Bond18 - Around the World in 90 Days: Day 45

Posted by Bond18 | Filed under Bond18

I was hoping to play the Venetian $2,500 today, but when I came home from the Rio yesterday I feel asleep nearly instantly around 10PM. I woke up at 1AM and, as a result, couldn’t fall back asleep until around 7AM. I decided to pass on the Venetian and set my alarm to wake up in time for the Bellagio $2,000 at 2PM.

A glance around the Bellagio confirms this was definitely a good idea. There’s almost no young players here and the only guy I recognize is friend and 2+2 poster ‘mikej’ who has flown in from California for a few days of tournaments before he goes back to school and being legitimate. We agree to swap 5% and with the field strength today, I like both our chances. Unfortunately the Bellagio elects to start us out 11 handed and still has no dinner breaks or a stoppage of play until a second day - you have to just play right on through. My first table is full of unknowns and we get under way with a 20,000 stack at 25/50 blinds and 40 minute levels.

I’m involved in one of the first few hands:

Stacks: ~20,000, blinds 25/50. I hold As-Kh UTG+1.

Pre-flop: UTG calls, I raise to 250, UTG+2 folds, MP1 calls, folds back to UTG, UTG calls.

Flop: 2h-Ac-3d

UTG checks, I bet 625, MP1 calls, UTG calls.

Turn: 8h

UTG checks, I bet 1,500, MP1 folds, UTG calls.

River: 2d

UTG checks, I bet 3,000, UTG calls. He mucks when I table the A-K.

The table is playing very loose and many pots are multi way. I play a few more small pots at the 25/50 stage, but nothing of importance. My next interesting hand comes up at 50/100:

My stack: ~23,000, CO: ~40,000, blinds 50/100. I hold Kh-Kc in the SB.

Pre-flop: Folds to MP3, MP3 raises to 300, HJ calls, CO calls, button folds, I raise to 1,800, MP3 folds, HJ calls, CO calls.

Flop: Ac-Jc-7c

I check with the intention of shoving over a bet in the area of 3,000-6,000. HJ checks, CO bets 2,100. Damn it, that’s a bit too small to just shove on and makes things pretty awkward. I think just calling against that size is better. I call, HJ folds.

Turn: 9d

I check, CO checks.

River: 4s

I check, CO bets 6,000, I fold.

I’m playing fairly aggressive when folded to in late position because the players on my left are playing pretty weak. With that history, the following hand comes up:

My stack: ~18,000, button: ~25,000, BB: ~16,000, blinds 50/100. I hold 9c-7s on the HJ with the CO out of his chair.

Pre-flop: Folds to me, I raise to 300, button calls, SB calls, BB folds.

Flop: 2h-8h-Td

SB leads 400, I call, button calls.

Turn: Jd

SB leads 500, I raise to 2,500, button calls, SB calls.

River: Kd

SB checks, I think it over and bet 6,500 (a little smaller in live poker might be better here, even though the pot is quite big), button folds, SB folds.

I spend most of my time on the table chatting to the English guy on my left, a guy in his mid 30’s named Mark. He admits to being a mostly recreational player, a "crazy who doesn’t care about busting out." He’s often out of his seat and playing a ton of hands when in it, and clearly enjoying himself. The next hand comes up against Mark:

My stack: ~26,000, Mark: 6,050, blinds 100/200 with 25 ante. I hold As-Ah in the BB.

Pre-flop: Mark limps UTG, folds to MP1, MP1 limps, MP2 limps, folds to the button, button limps, SB completes, I raise to 1,500, Mark moves all in for 6,050, folds back to me, I call. Mark shows Kc-Qd and gets out of his chair.

Flop: Jd-8c-5c

Turn: Ks

River: Kd

I shrug off the beat and slide the chips over to Mark. Not a terribly expensive one after all. Mark and I keep chatting and out of nowhere at one point he turns and asks me: "You know who is a real scum bag that hangs around the poker scene in England? A totally intolerable guy."

"Who?"

"Mark Teschler."

I break into laughter.

"Man, that guy’s reputation really proceeds him. I was just writing about him the other week."

"Yeah, total jackass mate. Can’t stand him."

"You ever hear about his Australian open angle shooting?"

"Nah."

"I talked to a guy who went to the tennis with him during the Aussie Millions, a sort of friendly outing. They were betting on a Baghdatis match I think and at one point the guy I was talking to went to the bathroom. While he was in there Baghdatis hurts his ankle pretty bad but he doesn’t know it. When he comes out Mark tries to get him to bet on Baghdatis for some huge amount with suspiciously good odds. Lucky for him one of the other guys there let him know what happened."

"Yea, that sounds like him."

(Ironically later that night I was talking to Randallin on AIM and he also randomly brought up Teschler’s scum baggery.)

A couple orbits later I peek down at A-A again (oh yes, I’m so nitty that almost every hand I write about is A-A or A-K) and get involved:

My stack: ~20,000, UTG: ~9,500, blinds 100/200 with 25 ante. I hold Ah-As in MP3.

Pre-flop: UTG limps, it folds to me in MP3, UTG has shown himself to limp/call very wide so I raise it to a fairly large 1,000, folds back to UTG, UTG calls.

Flop: 4d-Kd-5c

UTG checks, I bet 1,500, UTG calls.

Turn: 4s

UTG checks, I bet a very lame-sized 2,200 (I like the bet size though, it leaves him imagined fold equity if he decides to spaz out), UTG moves all in, I call. UTG tables As-Kc.

River: 3h

My stack climbs to nearly 30,000. I go check in with Mikej and he tells me he’s spewing his stack off. I berate him for being an Internet spewtard then head back to my table.

Mark has gotten very short and announces to the table he’s about ready to head home. He starts moving in pretty regularly, and in the previous hand, moves all-in over a LP raise of 1,000 for 2,700 total with Q-7 suited, but sucked out K-J to win. With that history the following comes up:

My stack: ~29,000, Mark: ~6,000, blinds 200/400 with 25 ante. I hold A-7o on the button.

Pre-flop: Folds to me on the button, I raise to 1,100, Mark quickly throws in a mess of 1,000 chips, but has a couple left behind, BB folds, I put Mark all-in, he calls and shows A-A. Damn it.

Flop: 2-4-6

Turn: 7

River: 8

After that Mark goes on a huge rush and starts accumulating chips at rapid pace. There’s a young player two seats on my right who has accumulated a very large stack playing quite aggressive and pretty well in general, though definitely on the highly aggressive side. With that history the following hand comes up:

My stack: ~20,000, young guy: ~70,000, blinds 300/600 with 50 ante. I hold Qd-Jh on the button.

Pre-flop: Folds to the HJ, HJ raises to 1,700, CO folds, I call on the button (this seems fairly marginal though HJ was open raising very wide), SB folds, BB calls.

Flop: Jc-7c-4c

BB checks, HJ thinks it over and bets 5,500. Kind of awkward, but he’s aggressive enough to continuation bet very wide here, so I move all in. BB folds and HJ thinks it over then folds.

Between that pot and the 400/800 level I lose some small pots and slip back into the low 20-thousand area. There’s another player on the table who is younger but not very good. He’s lost a couple pots recently and now seems to be on serious tilt. He’s been caught bluffing massive in a few spots and is spewing off chips at a rapid pace. With that history the following hand comes up:

My stack: ~20,000, spew: ~50,000, blinds 400/800 with 75 ante. I hold Ad-Qh UTG+1.

Pre-flop: UTG folds, I raise to 2,100, UTG+2 folds, MP1 calls, MP2 raises to 12,100, folds back to me. Weird. That raise size is certainly never a big pair and, given the spewy tilt he seems to be on despite the positions, I think he could be squeezing fairly wide here. I elect to shove and MP1 folds. MP2 calls and turns over Tc-Td.

Flop: 5h-Jh-Kd

Turn: 6h

Just a few outs here.

River: Ac

That one works.

As I’m stacking up my chips, slightly famous player Doug Lee sits down at the table. On top of being famous for winning some circuit tournament on TV, he’s also infamous for being a sort of full of himself self promoter and braggart. A few minutes into his stay at the table he makes good on his reputation. The player in seat 4 looks over at him and says "You look very familiar. Do you play at Foxwoods?"

"No, I’ve never played at Foxwoods" Doug replies.

"Huh, I guess there just must be someone there who looks like you."

"No, TV. You see me on TV" says Doug confidently.

I accidentally make that “PHHH” noise you make when you’re trying to hold back laughter, then manage to hold in bursting out at his comment. We play through the 600/1,200 level and I win some small pots to increase my stack to around 50,000. Near the end of the level, the floor managers come over and tell us we’ll be moving. I rack up my chips and walk over to my new table which is just about to begin dealing the hand.

"Wait up! Don’t leave me out of this one, I got a good feeling."

I throw in my ante and get dealt in just in time sitting UTG+1. After I unload my stack from the racks I peek down at my cards and find A-A staring back. I knew there was a reason I rushed over:

My stack: ~50,000, button: ~65,000, blinds 600/1,200 with 100 ante. I hold Ah-Ac UTG+1.

Pre-flop: UTG folds, I quickly throw out 3,300 and, as it’s folding to the button, a lady on the table asks "What are the blinds now dealer?"

"800 and 1,600" he replies.

"Wait what? When did that happen?" I blurt instinctually. I look up at the clock and see we are 30 seconds into the new level, something that happened as our table was breaking. As I’m looking at the clock it folds over to the button who announces raise, then makes it 12,000 to go. It folds back to me and I call. Best accidental angle shoot ever.

Flop: 3-6-Q rainbow

I check, button checks.

Turn: 9

I bet 16,000, button moves all-in. I call and say "This is going to look like a total angle shoot but I swear I had no idea the blinds went up" as I table my hand. It turns out to be irrelevant since he then tables his hand, Q-Q. Oops.

River: 9

I tap the table and wish everyone good luck, a sort of weird ending to an otherwise pleasant day of poker.

I head over to the Rio and make sure to get registered for tomorrow’s $1,500 NLH event. Even though the organization is considerably better this year, you never know when something will go wrong and the line will be an hour long. Now I just need to make sure I get to bed at an appropriate hour so getting up at 11AM isn’t incredibly painful.

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