You see some of the worst poker at the casino sometimes.
Insanity is…
There was the woman who raised with pocket queens in EP who checked when the flop came AT9. One of the many cold-callers bet at the flop and she called. The turn came a rag and she checked again. The flop bettor reached for his chips and the woman announced, “I know you have an ace. So go ahead and bet.” The river came with no help and she called once again. The bettor flipped over AT for top two and the woman flipped over her queens and said “I knew you had an ace.” She turns to the player in seat 2 and complains, “It’s just my luck, I get queens and an ace comes.” She knew she was drawing to 2 outs, didn’t get lucky, and still paid the guy off. Wow.
What’s his tell?
A man replaced the woman in the 2 seat and won a hand at showdown when he called down the preflop raiser with KK on a board full of rags. At no point during that hand did he raise. Amazing.
The same man cold-called my UTG raise a little later. The flop came 884. I bet with my queens and he called, while everyone else folded. The turn brought an ace. I bet and he called. Now I was a little worried. The river brought a king and with two overcards on the board, I figure I’ll check and see what happens. He bets, and remembering how passive he was with the kings, I opted not to pay him off. I asked him later if he had an ace or a king. “No, I had a flush.” Really? “Yeah, I had 57 suited. I knew you had a big pocket pair, and was going to fold, but they were suited, and then the flop was 84 so I could get the straight.” He probably had odds to call that flop bet, by the way. Especially with that backdoor flush. But I bet he didn’t know it!
Every rebuy is a little death
God bless the woman who paid off my quad aces with sixes when the board came A253A. There’s no way her hand is good against any legitimate hand, but hey, it was her last six chips. Now she can rebuy for another 5BB. It’s just too bad Hollywood Park doesn’t have the high hand jackpots you see at the Aladdin and other Vegas casinos. Those jackpots can be good for $500 or more.
That same woman paid off my QQ earlier as well. I’d seen her go to the showdown with a wide range of hands, so I put in a value bet despite the 3-flush on the river.
The worst mistake I made at that table was not raising with KQ in MP. The board ended up being KJ9Tx and I chopped a pot with the woman who paid off my aces and queens when she hit her gutshot with Q5s. The raise would have knocked her out preflop or added another 3BB to the pot. Either way, not raising was anywhere from a minor to a major mistake.
Blogger table
When that table broke, I got up with my 12.5BB profit (hourly of 2BB/hour including smoke and beer breaks) and wandered around, alternately sweating HDouble at his table and Absinthe and Bill at their table. Absinthe and Bill had a great table. One and a half maniacs, two calling stations, a fish, etc. After a while, HDouble sat and I figured I’d sit as well and gamble with my profits.
Unfortunately for Bill and Absinthe, HDouble replaced a calling station (the same woman who paid off my aces and queens–she’s everywhere!) and I replaced the table maniac (he got up with a couple hundred dollars). Still, the guy in the 1 seat seemed pretty fast and loose with his chips and the guy in the 5 seat was the mother of all calling stations (MCS, not to be confused with MC5).
Oh really now?
MCS won a pot with a decent hand at one point–a hand which he actually bet on the turn. As he stacked up his chips, he announced, “See? I don’t put money in unless I have something.” Let me offer a definition, which some of the other hands he showed elucidated:
Main Entry: 1some thing
Pronunciation: ‘s&m(p)-thi[ng], esp in rapid speech or for 2 ‘s&m-p&m
Function: pronoun
1 : runner-runner straight draw
2 : low second pair, weak kicker
3 : pair draw
Color commentary
HDouble’s a good guy to have at the table at 4 in the morning:
HDouble rakes a pot after he bets the turn on a T2xx board: “Super/System.”
I raise pre-flop with JJ after mucking most of my trash hands: “Woah! Who’s this guy?”
HDouble raises in EP: “Okay, I’ve got a good hand this time. Everybody call.”
I win after capping the flop with second pair, ace kicker and the nut flush draw: “That was straight out of Abdul!”
Fun stuff.
5AM rolled around and I was up an additional BB. Time to call it a night.
