Bond18 - Around the World in 90 Days: Day 13

Posted by Bond18 | Filed under Bond18

Paris France, May 12^th: Timex, Will and I walk into the Aviation club on the Champs de Elysees after getting dinner on the street. I’ve brought my passport because you now have to register and pay a 100 Euro fee in order to gain membership. Timex and Will hand over their membership cards then walk off in the direction of the cage to claim Timex’s wire transfer which had arrived mistakenly under the name Mac Donald. I pull out my credit card and hand it to the man behind the desk to pay for the fee.

“Ah, I’m sorry sir, cash or check only.”

Shit, I haven’t brought enough cash since we were all fairly Euro broke and we were going here specifically to get the money.

“Uh, my friend is retrieving a wire transfer inside. Is it okay to go over to the cashier and grab the 100 Euro from him?”

The man’s English isn’t so good and he looks at me confused. I repeat myself and try to break it down a little more, and he calls over another man who is to walk me to the cage and apparently make sure I don’t start running amok in the club without a membership card. We walk over into the incredibly crowded and small cage area (the Aviation club is so tiny I could piss from one end to the other) and I tell Will and Timex about the situation. Unfortunately, it’s taking some time to retrieve the money and the man behind me begins to grow impatient. He taps me on the shoulder and directs me to walk over back to the desk. The man behind the desk hands me back my passport and says “I’m sorry sir, without membership you can’t stay here, you must leave.”

“Wait, you’re kicking me out? I can’t just wait here a couple minutes until the transfer is finished?”

“No, you must leave.”

“Can I at least go inform my friends I’m being kicked out?”

“No, you must go wait outside.”

Mother fucker. Someone must have tipped him off my plan was to run around the club naked slapping people while screaming obscenities, all because I didn’t have a membership card. I step outside the door and wait for Timex and Will to come into sight. About five minutes later they walk by and I let them know the situation, and Timex hands me over the necessary 100 Euro. I bring it up to the man at the desk and hand it to him, and he greets me with a huge and genuine smile as he hands me the paper work. Keep on smiling asshole.

We register for the 200 Euro rebuy satellite to the main event and grab some quick food out on the street where we all agree to swap 5%. Twenty minutes later we’re back in the room, with Timex and I seated at the same table. The tournament starts us with 2,000 chips at 25/50, and you can rebuy for 2,000 more immediately. The add-on is worth 4,000. Our table plays very tight weak, with 100% of players being entirely clueless. Most of them are open raising to something like 6x and have no idea about stack sizes, but that was expected. I’m card dead and fold for about 20 minutes before anything interesting happens:

My stack: ~4K, HJ: ~3K. BB: ~2K. Blinds 25/50, I hold Ac-Ts on the CO.

Pre-flop: Folds to HJ, who limps. I raise to 200, and action folds to BB, who calls along with HJ.

Flop: Ks Qd 4s

Both players check and I check behind.

Turn: As

Both players check and I fire 400. They both fold.

After that I play only one more hand before the add-on period (the end of the second level). I raise A-K, get called, and fire at the flop which he folds. The action is very slow and the blind levels are only 30 minutes long, so things go quickly. At the add-on period we go out to break, which ends up being a half-hour long while everyone around us sucks down cigarettes at a rate that would make people from North Carolina think “Maybe those guys should cool it with all the smoking.”

We resume action and the blinds are at 100/200 when one of my weirdest poker hands ever occurs:

My stack: ~8,500, MP1: ~6,000, BB: ~7,500. I hold Kc-Jc UTG+1, Blinds 100/200.

Pre-flop: UTG folds, I raise to 500, MP1 calls and it folds to the BB who goes to call when the dealer stops him and turns to me

“Ah I am so sorry sir, we have made a mistake with the blinds. It is actually 75/150.”

“No worries man.”

“Would you like to change your raise size? It was our mistake.”

“WHAT? I mean, the bet is already out there after action, surely I can’t change it.”

“Ah yes sir, you can make it whatever you like, 400, 300, whatever.”

What. The. Fuck. This is totally unheard of. In a state of confusion I instinctively think what my raise size would be at 75/150 and say “Uh, I guess I’ll make it 400 then” and pull a black chip out of the pot. Both the original caller and the BB put in 400. Twenty seconds later I realize this is incredibly stupid because any thinking player would realize nobody with a big hand would reduce their raise amount when already called. Ten seconds after that I realize nobody here is a thinking player.

Flop: 2h-Ac-5d

The BB checks. I fire 600, both players fold.

A round later I find myself in a pot vs. the guy on my immediate right. I had noticed in a hand he played against Timex where he re-raised pre-flop and went to showdown that when he has big hands pre-flop, his hands shake uncontrollably and he uses a tiny raise amount, which at the time, caused me to almost burst into laughter like some maniac at an otherwise silent table:

My stack: ~9,500, MP2: ~10,000, Blinds: 75/150. I hold Q-Q on the HJ.

Pre-flop: Folds to MP2, who raises to 425, I re-raise to 1,225 and it folds back to MP2 who thinks it over. I know there’s a good chance he can call out of position here with stupid holdings and pay off post-flop, as well as maybe shove worse hands. I also know if he has K-K/A-A, his hand will freak out on him and he’ll make some retarded raise size to like 2,500. He stares at me a while, looks at my stack, thinks it over, then says he is all-in. I call and feel pretty comfortable about it. He tables A-K and we’re off to the races.

Flop: J-4-6

Turn: J

River: A

Standard. The dealer double checks our stack amounts and it turns out he has a few hundred more than me. I try to join a cash game, but the list is about 30 people long (that part isn’t a joke or exaggeration) and I tell Timex and Will I’m going to leave.

I head home and play a few online tournaments, and despite not playing great, I end up winning a small PL hold ‘em one for a couple thousand. Will eventually makes it home around 7AM, after having won a seat. In 13 hours he’ll have to do it all over again.

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