Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Let Me Tell You a Story

Live 20 can, from time to time, bring one great joy. My hind-parts are still smarting from running AKhh into AA on a 875hh board, during which my opponent narrowed his range to AA preflop by capping, but I obliged his silly c/r/4 line since we were four handed and obviously I wanted to chop up crazy tat man and bitchy Asian lady. So we are still kinda feelin' that one, with BAL just doing what she does best; bitching. She's one of those hard-core addicts who have been playing for maybe decades who used to kind of avoid getting destroyed but anymore is probably lucky to lose less than $80/hour. She has responded by getting extremely grumpy, I guess.

So we are a few hands further down the Long Run and she calls for a setup, as is her custom, but it's slow in coming as is also customary and an extra hand gets dealt, one that, were setup girl Johnny on the spot, would have stayed in the deck, never to be seen and forever lost to the world. But setup girl is seldom Johnny on any spot, let alone THE spot. And why should she be? She's a chip runner for Christ's sake! He job description is basically to bend over and flash some cleavage whenever a customer runs out of bullets. White collar she is decidedly not.

Anyway, our rogue hand enters the Long Run, and I must say does so in memorable fashion. BAL limps up front and yours truly raises the QTcc. The blinds both call, with Mr. Lee (lol every card room in America has at least one kindly old man known as Mr. Lee) declaring he will play his rush. But wait! BAL back-raises! I call, the SB calls, and Mr. Lee chastises BAL, asking why she did such a thing, then calls by dropping 4 chips directly in front of her and saying "bad beat".

Q 8 6 with a club

They all check, and for some reason I bet. Both blinds call, BAL raises, and now it is me Mr. Lee is displeased with. I call, so do they, and the pot has officially attained "hudge" status. Quickly now, what's the best card in the deck?

9c

My lonely pair has suddenly become a double gutted flush draw! Aiyah, Mr. Lee. Ai-fucking-yah. BAL bets and as I call cannot resist. The entire table has been discussing which color her aces are for two streets now. "Bad beat coming" escapes my lips. Mr. Lee calls, and setup girl watches patiently from behind the dealer, waiting to change BAL's fortunes all too late. I mean, how can I miss? I have 20 outs to crack the bullets; it has already been decided, the card merely waiting to enter the Long Run.

7d

BAL checks, calls, cusses out setup girl and immediately takes an out button. Mr. Lee reminds her that she could have just won the pot preflop. She is of course not amused and mutters something at him that likely is not flattering in some language neither he nor I can understand.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

How does BAL have money to lose $80/hr for decades? I often wonder this about players who appear to spend 50+ hrs/week in the card room and are clearly losing. I usually just chalk it up to magic.

Ken said...

Rich husband / parents?

I played with a guy who was semi-decent at LHE (claimed to be winning at an acceptable clip), whose wife spent all the time he was playing 20/40 on the casino floor losing insane amounts on $100 slots and $1000 BJ...

Apparently she has a rich family and they just do whatever they want.

This influx of winning "pro" poker players is relatively recent I'd imagine...most people who'd spend a lot of time and money in casinos were traditionally rich or totally degen.

jesse8888 said...

The effects of young pros infesting the games hurts all the way down, and probably even has a positive feedback loop. Assholes like me and the Big Potato knock the winning regs to break even status, and knock slight losers (like BAL) down into unsustainable territory. She probably used to lose a little, but in today's environment just doesn't stand a chance.