Thursday, September 2, 2010

Jesse Hits the Jackpot; Hilarity Does Not Ensue

I guess I spoiled all the drama right there in the title. Yesterday afternoon at 12:48pm I turned over the winning hand that qualified for the HG bad beat jackpot. The action went down like this.

Some people limped, including the 7 seat, and I raised from the 9 hole with QQ. This was like my second orbit at the table, and I honestly didn't even have much of a read on seat 7 yet, other than typical stereotyping things that seem to be biting me in the ass lately. So we saw the flop either 4 or 5 way, I honestly can't even remember because I didn't need to do my "re-assess the situation and make sure all your shit is in order right after you see the flop" routine because there was a queen on the board. Specifically:

AQ2r

They all checked, I bet, and seat 7 raised. For some reason I decided to just call and raise him on the turn. I'm not sure why I did this, but at the time it just felt right. Arguments for it are that I have enough hand to 4-bet many turns if he has a monster (pretty much any two pair is possible, although A2 would obviously be the most likely because of the action and my holding most of the queens, along with maybe a set of twos), I'll probably win $20 more from silly naked aces (that still have a chance to make two pair on the turn), and I might even win $20 extra from any hands that are completely FOS. So actually now that I think about it I kind of like the just call unless his line with 22 would be to call a 3 and c/r the turn, but not bet/3bet if I just call. Anyway....we saw the turn heads up.

AQ2-2

He bet, I raised, and he tanked a bit and 3-bet. At this point the jackpot murmers started around the table, and I went into the tank for what was a legitimate decision. If I chose to 4 bet, I was straight up risking 2 bets to win 1; if he 5 bet I would be quite confident he had 22, but I would never be able to fold (partially because full house duh and partially because even if he has 22 I have 1 out to hit the jackpot). But really? 22? Wouldn't the guy play A2 just like this? Isn't there at least a chance? There is exactly 1 combination of 22 left, and like a million A2s (and by a million I guess I mean, what, 6?) so surely I can 4 bet here. He cannot have AA really under any circumstances (he'd limped after another limper in pretty late position) and I can't even put Q2 past him, so I 4 bet.

The amount of Hollywooding he did before 5 betting was just enough to convince me that he the quads to a near certainty. I called pretty quickly, saving the excruciating (and yes perhaps impossible) task of attempting to fold a full house for the river since like I said I could still hit the jackpot. One time dealer.

AQ2-2-Q

He bet, I raised, he slammed his hand down on the table and just called (which I took to mean he thought his A2 had just been sucked out on in the heat of the moment which is preposterous now that I think about it) and I said "I hope you have it" and turned over my queens. He quickly produced the pocket deuces, and we shared an extremely awkward high five as the table erupted. He then looked at the clock and started cursing and yelling saying he thought it was already after one o'clock.

Until that moment I honestly wasn't sure how much money I was getting; the "big one" is only available during certain hours of the day, the odd hours as it turns out, and the time was 12:48pm (the hand was dealt at 12:47 according to the cameras which is what counts). Had we been in "big one" territory my share would have been a cool $20K of the entire $100K (winning hand gets 20%, loser 60, rest of the table splits 20). Since we weren't, I had to look over to the 1990s style LED display to see if the "little one" had grown past its initial $10K, which it does seemingly at random if it goes long without being hit (as an aside the SoCal rooms must really make a ton of money on the jackpot, as I'm sure there is no way they are seeding it with all the money they take off the tables). Alas, the number read only $10K, which meant all of a sudden I was disappointed about getting a free 4 racks dumped into my stack.

The table had a grand celebration but quickly realized "What's the table share? $285?" and interest died down pretty quickly. My opponent was getting 6 large,which is definitely enough to get excited about, and my $2K ensured that I wouldn't post a large losing day but not much else. Our driver's licenses were collected and we were paid some ridiculous length of time later (it was over 90 minutes before I had my money) during which time our game struggled not to grind to a halt as several people lobbied waiting for their shares or got up from the game and simply sat in the top section patiently (or not). Eventually we did all get paid, but all in all I'd declare the entire situation a train wreck. For $100K we will sit around and wait as long as you want, probably even order drinks and have a rocking good time. For $10K, just give the table share guys their money straight away; most of them were still stuck anyway!

At that point I was up about a rack for the day, and ended up leaving 7 hours later stuck two in the game, so my total win for the day was about $1000. That's a good day, but honestly way below what you were expecting when you read the title, right?