A Strange Start and a Nice Finish

A recent session in Ventura.  We got the most interesting hand of the session out of the way early.  I'd only been in the game for an orbit or two.  There was a guy who had lost an all-in and just had a few bucks left.  He added on but only $100 so he had like $110 in front of him.  This other guy had tried to straddle for $6 under-the-gun, but he was too late.  So he left the six bucks out there, didn't look at his cards and just did a blind raise for $6.  I decided to call the $6 with Ace-6 of clubs.  Then that guy who had just bumped up his stack to $110 went ahead and shoved the $110.  It folded back to the guy who tried to straddle and he shoved—over $200.  The next guy said, "You stole my move, I was gonna do that."  He tanked for awhile but folded.  I of course folded my A-6 of clubs.  They didn't show.  The flop was 10-10-x, one club.  But the next two cards were clubs.  In other words, I would have had the nut flush if only I'd called the guy's $200+ shove.  I just laughed inwardly.  No way would it have made sense for me to call that bet with such a mediocre hand, of course.

Anyway, the guy who shoved for $110 says, "I missed," and turns over Ace-Jack, off.  All he had was Ace-high.  Surely the other guy could beat that, right?  Nope.  He said not a word and just mucked!

Whenever I see something like that, I can't help wondering what the hell he had.  Even if he was 100% sure his shove would get the last two players to fold, he was still risking $110.  Even if he suspected the other guy might have been shoving light, he couldn't be doing that with nothing, right?  You'd think at least a pocket pair—but no.  Ace-King or Ace-Queen would have won the pot.  A crummier Ace? King-Queen?  Just so strange.

In late position I limped in with Ace-6 of diamonds.  No raise and six of us saw a flop that was Queen-high, but all diamonds. Sweet.  A guy bet $10 and I just called. I dunno why I slow-played that, I guess I figured no one would call my raise on an all diamond board.  As it was, I was the only caller. The board paired the queen and the guy shoved his last $35 or so.  Of course I snap-called.  The river was a brick and he showed King-Queen for trips, my flush was good.

I had Jack-8 in the big blind and there was no raise.  Only seven of us saw a flop of Jack-Jack-9.  I bet $10 and got one call.  The turn was a Queen and I bet $15, he called.  The river was a 5.  I bet $25 but no call.

I raised to $15 with Ace-Jack of diamonds and had four callers.  So when I completely missed the flop, I just check-folded.  Then I got pocket Jacks. I raised to $15 and it was four-way.  The flop was Queen-Queen-5.  A lady lead out for $50.  Now this lady, early in the session, had flopped a boat with pocket 5's and won a big pot.  I'm pretty sure she hadn't played a pot since .  So when she led out like that, I was pretty sure she had a Queen.  I folded as did everyone else.

Now I was down a little from my $300 buy-in.  In the big blind, I had pocket 7's.  A woman who had recently joined the table opened to $23.  Apparently she didn't get the memo that we didn't open that big in this game.  She had a $300 or so stack.  Then another player called the $23.  He had a big stack too, more than the $300.  He had been very willing to put chips in play.  So I figured it was worth putting another $20 out there to close the action and see the flop.  The flop was Jack-8-7, rainbow.  I checked but unfortunately it checked around.  The turn was a Queen, no flush possible.  I bet $35 and they both called.  The river was an 8, giving me a boat.  I bet $100, but didn't get a call.  Did I bet too much or did they both miss draws?  Oh well, it was still a pretty nice pot.

And that was I for the session.  I ended up leaving up exactly $100. Not bad for the amount of hands I actually played.

I Showed Her the Nuts

On this particular night in Vegas, I met up with my pal Don for some poker and dinner.  Don graciously offered to burn through some of his comps for dinner.  We ended up deciding to play at Mirage and eat at the burger place there (LVB Burgers, I believe it's called).  I'd eaten there once before with Lightning.  It was fine, nothing special, and not cheap.  We each had the burger/fries/drink combo, and after tax, the bill came to $51. That's two burgers, two orders of fries and two sodas.  Twenty-five bucks for a burger & fries at a casual burger place?  Like I've been saying for years now, Vegas ain't what it used to be.  Fortunately Dave's comps covered it.  Of course I volunteered to cover the tip.

After the meal we headed over to the poker room as planned.  We not only got into the same game but were sitting right next to each other, Don on my immediate left.

It was an ok game. It was short-handed a lot of the time. I managed to win a few hands, but Don had terrible, terrible luck.  He was mostly card dead and when he did get something to play he couldn't win a damn pot.  There was one time when he did win a small pot, and he said to the dealer, "Count the deck….I'm not supposed to win a pot here, something's wrong."

Early on, after three limpers I made it $12 with King-Queen of spades.  No one called.

Then came a more interesting hand.  In early position, I opened to $10 with Ace-Queen of diamonds. It was four-way.  The flop was rather favorable for me:  King-7-4, all diamonds.  I was first to act, and I figured even though I flopped the nuts, I had to bet.  So I decided to bet, but bet small.  I put out $15.  A guy made it $35 and it folded to me. 

What to do?  If I assume he had a weaker flush, I just have to call and keep calling as I take his money.  But what else could he have?  Two pair?  A set?  Would he raise with those hands?  I thought he might.  If he did have a set, I didn't want to make it cheap for him to draw to his boat. And if he did have a set, he'd call a raise from me, and I could build a nice pot (hopefully for me and not for him if he ended up catching his boat).  I put $60 on top of my $15.  He tanked.  But finally he folded, saying, "I don't have a diamond."

Well what did he have?  Did he raise on that board with just a King?  Two pair?  Hard for me to believe he folded a set there.  Don and I talked about afterward.  He thought it was a mistake to re-raise.  He said I should have just called, the only hand he could have had was a smaller flush (he hadn't heard the guy say he didn't have a diamond—of course, we don't know if he was telling the truth).  He said he wouldn't have raised with a set but I dunno if that's true.  He might raise with a set hoping to protect his hand against someone with a naked Ace of diamonds.

So I won the pot and possibly misplayed it.  What do you think?  Should I have just flatted his $35 bet?

There was a woman at the table, across from me, who was wearing a low-cut top.  I know you're surprised that I would notice such a thing, but somehow I did.  She was in seat 2 and I was in seat 7 so I had a fairly unobstructed view.  Now when I saw her stand up, she really didn't have a great figure, and I couldn't get a good look at her face because the baseball cap she was wearing kind of hid it.  But I did notice the cleavage—there was a lot to notice if you know what I mean.

We had seen her win a few nice pots and at first we thought she was a good player, but as we watched her more we came to realize she wasn't that great a player and she had just gotten lucky.  

Anyway, I had Ace-6 of hearts in the small blind and just about everyone limped in.  So I completed and we saw a flop.  Six, seven of us?  Something like that.  I couldn't tell you what the flop was, but there was one heart on it and it checked around.  The turn card was the something other of hearts.  The aforementioned lady bet $15.  With the nut flush draw, I called and we were now heads up.

The river was another heart, giving me the nut flush through the back door.  This lady had been fairly aggressive all night and I figured she was likely to bet again on the river since she had bet the turn.  So I took a chance and checked.  My instincts were solid.  She put out $50. 

My inclination was to make it $150 but I thought about it a bit.  My check-raise there is going to scream "nut flush."  Especially since I had been playing so tight.  She could easily fold.  But I thought there was some chance of a call, she had been so aggro.  I decided to make it only $125 figuring it would be slightly easier for her to call that.

She went into the tank.  I was thinking she was going to fold but no, she did call.  Sweet.  I showed her the nuts and she mucked without revealing her hand.

Later, I was in the small blind with pocket Jacks.  After a bunch of limpers, the button made it $20.  I called, no else did.  The flop was Ace high and it went check-check.  The turn was a blank and he bet $20.  I called.  No betting on a blank river. Before we flipped our cards over, Don said to me, "You have Queens?"  He was thinking I had Queens and the button had Kings.  Very close.  The button had the Queens, still good enough to win.  Dave suggested that maybe I should have bet the turn since he checked the flop.  Maybe he would have folded his Queens?  Who knows?

Meanwhile, Don's horrible night continued.  He lost the last of his buy-in when his top pair/top kicker lost to a flopped set in a three-bet pot.  He didn't rebuy and I cashed out a little bit later, up $115.

It was a fun evening, for me anyway.  I wish Don had had a better night.

The Buck Naked / Stripper Tournament

This was the first tournament I played in Vegas last month.  I believe I already mentioned here that I didn't have any success, tournament-wise, during this trip.  So there will be no write ups of long tournament runs ending with a big pay day, or even me complaining about the dreaded min-cash.  But I had a few interesting experiences at some of the tournaments I played before busting out prematurely and this is one of those.

It was the Golden Nugget $150 that they had going nearly every day during the series, with a $20K guarantee.  It started at 1pm and it had a dinner break so it was pretty much ideal for me.

Anyway, the tournament started and of course the tables were not full. I was sitting at seat 6 (out of 10) and the seat on my immediate right (seat 5) was one of the empty seats.  A few hands into the first level, I hear and sense someone taking that empty seat next to me.  I didn't look at him.  And suddenly I hear a voice, "Oh and I'm sitting next to my buddy here!"  I look up and I recognized "Buck Naked."

You all remember Buck Naked, right?  That's the name I gave the author of three guest blog posts three years ago (starting with this one here) .  As Buck explained at the time, he has three hobbies: poker, cars and beers.  Well also, he has an eye for the ladies as you'll see if you check out his guest posts.  I've encountered Buck numerous times in Vegas, often around WSOP time, for obvious reasons.  And wouldn't you know, Buck, who had been in Vegas for awhile by this point, had on this day just checked into the Golden Nugget and decided to play in this tournament.  And by an amazing coincidence managed to be assigned to the seat directly to my right.  What are the odds that two players, neither of whom lives in Vegas but know each other through the magic of the internet, end up sitting next to each other at the same tournament (when there's a bunch of fairly similar tournaments going on around town at the exact same time)?

Anyway, Buck and I spent some time catching up, it had been at least a year since we'd seen each other in person.  But he is a loyal fan of my blog so he was fairly up-to-date with what I've been up to.  And it didn't take Buck too long for him to announce to the whole table, "If you want to read a good blog, this guy has the best blog on the internet (pointing to me)."  Well I was a bit embarrassed but certainly appreciated the kudos.  But it always feel a little awkward whenever someone mentions my blog at the poker table.  He gave the URL but I said, "No, don’t look at it now, it'll make it too easy to play against me."

Sometime later there was a discussion of all the tournaments going on around town and Buck told everyone that I was the expert on the tournaments and knew pretty much everything about every tournament going on in town right now.  A slight exaggeration but somewhat accurate. 

Later, I was a little surprised when Buck missed another chance to give me some props.  One of the guys at the table was talking about playing at Caesars over the weekend.  And he mentioned that on Friday and Saturday night, they line up for their nightclub right in front of and around the poker room.  He said it was quite a sight to behold, all the barely dressed young ladies all lined up for the club. A really great view.

You don't say.

Well by this time I was surely expecting Buck to not only agree but point out that I was indeed the expert on this phenomenon, and had even written a few blog posts about it, and given it a name.  But although Buck agreed that it was an enjoyable experience, he didn't mention my credentials in this area.

I must admit I came close to saying something myself.  I was thinking of saying, "Yeah, I wonder if anyone has come up with a name for those girls lining up like that?"  But I said nothing.

Now perhaps Buck was just being a gentleman and didn't want to bring up The Slut Parade.  You see, there were ladies present.  Almost half of our table, four to be exact, was female.  And strangely enough, all the females were sitting right next to each other.  Seats 7-10 were all women.  The seating assignments were so weird that we kept making reference to it, it was like the men vs the women.  So perhaps Buck didn't want to offend the ladies.

Two of the ladies were rather ordinary but two stood out.  One was an overly chatty Asian lady, who arrived to the table late waiting for a slot jackpot to be paid to her (but her chips were in play).  My goodness did that woman yak up a storm.

The other lady of note was a blonde woman who looked strangely familiar to me.  As soon as she came to the table, sometime after Buck did, I was sure I'd seen her before.  I would have bet anything  that I had seen before playing poker somewhere.  In fact, I was certain that I'd played with her before, somewhere.  I never could place her in a particular room.

As I said, she was blonde, long hair pulled back. Mid-30's maybe (I'm bad estimating ages). She was wearing a loose fitting shirt, nothing even remotely sexy.  In fact it looked like she was not trying impress anyone with her appearance this particular day.  But somehow, despite the loose fitting shirt, I could tell that what was inside her shirt was, well, plentiful.

Anyway, it was a very friendly table and the ladies were all discussing their backgrounds and such and one of them asked the blonde gal where she was from and she said Vegas.  And they asked her what she did for a living and she said she was a dancer.

A dancer?  I dunno why exactly, but as soon as she said dancer I knew she was a stripper.  I mean, I didn't know it for an absolute fact, but I was like 99% sure she was a stripper.  There are other kind of dancers besides strippers, sure.  But this gal didn't look like a ballerina to me.  Or even a chorus girl.  Or a party-pit dancer, for that matter.

A little later there was a discussion about tipping.  The female dealer was saying that it is known fact that men tip better than women (something I've always heard myself).  Well the blonde dancer said that she works for tips, so she overtips.  She'll tip $10 on a $20 pot (she'd already said that she usually plays cash games instead of tournaments, except for this time of year).

Hmm….a dancer who works for tips?  Yeah, that pretty much confirmed to me that she was indeed a professional clothing remover. 

She was a fairly aggressive player.  Thus, she was the first of the ladies to bust from our table.  I saw her rebuy and play at a different table. A few minutes after she was gone, the remaining ladies were discussing her and one of them said (or perhaps asked the others) that she was probably a stripper.  They all unanimously agreed that she was.  And they were totally cool with it, totally non-judgmental.

Now I had planned to cue Buck about my suspicions when she was gone. I thought that he might not have heard the comments about her being a dancer and working for tips.  But I never got the chance before the ladies discussed it.  When I said to Buck, "Did you hear that? I was going to tell you myself."  He just nodded.

Oh, what a naïve fool I was.  Let's fast forward to a week or two later when I was playing at the very same tournament.  Guess who was at my table again?  No, not Buck Naked, just the blonde gal who gets buck naked professionally.  Yeah, there she was. Another strange coincidence.  This time she was wearing something a little more revealing and I could see her tramp stamp, her leg tattoos and a little bit of side boob.  If I were an oddsmaker, I'd make it a 6-1 favorite that her chest was not original factory equipment. 

Well Buck was still in town and he had texted me that he had just cashed in a tournament in another part of town.  I told him that our stripper friend was at my table again.  He texted me back that he thought she worked at a certain strip club which he named.

What th-?  How could he possibly know that?  Well, it turns out that Buck had actually had a conversation with the young woman during one of the breaks, introduced himself, and found out where she works.  Yeah, by the time I mentioned to him my suspicion that she was a stripper, he had already had a conversation with her during the break and confirmed it.  He never told me.  You dog, Buck, you dog.

Then he went on to say that she had given him her phone number. Really?  Why would a stripper give some guy her phone number?  Let's just say Buck and the stripper are not exactly close in age. 

By the time Buck and I had gotten this far in our texting, she had already busted.  I mentioned this to him but then I told him that once again, she had re-entered and was sitting at a nearby table (I guess she likes double entry). 

Now when I first heard from Buck he said he wasn't sure what he was going to do, but he was flush with cash from that tournament he'd just finished up.  He was thinking of coming downtown and joining me in the Nugget tournament.  Another possibility was driving out to Pahrump to purchase some affection legally (you know from his guest posts how wild Buck is).  Now he was thinking of a third option…..he texted the stripper to see if she might have some ideas of how he could pass the time.  Strip Poker, perhaps?

I guess he texted her before I had a chance to tell him that she was back in the tourney.  He assumed he wouldn't hear back from her and presumably got ready for a visit to the desert.  But it wasn't long before I heard back from him, telling me that she had responded and wanted to come over to his hotel room for a "private dance."

Oh, is that what the kids are calling it these days?

But she was still in the tournament and wanted to meet up with after (or perhaps another day, if she made a, you'll pardon the expression, deep run).  Buck wasn't going to wait around for what he wanted, and I am also led to believe they couldn't come to terms on what an acceptable fee would be for her private dance.  So to the best of my knowledge they never got together.

And yes, now that I've explained all this, I suppose a more accurate title for this post would be The Buck Naked/Hooker tournament, but I like the way it sounds the way I went with and when I came up with my title, I didn't really intend to reveal all these extra sordid details.  It just sort of happened.

Now, as for the poker, I'll spare most of the sad tale and just get to the last two hands for me.  Card dead the entire day, I started level 8 with a stack of $4,600 (starting stack was 15K). The blinds were 75/300/600 so you can see I was quite desperate.  So I opened shoved 8-7 offsuit.  Yeah, that's how desperate I was.  I think I was in late position so there weren't that many left who could call me.  I was called by Ace-Jack.  Well at least I had two live cards, right?  I didn't see an 8 or a 7 on the flop.  Instead, it came out 10-9-6!  Wow.  Flopping a straight there was pretty cool.  I had gotten my much needed double up.

But I was still desperate, still pretty much in shove or fold mode especially as we were almost done with that level and about to play blinds of 100/400/800.  Buck was the big blind so I was under-the gun.  With pocket 10's it was easy for me to go all-in.  It folded around to a big stack, who asked for a count (I think it was a bit under 8K, not sure).  After tanking a bit longer he called.  Then it folded to Buck who stood up, picked up his chips and announced "all-in."  He too was short stacked, but he had a few more chips than I did.

I was relieved to see the big stack flip over two 6's.  But I was really surprised to see Buck turn over Ace-Queen offsuit.  Really?  Sure that's more than good enough to open shove.  But to get it all in there after a shove and a call seemed a little questionable.  Buck later explained to me that he wanted to "chip up or leave."  So a chance to get a triple up—or be out of the tournament and move on to the next activity—really appealed to him.  I totally understand.  Sometimes when your short like that it's easy to take a big risk because you feel you have nothing to lose.

Anyway, the flop was all bricks, as was the turn. Though the turn kind of scared me—it was a King and when I first saw it, I thought it was a Queen.  No, just a King.  The Queen came on the river.  Yes, it did.  Buck took my chips, got a bunch from the big stack and got the triple up he needed.  And I got…shown the door.  My poker was over for the day.

The next day I heard from Buck.  In that hand where I busted, he was one river card away from being out himself (the big stack would have taken the rest of the chips I didn't have covered).  Instead, that Queen hit and he went on to make a huge, deep run, making the final table.  I think they ended up making a deal when they were down to five or six players and he received around a payout of around $2,500.

Poker, huh?

Not Everything's Flat in Iowa--It's Still True

It's been awhile since I've posted and at the moment I have nothing new to offer you.  So I present this story from the relatively early days of the blog. It was so long ago I still referred to a casino as "BSC" --remember that? I hope to be back in a few days with at least an explanation about why I haven't been blogging much lately.  In the meantime, I hope you enjoy this trip down mammary memory lane

This post is about a long ago night at BSC, and involves poker, a well-endowed woman, an aggressive hooker and the state of Iowa.  I believe only one of those topics is new to this blog, but I'm not sure.

This session started out on a very bad note when my straight ran up against a flush on my very first hand of the day.  I was dealt AQ off and raised, a couple of callers.  King and Jack on the turn, but two diamonds (I had no diamonds).  I was hoping to take down the pot with a continuation bet, but a woman--a regular in the room that I've played with numerous times before--called.  On the turn, a 10 of diamonds hit, giving me a straight but also putting a flush out there.  I bet again hoping the double threat of a straight and a flush would get her to concede, but she called. 

The river card was yet another diamond, making me throw up a little in my mouth.  I checked and when the woman bet a relatively small amount, I made a crying call even though I was sure I was beat.  I even said, before putting my bet out, "Gee, I don't suppose you have a diamond, do you?"  In fact she had two diamonds, one of which was an Ace.  She had the nut flush on the turn.  She bet just small enough amount to get me to call.  A bigger bet and I would have folded.  So right off the bat I was down $60. 

This particular villain was sitting between her husband and her daughter, and not long after, the entire family left for dinner.  In this woman's place a rather attractive, albeit unusual looking, woman was seated.  She had a rather science fictiony look to her, and I immediately thought she sorta looked like a female Vulcan.  But pleasantly so.  I have no idea what her name really is, so let's call her Saavik.  

In addition to her exotic looking face, she had something else that caught my attention, oddly enough.  She was rather well endowed the chestal region.  Furthermore, she was showing some eye-catching cleavage.

But she was not showing said cleavage in one of those "dressed for clubbing, I'm a slut" outfits that so many females wear while in Vegas.  Her outfit was very professional looking (and no, I don't mean that profession); you know, the kind of outfit a female business executive would wear to the office.  It was just that, her jacket closed below the bust, and the top underneath the jacket was cut to expose a decent amount of boobage (or, an indecent amount, depending on your point of view).

She almost immediately revealed that she was in town for a conference and had attended meetings and other convention type programming all day.  That certainly helped explain the outfit she was wearing.  Before she arrived, a guy wearing a suit and tie had joined the table and he was attending the same conference.

So it would be unfair to accuse Saavik of going for the JenniferTilly Effect with her choice of clothing. It was not anywhere that revealing dammit.  On the other hand, one might be inclined to say that, for the professional setting she was attending, the cleavage was inappropriate.  Except, as I've already discussed here, cleavage is never inappropriate.

Anyway, I was still smarting from my straight vs. flush fiasco when Saavik further abused me.  I was dealt pocket Aces under the gun.  To my dismay, five people called my preflop raise.  Not exactly what I was hoping for.  The flop came 10-4-4.  I led out a bet of about 3/4's the size of the pot.  Two callers, including Saavik.  The other caller was a BSC regular I don't remember playing with before.  I assumed he was a regular though because he knew all the dealers as well as I did.

I kind of figured at least one of them could beat my Aces.  They were both reasonable players, neither one had shown anything crazily aggressive.  In fact, I don't think I ever saw Saavik raise preflop during the entire session.  I prayed for an Ace on the turn, and didn't get it.  I don't recall what it was, but it didn't help me at all.   I guess I need help in how to proceed in this situation.  I just checked.

The guy checked and then Saavik reached for chips.  She put out a fairly small bet for the size of the pot.  But it was close to half her remaining stack.  Both the regular player and I had her well covered (and more covered than the outfit she was wearing).

I 'm not sure why I called, other than it was such a relatively small bet, so I was getting better odds than I would normal expect.  But it was a tough decision.  The other guy also took some time.  I was kind of hoping he was thinking about raising.  If he had, it would have been a much easier lay down.  But he finally just called.

The river card seemed meaningless as well.  We both checked to Saavik, who pushed all in.  I think it was around $50, give or take.  Again, the bet to pot ratio was quite small, and I felt I was worth making the crying call even though I strongly suspected I had the worst hand of the three of us.

The other guy debated for awhile, said he was probably in 3rd place, and finally mucked.  He said that he assumed I had pocket Kings (maybe he reads my blog) but that Saavik had a big hand, maybe a 4, maybe a full house.  Anyone care to guess what Saavik had?

Just pocket 10's.  Yeah, she had flopped a friggin' boat.  I didn't show my bullets.  The other guy said, "Well, that's why I didn't get another 10 to fall."  So he probably had Ace - 10.  I'm thinking if that's the case, he probably played the hand worse than I did (especially if he thought I had a big pocket pair).

Saavik took down a very nice pot and I was suddenly quite short stacked.  I waited an orbit and then added $100 to my stack so that I had enough ammunition to continue to play the way I wanted to.

Meanwhile, Saavik had told us all that she was from Iowa and that she is a serious sports fan and therefore has to travel outside her state to see professional games, and she does it regularly.  And so she told us that there is really nothing much happening in Iowa.

To prove her assertion about her home state, she told us about a t-shirt she saw in the gift shop at the Iowa airport before boarding the plane to Vegas.  It said something to the effect, "Nothing tips like an Iowa cow."

I pointed out that she should have gotten it for Vegas, so she could where it when playing poker, where players are expected to tip the dealers.   There was some cross talk and I don't think she heard me.

Then she mentioned the "other shirt" she saw that airport gift shop.

It said, "Not Everything is Flat in Iowa."

Ahem.  I had just scored a cute "woman said" story.  Everyone laughed, and I'm sure that everyone at the table (all guys, save her) had the same thought--how appropriate it would have been for her to have purchased and worn said shirt.  Perhaps she even mentioned it because she did buy it.  But I was surprised she had brought that up when she didn't have to....this was the first--and last--even remotely risqué thing she had said all evening. This wasn't Prudence, after all. And she had to have known that by bringing this up, it would make all of us start thinking about her impressive chest.  Because, you know, until then, none of us would have.

During the rest of the session, she kept giving me sly smiles whenever our eyes met (she was sitting across from me).  I did not take this to mean she was interested in me or was flirting with me.  I took it to mean she was very happy about taking so many of my chips.

Later when the other guy in that story returned from the rest room, he asked if he missed anything.  "Any fights?  Any big hands?  Any all-ins?"  We all shook her heads no.  And then I added, "No flopped boats."  Saavik enjoyed that.

I did get most of my money back, slowly.  A short stacked guy went all in after I raised with AK.  It was an easy call based on his chip stack.  The board missed me and I assumed i would lose to a pocket pair, but no, he had AQ and thus gave me all the rest of his chips. 

I caught a an Ace high straight against a set of 10's and stacked some short stacked guy.  A nut flush also got me some chips.  I got pocket Aces again and this time a guy in early position raised to $15.  I made it $40 sure that the other guy would at least call.  But he folded.

I got two callers when I raised with pocket Queens and no one called my flop bet on a low flop.  By the time I was ready to call it a night, I had gotten all but a few bucks of my $300 buy in back.

Walking to the parking lot, I was deep in thought about the session as I walked through the area where hookers have been known to congregate.  After this story, I no longer seek out hookers to blog about or tell my friend Woody about, but they still seem to find me. As I walked passed two girls I hadn't really noticed sitting in front of two slot machines (but facing out, not towards the machines), I heard one of them say, "Hey what are you looking for?"

I didn't get a good look at them, but they both some reasonably attractive as Vegas hookers go.  They didn't really stand out in my mind, good or bad.

I gave them a quick glance but kept moving.  The girl continued.  "Hey, come here."

That was said rather pleasantly.  But when I continued to ignore them, she said it one more.

"Come here!"  This was said very sternly, much more like an order than an invitation.

I turned to her and shook my head.  "No thanks."  Nothing she could have said would have gotten me to stop, but she needs to work on her sales pitch.  She'd only get guys who like to be verbally abused with that tone.

I kept heading to my car and my thoughts returned to the Mid-Western girl who flopped a boat against my Aces and told us--and demonstrated--that everything isn't flat in Iowa.

I Wonder if He's Still Good Enough to Fold Pocket Kings?

This is a repost.  The reason I'm reposting this particular post is that I've recently encountered the star of this post, "Austin Bluffs", not once, not twice, but three times in the past week or so.  The first time was via a Periscope that the Aria poker room folks did.  He noticed that I was watching and gave me a shout out, forcing me to revisit the post.  I hadn't heard anything from Austin in all this time, since the story you are about to (re) read.  As for the other two times I've run into him, well, I'll save that for when I get around to writing about the events of the previous two nights here in Vegas.

This post originally appeared October 24, 2013, but the event that it referred to happened in July of that year.

Hope you enjoy this trip down memory lane!

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The other morning, I woke up to the following tweet from someone going by the Twitter handle, “Austin Bluffs”:

“I just recognized you in Ante Up, I laid down KK against you PF at MGM in July, good lay down, right?”

My first reaction was, “huh?”  How the heck am I supposed to remember some hand from July?

I appreciated the fact that somebody recognized me from my little pic in Ante Up and tracked me down.  Actually, I was amazed by it.

I mean, here’s someone obsessing over a hand that happened over 3 months ago.  But hey, as a poker player myself, I could certainly relate to that.  Yeah I could.  In fact, I have a blog where I have a permanent record of hands I tend to obsess over.  When I go back and read some of my early posts, and read about the bad beats, they still piss me off.

But something else surprised me.  He recognized me from that tiny picture.  And not just as, “Oh, I know I played against this guy a few months ago.”  No, no….he looked at that pic, recognized me—and this is key—recognized me as the guy who got him to lay down pocket Kings preflop!  Recognizing me as that guy really impressed me, I have to admit.

I wondered if I had blogged about the hand he was talking about, but I doubted it.  I think if I would have blogged about it, I would have remembered.  

So I tweeted back to Austin for more info on the hand.  Maybe he could explain enough about the hand to trigger my memory.  I tweeted to him:  “Wow. Seriously? You'd have to give me details about the hand for me to try to rack my brain (or my blog notes) to remember.”

I mentioned my blog notes on purpose.  I had no idea if Austin reads my blog.  I couldn’t assume he did.  But I wanted to give him a heads up about it.  Maybe he’d come back and say he looked for a mention of it but I had never written about it.  Maybe he’d start reading it to see if he could find something.

In the meantime, I looked through some of Austin’s tweets.  I found an interesting one on July 6.  He tweeted to All Vegas Poker’s twitter account (and to Las Vegas Michael, the one-time main face of AVP) “pls ask Robert S from your staff if the guy (me) who laid down KK preflop had a good read (AA) on his 5-bet @MGM.”

I didn’t spend too much time analyzing this tweet because it gave me the vital piece of info I needed—the date, or the approximate date—the incident took place.

That meant I could probably find the hand in my notes.  As I’ve explained previously, since around March, I’ve been doing voice notes to chronicle my Vegas adventures, usually recorded the morning after every day of poker/Vegas activities.  And more recently, I started a spreadsheet to keep track of what significant events happened and on which voice recordings I could find them.  That means I avoid listening to 20-40 minutes worth of notes before finding out if there’s anything there worth blogging about.  I can find the stories I know I want to tell easier.  Then, when I do the blog post, I put the title of said post in the next column, so I know the story is done, and I don’t have to review those notes any further. 

The tweet was sent at 6 in the morning, so it was safe to say the hand must have occurred July 5 or before.  I opened my spreadsheet and saw the details I had from that day.  Actually, all I had to look at was the name of the blog post that I had indeed written about that day.

And when I saw what post it was, I almost shit in my pants. 

The title of the post was “Bad Beats & Big Tits” and you can find it here.  I remembered that post very well.  It was about a few really bad beats I took in a couple of consecutive sessions.  And about how I humorously blamed a guy who was sitting next to me both sessions for my bad luck.  At least I was trying to be funny. In that attempt, I went on and on—as I am known to do—about certain physical attributes that the player’s wife was displaying rather liberally. I believe the title of the post will give you a pretty big hint about what that was.

I knew that I didn’t suffer any bad beats to the guy I was “blaming” for my bad luck (also known as the husband of the woman with big tits).  But since I had no memory of what Austin was talking about, I couldn’t be sure that Austin wasn’t the husband of the woman with the big tits.

And if he was, that really scared me.  I’ve mentioned before being worried about some of the subjects of my posts recognizing themselves here and being upset with me for what I’ve written.  The biggest concern I’ve had was Denise, the lovely dealer who I complimented in a very ungentlemanly fashion.  But it turned out, not only wasn’t she offended, she was actually thrilled that I had “tooted her horn”—she was flattered, totally ignoring the tackiness of my comments (see here).

This would be similar, but somehow very different.  The husband of the woman I had written about the way I had this woman might not be so thrilled with my ungentlemanly assessment of his wife’s assets.  He might not find any humor in it all. He might want to defend his wife’s “honor.”

So I may have just suggested to this husband that he search my blog to find the hand he was obsessing over.  And he might find the story of me discussing his wife’s chest instead.

Damn.

Suddenly I wished I hadn’t sent that tweet to Austin, I certainly wished I hadn’t mentioned the blog on it, and I wasted no time finding my voice notes from the 5^th and listening to them.

It was the first time I’d played back the voice notes since I wrote that post, which I did just a day or two after the session. I should point out, as I’ve mentioned numerous times before, in order to help me do those voice notes, I take notes of certain hands right at the table, soon after they happen.

So I heard myself on the voice note saying, after I’ve set up the situation, “I guess I’ll read the hands even though nothing really matters but the last hand, because I lost my entire stack on the last hand.  Because poker’s such a good game.  But I’ll read them anyway.”

Yeah, I was bitter.  If you reread that post, you’ll see why.  This was the morning after my set of 9’s got beat, the first hand of that post.

I listened through a few hands, and then I heard myself saying, “Then, the most interesting hand that I can possibly blog about other than the one that f***ed me up the ass.” (yeah, that’s the way I talk to myself in these notes).  I went on to say that I had pocket Aces.  One guy made it $6, another player called, I made it $18, and the guy in seat 9 made it $50.

I breathed a sigh of relief even before hearing the rest.  I was sure this was the hand Austin was referring to.  He must have been the guy in seat 9.  Couldn’t have been the man whose wife had the big ones, he was sitting right next to me in seat 4.  Phew.

I continued describing the hand.  It folded back to me.  I put a stack of $100 right next to the $18 I had initially put out.  It folded back to seat 9.  He tanked.

According to my notes, he said, “I know you got Aces.  I know you got Aces……You got Aces.”  And then he folded.  Face up.  Showing the dreaded pocket Kings.

Now, I’m absolutely sure at the moment that happened, my thought was, “Wow, this is going to be a blog post.  I got a guy to fold pocket Kings.  I found a player good enough to fold pocket Kings (see here)."  At the time, I was sure that hand would be the main story of the blog post coming from that session.  I mean, there’s the whole “good enough to fold pocket Kings” bit that I’ve discussed several times.  There’s the fact that it was indeed the dreaded pocket Kings (which appear more often in this blog than “boobs mentionings”).  Plus the numerous times I’ve discussed the whole Aces vs. Kings scenario (see here).  And you know, you just so rarely see a guy fold Kings preflop.  It’s memorable.

But of course, the last hand of the night made me forget this hand completely.

Back to my voice notes.  I explained that the guy to my right—who was probably the guy with the large-breasted wife (although this might have been before he showed up)—said, “No, he had Queens.”

Seat 9 said, “Well, then it was a good bet.”

The player to my right said, “Queens or Jacks.”

I just smiled.  I came pretty close to showing, but held back.  I said, “Deuces.”

Player to my right said, “I’m sure you had better than deuces.”

I said, “OK, threes.”

Player 9 said, “He’ll do a forum post on AVP—‘I bluffed this guy out of Kings.’”

Yes, it turned out that my association with AVP had been discussed at the table prior to this. A dealer had mentioned it and so had another player.  I don’t recall if Seat 9 had mentioned that he was a reader/member of AVP before this or not, but he clearly was. 

I just laughed.  In my mind, I said, “No, but I’ll sure mention it on my blog.”  But because of my ambivalence about mentioning the blog at the poker table, as I’ve discussed before, I said nothing aloud.

But clearly, playing this back, Seat 9 was Austin Bluffs.  And that meant Austin Bluff was not the guy sitting next to me who I had made the star of the blog post I’d already published.

Phew.

My notes went on to say that he seemed like a nice guy and I planned to tell him I had Aces, away from the table, when one of us left.  But he left with a buddy while I was in a hand and I couldn’t get up and tell him that he had made a good lay down.

In the meantime, I received a tweet back from Austin giving me more info.  He said he had written about it the trip report he had filed on AVP, and gave me the link. Somehow, I had totally missed his trip report. The story is here but, without permission, I’ll copy what he said about the hand:

“At MGM, I had KK and 4-bet preflop. The opponent moved all in. He was older and I hadn't seen him get out of line. I knew he had AA and mucked the cowboys face up. He didn't show, but I still am sure he had AA. Before this hand, he mentioned he works for AVP and I saw his name on the Bravo display to be Robert S. I tweeted to AVP to see if I could flush out some info on whether I read his hand right but they are not giving up the info (it's OK, I know).”

Heh heh.  He was wrong that I had moved all-in, but I guess he was right about my not getting “out of line”!  And that I’m “older.” And now I had an explanation for his tweet calling me “Robert S”—he saw that on the screen in front of the dealer.  Which he could see from Seat 9, but not from Seat 4, which was occupied by the guy whose wife—well, you know.

I do wonder why, if he knew I worked for AVP, he never thought to ask my screen name.  That could have given him the opportunity to ask me about the hand many months sooner. 

After hearing my notes, I tweeted back to Austin, “You said, "You have Aces", guy next to me said, ‘No, he had Queens’ I said ‘No, deuces’ and said I'd go on AVP and talk about bluffing a guy who had Kings? THAT hand? Heh heh. Yeah, I had Aces and was gonna tell you when I left but you left first.”  (It was a two-part tweet).  I wanted to put his mind at ease at long last after all these months.

He responded:  “lol, I'll always remember that hand, thanks for confirming my read (or at least making me think I had it figured out)...”

Austin your read was dead on.  It really wasn’t a good lay down tho, because, you know, there was gonna be a King on the river.  At least, the way my luck turned at the end of the evening, that’s what would have happened.

Anyway, in listening to my voice notes just now, it was indeed a memorable hand that I meant to blog about.  But the reason I never did was because of the nightmare finish to the evening.  I wanted to forget that night as soon as I wrote the story of the unfortunate finish.  I did not leave myself a note (on the spreadsheet) to review that session for additional things to blog about it.

But I should have.  And I want to thank Austin Bluffs—I’m assuming that’s not his real name, so I’m using it—for getting me to review this evening and helping me write this blog post.

And by the way, just to be clear.  Austin Bluffs, whatever his real name is, is good enough to fold pocket Kings.