"You Remind Me of Robin Williams in Mrs. Doubtfire"

This is part 2 of my earlier post, "Do You Like My Rack?"  Please click here to read part 1 first, otherwise this post will make no sense (not that it''s guaranteed to make sense anyway).

So......a guy wearing a cowboy hat wondered by, overhearing the jocularity from the next table over.  He and Didi started chatting like they were old friends, but it isn’t clear to me if she was just being her overly extroverted self of if she actually had seen him before.  No matter.  She encouraged him to move over from that “dull” table he was at and join us at our “fun table.”  And so he did, taking the seat to my immediate left, across from Didi.

At first they were getting along well, but then things changed a bit when Didi won a few pots from him.  Didi would occasionally play a hand blind, or at least start off blind look at her cards only when necessary after the flop.  She made some preflop raises blind and that actually worked out ok for her.  Have I mentioned that she was a bit of a luckbox?  Maybe more than just a bit.

At one point, after taking some money from the Cowboy (who came from Missouri, by the way), she said, “I don’t do well when I look at my cards.  I do better when I don’t look.”

This irked the Cowboy and he said, “No shit. Really?  Tell us more.”

This agitated Didi so she said, “Oh, why don’t you go back to that other f***ing table, Asshole.”

Uh oh.  Things were getting nasty. 

There was a few moments of silence and then Didi asked him, “Are you married or divorced?  You must be divorced.”

“Both,” the Cowboy replied.

Didi wanted to know, “Are you happily married or happily divorced?”

“Both,” he replied again.

But before I knew it, they had (metaphorically) kissed and made up.  And she took out her camera and took some pictures of him.

Another time, Didi bet out $11 (preflop)—a prime number, of course.  The dealer, said, “Yo,” which of course is the slang for an “11” over at the craps table.  So the Cowboy said, “Yo, huh?” and then put his right hand up by his head and with a closed fist started shaking it up and down as if he was shaking dice before shooting them.

Didi saw this and said to him, “You must masturbate a lot.”

He just laughed and said, “That’s a pretty good read.”

Then there was the comment she made when someone made some reference to keeping their hair up…..I think it was hair.

“Is that a problem you guys have?  Keeping it up?”

There was a mild-mannered Asian guy sitting immediately to Didi’s right.  He had straddled and when the action was on him, nobody had raised and so he just checked.

This bothered Didi.   “You can’t check when you straddle.  Don’t be a pussy.  Raise!”

After that initial interest in my love life, she was leaving me pretty much alone.  But at one point, my curiosity totally piqued, I asked her what she did for a living.

“Oh, now we’re going there, huh?  You’re the Professor, huh?”

The Professor?  I’d never been called that before.

She went on.  “You know who you remind me of?  Robin Williams.”

That was a shock.  I’d never heard that before.  Oddly enough, my friend Norm has frequently been told he looks like Robin Williams.  The one I get the most lately, especially in and around poker, is Gabe Kaplan.

Because I’m old, I responded with “Nanu, nanu” but I don’t think anyone heard it.  Or got it.

I told her I’d never heard that before and she said, “You remind me of Robin Williams in Mrs. Doubtfire.”

I swear I wasn’t wearing a dress at the time.

“Mrs. Doubtfire?” I exclaimed. “You picture me in drag, do you?”

“No, no….before he put on the dress.” 

Then she mentioned a music video from the movie and couldn’t think of the name of it, but that’s what she meant when she said I reminded her of him.

Because, you know, I was singing and dancing right at the table, of course.

She became fixated on the video.  I hadn’t seen the movie since it had first come out even though I starred in it so I had no idea what she was talking about.  And she had forgotten her phone so she didn’t have it to look it up.  I took out my phone to google it.  But unbeknownst to me, she had asked the Asian guy on her right to look it up on his phone.  And he actually found the video and started playing it for her.

I found this out when suddenly, there was a big thud in front of me and something slid into the guy to my right’s chips, knocking over his celphone and a few of his chips.

It was the Asian guy’s phone.  After he started playing the video for her, she grabbed it from him and threw it towards me (sitting in seat 4) , just so I could see the video of myself, I mean Robin Williams.  It was “Jump Around” which I had just determined myself on my phone. 

The phone did no damage.  The guy picked up his unharmed celphone and a couple of chips and handed me the phone.  I watched a minute of the video and failed to recognize myself as Robin Williams.

Then I waited for the next hand to be over and got up and walked over to Didi and handed her the phone back (which she gave back to the guy on her right).  “You didn’t want to throw it back, huh?”

“No, I didn’t want to throw it back:”

The first bad hand that forced me to rebuy had nothing to do with Didi.  I was dealt pocket Aces and raised to $10.  The only caller was some old fart who had just busted out and rebought.  The damn board was all hearts (I did not have the Ace of hearts) and I made a continuation bet and he called me.  A black low card seemed good for me so I bet the turn, and the old fart raised all in.  He didn’t have all that much more than my bet, it was pretty easy call there even though I felt I might already have been beaten and was drawing dead.

I called and asked if he had a flush.  Meanwhile the dealer put another heart on the board.  He didn’t have a flush when I asked, but he did now.  He had Ace-5 offsuit, but the Ace was Ace of hearts.

Shit.  What the hell was he doing calling my preflop raise with Ace-5 offuit?  And then he shoved on the turn when he didn’t have anything and didn’t have enough chips to get me to fold my hand.  And of course got his suck-out on the river.

But I know….you want people to make calls like that, right?

The dealer was Mike, who has been cracking my pocket Kings since long before I switched to No Limit.  “It wasn’t Kings this time,” I said to him.  “Yeah, I guess we’ll have to add Aces,” he replied.  Then he noticed me jotting down some notes and said, “Oh, that hand is going in your journal, huh?”

I just laughed, and Didi asked what I was writing down, and I gave my standard answer, “My laundry list.”  She didn’t pursue it, surprisingly enough.

It didn’t bust me out, but it left me so short that I immediately bought another $200 in chips.

Didi went through this phase where she was making blind bets before the cards were even dealt.  I think she was trying to button straddle, even though she knew that wasn’t allowed at BSC.  So on this hand, on the button, she put out $10 before the hand was dealt.  I asked Jack if that was binding.  He said, “I don’t know.”  I asked because in early position, I had pocket Aces.  Having played with her enough by now, I was pretty sure she’d call almost any bet I’d make anyway.

So, instead of making my normal raise, I made it $20.  I guess I was prepared to argue that her $10 was in the pot if she tried to fold, but as I suspected, I didn’t have to worry.  She called.

There was a low, innocuous looking flop.  I was short-stacked by then….I didn’t note how short stacked, but I suspect I started the hand with somewhat less than $80-$90.  I just shoved right away, because I was pretty sure she would call no matter what.  She had over $500 in front of her and was making loose calls all night.  Of course, she was hitting an awful lot of suckouts, which was my main concern.

She did called and showed her hand, which was Jack-4.  When a Jack hit on the turn, I expected either a Jack or a 4 on the river but no, it blanked and my Aces held.  Thank you, Didi with the Double D’s, for playing that hand so badly and this time not getting there.

The next time I raised preflop (Ace King, I think), she asked, “Do you have Aces again?) when the action was on her.

I said, “Yes, it’s the only hand I play.”

She said, “That’s fine, but when I call you with deuce-four and hit, you’ll be in trouble.”

I just laughed and didn’t think anything of it.  But now, writing this post, it got me thinking.

Deuce-four?  Was that just a coincidence that she mentioned the mighty deuce-four, the hand made famous by Poker Grump?  The hand I dedicated a post to soon after playing with Grump for the first time (see here).

Hmm…..I had been under the assumption that this was just another crazy woman I’d run into.  And that I had done nothing to encourage such outrageous behavior.  I mean, I wasn’t the one who brought up her rack, she brought it up herself.  I never even noticed her chest until she asked Monte if he liked her rack.

But maybe, just maybe…..is it possible she did indeed know who I am?  And that’s why she mentioned deuce-four.  Maybe she’s been a long time fan of Grump’s blog and from there, discovered mine.  Since my picture appears every month in Ante Up Magazine, it’s possible she recognized me.  She wouldn’t be the first person who recognized from either Ante Up or my blog or other blogs (one such story is here; other such stories to follow).

And to take this silly notion even further, maybe she told me I looked like a nice guy when she first saw me was because she knew me from my blog.  That’s possible, right?

I bet my pal Woody, whose comments you’ve seen on many posts, will believe that Didi did indeed recognize me and behaved that way just to get mentioned in my blog.  Heh heh.

I think that’s extremely unlikely.  Virtually impossible, I’d say.  But…..since it appears Didi is now a regular at BSC, I’ll likely see her again.  And next time I see her, this post will have appeared.  So perhaps she will say something to me.  I’m not counting on it.

Unfortunately, my next battle with Didi didn’t end as well.  With pocket Jacks and several limpers, I raised to $15.  Of course she called.  The flop was 8-5-3, so I bet $40 and she called.  When an Ace hit the turn, I was a bit concerned, and when she checked, I checked behind her.  That was my mistake.  But I am always mindful of risking too much with a top pair or an overpair hand, as I explained here.  Also, by this time she was playing more sanely than she was during that period when she paid me for Aces.  And I had a bigger stack, mostly due to her.  And I think she wanted to get some of her money back from me, rather than give more away.  So I thought there was a good chance she had an Ace and might be hoping to check-raise me.

The river was a 10 and she bet out $50.  Was she betting the Ace?  I wasn’t sure, but I’d seen her bluff a few times so I felt I had to call and see if she was doing it again.  Nope, she wasn’t.  She had 10-8 for two pair.  Great hand to call a raise with but that was certainly her game.  I actually commented on her calling me preflop and on the flop but she pointed out that I gave the card that beat me for free when I checked the turn.  True enough.

After promising to do so for over an hour, Didi finally took her big rack and left.  And by big rack, I’m actually referring to the two racks of chips she had.  It was well over $600. It was then that I had the hand of the night.  If only she’d been there to pay me off, as I believe she would have.  Except you know, if she had still been there, the cards would have been different.

Anyway, in early position with pocket deuces I limped and then had to call a raise to $10 preflop.  Three of us saw the flop, which was 3-2-2.

Yeah.  I would say that was a pretty good flop for me.  It was actually the second night in a row that I had flopped quads, believe it or not, and the third time this visit I had hit quads.  The first time I mentioned briefly in this post, and I haven’t gotten to the second time yet.

First to act, I checked (I don’t slowplay sets, but I do slowplay quads).  The preflop raiser was next to act and he bet $22.  The other guy called.  Nice.

I tried to Hollywood it as best I could, agonizing over whether to call.  I looked at my cards, studied the board, looked at the pot, looked over the stacks of the other players, and with a pained looked on my face (at least, that’s what I was going for), I reluctantly called.

I have no idea what the turn card was, but the first guy checked this time, and so the next guy bet $35, but that was about half of his remaining stack.  Again, I made it look like I was reluctant to call.  The other guy folded, sadly enough.  He had a lot more chips than the first guy too.  I guess he had just been making a continuation bet on the flop, and when he had two callers and missed the turn too, he was done with the hand.

All I remember about the river was that it was a diamond and there were now three of them on the board.  The guy shoved for his last $35.  When I called, he asked if I had an Ace?  Was there an Ace on the board?  Beats me.  Did I mention that I had friggin’ quads?

I said, “No, I’ve got quads.”  He just said, “Oh wow, nice hand,” and I took down the pot.

As I mentioned, it was kind of hard to play poker with Didi….not because of her outrageousness, but because of her play.  Raising all the time—big raises too—made It difficult to play many hands.  But after she left, I actually made one play that I was proud of.

I had Ace-three off suit on the button and there were a bunch of limpers.  So I decided to raise hoping to steal the limpers money.  I made it $16.   One of the limpers went all in for $15 and two others called my $16 bet.  The flop totally missed me, I don’t even remember what it was.  But it was checked to me and I bet $40.  The two guys with chips left both folded, so that was the last betting action.  I don’t recall the other two cards either.  But the guy who went all in to call my bet had Jack-9 and had missed everything too.  My Ace high was good.

I left soon after that.  I had lost a few bucks, but found a new one of “those woman” and gotten a two part blog post for my troubles. 

The sacrifices I make for my readers (sigh).

(Note:  My next post starring Didi told the story of her giving everyone in the poker room a better look at those 36 Double D's.  Yeah, that's what I said.  See here.)