haven’t done too many tournament recaps lately, not feeling very motivated to write them up unless I cashed.  And lately, I haven’t cashed in many.

But xdex7 gave me some motivation.  I remembered a tournament where I lasted a long time but didn’t cash. More important in my mind however, was that there was a classic “woman said” from it.   For over a year, it’s been eating at me that I had this “woman said” out there and just hadn’t been able to get it up here on the blog. And the longer I waited, the less interested I was in revisiting that tournament.  But xdex7 inspired me.  I knew at least one reader who would like to hear about this tournament.  And there must be at least one or two of you out there who would like the “woman said.”  So, here’s the story on a Binions 2PM tournament from last year.  This one’s for you, xdex7!

Before the tournament I noticed another tournament going on, and recognized a bunch of my Vegas pals playing in it.  One of those pals was Jeanne.  It’s important that you to know that I first met Jeanne when I noticed her taking a picture of her friend’s cleavage (see here) at this same Binion’s tournament over a year before.  And it’s also important for you to know that a few months later Jeanne insisted that I take a picture of her and her two pals pulling down their shirts and modeling their cleavage (see here). For some inexplicable reason, to this day, Jeanne thinks of me as a “boob-man”—and rarely lets me forget it.  Go figure.

Anyway, Jeanne and I had a nice chat while she was playing.  Then I left to play in the 2PM.  Now, there was this guy directly to my right at the table who I didn’t recognize (and I recognize a lot of the players every time I play this) and who I figured out was visiting from out of town. 

As I am known to do, I was taking notes in my trusty notepad, and the guy never said anything about that, unlike others who have indeed commented about it.  But at one point, I dropped my notebook and he noticed it on the floor before I did and pointed it out to me. 

So, a few hours into the tournament Jeanne, finished with her tournament,  came over to my table.  But she didn’t come to see me.  No, it seemed she knew the guy next to me—the guy who had pointed out my fallen notebook.  Sidenote: The poker world is a very small community and these days, I’m more surprised when two poker people don’t know each other than when they do.

She nodded to me but carried on a fairly lengthy conversation with this guy who had been to my right all afternoon.  Then suddenly, she pointed to me and said to him, “Watch out for this guy.  He’ll write about everything you do and everything you say.  And whatever you do, don’t show him any cleavage, because he’ll write about that.”  This was said loudly enough for everyone at our table—at least—to hear.

He didn’t seem to find that comment at all unusual.  All he said, “Yeah, yeah, he’s already writing about me. I picked his notebook up.”

She responded….”Well, don’t show your cleavage….don’t show your boobs….he’ll write about your boobs.”  And then she left.  (Note to Jeanne:  I generally don’t write about man-boobs)

To this day, it astonishes me that the guy never asked me what the heck she was talking about, but he didn’t.  He didn’t say a word about it.  And it was disappointing too, because if he had asked me, I already had the perfect response picked out.  I was going to say, “I have no idea who that woman is.”

First level, in early position, I raised to $300 with Queen-Jack of spades.  One player called.  Flop was King-10-4, one spade.  I bet $500, she made it $1K and I called.  A Jack hit the turn the turn and she bet $2k and I called.  The river was a 9 giving me the straight, but I checked worried she might have the top end of it.  She checked too and she had King-7 suited, top pair, crappy kicker.  (Edited to add, thanks to ohcowboy12go who was the first to comment on this post and noticed an error.  Originally I had it that the turn was a blank, but if that was true, she couldn't have had a bigger straight.  My voice recording totally ignores mentioning what the turn card was, which is way I thought it was a blank.  Hopefully it was a Jack--or a Queen--otherwise I didn't bet the nuts.  I'm sure there was a chance she had a bigger straight). 

To the fourth level, I had a bit over the $20K starting stack, blinds 200/400.  On the button I raised to $1,200 with Ace-Jack of diamonds. One guy—the big blind—called.  There were two diamonds on the flop, and the other guy led out with a $1,200 bet.  I called.  The third diamond hit the turn.  He bet $1,200 again.  I made it $4,500.  He shoved with a similar stack to mine.  Since I had the nuts, I of course called.  The river was a blank but he was drawing dead.  He had Queen-2 of diamonds for a small flush.

Fifth level (300/600), $51K stack.  I raised with pocket 8’s and no one called.  Very next hand I had pocket Jacks.  A guy in front of me raised to $1,200, I three-bet to $3,600.  He shoved for $11K.  Tough decision there but I called.  He had Ace-Queen and caught a Queen on the flop.  Ouch.

Then I had pocket 9’s and raised to $1,800.  The lady I mentioned early made it $5K.  She only had a few more thousand behind her. And she had been playing aggressively.  So I shoved to put her all in.  She called and showed pocket Queens.  Ugh.  But there was a 9 on the flop and, for good measure, another 9 on the river.  As she left, someone said to her, “Well, at least you can say you lost to quads.”

Fast forward to level 8 (100/600/1200), I started with nearly $40K.  I raised to $3,500 with Queen-Jack offsuit in late position and had one caller, a brand new player to the table. Flop was Jack-9-3.  He checked, I bet $6k.  He responded by shoving for $28K.  WTF?  As I said, new to the table.  I saw no point in risking half my stack in this spot, so I had to fold.

Next level a lady with a short stack shoved in front of me for $6-$7K.  That was a good time for me to be holding the dreadedpocket Kings.  I raised and no one else called.  She had pocket 6’s that didn’t improve. 

Level 11 (300/1200/2400), starting with about $72K.  I raised to $7,500 with Ace-King off.  The only caller was the big blind, the same guy who had check-raised me off the hand when he was brand new to the table. By now, I could see he wasn’t any kind of maniac, he was playing fairly tight.  The flop was Queen-10-4, rainbow.  He checked, I c-bet $12K and he shoved.  By this time, he had me covered.  With just a gut-shot, it was an easy fold to his check-raise.  This time he showed his hand, he had a set of 10’s.  He said, “We were in a big hand before, sir, so I want you to see I’m not bluffing.”  Nice of him.  But losing the chips hurt.

That same player got into an interesting hand with a nicely dressed woman I’ve played with before, normally a good player.  But she kind of embarrassed herself out of the tournament.  The guy had flopped a flush, and all she had was a pair of Kings (one King on the board).  She bet the river, and the guy, who had been slow-playing his flush, asked for the amount of her bet before he raised.  She thought he had called and showed her hand.  The player insisted—and the dealer confirmed—that he hadn’t taken any action yet, and then raised—a bit more than a min raise, not a shove.  Everyone had seen her hand, which the dealer had tried to instantly cover with his hand (she was directly to the dealer’s left).  But it was too late. She waited for the guy to show his cards, apparently not hearing yet that he had raised.  When the dealer told her, she said, “OK, all-in.”  She could have folded, or even called and still had chips left over; her “all-in” there was a horrifically bad play. The guy snap-called and showed the flush, and she was out.

The rest of us were all kind of surprised.  Her bet on the river wasn’t necessarily a mistake, but when he raised it should have been an easy fold for her. We came to the conclusion that she was so embarrassed by prematurely exposing her hand that she just wanted to get out of there so she wouldn’t be in the company of those of us who saw her mistake.  Weird.  Or maybe she had dinner plans.

Another bit of discussion was whether the dealer had made the right move by trying to cover her cards.  He was a new dealer and he just went by instincts, but I believe the general consensus was that he shouldn’t have done it.  It didn’t matter since the other player had seen it plain and clear.

Anyway, I said to the guy with the flush, “I thought it was just me that you flopped monsters against.”  He laughed and said, “No, no, nothing personal.”

By this time, I was down to shove-or-fold mode.  I took pots without resistance by shoving with Ace-King and pocket Jacks.  And then a level later, I did the same thing with Ace-10 and pocket Kings.  I had shoved so many times without getting called I decided to show the Kings just so they wouldn’t think I was shoving with mediocre or bad hands. 

I didn’t make a note of the level but we were down to about 24 players (paying 9) and I had less than 10 big blinds.  On the button, it folded to me with pocket 6’s.  I shoved.  The big blind, who had a big stack, called with Ace-Queen.  Because I had been shoving so often (and hadn’t just made a raise in a long time), someone sarcastically said, when they saw my 6’s, “Oh, he actually has a hand there.”

And there was a Queen on the flop, and another one on the river for good measure, and I was done.  I had survived 6 hours, but it wasn’t enough to cash.