Rebound

Where was I?  Oh yeah, as I mentioned here, I was just about to go out for my final session of my most recent Vegas trip.

I got to the poker room a bit before 6PM.  The table they sent me to was the same table where I had two horrific beats the day before.  I mentioned those hands in that post I just linked to: the set of 7’s beaten by a rivered flush and the pocket Aces taken down by Queen-4.  So I was already reluctant to take a seat at that table and then I noticed the lady dealing was the otherwise nice lady dealer who had dealt me the pocket Aces the day before.  For reference, she is the British dealer I mentioned in this post here, that fellow blogger MrBen had a nice conversation with in December.

I gulped and took seat 5.  I said hi to the dealer and then held up my two forefingers in a cross to try to ward off the evil emanating from her.  She said, “Yes, I guess after yesterday you don’t want to see me.”  Then she said she only remembered the result, but the details were vague to her.  So I described how the hand went down in excruciating detail.  Imagine a verbal telling of one my lengthier blog posts.  That’s what she got.

Fortunately she was almost finished with her down and she avoided dealing me anything to play this time.  However, she was replaced in the box by Ginger, who normally treats me well but happened to be the dealer who dealt me the set of 7’s hand the day before.  Someone was testing me.

And soon after she arrived, she sent me two Aces.  All I could think of was, “how am I gonna lose with them this time?”  Not the best attitude to have.  And then the guy to my immediate right raised to $15.  After rejecting the idea of just smooth-calling, tempting tho it was, I think I mentally reached into my pocket to pull out another buy-in.  But I went ahead and made it $40 and just the original raiser called.

The flop was Queen-high, rather dry, and I c-bet $70.  He folded.  Odd as it seems to say, but after the past few sessions, I felt like I had dodged a bullet.

A few hands later I had Ace-Jack offsuit in early position and raised to $8.  There were three callers, but there was also an Ace on the flop.  My $20 bet went uncalled.

Just as I was beginning to think things might have turned back around, I looked down at the dreaded pocket Kings.  Now this would be true test to see if my runbad was over.  First in, I raised to $8.  Only four players called.  What could go wrong?

But the flop was low.  There were two clubs but it looked otherwise harmless.  I bet $30 and no one called.  Phew.  If I could survive pocket Kings, I figured I could survive anything. 

Mike came to the table to deal.  Mike usually gives me pocket Kings but the hand I just described was from the previous dealer.  Instead, Mike gave me pocket Aces.   Second time in barely more than an hour.  The player to my right had changed, but this new guy raised in front of me too.  He made it $8, I made it $24.  He called and it was just the two of us seeing the flop, which was 4-3-2.  I c-bet $40 and he folded. 

I called a raise to $7 with Ace-Queen clubs.  Five of his saw the flop, which was King-Jack-10, one club, two diamonds.  The raiser bet $25 and I just called, everyone else folded.  Note: I’m scratching my head about that, that’s what my notes said, and I couldn’t remember it any differently the next morning when I did my voice notes.  It seems really odd that I would just call.  I virtually never slow-play a straight and with two diamonds on the flop, I dunno why I would have picked this hand to start.  But apparently I did.  The turn was a low black card and this time my opponent checked.  I bet $75 and he folded, showing a King and saying, “I believe you.”

I limped in with Ace-5 hearts.  A guy made it $13 and another player called.  I decided to come in for $11 more.  I guess I should mention those cash drawings again.  It was getting very close to 8PM, the time of the next drawing.  At the beginning of the month, they changed the drawings a bit.  There are six a day still, but five of those six times they give away $100 each to two drawn tickets.  The sixth time, they give away $1,000 as follows: First ticket drawn gets $400, the next six tickets drawn get $100 each.  When I got to the room, I asked if the $1,000 was still in play and it was.  And with about 10 minutes to go before the 8PM drawing, they announced that the eminent drawing would be for $1,000.  This meant an increased incentive to get tickets.  Remember, you need a flush or better to get a ticket.

As you will note, none of the hands I’ve described thus far involve me getting a flush or better.  So with a few minutes to go before the $1,000 giveaway, and a stack that was nearly double my $200 buy-in, I was somewhat incentivized to chase flushes for the next few minutes.  So that’s why I called.

The flop was King-10-4 two hearts.  The preflop raiser bet $20 and I called.  It was heads up.  The turn was a black 3, giving me a gut-shot to go along with my flush draw.  And interestingly enough, the guy bet only $17.  Weird.  I suppose with all my outs it might have been wise to raise there, but honestly, I didn’t want him to fold….I wanted to hit my flush and get a ticket to the drawing.  So I just called.  The river was a diamond, not a heart.  On the other hand, it was a deuce, giving me the wheel.  I had to settle for that.  This time the guy checked, and I bet $45.  Too much, I guess, he folded.

I limped in a few more times with questionable cards before the drawing, hoping to get a ticket…..a couple of unsuited Aces and a suited non-connector.  Nothing that cost me much, and nothing that hit the flop hard enough to get me to put any more money in.

So when the drawing started, I had zero tickets, zero chance to win any promo money, and I took a dinner break.  I had $372 in front of me and decided to leave my chips at the table and hold my seat while I took a quick bite.  Yeah, I know I’ve complained about players tying up seats like that.  I don’t like it, and I don’t like to do it myself, but they do allow it, and since my table and my seat were good—and I was having the first profitable session in a few days—I decided to be a hypocrite.  Besides, I know they allow 70 minutes at MGM and I knew I could eat and be back in less than half that, so it wouldn’t be so bad.

Indeed, I was back in less than half an hour but there had been a fairly dramatic turnover in the players.  Now, I should mention that the seat I was in was seat 5, which meant I had my back to walkway that would soon be filled with young ladies wearing their nightclub outfits.  Or, as I respectfully refer to it, The Slut Parade.  And in fact, after being back at the table for an hour or so, one of the dealers asked me, “Not interested in the parade tonight?”  I explained that the seat had been good to me and I didn’t want to leave it.  “There are always choices to be made,” I said.  The truth is, after the past few sessions, it was more important than usual for me to have a winning session if at all possible.

However, my post dinner results were not nearly as good.  I wasn’t getting any bad beats, but I wasn’t getting a lot of cards to play and the few speculative hands I played never went anywhere.  After a couple of hours, I had won one small pot and my stack had dripped down to below $300.  So when seat 9 opened up, I grabbed it.  I no longer had any attachment to seat 5 as it I was now just bleeding chips there.  And seat 9 offered me a view of the aforementioned young ladies, who were about to invade the casino.

In the new seat, I got the dreaded hand again.  I bet $10 and had three callers.  The flop was Queen-Queen-X.  I nervously put out $30 (pretty much anything I do when I have pocket Kings is done nervously) and was more than happy to not get a call.

Before I knew it, it was 11:30 and my stack was now under $300. It was beginning to look like the best I could hope for was a more-or-less break even session with no “cooler” hands.  I figured I’d play to midnite because I had to get up early the next day, pack up the car, and drive the 4-1/2 hours to get back to L.A.  That also gave me 30 more minutes to get a drawing ticket.  Of course, I knew the drawing would only be for two $100 winners so I wasn’t all that excited about it, and not about to go crazy trying to get a damn ticket.

The dealer this last half hour was Derek—at least that’s what I’ve called him previously so we’ll stick with that.  In the big blind Derek gave me 9-3 of spades, not exactly a thrilling hand.  But no one raised, there were 4 or 5 of us who saw the flop.  It was all spades.  I led out for $6 and it folded to the small blind.  He check-raised to $20.  I suppose the ticket was in the back of my mind but I certainly thought he could have top pair, two pair, a set or even a worse flush.  So for another $14, I called.  The turn was the Jack of spades, which I sure didn’t like.  He checked and I checked behind.  The river was a blank, and the guy put out $20.  OK, I guess this was a crying call, but I still thought there was at least some chance I had the best hand.  And I knew if I called the $20 I’d get a ticket.  I wouldn’t have called much more. He showed Queen-4 of spades.  Lost the hand, got a ticket.

I limped/called $10 with pocket 8’s.  The flop was J-3-3.  It was checked around.  The turn was a blank and the preflop raiser led out for $15.  Heads up, I decided to call.  I had a feeling he had an Ace-King type hand and after failing to c-bet, was just trying to steal it.  I got lucky when the river was 8.  He checked, I bet, he folded, but I showed my hand to get another drawing ticket.

There was a straddle and I called the $4 (only UTG straddles allowed here) with pocket deuces.  It was 4 or 5 way. The flop was all hearts, but one of the hearts was the deuce.  Of all people, Bob, from Bloomington, IN, was back in the room this night, at my table, and he led out for $15.  It folded to me. I just called.  Now, I didn’t fail to raise there because I was slow playing my set.  No, not at all.  After the earlier sessions of getting killed with my sets, I was just assuming that Bob flopped a flush.  My thought process was, “get to a showdown as cheaply as possible unless I catch a boat.”  Seriously.

It was heads up and I was really hoping to see the board pair.  It did.  It paired the deuce!  Yes, yes indeed, I had caught quad deuces against Bob again.  Second time in about six weeks or so.  I checked and unfortunately, so did Bob.  The river was whatever and I put out $25 but Bob just mucked.  I flipped over my hand, said “I don’t believe it,” and Bob said, “Yeah, I knew it.”  Sure he did.  Well, this time he didn’t pay me off.  But at least the quads earned me two more tickets.

Yes two more tickets.  Another change in the drawings they made in February is they give you extra tickets for quads or better.  Two for quads, three for a straight flush, four for a Royal (to get the extra  tickets, you need to play both cards in your hand). 

I’d played 5 plus hours and gotten no tickets, then in the last half hour I had earned four. Derek was pushed out by Mike and they held the drawing.  They called a name and that person was present to claim the $100.  Then the shift boss pulled another ticket and said, “I know this person is here….” and read my name.  Note:  Every time I’ve heard this particular shift boss say, “I know this person is here” it’s been me.  So that was a nice bonus.

Mike, being my pal, immediately upon hearing my name being called, shouted, “Missed blind button!” and threw a missed button right in front of me. But of course the boss knew he was just joking (Note: if you have a missed blind button, you’re not eligible for the prize).

While I was waiting for them to bring me my $100, I had King-4 off in the big blind, no raise.  King on the flop, no one bet (I didn’t like my kicker).  King on the turn, I bet $10, one caller.  The river was a 4.  I bet $15, he called and mucked when he saw my boat.  I didn’t take the ticket though, I wasn’t about to hang around to 4AM for the next drawing.

Then Mike asked me if I saw the nipple.  Huh?  Apparently, at one point earlier in the evening, the guy in seat 2, an older, Asian gentleman, had literally jumped out of his chair when a girl walked past with a wide open top that clearly displayed her nipple, in addition to a whole lot of boobage.  I asked him if it was seemingly intentionally exposed or if it was just a slip.  Mike said he didn’t know, he had seen the young lady (from a different table), he had seen that her top was wide open, but he didn’t see any nip.  “But seat 2 jumped out of his chair, so it must have been pretty interesting.”  The guy in seat 2 suddenly had a huge smile on his face and said excitedly, “Yeah, I saw the nipple.  Pretty good, huh?”

That must have been when I had my back to the parade.  No biggie.  You all know that I prefer the derrieres.   In fact, as I was leaving the casino, I saw a girl wearing the shortest dress I’d ever seen.  Seriously, when I saw her from the front, it just barely covered her belly button.  Ok, I didn’t see “the promised land” but it sure looked like I should have.  As it happened, just by coincidence, she was walking the same way I was (I mean in the same direction—there’s no way I could ever walk in the same “way” she was) so I totally unintentionally followed her out of the casino.  It was not an unpleasant view—I managed one or two quick glances at her, by accident.

The dress was some kind of knit material, skin tight, orange and did I mention short?  The weird thing was that she was with another woman.  But the other woman was not at all dressed for the club.  She was wearing pants and a loose top and did not at all have a good figure (unlike the girl in the orange knit dress, who had a spectacular figure).  And the entire time I saw them, they were holding hands.  It was as almost like a mother/daughter, the daughter being a small child.  But they appeared to be the same age.  I didn’t quite get the situation.

But the poor girl in the short knit dress had to constantly pull her dress down…I’d say she did this once every 10 seconds or so.  Since her left hand was in use (holding on to her friend’s hand) she could only use her right hand to tug her dress down, and in reaching around to the left side to do it, the girl sometimes accidentally pulled her dress up a little before pulling it down.  I can only imagine what anyone walking towards her saw during these moments (But, fortunately, I do have a good imagination).  I tried my best to look away (you all buy that, right?), but I did occasionally see some flashes of butt cheek before she could pull down the dress.  And then once or twice when she accidentally pulled the dress up, it was pretty obviously she had somehow forgotten to put on any underwear before going out for the evening.  Shocking.  It was also pretty obvious she had a very nice tush, as it was completely exposed those couple of times.

I’ll bet that if the guy in seat 2 had seen her walking towards him at those moments, he would have completely forgotten all about that nipple.  Just saying.

The dress in this pic I found on the web is somewhat similar in that it appears to be a knitty material.  But it is much, much longer than the dress this girl was wearing.  Much longer.  The dress depicted here is practically ankle-length in comparison.

Anyway, I ended up winning $230 (counting the promo money) for that final session, with no major suckouts against me.  A nice rebound from the previous few sessions.  A nice way to end the trip.

(EDITED TO ADD:  THIS PHOTO BELOW SHOULD HAVE BEEN THE ONE THAT ACCOMPANIED THIS POST IN THE FIRST PLACE.  THANKS TO ANGERISAGIFT FOR HELPING ME OUT.  FOR AN EXPLANATION OF THE PHOTO AND WHY IT WASN'T ORIGINALLY POSTED, SEE HERE.)