Bellagio with Orel Hershiser
Look out for 55... I wandered into the Bellagio around ten am this morning little aware of the unique day that I was about to have. I started in 15-30, moved to a new 30-60 game, and then moved to the 30-60 main game and sat down next to my new friend Orel Hershiser. Now, this is a big deal to me. Orel was my childhood hero growing up. I had met him two times previously, once as a ten year old in a doctor's office, and once during college at a church. I had met him shortly before sitting down next to him through Mark Gregorich. I walked up to Mark who was chatting with Orel and said, "So is this the new recruit for our softball team?"I cannot say enough about Orel. He is quite the amazing man. His personality is captaviting. His heart is warm and kind. His sense of humor: hilarious. We played together several hours when this hand came up. He limped early, I raised in mid position with AQo, and five of us saw a flop that came AQ2. I bet and four of us saw the turn of a 5. I bet, it folded to Orel and I said, "Nice laydown." He raised. I re-raised, he called. River was a blank, he check-called and beat me with 55. For those of you who aren't baseball fans, that was his number his entire career. We had quite the laugh as he drug the monster pot. The funny part about it is that earlier in the day I texted Danny to tell him who I was playing with, and he responded with, "Sweet! Watch out for pocket fives."
Some other fun news, Lara was hanging with me all day at work. Orel and I got on the topic of the World Series of Blackjack and Orel said he was interested. Long story short: Lara got him on the show. NICE. I personally still haven't heard yes or no. They say that my name is "still in the mix." Better find out quick because filming starts Thursday!
I was able today to pull off my all time favorite move in the game of limit hold'em. I was on the button and everybody folded to the hijack who raised. I looked down and realized that I only had one card. I looked at it, saw the 5 , and re-raised. I then said, "Can I have my second card now please?" Both blinds folded, and the initial raiser four bet. I looked down at my second card and saw the 6 . I just called. Now, before you tell me how retarted this play is, think about what is going through his mind for a second. Got it? You can't do this play if you actually have an ace. When you do make this play, your opponent automatically assumes that you have an ace. Since he is opening from late position, he does not have to have a strong hand and will often not have an ace himself. So, you get to play three cards basically. Your two pocket cards plus a phantom ace.
The flop came gin for my hand. A 9 7 . He bet and I insta-raised. I could tell he was disgusted. Clearly he had some pair between TT and KK and was thinking to himself, "This is sick. I know he has an ace. What a lucky bum." He was about to fold, and then decided to call hoping to spike a set. The turn came the 8 , but this didn't matter. I knew he was check-folding any card that did not make his set. He check-folded, and I rolled over my cards and said, "I had a feeling!" So sweet. I've been waiting months to make that play.
I ended up putting in an eight hour day, netting $123. I was up about a thousand before the 55 hand, lost almost three racks straight, and then came back strong in the final hour, winning my final three hands to quit up.
Lara has officially moved to town as of Saturday this weekend. I'm super excited to have her near rather than 1k miles away and excited to see what daily, normal life will look like together!
Peace and good luck,
Devo
posted by Devo @ 9:02 PM
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