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April 23, 2006
Bellagio Day 4
I woke up Thursday not in much of a poker mood. I played some PSP in the room (this Prince of Persia game is addictive) and at one point ran another satellite for the next day's tournament, again getting second. That was my signal to give up hold'em for the trip, but I thought it might be fun to go play some $40/$80 rotation in the poker room. I pretty much figured going in that I would be the worst player in the group, given that they were playing Stud Hi-Lo Regular (meaning no 8 or better qualifier) which I had never played before, Omaha 8, which I've played a little, and 2-7, which I've also played very little and never in a casino. Wow was I wrong. The game was 8 handed and I was definitely in the top 3 in every game.
In 2-7 at least 4 of my opponents at one point or another limped in and then drew 4, which is sort of the equivalent of limping UTG with 2-7 off in a 6 handed $30/$60 hold'em game. It's one of those plays that couldn't ever be right and that nobody with any clue whatsoever would ever make. Others limped in first and drew 3 (2-7 isn't a game where open limping is acceptable), and some called 3 bets cold and drew 3. Within 4 hands I realized that at least 5 of my opponents had absolutely no clue what they were doing. I won an early hand by making an 8 on the first draw and getting called by some lady who had a worse one and told me she did by thinking forever after I stood and then saying "I can't break this". She really should have as I had only drawn one from the big blind and then went crazy, I couldn't have had anything worse than her 87652.
The same turned out to be true of O8. Chris Hinchcliffe was in the game and in one hand he capped T982 at me and another player on the KQ4 board. I had KQTJ, the other guy had Q4xx (or so he said anyway, and that isn't the sort of hand one fabricates) and the river was, of course, the jack. I made up for it later by putting a bunch of money in with A♦4♦ on a K♣ 5♦ 2♦ flop 4 handed and catching a 3 on the river to scoop.
I also won the pot of the night, a humongous Stud Hi-Lo hand. The previous hand, which was at least $2k when it was done with, was somehow split between a pair of tens and a nine low. The four involved in that pot proved that they had no idea how to play either poker in general or Stud Hi-Lo regular in specific, and all four were in with me for the next hand, which proved to be even bigger.
I was dealt (4♦-5♣)-A♦, which is pretty much a freakin' monster in Stud Hi-Lo. The player to my right brought it in for $10 (they have a $10 ante and a $10 bring in, which seems high for a $40/$80 game since it puts $90 in the pot to start and I guess means you have to play more hands) with a jack and I made it $40 to go. The lady next to me raised with a 6 showing. I said "don't you see my ace here?" and she said, in broken Sino-English, "I have lowest cards, I know this." A king and a jack both called, as did the original jack, and I reraised. All called.
The next card brought me a 6♦, which was a beautiful card, and brought the raiser lady a 7. The king caught a 5, which was good for me since I already had one, and I think the jacks caught a king and an 8, making my opponents open cards non-threatening. I decided to check raise the lady next to me, as I knew she'd fall for my act if I checked pretending I had paired. It worked and I suckered everyone in for $80 more. The pot was now over $1,000 with three betting rounds left.
Fifth street was unkind to me, giving raiser lady an 8, me a king, and the player with JK to my right the 4th king. The KKJ player to my right lead out (huh?) and I decided to raise, even though the lady to my left had most likely made an 8. She three-bet, the two other players dropped as I had hoped, and we both called her. I didn't really want to put in $240 there and suspected I would have to, but I was in for $160 anyway and the pot was just so massive that I thought it would be worth a potential extra $80 to knock out anyone.
Sixth street was a beautiful 7, giving me a 7 low that appeared to be good after both opponents bricked. I bet out and both called. I was silently chanting "3…3….3", praying for my gin card. The dealer dealt us each one down and I didn't look at it. The player to my right bet out (huh?) but had a kind of sheepish look on his face, making me think he was just being an idiot and betting some bad high. I shuffled my hole cards together and pulled one up. It was a 3. Gin!
I raised, and raiser lady went into the tank. She thought a bit and then called, as did the bettor. My 34567 took down the high (wtf did the bettor have?) and the A3456 was good for the low. I had scooped a nearly $2500 pot, which put me up a pretty large amount for an hour of $40/$80.
I played the next two hands and then dashed off to Shintaro, right on time for my dinner reservations, where I met with Matt K again. We were joined by two friends of his, one of whom was named Jordan and goes by Yahtzee0 on Party. Matt K said I made fun of him in this blog once and while it's certainly possible I don't remember it. I later found out that Jordan was Shane's roommate, which will lead to another funny story from Friday shortly.
As we were eating a bunch of well-known poker players came in and sat down at a grill not too far away. Too bad they weren't closer, as I probably could have bilked enough out of them at roshambo to pay for dinner. Daniel Negreanu wrote a bit about that dinner in his blog a few days back, I guess it was a birthday party for Carlos Mortenson. They were there with Erick Lindgren, Josh Arieh, and some people I didn't recognize.
Matt K mentioned that Daniel had written about a hand they had played together in Reno and apparently in the blog entry he referred to Matt as "some guy". I kept trying to get Matt to go over to Daniel and say things like "I'm not 'some guy', I'm a real person with hopes and dreams and feelings and my name is Matt," or "isn't enough to win my chips, do you have to go insult me in your blog?" Things of that nature. I even offered him $100, which would have been more than enough to pay for Shintaro since he ate light, but he just wouldn't do it. Maybe he didn't want to end up in the blog as "some guy" again.
After dinner I was far too happy about being even for the trip to risk losing anything at the table, so I hung around with friends for a bit and then watched some downloaded Sopranos episodes in the room before crashing. The following day was supposed to be the last one in town and I wanted to end the trip firmly in the black so I had to rest up.
Posted by themaroon at April 23, 2006 3:48 AM
Comments
You should consider getting a DS Lite when they come out. I have both a PSP and a DS, and I've got to tell you, even though it's dorkier looking, I prefer my DS!
Posted by: Tony at April 23, 2006 1:41 PM
Matt,
How did you learn how to improve your writing so much? Are you taking classes? Reading certain books? Getting tutored?
Posted by: Paul at April 23, 2006 6:24 PM
I feel that my writing has greatly improved over the last couple years, though a few readers would disagree. It's mostly spending more time per post, practice, and reading. No classes or anything like that.
Posted by: Matt at April 23, 2006 8:54 PM
Paul,
You might find Strunk & White's "The Elements of Style" useful. Stephen King's "On Writing" might help.
Matt,
I won a trip to play in the St. Petersburg Open in Russia on Party this afternoon. You need to give me a few pointers as this is my first big tournament!
Posted by: Jason at April 24, 2006 2:17 AM
I read both of those at the same time, maybe 5 years back. Both good books.
Is the tournament NL?
Posted by: Matt at April 24, 2006 2:25 AM
The tournament is NLHE.
Posted by: Jason at April 24, 2006 4:09 AM
Hmm, read both Harrington books I guess. Read Matt Matros's columns on cardplayer.com. Play a bunch and run hands through pokerstove.
Posted by: Matt at April 24, 2006 6:58 PM
Thanks for the advice.
Posted by: Jason at April 24, 2006 8:28 PM