PART THE FIFTH

wherein our hero does nothing exciting at all
2008.12.14

I don't wake up from sleep. What do they call it when you stop being passed out? Whatever that is, I do it at noon.

The plan today is poker, just poker. Whatever I feel like playing, I'm going to play. No pressure, no goals, keep it solid.

I find a passive NL game and run the table. I get a few others to straddle, and I repeatedly take down a pile of limps. It helps that I run well (good? no adverbs in poker?), and I steadily build up a few buyins. Nothing major, just a lot of pressure plus a few decent hands. The tables dry up a bit and I take a break for dinner.

I'm in the mood for Fixed Limit. The juicy games in the Bay Area are FL and I need some practice at it. The 3/6 looks incredibly nitty, but the 2/4 is chock full o' of yuks and I sit down, also throwing my name on a 4/8 interest list. (I need to stay mid-strip next time.) They're also taking signups for a tournament in a couple of hours, $80 for 3k in chips, 20 minute rounds. What the hell, I'm a tourney rockstar, right?

The table is typical intro-stakes Limit, and I surprise myself by showing incredible patience yet applying appropriate aggression and not missing those river value bets. The key is respecting the table: when I fail at that, I lose. I'm near a few fun folks of various ages, talking about music, cruises, resorts, videogames, writing, and hippies. One woman keeps taking cigarette breaks with a buff stud fifteen years her junior, claiming when she returns that nothing's going on despite her husband not having joined her this trip. I'm able to break even in two hours, which is a success as far as I'm concerned, considering I usually bleed at these tables.

I take special note of a young dealer named Chris whose attitude is the best of all I've seen at MGM. Someone makes a comment about dealers not wanting to deal the low limits, and presses Chris for his feelings on it, to which he replies that he enjoys welcoming new players and takes pride in adapting to the particulars of a game. I toke him a few extra in the down just for that. Many dealers seem annoyed to be working at all, let alone the low stakes tables, which is all there is at MGM so they have a rough road ahead if it pains them so much. Chris runs a good game.

Called for tournament, here we go! I'm on Table 1 Seat 2, my exact favorite spot. Building up slowly for a while, a few people bust out and they bring in alternates. One guy has what seems like more than starting stack, and I ask what table busted. None, he just came in. His hands stay in front of his chips, so after he folds his first hand I ask for a count. Despite others at the table assuring me it's 3k, he's 200 over and quickly hands them to the dealer, who calls the floor to take them. The kid seems to know everybody there, even discussing with a dealer at great length about something or other they had going on somewhere. I'm not pointing fingers, I'm just saying this all seems a little strange.

I can't make much happen, but the kid goes on a tear, hitting monster hands and brutal suckouts. My starting stack doesn't grow much, so I'm short after a few rounds of play. The best hand I've seen in a while, I open-push 87s in LP to have the kid tank from the BB. He calls with T9 of my suit and I'm done. Oh well.

Back to cash, where I pump away at NL. I find a festive group with some cute thirty-something hipster girl with a penchant for a pants-off dance-off. She's fun and flirty and snorts when she giggles. Everybody's loose, having a good time. I'm playing it a little wild, pushing the boundaries of what I was working earlier, and it's paying off fairly well. I'm playing almost a third of my hands but making it seem like every hand. The local young grinder to my left clearly has it in for me, and can't believe it when I use a pair of 4s to pick off his busted draw river bluff into four people. I had a read. He's similarly shocked later in the night when I fold my TPWK nut draw on a board of AT84 when he pushes into my turn bet, but I don't have enough clean outs to go the distance.

I lose a couple of other key pots, including one in which I misplay AJ TPTK (some would say by playing it at all). I misunderstand who has what stack. I see a bet and an all in. One is an older gentleman who I'm pretty sure has a Jack. The other is a calling station who could have anything. Thinking the station is all-in, I sadly learn when I push that I have it backwards and the kid had merely called the all-in, taking another chunk of my stack with his slow-played AA. He hits me for considerably less later with AA in a similar situation: I learned my lesson the first time. Were it not for my mistake I'd have left up, but as it was lost half a buyin for the night. As I'm experimenting with expanding my play, I consider it a draw.

These drinks are getting tastier every time.

... next up: You make a mean Caucasian, Jackie ...