A Great Couple Days of Poker
TV Time, Heads up death match, and I got kicked out of a 2-4 game!--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It has been a phenomenal couple of nights in poker for several reasons. I've made a bunch of money, I stole the show in a reality poker show, and I busted a guy heads up in 40-80, and I got kicked out of a 2-4 game without breaking a single rule and without being drunk.
We will start with last night. I headed down to the strip around 7pm and made my usual phone calls. I prefer to play at the Venetian and called there first and found out that they had just called down a 40-80 game. Sweet! I got there at 7:30, headed straight to table eleven, and saw a dead spread. :Sigh:. OK, plan B. I walked across the street to the Wynn where there was rumors of a 30-60 game starting up. I sat, ordered food, they called down the list, and NOBODY showed up. I couldn't even try to talk somebody into playing heads up. So, I sat in a 5-10 NL shorthanded game that was very good, and then my phone rang.
It was Rich at the Venetian. He informed me of a "game that I had to be in." 2-5 NL. What? Why? Aparrantly there was a kid trying to make it as a professional poker player and they were filming a reality TV show on it. Sweet! Sounds fun. TV time and the chance to bust some hot shot rookie. I even thought maybe the production company was backing him and would roll him in a big heads up match or something. Crush him at 100-200? Sweet!
So I hustle back to the Venetian and learn that Fox is filming the production and "the hot shot rookie" is Boston Rob of Survivor fame. Oh. Whoops. Well, at least there will be more publicity and coverage with this one.
I busted him within thirty minutes.
I had the Kd Ts and raised to $20 in middle position after Rob limped UTG. Two players called behind as did the big blind. The flop came Kc Td 5d and Rob bet $50 into me and the field. Now, what instantly went through my mind was that he had a one pair or drawing hand. I also figured that I could goad him into making a mistake, since this was his show and I am sure he was eager to make a big hit quick. I popped it to $170. Everybody folded behind, and he thought for about 30-45 seconds as he shuffled the $120 more in chips. He then said, "I'm all in." I called instantly and turned over my hand. The only thing I was concerned about was 55, but I was pretty confident that he would not have played a set that way. He rolled over the Ad 6d , no funny business happened, and I took down the over $2k pot.
The rest was pretty much history from there. I have been known to be animated and talkitive at a poker table. Between that hand, my earlier antics, and Rich telling the director some of who I was, I had cameras on me more than Rob. LOL. I had another huge hand where we got it all in pre-flop with me holding AA and two other players having JJ and QQ. I played it up perfectly, calling the cameras over to "sweat", and really made it look like I had a hand that wasn't AA but still pretty strong. So, 2.5 hours of 2-5 NL and I made $2141 plus getting plenty of smameless self-promotion TV time.
From there I decided to relax a little bit and played some 4-8 limit with Jared, Danny, and my new friend David. We had a good ol time and I somehow ended up breaking dead nuts even.
David I met the night before. I ended up in a 15-30 game at the Venetian which was very soft and met David through that game. Very cool cat. We played until around 2:30 down to three handed when David finally left. I was pretty stoked to see him go for two reasons: one, he was decent and the other guy was horrible. Two, the other guy wanted to bump up the stakes to 40-80 once we got heads up.
By the time we got all the chips colored up from nickels to dimes, I had ALL the chips. Thanks David! I ended up making $1206 net on that session.
After I ended that heads up death match I wandered down the strip to kill some time and find my drunk friends. Tiffany and I were planning on hanging out when she got off at 5 and it was around 3:30. I found Jared, Danny and Jackie at the Flamingo playing 2-4 and they were trashed. Just as I was about to sit down and donk off some chips, Tiffany called and said she got off an hour early. She said she wanted to hang out with us, so I wandered back to the Venetian. On my way out the door from the Flamingo I realized that I could not take a ten minute walk without a beer. And as I stepped up to the bar, I realized that I could not pay for a beer. I stuck $20 in the video poker machine to get a "free" beer. Two minutes later I hit my first ever royal flush! Woo hoo! So basically Tiffany getting off an hour early made me a thousand bucks. Sweet!
We made our way back to the Flamingo and laughed at our drunk friends. I then took Tiffany to one of my most favorite spots on the strip. It's the courtyard at the Flamingo between the hotel towers. It's an outdoor sanctuary complete with waterfalls and exotic birds, including pink flamingos. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was in fact open late at night. It's such a beautiful paradox on the center strip. Tiffany and I were immediately surrounded by pink flamingos, japanese koi, palm trees, and waterfalls. But a stones throw in any direction found slot machines and the timeless gamble of Las Vegas. It is such a neat place that is not advertised, nor are there any signs within the Flamingo pointing out this place. We spent some peaceful time there and headed back inside.
I finally sat in this 2-4 game. Now, the only reason for me to ever play a low limit game is to have a good time with my buddies. I don't take the game very seriously because the money is insignificant to me. Now, if you play 2-4, imagine if you were playing ten cent-twenty cent. That's kinda what it's like. It's a great way for me to blow off some poker steam and do everything I've ever wanted to do. It also helps me remember that I am playing a game for my living.
So, here are some of my antics. Laughing, lots. Telling people what my hand is, still getting paid off, and then laughing when I do. Raising blind. Three betting blind. Four betting blind. Straddling every opportunity. Looking at one card on the turn, then one card on the river. Playing with one card exposed. Playing with one card on my forehead. Requesting cards, getting there, tipping the dealer, and then betting - and then laughing when I get called. Usually I make the game a ton of fun. But sometimes the people in the game take it waaaaay too seriously and cannot realize that I am making the game very profitable and they go on insta-tilt. In this specific case, three people went on tilt, left the game, and complained to the floorperson. He came over and asked me to settle down in a very not get my attention way. About five minutes later I got dealt a card face-up by accident. I asked if I could keep the K in a joking manner, knowing what the answer would be. The dealer gave me a new card and I immediately turned it face up and giggled. At that point the floorperson kicked me out. I got booted! My three friends were drunk, and I got booted. I think that the floorperson handled it very poorly. I understand his reasoning in the sense that I was pissing off his regulars, but they all simply moved to the other table - and when I got booted it pissed off everybody in the game and it broke. He simply could have pulled me off to the side, let me know what was going on, and I would have settled down and probably left shortly. Now he gets bad press for the Flamingo poker room.
So, good couple of days, and it's nice to be winning again.
Peace and good luck!
Devo
maverickusc@gmail.com
PS - some of you might have noticed the grammatical errors in my blogs and some sloppy writing. I have made an intentional effort to never edit my blogs for the simple fact that I want to keep them as close to journal entries as I possibly can. I am hoping to give you all a glimpse into the mind and heart of a young professional poker player living in Las Vegas. I also want to start a dialogue within these blogs. I am going to start adding a link to my blogspot blog where I cross post all these blogs where commenting is available. The link is here, Campfire Stories.
posted by Devo @ 9:19 PM
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