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.