All I Said Was Wow

After working most of the morning, I got to the Rio about 4:30 and wandered through the Gaming Life Expo. It was pretty disappointing, way fewer scantily clad women than in past years. There were long lines to meet Chris Moneymaker and Doyle Brunson, but there was no wait for Dario Minieri or David Sklansky. I elected to meet no one.

I planned to get dinner in about an hour, and rather than spend half that time waiting for a cash table, I decided to play a $1K one table satellite, figuring that would take about an hour. Two and a half hours later, I busted in 4th. The blind levels seemed longer than last year, which ordinarily I’d be fine with, but this time I played specifically because I wanted it to be short.

Before we got started, a loud fat guy with a deep voice and unkempt facial and chest hair collected $300 from six of us for a last longer. Two of the six were the first two to bust, which was nice, and they both busted to non-participants.

A few seats to my left was a dude from Indianapolis who owned a business selling sports jerseys. He was talking about how bad the first guys to bust had played and how the pros back in Indiana had warned him there would be terrible play in Las Vegas. In these spots, I am always torn between commiserating because he’s right or recognizing that in all likelihood he is also pretty bad.

A couple of hands later, a guy limps in with K2s, overcalls a raise, and ends up stacking KQ when he turns two pair. Indianapolis starts snickering and talking none too subtly about how bad it was to limp-call K2s.

“Oh man [chortle]. Wow. Wow, that is ridiculous. I mean [chuckle] gawd damn, K2s. That’s crazy. Whoo. Well, buddy, at least you can get one of those shirts from the gift shop that says, ‘But they were suited.’ [pause] Wow.”

I am glowering at him, and when I catch his eye, I shake my head disapprovingly.

“What?” he asks.

“Don’t talk about people who are still at the table.”

He laughs at me. “All I said was, ‘Wow.'” I sighed and turned up my Ipod. Thankfully I got to bust him when he shoved KQ for 12x UTG and I woke up with AK in the BB. I also won a big flip with JJ > AK to come into a commanding chip lead with five players remaining.

The hairy fat guy was the only other one left in the last longer, and he started talking deal. “You want to each take back our $300?”

I shake my head no. I have more than twice as many chips as he does.

“OK, OK, you take 300, I take 200.”

“Whatever. Fine.” I shrug and let him have it. He’s been going on and on about how he’s a professional parimutuel gambler and he makes so much money playing dogs and blah blah blah but he is begging for $200. Whatever.

Then we get down to four-handed, I still have a nice lead, and he wants to talk deal in the tournament. I’m not even engaging him in conversation, just shaking my head no. There’s an old Brit at the table who doesn’t want it either, so Hairy Fat Fat and the K2 Fish bond over how ridiculous and cheap the Brit Nit and I are.

Blinds go up, some chips change hands, and now Brit Nit is short but the three of us have roughly the same. “Can we take back 1K each now?”

I shake my head.

“Come on, jesus. We have the same number of chips. Just, like, I mean, psychologically, I don’t know, I don’t like to leave with my tail between my legs. Come on, man. Just take your $1K back then you’re playing for profit.”

“He’s too short,” I say, pointing at the Brit.

“Come on, that’s like $300 we’re giving him. You’re being stubborn over $300? OK, can we at least chop up the last longer?”

Jesus, will you shut up with your deals? This guy wasn’t awful, but I was clearly better than he was, and I was pretty sure he wasn’t going to play well when blinds were big either. I kept shaking my head, and the guy was getting angrier and angrier. “I’m going to enjoy busting you,” he tells me. “I’m going to enjoy coming from behind to bust you.”

Honestly, I think the retarded deals that people will make increase the EV of these satellites. But that only helps when you are on the good end of them. If you can get someone to let you take your buyin back when you are the short stack, or to chop it 50/50 heads up no matter how big a deficit you’re in, that’s awesome. But it’s annoying as hell when these guys won’t shut up about deals that hurt my equity.

Blinds jump from 400/800 to 600/1200, Brit Nit folds, and the other three of us all have 13-16K. K2 Fish open limps the button, which isn’t garbage but is far from exclusively primo holdings. I look at Q2 in the SB and decide to shove for 13K. It was the first big move I’d made, having played extremely tight thus far. Unfortunately, Hairy woke up with AJ in the BB, agonized for a while, and called.

I was hoping he would brag or express shock that I had Q2 or something, but instead, the three of them instantly started talking deal. I think my shove is perfectly fine/good, just sucks that he woke up with AJ. I imagine he calls AT and probably folds A9. As for the fishy, I don’t know what his calling standards were be, but I’m sure he folds often enough to make the shove profitable.

After dinner I played some 5/10 cash, since there wasn’t a 10/25 going. It was a more aggressive table than my 10/25 had been, but I enjoyed that. The first big pot I won, there were two limps and some Asian kid who was constantly on his cell phone or eating or getting a massage or talking to his mom and never paying attention to the game casually tossed in $50. Some old dude called, and I made it $250 with Th9c in the CO. UTG smirked at me, said “Let’s get this heads up,” and made it $500. I was 99% sure he had AA. The others folded, and I obviously called, as I was getting better than 3:1 and there was nearly $2500 behind.

The flop was Kh 9h 5h, which I was happy to see. Even better, the dude asked how much I was playing then checked. I was happy to check it back. The turn brought another heart, and he bet $300. I called with the fourth nuts. The river was a blank, he checked, and I showed my Th to win the pot. He flipped his black Aces and sighed. I feel like I may actually have missed a small value bet here, since I was so sure he had AA and didn’t think he would check the nuts on the river. People just hate to fold AA, especially live.

Anyway, the other big pot I won, there was a Mississippi straddle, and I made it $60 UTG with 43s. I think we were 8-handed at the time. The straddle and the SB calls. The flop comes Ts 4c 3s. SB checks, I bet $150, Button folds, SB calls. Turn pairs the 3, SB checks, and I think. I want to build the pot, but I’m not sure what he’ll call with. I don’t thin he’s folding top pair to me on the turn for anything, but I’m not sure how often he has that, and I definitely don’t want to blow him off of a flush draw. I opted for $250, which he called after some though.

The river brought a beautiful spade, and he led $400. Oh beautiful day. I thought for a minute and then shoved another $1400 or so. He tanked and leaned over to get a better look at me. I did my best to drop the occasional twitch or adjustment in my seat, but it probably wasn’t even necessary. Live players don’t fold flushes. He called, I flipped my boat, and he walked away from the table.

I finished up about $2000 in the cash game, $1000 on the night. The only disappointment was that I spent 20 minutes in line to register for the main event only to learn that they weren’t letting people register for Day 1C or Day 1D. Apparently they are concerned about attendance tomorrow and are trying to force people to register for 1B. Well Christ did they not anticipate that this might be a problem with having the tournament during the 4th of July? I am calling their bluff and returning to register tomorrow after Day 1B has started. There’s no way in hell they are closing registration for good, especially since they are reported to be below their target numbers already.