"Let Me Rub For Luck"

On a Tuesday evening in December, before Christmas, I played at Caesars with my buddy Don.  This was the evening that I had dinner with Don and then had to (almost literally) chauffeur him to the Strip because of the inability of my car seats to adjust, as I explained here.

The room was busy when we got there and I got called first after just a few minutes.  But then it took a long, long time for Don to get called into a game.  Eventually they opened a new table and Don got a seat, it was on the on the other side of the room from where I was. Well, new tables are never very good, right?  Plus I had just won a decent pot with a set (details to follow), so I didn't text Don to see if I should bother to try to get a table change to his game.  When I finally heard about that game Don was in—the next day—I really regretted not trying to move to his game.

He had such a good time he ended up playing all night, even though he finished the session down $2 and was never up or down more than $40.  It was just a fun group of people having a great time. They were all joking around—It was too much fun to leave.  Then he told me a story to illustrate.  I'll just quote from his text:

"There was one woman who is a regular in the room named Amy who was the main instigator.  But a group of us played off that.  Amy is 29, about 5'2", Vietnamese and cute as hell. At the first dealer change, she hugged a female dealer named Alison and said in her high squeaky voice, 'Let me rub for luck,' as she grabbed Alison's tits."

Damn!  I should have been there for that.  I responded that this was a perfect story for my blog. He went on to say that Amy drinks like a fish when she plays.  One of the dealer joked that when she took some time off from playing, their liquor distributor asked what was wrong with the room.

Anyway, in response to my pointing out that the "rub for luck" story was basically the kind of story this blog was created for, he told me, "That might not even be the best story of the night. But the other one has to be told in person."

Damn.

I didn't press him for more details. I assumed it was a visual.  Besides, I was sure I'd see Don again before I left town.  But for several reasons (mostly my well-documented car troubles) I never saw Don again this trip.  Hopefully he'll still remember it when I do finally see him again.

Anyway, back to my poker session. I won a couple of really small pots when my low pair was better than anyone else's lower pair.  But I was mostly card dead at the start and had managed to deplete my $200 starting stack to about $110-$120.  Then I got pocket Jacks.  After a limper, I made it $10 and it was three ways.   The flop was Jack-4-3, rainbow.  The preflop limper donked out $17.  Hmm….  Because it was rainbow, I decided to just call.  The other guy called as well.  The turn was a 7 and this time the limper checked.  So I put out $35.  The third guy folded but the limper called.  The river was an 8.  The limper made $40.  Ugh.  Did he really have 6-5?  I didn't think it was likely. I shoved, which couldn't have been more than $10-$15 more than his bet (and he had plenty behind).  He instantly mucked.  He must have really had nothing because it was a ridiculously small call to make for the size of the pot.

Caesars is back using those damn $2 chips, which are green.  A light lime green, not the dark green of the $25 chips.  Still I've seen people get them confused.  I got confused on this next hand but not that way. In the small blind I completed with 8-7 clubs and it was six-ways.  The flop was 8-8-2 and surely someone would bet I thought, so I checked.  A guy put out 2 lime green chips and a blue one, which was $5.  It folded back to me and for some reason, somehow, I thought it was a $7 bet.  That would take a red chip and two blue chips, but that's not what was out there.  I dunno, I guess I just had a brain freeze but at the time I thought my error was due to the damn $2 chips he was using.   Regardless, I put out two redbirds to call, figuring I would wait for the turn to check-raise.  But my action constituted a raise.  I had to catch myself from "correcting" the dealer when he said raise.  Well it didn't matter, the guy folded to my $5 raise.  Obviously I wasn't going to get any more money out of him on that hand either way.

Then I got pocket Aces.  I raised to $10 and got called by four players. The flop was Queen-high, two clubs, and neither of my bullets was the club.  A guy donked out $45.  What am I supposed to do there?  Is he donking into the raiser with just a Queen or did he flop bigger than that?  Is he betting a flush draw?  I ended up calling, not sure what my play is there.  The turn was a third club and we both checked.  The river was the fourth club and again, we both checked.

So I was floored when he flipped over Ace-Queen, the Ace being a club.  He had the nut flush, how does he not bet the river?  Now for some reason I didn't note/remember the denominations of the other cards on the board, but I'm sure there was no pair because for sure I would have noted that. He checked the river with the stone cold nuts. I suppose he might have been hoping I'd bet but I don't think I'd given an indication that I would have.  I lost money, but it could have been a lot worse.  But then, I wasn't going to call a big bet on the river.

After a bunch of limpers, I limped in from the button with King-Queen clubs.  I know I should have raised, but decided not to because there were so many limpers.  The flop was pretty good, Jack-10-9.  There were two spades and a club. Someone bet $15 and I made it $45.  He called and we were heads up.  He checked the turn, the 6 of diamonds.  I shoved, it was a little bit more than my $45 bet on the flop had been.  He tanked but folded.

That was it.  I ended up losing a few bucks.  I said goodbye to Don and heard from him the next morning about his adventures at the fun table.