Sunday, July 30, 2017

An Evening with Lightning & Vook

This was the night I met some long-time poker pals for food, drink and poker.  Fellow blogger Lightning had arrived in Vegas the night before. I also learned that Vook was in town for a business conference as well.  I wrote about Vook's exploits here when he cashed in the main event at the WSOP on his first try.

We had agreed to eat at Tap, the sports bar located right next to the MGM poker room.  Vook introduced us to two of his buddies, Andrew and Mark, who are now Vegas grinders.  The five of us had a great conversation over our beers and food.  And we had plenty of time to converse because the service was just awful.  Usually the service at Tap is good to semi-decent but this night we had a terrible waitress (or perhaps, a decent waitress on her worst night ever). She got the order wrong, didn't bring the right drinks, never came back to ask how everything was or to ask if we wanted more drinks....and there was no ketchup for my burger.  I asked the food deliverer (not the same as our server) for some but it never came.  Andrew or Mark (can't remember) got up and took a bottle off an empty table or I'd still be waiting for it.  At the end of our meal, it also took a really long time for her to show up with the check.

We talked a lot of poker of course.  Mark and Andrew play 2/5 almost exclusively when they play NLH (they also play a lot of PLO).  They were telling us how crazy they play when they do play 1/2 because they don't take it seriously.  They'll 3 or 4 bet with garbage, or maybe just five-bet shove with 7-2 offsuit.  When we finally got to the poker room, Lightning and I ended up at one table and Vook, Mark and Andrew went to another table, vowing to wreck havoc on any nits that happened to be stuck there.  Vook later came over to us and confirmed they were playing wild, so Lightning and I both decided we were ok with the game we were at.  It just didn't seem +EV to us to play at a table with two professional 2/5 grinders and a guy who had cashed in the main.

After a seat change, I was sitting to Lightning's immediate left.  We kept chatting it up while getting updates from Vook's game. 

I saw Lightning get lucky with his typical bad play.  He cracked someone's pocket Kings by calling a raise with Queen-8 (I think it was suited) and flopping two pair (I think he felted that guy).  He also hit a flush playing 10-6 soooted and won another big pot.

Speaking of the dreaded pocket Kings, early on I got them in late position.  There were a couple of limps and then a raise to $12 in front of me.  I made it $32.  The initial raiser called.  I bet $35 on a low flop and he called.  I bet $50 on a blank turn and he called.  When an Ace hit the river, I checked behind and took the pot when he showed pocket Queens.

I lost some money back to the same guy when I had Ace-Jack on a Ace-King-6 flop.  Turned out he had raised preflop with King-6.  I said to Lightning, "You guys are all winning with such bad hands."

At one point the table got very short-handed.  I think we were down to five players.  And Lightning was the small blind and I was the big blind.  It folded to Lightning and he put in a buck to complete.  I said, "You don't want chop?"  He said, "No, let's play."  Harumph.  I've seen Lightning chop with others routinely.  Suddenly he doesn't want to chop with me?  I checked. So the board was mostly bricks and it went check-check on the flop and turn.  The river was a 10, however, which gave me a pair (I didn't note, nor do I remember, what my other card was).  To my surprise, Lightning led out with a $5 bet, which I quickly called.  He instantly mucked his hand without showing and said to me, "You bastard."  I said, "You were the one who didn't want to chop."

I called Lightning's raise to $7 with King-5 of hearts on the button. We were heads up.  I called his $12 on the flop with a flush draw.  A King hit the turn and we both checked.  We both checked when the river paired the board with Jacks.  He showed pocket 8's and I took some more of his money.

In the big blind I had two Aces.  There was a raise to $12 and a call, so I made it $50 and didn't get a call.

I had Jack-9 of diamonds in the big blind.  There was a limp and then a raise to $12 and I decided that if he got one call, I would call too.  A guy looked like he was a thinking of re-raising, but he just called.  I called and the limper called.  The flop was Jack-Jack-x. I checked, but the preflop raiser checked too.  However, that guy who I thought maybe wanted to 3-bet preflop shoved his last $41.  There were two players behind me so I just called, hoping one of them would call as well, but they both folded.  The last two cards were bricks, and he showed pocket Aces!  That's what you get for trying to be tricky.  Had he three-bet preflop, I would have sent my hand straight to the muck.

Since I was expected to work the next day, I couldn't stay too long and took off with a small profit.  When I said goodbye to everyone, Lightning took some pictures, one of which is below.  That's Lightning on the left, Vook in the middle and yours truly on the right.

It was a fun night of eating, drinking, poker and bullshitting with old and new friends.


16 comments:

  1. Funny- I only remember your winning the non-chop hand against. You write fiction now?

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    1. Ha! I guess your memory is fading at your advanced age. My contemporaneous notes clearly indicate that it was you raising and me calling when I had King-5 of hearts and caught a King on the turn to win.

      What do YOUR notes say?

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  2. if these guys truly "dont take poker seriously so theyre 4 betting with garbage, including 7-2" then theyre not winning players over the long run. if they are, its not true theyre not taking it seriously. for to win, u must be very serious and play few pots

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    1. I was talking about when they are playing 1/2, which they usually don't do. I also might have been exaggerating a little. But they make it very difficult for tighter players to play and can put them on tilt with their maniac ways.

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  3. Tony ->. You're judging based on one night. The three of us were on vacation from "poker/work" that night and mostly playing for fun and hanging out. For example, It's a rare game when my opponent's range dictaes me calling off on a 4bet shove preflop with AQ and 150BBs in 1/2. It was a good table for anyone solid and willing to take the heat. (Which is very few at 1/2)

    They normally play 5/10 and I normally play 2/5. We were sitting at 1/2 to keep it more friendly (plus I'm not comfy/good enough to sit 5/10 or any PLO game for that matter).

    PS. Thanks for meeting up Rob... always a pleasure.

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    1. Thanks for the explanation, Vook. It was great see you again!

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    2. Btw. Mark had a nice run in the main and ended up finishing in 484th. It was a good sweat for a while.

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    3. Cool!

      I bet he didn't play like he did that night at MGM!

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  4. Jack-nine suited is my favorite hand. I've gotten ri-donk-ulously lucky with it at my home casino calling raises and three betting with it when I probably shouldn't have been.

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    1. Cool. All these years playing poker, I don't really have a favorite hand. A hand works for me once in a specific situation and then it doesn't.

      I just have a LEAST favorite hand, and we all know what that is.

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    2. Rob just needs to expand his horizons beyond the Dreaded Pocket Kings and boobies.

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    3. Well, I have a post coming up about Pocket Queens. But Queens do have boobies, right?

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    4. I never said my love for that hand was rational. I've just had stupid luck when I've been short stacked in tournaments and open shoved with it several times.

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    5. Favorite hands like that are never rational. :)

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  5. Rob, I enjoy reading your articles but whenever you describe hands it always shocks me how badly you play given how much you play. The K5 hand clearly calls for a bet on turn or river. It's not just a matter of 'no worse hand would call' but rather you want to start building the pot with top pair plus flush draw, AND if a good player sees you're unwilling to value bet a hand as strong as that, it makes your bets much more polarized and easy to play against. The AA raise to 50 is terrible too, you get Aces once 221 hands - try to get some value rather than raise to 50 which means you're happy to just take the $27 in the pot and move on to the next hand. I'd much rather risk getting outflopped for a chance at winning a big pot with my Aces. Raise to 32-36 and play some post-flop poker.

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    1. The critique of the K5 hand is valid. I guess since it was heads up with my pal Lightning maybe I was guilty of a bit of soft playing him.

      I would argue on the Aces. I would have made it $36 had it just been a raise to $12. But there was a call of the $12, meaning by usual 3-betting rule I would have added the call to my bet--$48. So I rounded up by two bucks. I think $32 into a $12 raise and a call is way too low.

      But I do appreciate the input.

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