Session Report, 8/22

Yesterday I played just a shade under 5 hours at Bay 101. I first drove to Garden City to see the effect of the construction work they'd just done (they replaced the floors) and while the room was much louder (hard to believe I know...but that happens when you replace carpet with tile), it felt much cleaner. Now whether or not it was actually cleaner is up for debate, but whatever.

I get there and for the second time in 3 trips I have the following interaction with Ted, the short fat floor man.

Jesse: "Hi Ted, JMS checking in for 20/40"
Ted: "OK"
Jesse: "Can you put me up for 6/12 and 8/16 as well"
Ted: "Hold on I'm gonna start a game" (last time it was "You'll have a seat very soon").
Ted does not put Jesse on the 6 or 8 lists.
Jesse walks to main desk and puts self on said lists.

Last time it took fifty (that's five zero) minutes for me to get a 20 seat after Ted the floor man REFUSED to put me on wait lists I was asking for. This time his premise was that he was going to start another game. I look around. There are no tables. None. Not a single freaking table is available for the game. I look at the list. There are 11 names, 4 of which are call-ins who have not checked in and on which I am in 9th place somehow (despite having called in 40 minutes ago...this is a bad sign, as it means there's no movement on the list...probably because they have one game only).

My poker-only friend LV (I have never seen her outside of Bay 101 or Garden City) and I have a little bitch session about how Garden City now sucks and how we should call Bay 101. LV is a solid winner in the games we play, and is a breath of fresh air in that environment I can assure you. Then I call Bay 101 and put both our names on the list. 10 minutes later she leaves, and 5 minutes after that I am called for the 6/12 game (no thanks to you, Ted, you big fat idiot you). I again check the 20 list and see it's as dismal as before, then note that the "biggest fish in the sea" has moved from the 20 game up to the 40. I pass on my 6/12 seat, get in my car, and beat LV to Bay 101 because she apparently drives like a Grannie.

I roll up to Bay 101 around 3:15 and check in for the list. I am about 18th, but there are four games going and some call-ins ahead of me that have not checked in. I find 2p2er Jack (the names have been changed to protect the innocent) and we talk shop, having just met last night in the 20 game (actually we met when I sent him a PM on 2p2 after he had described himself in the mid stakes low content thread and I realized I'd played with him). Then I get a beef taco, which is the only way to fly at Bay 101, and devastate it in about 47 seconds. Then LV shows up (WTF???) and we again commence to bitch about Garden City.

Suddenly we realize the tournament is down to the final 4, so we head over to railbird that thing. Another 2p2er (let's call him Joe) has made the final four, but is short stacked. I call Jack over and we triple his cheering section (one other player is cheering for him, as he has 10% of Joe's action from a deal they struck at an earlier table in this shoot out tournament when they were heads up). I can't really even get to a position where I can see all 4 player's actions, let alone the board cards or the stack sizes, so I quickly loose interest. Joe ends up coming in third and pocketing a cool 6K+ (nice hit Joe, nice hit) and then Jack, myself, and LV are all called for the 20 game in quick succession around 4:15.

Not much interesting happened in the session, although I spent the second half of it on Jack's right, which always makes it more interesting (I like to have the best player at the table on my left, as I figure I'm not getting any money out of him anyway so he might as well have position). I managed to post a win of 538 dollars, down from a peek of about 1000 because of the following three hands:

I open AQo and notice guy on my left had been fumbling for chips. He makes a speech "I guess I call" and I'm already a little concerned. We see a flop about 5 handed and of course it has an ace in it. The final board is about:

AJX-Y-X

He calls me down, I table what should be a nut monster....but wait! He rolls AK and scoops the pot. Wow, sir, wow. Thanks for saving me that 60 bucks.

Next hand of interest....

Myself and Jack have posted a pair of big blinds, and the game is only 6 handed at the moment. An average player open-raises, and an older white gentleman who puts in WAY too much action with his hands calls the two bets cold (as an example, he three-bet the river and paid off a 4-bet with the nut flush on a paired board...not one but BOTH of his opponents had full houses). I hold QJ of diamonds and call one more bet, and Jack calls as well.

QXX two hearts

I check, Jack checks, Preflop raiser bets, action-man calls, I now raise, jack folds, both other players call.

Q black

I bet, action-man now raises, and I go into the tank. Normally this is an easy call down, but against action-man I'm trying to see if I can find a raise. Eventually I decide he's pretty tight preflop and thus my kicker isn't very good with my Queen (he could have a J or a T, but most likely has a K or perhaps even an Ace if he holds a Queen). He could also have a full boat by flopping one of the little sets, so I just call.

X heart (3 hearts now).

Ah blessed heart I say. Thank you (unless he had a heart draw, in which case I'm very sad). I check and try to look suspicious. He confirms my suspiciousness and says "I check, I think you have hearts waitin' in the weeds over there". I roll my hand with low expectations. He turns over KQ to drag the pot. I own you sir.

Next hand....no ownage here....

One player limps. I've played with him before and don't regard him as good. He is short stacked to start the hand. I raise A9 both spades somewhere in the middle/late and we take a flop 3 or 4 handed. To make a long story short this limper calls me all-in on the river when a flush draw comes in on a board of:

AQX-A-X

His AT beats my A9, as both of the Xs were below 9.

These three hands were pretty frustrating, but in two of them my opponents allowed me to get away from my hand as cheaply as possible by playing incredibly passively.