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#379 – The Cult of Seven-X
Noon – 1st level – blinds are 25-50. We’re playing 9-handed. I’m at Table 32, Seat 9, just to the dealer’s right. This is the $3,000 + $100 NLHE event, the last at the Wynn Classic before the Main Event. We’re starting with 8,000 in chips. Levels are one hour in length. The first thing I note, of course, is that with this kind of chip stack, it’s important not to get too committed to a pot, even with a hand like pocket aces.
A lot of players are showing up late so we are just 5-handed to start. The player UTG limped so I, with 5d-4d, followed. The button, in Seat 4, raised to 350 and we folded.
OK, he had a vulnerable hand and didn’t want to see a flop.
12:10 PM – No, 7x BB is Seat 4’s standard raise, and he’s playing almost every hand. He’s an older fellow – well, older than me, so he must be ancient – but he is playing like a stereotypical internet tyro: lots of hands, big bets, forcing the issue early. A tall kid with greasy hair in Seat 1 gets into a couple big pots with Mr. Seven-X and soon he too is raising the 25-50 blinds to 350.
12:20 PM – It now costs at least 350 to see a flop. A reraises goes for about 1,500 and a post-flop bet, even heads-up after a single raise, is at least 1,000.
12:30 PM – Seat 6 is down 3,000 and clearly ready to tilt. He’s got a pile of toothpicks in front of him and unwraps one. “I misplayed a hand, I’m down 3,000, I don’t know if I just made a good laydown, and all I want is a cigarette to make it all better. But my buddy bet me $2,000 I couldn’t stop smoking. I gotta negotiate a buyout.”
With that, he walks away from the table as the dealer pitches him his cards. He’s gone for just one hand. “My buddy says, ‘You’re weak, the bet’s off, get away from me.’”
Seat 8 mentions that he has two friends giving up smoking and they have an unusual bet: the loser has to take a job in a fast-food restaurant for a week.
12:35 PM – Seat 2 limps and calls a raise of 325 from the small blind in Seat 7. The flop is 6-6-7. The small-blind-raiser checks. The limper-caller bets 1,000 and takes it, then shows Q-Q.
Whaaaa?
What is Seat 2 doing limping with pocket queens? Trapping? If so, why not reraise after the big raise from the small blind? And what’s the small blind doing? With a real hand, why check and fold on the flop? With a steal, why not bet a flop like 6-6-7?
12:40 PM – Mr. Seven-X is called by Seat 7. The flop is 5-5-6. Mr. Seven-X checks. Seat 7 bets 250 and is called. The turn is a 3. Seven-X checks, Seat 7 bets 500. Mr. Seven-X reluctantly calls. And when I say “reluctantly,” I mean he practically mouths “two overs” as he thinks about it. The river is an ace and Seven-X looks at his cards, an ace practically reflecting in his eyeglasses, and checks. Seat 7 bets 1,200.
The only person on the planet who doesn’t know how this is going to come out, apparently, is Seat 7. Mr. Seven-X raises to 4,000 and Seat 7 folds, cursing his bad luck. On the very next hand, Seat 7 limps and Seat 8 raises to 1,300. Seat 7 folds, and looks like he’s going to have a mental breakdown.
Summary at 12:45 – Seat 8, who looked like one of the sane ones, has just raised a limper to 1,300 and open-raised for 350 on consecutive hands, so now Seats 1, 4, and 8 are all members of the Seven-X Cult. Seat 2’s making some moves so weird I think they ought to pat him down to see if he’s consulting an Ouija board. Seat 6 and Seat 7 both look like they want to strangle someone – maybe themselves. Seat 3 has pulled out a newspaper and is doing the crossword puzzle. And Kathy Liebert has just arrived in Seat 5.
