Yesterday was a long, trying, hilarious, and expensive day. I walked into the bike top section around 9:40 and listed myself for "everything" which the floor man understood to be just the limit games (what with me being a limit hold 'em prop and all). The man behind me (which was odd since we were the only two people in the room basically) said jokingly "I want to play whatever he's going to play" and we had a good laugh. 3 minutes later he introduced himself (let's call him Brian) and effectively challenged me to huhu action. My spidey sense was not tingling in the slightest (in fact I had that warm gooey feeling in my stomach you get right before you're about to do something awesome) and I asked him what he wanted to play. "The biggest game in the house" came the response. I began to salivate as I told him we could start the 40/80 right now and immediately texted my fellow prop and the host so we could get the game off the ground. His response was "sure, but you gotta buy me drinks". I mistakenly told him that me, Mike, and the host would buy him all the drinks he wanted (which apparently is not true for liability reasons) and we even called for a dealer when he realized...DUN DUN DAH!
"So this is 40/80 no limit?"
I actually laughed out loud and explained that I was a limit hold 'em prop, and that no we would not be playing 40/80 no limit hold 'em huhu. He was appalled, and explained that he only wanted to play no limit, and that he wanted to play big, and let's go. I explained that in the current universe in which we reside, that simply wasn't going to happen, and when pressed offered that my job was to start the 40/80 limit game as early as possible. He eventually understood, and we went on our merry way, at which point MikeL walked in the room looking like he'd run (or at least walked quickly) from the parking lot saying "Where is this customer" and I sadly had to report it was a false alarm but that we did sorta owe him drinks.
So fast forward like 5 minutes to the point where the floor realized that with the way this guy was acting and talking they could build any game they wanted around him, and you'd see a hilarious situation. We were trying to start the 15/30, with the table next to us was getting ramped up as some absurd 2/3 NL game with like a $7 drop or whatever, and of course the 15/30 game won. It will always fucking win, even with Brian at the other game reeking of stale booze (at 10am!), because me and MikeL simply won't let it lose. We've also got Mr. Volleyball (who will later deliver the death blow to my afternoon) ready and willing to gamble; all three of us are practically reaching into the deck to draw cards for the button while the dealer is still shuffling.
So Brian's game eventually does get going though (and despite Mike L's constant cry's of "Seat open, 15/30 limit hold 'em, biggest game in the hosue"), and he is making quite a scene, just carrying on about all manner of stuff. Then the chip runner/floor staff/generally semi-in-charge woman who also happens to be smokin' hot (by poker room standards at a bare minimum...like 10:1 against you seeing someone hotter inside the Bike on a given day) walks in and he's like "Does she deal here?" I stand up and declare "Yes she works here, and this is her husband" and introduce the yellow chip prop who is in fact her husband. A good laugh is had by all as Brian walks over to our game and shakes the man's hand saying "good job man, good job". This leads to a discussion on how long they've been married (and how many times), with Brian declaring he just got married. For the fourth time. At this point Mike L turns to me and says "It's like haunted house marriage. Blebhebhebhe! Surprise, Divorce!"
Moving right along, I texted La Peste to inform him that 15/30 game was go and that he should come by and give it a go. He did, I got up for him (because it was about time to make the big gambool anyway), took half his action, and watched in horror as he got lit up for like 35 bets in less than 2 hours. Whatchagonnad0? I gave the man his fun tickets, a pat on the ass and sent him on his way. Rumor is he's going to be able to get his monies off of the internets soon, so I might not have many more chances to stake him, but I'll do it as often as I can until then.
(The 40/80 game started at this point in my writing session, and now I'm at home on my couch trying to conjure some high energy....it's just not there).
So at this point in the day me, Mr. Volleyball, Mike L and the host have moved to the 40/80 table and decided that the best way to get the game going is to start off playing 30/60 deuce to seven. I'm all in favor of this because it gets Mike and Mr. Volleyball out of La Peste's 15/30 game, and because deuce is fun and I'm not allowed to ever lose. So we play like 20 hands, I win like 10 bets, Mike wins like 10 more, Mr. Volleyball wins a little and somehow the host is stuck like $1500 before we even fire up the 40 game. Some hilarious stuff happened, like Mike L opening the button, me defending and drawing...1, and him promptly declaring "well that's not good" and taking 4. But alas, it was not meant to be, as customer arrived and we were forced to play 2 card poker.
Things are going kind of well, with me basically breaking even and not much happening. The game fills up and is pretty much amazing, but I can't really get any traction. Every time something good happens, something bad immediately follows. The Dream manages to sorta slow roll me with kings (his line of limp/call, bet/call, check/call, check/call/stare/laugh/show on the queen high board was actually expert), and something else weird happens that I don't remember, all the while with Brian coming over asking the host to buy him a drink and the host giving me the stink eye and saying "Jesse, let me do the hosting next time. You play poker. I host" to which I responded "But you play poker with us every day" and the response from him comes "Yeah, and look how well that's working out for me" while gesturing at his chip stack which happens to be missing about three thousand of the dollars he started the day with. His point is well received, and painfully true.
Then it happens. Mr. Volleyball, whom I declared in my well as the luckiest winning player I have ever seen, strikes again. The host and the dream limp up front and I raise the HJ. A semi-regular in the CO calls right behind me, and the button 3 bets. Volleyball cold caps it from the small blind. The big blind folds, the host eats all 3, the dream folds, I make hollywood and call, the cold caller calls, the button calls, and we're off, 5 ways for the cap, with me holding black aces.
T32sss
Just wow. Volleyball donk-checks and immediately I smell a rat. The host checks, I bet, the CO calls (scary also), the button calls, Volleyball now raises and I think to myself "Self, this is fantastic. He has black kings and has like 7% equity and is going to build a massive pot for you". The host folds, I 3 bet and the CO instantly calls (again, not great, but I have black freaking aces). Volleyball calls. 3 ways to the turn:
T32sss-Ah
OK. Now I have top set and the nut flush draw. Volleyball checks, I bet, and the CO wakes up and...raises. Volleyball...3 bets. I put the cap on. Both call. The river bricks off and I bet....this bet is questionable, as realistically one of my opponents should have a flush a fair bit of the time here. But my logic was that the CO had a set of tens and would call the river (I was exactly right about that, by the way), and that Volleyball could have something like AK with the king of spades and just completely left the reservation. If he has a flush...well, that means he had to cold-cap with suited spades preflop. From the small blind. And I have the ace of spades. It just doesn't seem possible. The CO calls and volleyball calls. I declare "Just top set" and CO says "That's good" and volleyball rolls...K9 of spades. The king. And the 9. Of spades.
In my life I have seen some people with horse shoes stuck up their asses. He takes the cake. That pot had $2400, and he really should know better than to cold cap K9s out of the small blind. He's drawing all but dead, preflop! In my entire poker career I do not think I have been that out of line preflop a single time. As an aside here today at showdown on a J87-J-9 board volleyball was shown QJo (by the dream), promptly showed a jack and then mucked. The rub is that he had raised, under the gun, in an 8 handed game. Think about that one....
I left the bike stuck something like $1400 in poker games ($2200 of which I lost in like the last hour I was there) and drove to the the land of pixie dust and unicorns to pick up....Pete. He was in town with the family and had a free night to make some gambool with me, so off I went. We ended up chilling out in his hotel room for what seemed like an hour waiting for another family member to arrive (which never even happened), then set out for...dun dun dah! Hawaiian Gardens.
Do you ever have those moments where you just KNOW something terrible is about to happen to you? I feel like that every time I walk into HG. I played it so expertly it was almost painful. I texted us onto the list. When we arrived we were first and second up with 8 names on the list, and I convinced the floor to start a 3rd 20/40 game. We were must moved out of it within 5 minutes and spent 2.5 hours in seats 8 and 9, shooting the shit, with me losing every 3rd pot in some preposterous fashion. I capped the flop and bet/folded the turn with Kings (and she showed her set of 7s to the all in player). I lost 3 flips to the same guy who was really just trying to bust so he could go home. I ran QQ into AK and AK. Obviously they turned a king. It just all went wrong. Somehow I only lost $800, and Pete enjoyed not only the Shish Tauok, but also the sushi bowl. After a single drink we bailed at 9pm, immediately after Pete dumped back his one rack of winnings. I drove him back to the land of pixie dust and unicorns, and probably won't see him again until July, but it was great to catch up. I ended the day stuck something near $3000, but the best part is...I didn't even really care. I was sort of OK with it. Maybe it was because I'd won the table share, maybe it was just hanging out with Pete, or maybe I'm actually building up some tilt resistance armor in the face of playing this 40 game everyday. Either way, it sure felt nice not to feel like shit.
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