Bond18 - Around the World in 90 Days: Day 35

Posted by Bond18 | Filed under Bond18

I’m jolted awake at 10:10AM by an extremely loud lawn mower right outside. Jesus God, why is there a lawn mower outside? Do we have someone mowing our lawn? Do we have a lawn? What the hell is going on? No, calm down. I’ve gotten four hours of sleep, I need to calm down.

I sit up in bed and let the reality of the world around me sink in. Why is someone up mowing a lawn in Vegas at 10AM? I climb out of bed and head toward the shower. I’m greeted with the horrible smell of the bathroom. This is the result of using the fancy, ultra modern electric toilet in the bathroom and upon pressing the flush button it failed to operate. I got everyone in the house to try and figure out how to flush it and nothing worked. The lid to the toilet where we could remove the top to manual flush is screwed on and I don’t have any screwdrivers around.

After the shower and a small breakfast I feel considerably more awake and fresh. For having got four hours of sleep, I feel surprisingly lucid. Sirwatts and I take a cab to the Rio and, yet again, he loses the coin flip for paying the fare.

I find my seat for the $1,000 rebuy tournament and the only familiar face at the table is online player Aaronbeen. The cards get in the air with a 2,000 start bank, which can be turned into 4,000 by taking the immediate rebuy.

There’s a young player in seat 9 who is open shoving quite a bit. He’s open shoved and shown things like 6-5 and J-5, and my first hand comes up against him:

My stack: ~4,000. UTG+2: ~3,800. CO: 1,000. I hold A-A on the button. Blinds 25/50.

Pre-flop: UTG folds, UTG+1 calls, UTG+2 raises to 200, folds to the CO, CO calls, I raise to 800, folds back to UTG+1 who says “If you shoved I would have called, but now you’re just being nitty” and folds. CO looks down at his stack and throws the rest in, I call and say “Yea, you’re right, I’m a nit. I’ve got Aces” and table them. CO tables his K-To.

Flop: 8-2-2

Turn: 9

River: 4

Nothing happens for about an orbit but the player in seat 8 continues to open shove a fair bit without being called. In the current orbit, he’s open shoved UTG+2, UTG+1, and now with the action on him he open shoves UTG. It folds to me on the CO with K-Qo and I re-shove. Everyone else folds and he tables A-8o.

Flop: K 2 3

Turn: T

River: 8

“Well, not a total nit I guess, got it in behind.”

“Yea but you’re crushing my range, plus K-Q never loses.”

“Oh for sure, if you turned over K-K I would have felt super good about it. Easily.”

The remainder of the rebuy period is very uneventful for me. With about 20 minutes to go, I get moved and am seated two to the left of Men “The Master” Nguyen. It’s clear from my view that he has not shaved the hairs growing out of the mole on his face in quite some time.

I find a few spots to set mine, but miss in multi-way pots and check-fold. When the rebuy period ends, I have around 7,600. I spend $2,000 more to take the double add-on and go into the next level with 11,600 at 100/200 blinds.

For a little while not much happens and I spend most of my time being entertained by the constant banter of a player named Lake who tells me he was on Season 9 of “The Amazing Race”. We chat a bit about his travels and the WSOP circuit ring he’s wearing. He’s very talkative, which seems to rub Men the wrong way. At one point Lake says something like “I’m gonna lay this down to my old buddy down there” to which Men retorts “I’m not you’re buddy. We’re not buddies.”

Men does not seem particularly chipper today. Also worth noting is that he did not take either a single or double add-on, despite having a roughly average stack. Perhaps he had some chips waiting in his hotel room.

My next involvement comes when I raise Ah-Jh in EP to 550 and a short stack behind shoves for 1,700. It folds back to me and I call then proceed to win a race against T-T.

The very next hand I get involved again:

My stack: ~13,000 BB: ~15,000. Blinds 100/200. I hold As-Ah UTG.

Pre-flop: I raise to 550, folds to the BB, BB calls.

Flop: 9d-7d-4h

BB checks, I bet 800, BB calls.

Turn: 3s

BB checks, I bet 1,800, BB calls.

River: 7c

Not exactly my favorite card. BB seems like a pretty big, loose-station type player and he very well might have something like 8-7. I need to bet an amount that can get value, but leaves room to fold to a check-raise. I bet 3,200 and the BB folds.

The table itself is actually a pretty soft line up for a tournament that has a lot of tough tables. Men is being quite active on my right, opening a lot of pots from a number of positions, and there are a few good players on the table, but there are also quite a few weak players. My next spot comes up against Men with his active image and the player between us who is a massive station:

My stack: ~16,000. Men: ~11,000. MP2: ~13,000. BB: 6,250. I hold A-Jo on the HJ.

Pre-flop: Folds to Men in MP1, Men raises to 600, MP2 calls, I call. It folds to the BB.

The BB is a young European guy, though I don’t know from which country. He has been moderately aggressive, but not highly spewy or anything. He looks down at his hole cards, then announces all-in and slides his stack in. It folds back to me and I ask for a count, which comes to 6,250. Man, this is such a perfect spot to make a move, and it really looked like the BB leaned over and recognized that. I think it over and decide I think he’s making a move often enough to call. I announce call and he taps the table and tables 9h-8h then says “Good call” when he sees my hand.

Flop: 3-3-3

Turn: 5

River: 9

Damn it. I count out my chips and slide them his way.

A new player is moved to the table on my right. My next hand comes up a couple orbits later against him:

My stack: ~9,500. UTG: ~8,000. Blinds 100/200/25. I hold A-Ko UTG+1.

Pre-flop: UTG raises to 600, I call, everyone else folds.

Flop: Td-8c-8d

UTG checks, I check.

Turn: Kh

UTG bets 1,200, I call.

River: 5h

UTG bets 800, I raise to 2,600, UTG thinks it over and calls. He mucks his hand when I table A-K.

Two hands later I’m involved with the same player:

My stack: ~13,000. Button: ~5,000. Blinds 100/200/25. I hold 8-5o in the SB.

Pre-flop: UTG limps, folds to the button, button limps, I complete, BB checks.

Flop: 8h-5d-2h

I bet 600, BB folds, UTG folds, button calls.

Turn: 9c

I bet 1,200, button calls.

River: Td

I look over at the button and see he has about ~2,800 left. I slide a stack of chips in to put him all-in. He tanks for a while, then calls and tables his Qh-9h before I can even turn over my two pair and take down the pot.

The blinds go up to 150/300 with a 25 ante. An orbit after the blinds go up, I’m involved again:

My stack: ~17,000. UTG: ~6,000. Blinds 150/300 with 25 ante. I hold A-8o in the SB.

Pre-flop: UTG limps, folds to me in the SB, I complete, BB checks.

Flop: 5s-Kc-8s

I check, BB checks, UTG checks.

Turn: 8h

I bet 800, BB calls, UTG raises to 3,000, I look over at his stack, then make it 8,000, BB folds, UTG calls off his last 3,000 then tables 5-5.

River: 2

*Sigh*

Regular 2+2 poster UCLAbruinz has been moved to my table and I spend most of my time between hands chatting to him. There’s also a young, almost certainly online player across the table who has been quite aggressive with opening pots and once four-bet against UCLA when he re-raised out of the BB against the young guy’s cut-off raise.

With that history, the next hand comes up:

My stack: 11,800. UCLA: ~10K. BB: ~30K. Blinds 150/300 with 25 ante. I hold J-J on the CO.

Pre-flop: Folds to UCLA in MP2, UCLA raises to 800, 1 fold, I re-raise to 2,400, folds to the BB, BB thinks briefly then announces all-in, UCLA folds. I think it over for about ~15 seconds then call. BB tables A-Ko.

Flop: J-6-3 rainbow

Turn: 6

River: 6

I double up to around 25,000 and am now very comfortable.

Meanwhile, I’m still chatting with and playing a lot of pots with Lake. At one point, he gets a lot of the table mad at him when he commits one of the biggest faux pas a player can; during a hand that has gotten to the river with the board reading 6-8-6-6-T, a player makes a large bet into him. Lake starts talking about what he’s going to do and asks the player “Will you show?” The player makes a shrugging type motion and raises his hand somewhat, but says nothing.

“Alright then, I take it you’re gonna show. I’m gonna lay down this straight (he flashes his cards, 9-7) cause I know any pair beats me. You got this one buddy.”

Lake folds his hand and the opposing player goes to muck his hand.

“Hey now! You said you’d show”

Lake quickly reaches for the cards in the muck to turn them over and the dealer instantly slaps his hand down on top of them.

“What are you doing?!” asks the dealer.

“He said he’d show!”

“He never said anything. He’s allowed to muck if he wants.”

The dealer forcefully jams the cards into the muck and mixes them in. The table stares with wide eyes at the strange situation.

Every time I play a pot with Lake, he tells me something like “Let’s keep it friendly. Play friendly, I’ll just limp in here on your BB.” I keep missing flop after flop when I play with him, and as a result check-fold to every pot we play where I’m in the BB, which ends up being quite a few. With that history, the next hand comes up. Also of relevance is that the last hand was 150/300/25, and Lake raised to 925. This hand the blinds have gone up to 200/400/50 and I’m not sure he knows.

My stack: ~22,000. Lake: ~18,000. Blinds 200/400/50. I hold J-To in the BB.

Pre-flop: Folds to Lake on the HJ, Lake raises to 925, folds to me in the BB, I call.

Flop: 4d-9d-Kh

I check, Lake bets 925. I decide to play back once since it seems like a decent texture for him to fold, and I check-raise to 2,725. Lake leans over the table and says aloud “Hey man you seem like a real nice guy. I’m gonna do you a favor here, I wouldn’t do it for anyone else, but you been chatting and real nice so I’m gonna do it for you. I’m gonna make a big re-raise here and you should fold. Trust me, you should fold. I’ll show ‘em. I raise 10,000 more”, then slides a big stack of chips into the middle.

“You got it man, I’m just on a draw. I fold.”

Lake taps the table then turns over pocket Kings for top set.

I’m pretty card dead for the rest of 200/400 and lose a few small pots that I enter along with getting a couple of open raises shoved on. For the most part though, I simply don’t win any pots at all.

A bit later on I have a funny spot where I try to re-steal from a very active player who opens MP2 while I’m on the button. However, I manage to pull a live mis-click and throw out the wrong increment of chips, resulting in just a call. I quickly realize my mistake and do my best to play it cool like that was my intention. It folds back to him and he eyes me suspiciously, as if aware that I’ve made a mistake. The flop comes 8-T-Q and he fires out. I fold and he says “You meant to re-raise yea?”

“Uhhh, yea. I suck at live poker.”

“Yea, I thought so. It wouldn’t have gone well”, then tables K-K. Phew.

The blinds go up to 300/600 and a few orbits later I’m involved again with the same active player:

My stack: ~16K. MP2: ~45K. Blinds 300/600 with 75 ante. I hold 7-7 on the button.

Pre-flop: Folds to MP2, MP2 raises to 1,625, folds to me on the button, I call (this seems really close to me. I feel like with T-T I should definitely three-bet and get it in, and possibly 9-9. 6-6 certainly seems like a fold, and I’m wondering if calling 7-7 through 9-9 and playing for more than set value is the best move here) and both blinds fold.

Flop: 4s-Qs-4d

MP2 checks, I check.

Turn: 6h

MP2 checks, I bet 2,125, MP2 calls.

River: Kd

MP2 checks, I check back. MP2 tables 6-6 and takes down the pot.

Yet again, I go very card dead and, quite often, there is a player open raising on my right. I look for a spot to re-steal all-in, but the best spot I have comes against a smart aggressive player on the CO who opens 3x and I hold A-3o behind with 18 BBs and opt to pass. I keep folding for a while until the blinds go up to 400/800. Having gotten very short, I open shove a couple of times, once in late position with 9 BBs holding Q-4o, and once in early position with 11 BBs holding As-Js.

With a pretty tight/weak image, the following hand comes up:

My stack: 10,600. MP1: ~24,000. MP2: ~45,000. I hold 6-6 on the button. MP1 is a fairly active young guy, MP2 is the previously mentioned active guy who also cold calls a fair bit.

Pre-flop: Folds to MP1, MP1 raises to 2,300, MP2 thinks it over and calls, folds to me, I shove (again, this seems very marginal to me), it folds back to MP1, MP1 folds, MP2 asks for a count, then hesitantly calls and tables K-Qo. I show my 6-6 and we’re off to the races.

Flop: 4-T-J

Turn: A

I shake hands with a number of the players on the table since we’ve had a pretty social table. I wish everyone luck, then walk away.

I go over to the ESPN television area and watch Pacman at his $1,500 NL final table with Timex, who decided to fly in when he heard Pacman was chip leader with 18 left. First place is $831,000, but Pacman is fairly short. I’m disappointed to find out there’s no drink service in the area, and I can’t get obnoxiously drunk and scream like a jackass every time Pacman enters a pot. Because of his stack size, Pacman ends up doing a lot of folding for quite some time, and eventually has to shove with K-Jo for 10 BBs over a HJ raise. The HJ calls and tables A-K suited, and when the board doesn’t bring a J, Pacman is eliminated in sixth place.

Fortunately for him though, the WSOP has massively evened out their pay scale for the final tables, and his sixth-place finish nets him $211,000. Massive congrats to him, it really couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy. I’m starting to run out of friends who don’t have a six-figure cash and, by friends, I mean people I hang out with but secretly hate due to seething envy.

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