UWSWSOP4 Day 2: Walking Around Lucky
Dave Hill
used to really bust the other guys' balls because they were such
fiends they never got up off the table to do anything. Yesterday I
felt like one of them. But it wasn't my fault. It was one of those
phenomenal rush of cards that only comes along once in a lifetime.
The kind where you wonder "can this 3-5 win? I can't bear to fold it
and find out if it does" and then they let you limp and you flop a
straight. The cards were coming for me, and the table was tilting, oh
ever so tilting when I got through with them. Winning a ton and
tilting the table, for me its like pitching a perfect game.
The game was 15-30 at the Bellagio, and I know I vowed to play 30-60
on this trip, but there was a list, and they were starting a new game
and people were sitting down and I figured why not play with them
while I waited?
The first hour or two of the session went well, playing pretty solid
poker and going up a few hundred when things took a turn...
You ever been in a game where there was one guy at the table who just
had your number? He always knew when you were bluffing, when you were
value betting, when you wanted him to check and when you wanted him to
call? It was like he could see through your cards? Well at this game
there were two of them gunning for me, and they were sitting next to
each other, and they were both the typical kind of fatboy with mirror
shades and ballcap, hand over the mouth, spend too long in the tank
poker poser wannabe fucks that everybody knows about and everybody
despises. They took my AK and my AQ outside and gave them a real
beatin. Then they did a curb-job on my pocket kings. I was now down
to only $200, and wondered what the hell I was even doing in this
game.
Then it happened. Its like in that movie Let It Ride (one of my all
time favorites) where Richard Dryfuss looks into the horse's eyes and
he just KNOWS that he's going to win, that he's "walking around lucky
and doesn't even know it." I looked into those mirrored shades, and
even though I didn't see his eyes, I did see that the fat piece of
shit was dying for me to fold my hand, an A6 suited, on the flop of
J-10-6. He had just bet, and I sensed some hesitation in his bet. It
felt like he didn't like the flop, but was alergic to checking. Could
he have a pair of tens? I raised him, and he reraised, and i
reraised, and he called.
The turn brought a 9. Could he have a straight draw? He sat straight
up in his chair on this card. No longer slouched down with his hand
wrapped around his mouth, he was upright and a tad more confident.
Yes, the 9 gave him something to be proud of. A straight draw, a thing
of beauty indeed. But, my friend, its unfortunately still NOTHING. He
bet with authority and I pretended to go into the tank. You know, the
way he does on EVERY FUCKING HAND. I sat and thought about it, I
showed my pitiful A-6 to the guy next to me and looked at him like
"what do you do?" hoping he would play along and not give away my
hand. I fired in a reraise and he reraised me of course. I called
him.
Now, at this point many of you would probably be thinking there was a
good chance the sixes are no good and want to just call (or even fold)
but I KNEW!! I just KNEW. Can't you understand that?
The river was a blank, and I felt like there was a reasonable chance
he had a pair of tens, but that I had come to far. He bet the blank,
and I raised him, and he called. Now here is the beautiful part:
I turn over the sixes, and he folds.
Let the tilting begin.
Now many of you are probably thinking the whole thing was improbable,
poor play, incredible luck, bad reads, and flukey. You are right. It
was all these things, and it was fucking awesome.
In the next couple of hours I got quad aces with two callers, quad 3s
with two callers, and two straight flushes, both of which used both
cards in my hand, and the second of which resulted in a thousand
dollar pot where one guy had the Ace high flush and another guy had
the King high flush. How on earth, you may wonder, did they let the
pot get to a thousand bucks? Who knows, dear reader? Who knows? All
I can tell you is that I played a horrible 5-7 suited, flopped a
flush, turned the miracle straight flush, and I put on an acting show
worthy of an oscar for those boys. I mean I squawked and moaned about
how the 4 of spades, the only card in the deck that could give me my
thousand dollar pot, had counterfited my hand, how I had flopped a
flush, how this was terrible, how I wasn't going to let them bluff me,
how I can't fold a flush, and blah blah blah.
Yeah I know, you could have seen right through my juvenile theatrics
and would have never put in that fifth raise on the turn. Yeah, you
would have laughed at me under your breath, you may have even folded
the Ace face up to rub it in my face.
But these guys weren't as fortuante as you, dear reader. They had been
put on TILT by the man with quad 3s, the man who three bet with bottom
button, the man from Arkansas who was clearly a lucky tourist catching
cards. They were on FULL TILT and could not help themselves but to
raise (and dont even ask me about the King who kept calling all the
raises. He wasn't on tilt, just stupid). In the end, the dealer was
scooping the hundreds of red chips up into a neat pile and said lets
see 'em and rather than be a jerk and slow roll the guy the way he did
EVERY HAND i said "you can't win buddy!!" and turned over the
beautaiful nuts and stood up and told all my friends at the 4-8 table
next to me that I had just won a thousand dollar pot and they all got
up and ran over to see for themselves and it pretty much rubbed it in
the guy's disgusted face. He got up and left. The others clapped for
me and I suggested to the floor woman that they put my picture on the
wall because "this has got to be some kind of record."
I won over a thousand bucks before I gave a couple hundred back just
screwing with people before I decided to leave. When I left, the
fatboys were talking to themselves. The huge stack that Chris
Moneymaker's mutant clone had in front of him was now a measly $200
(sound familiar) and the nice old man with a pony tail sitting next to
me leans over and says, "you got those boys talking to themselves. You
took all that boys chips." To which I replied "No sir, those were my
chips. He was merely holding them for me, and I'll be damned if I give
them back." I went to go seek gamble and adventure elsewhere.
Now, here is the shitty thing about renting a car in Vegas with my
cheap friends. They always want you to drive them everywhere so they
don't have to take cabs, so they will constantly bug me at the table
about when I want to leave or entice me into going wherever it is that
they want to go just so they can get a ride. So I try to exit the
place nonchalant, so as not to attract any attention from my moochie
friends. After all, none of them want to go where I'm going: The
Horseshoe.
And isn't that the perfect place to go when you are "walking around
lucky?" Isn't that where I stand to make the most money tonight, in
the $50 a point chinese poker game or the $5-10 PLO game? I resolve
that it is, and head over there with John and Brandon in tow.
Brandon, too, is on a rush and playing very well, and we want to get
in action.
The other guys don't care too much for the Horseshoe club. They like
to stay on the strip for some reason. They are staying in the Mirage,
while John, brandon and I are in the Nugget. Everyone keeps asking me
WHY OH WHY would I want to stay down there? Well, lets see, its a
nice hotel, large rooms, right across from the Horseshoe, you can walk
from place to place without having to stop and rest. The players are
unpretentious, loose, and full of gamble. But the most important
reason IMHO is that that is where the FUCKING WORLD SERIES OF POKER IS
AT!!!! Isn't that why we are here? If you just want to play 4-8 at
the Mirage, you can come any day of the year. This month is special
for one reason only: the best poker players IN THE WORLD are all in
one building and the action is good. You feel like you belong, like
you are a part of it. And if you have the balls, you can be.
Last night the Horseshoe was packed to the gills. There were two final
tables going on simultaneously, Omaha and Lowball, and a Mega Super
was starting up that would go till 6am.
Downstairs every table was full and there were lists. I sat down
eventually in a 30-60 game and got on the list for the 5-10 PLO. Not
my best game, but who can deny me tonight? I'm on the rush of a
lifetime.
I give the girl a thousand bucks for chips, and she disappears and
never comes back, and I don't play a hand. Then they call me for the
PLO game, and I still have no chips. I sit at that table for a long
time waiting, chipless, like a fool. I start to wonder if the girl
even worked at the Horseshoe.
When she comes back with my money, she tells us that there are no more
chips in the cage. They are out.
Woah.
Can you imagine how many millions of dollars must be in play right now
in the Horseshoe?? The cage is empty, no chips. Maybe Thunder Keller
is doing another number on the casino, hiding all the chips in his
trunk.
Here is an ethical delimma: She gives me the rack of brown $10 chips,
which I don't want and nobody in this game wants me to put into play,
so I take out two hundred to pay back all the money I owed from
playing light and I give her $800 and ask for cash. She gives me $700
in cash and $300 in green chips. She gave me $200 too much. I don't
notice at first, then I realize it, and I go grab her and give the
money back. I wonder what would have happened if i kept the money, if
that poor girl would have been in trouble. I don't ruminate on it too
long, because I know it was a test from the poker gods as to whether
or not I was spiritually worthy of the rush they had bestowed upon me.
I passed, and I get dealt a pretty ok hand of Kh-6h-7s-5s. The flop
came down with A-K-7 with two hearts. I bet the pot, get raised to a
hundred, and another player calls. I call the hundred (should have
raised?) and the turn is an unsuited 10. I check (should have bet?)
and the guy who raised bets the pot, which is like $400. The guy
after him reraises all in, which is like all-in for me.
I know that he has a straight. I know that the other guy has a set.
I can beat them and take down a huge pot, but here is where I win the
pussy award for the trip....
I fold.
Now here is where it gets really stupid.
The original bettor calls the all in and turns over A-Kwith no
straight or flush possibilities. The other guy turns over a J-9 for a
straight DRAW and a Queen-high flush draw. All he has is draws. The
AK is winning!!!
They do business, and agree to deal it twice. Here is where it gets
plain retarded.
Both rivers are hearts.
I have gone from being valiant and brave, full of valor and heart,
confident of my cards and my will to win, to being a total pussy.
I felt the wind sucking out of me and knew the poker god were taking
the rush away. "We believed in you..." they probably said "and you
let us down, you pussy."
The next few hours I spent limping in for ten bucks and folding.
Going up $200 and down $200 and up $200 and down $200 before finally
getting up down $100. I knew I had ruined a beautaiful thing, a once
in a lifetime rush, a chance to clean up bigtime. Not only that, I
failed the poker gods and betrayed their trust and faith in me. I
fear the cards may go cold for me for the rest of my life.
Am I cursed, dear reader? Today, I plan to find out. Tonight is the
Upper West Side World Series, and it stands to be the most challenging
UWSWSOP of all time. Stay tuned...
ContactGSW
> they were sitting next to
> each other, and they were both the typical kind of fatboy with mirror
> shades and ballcap, hand over the mouth, spend too long in the tank
> poker poser wannabe fucks that everybody knows about and everybody
> despises.
> the man from Arkansas who was clearly a lucky tourist catching
> cards.
> http://www.meatmachine.org/poker
Woooo Pig, Soooie
Great yarn Dave, keep'em coming.
ContactGSW
Little Rock
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Posted using RecPoker.com - http://www.recpoker.com
Tampa Mullet
GREAT Post!!! I loved every word of it!
Good Luck & Catch another Rush!
Tampa Mullet