Bond18 – Around the World in 90 Days: Day 14

Posted by Bond18 | Filed under Bond18

Paris, France: Timex and Will come to my room sometime around 1PM. It turns out tonight was the one night they weren’t able to book at our hotel, so they need to drop off their luggage. Speaking of our hotel, I somehow lucked into an amazing room. The hotel is only a few minutes train ride from the club and my 135 Euro a night room is incredibly large compared to my expectations. It has a living room with a desk and two small couches, a separate bedroom with a king-sized bed, and a bathroom with proper bathtub and plenty of room to move around in. After having paid substantially more for much worse in Venice, this has turned out to be a pleasant surprise.

Later in the evening we make our way over to the Aviation club for another 200 rebuy satellite into the ME. I realize I’ve forgotten my membership card, but the guy at the front desk surprisingly doesn’t make an issue out of it and lets me in just by giving my name. We line up in the cramped cashier area and eventually get registered. We’re some of the last registrants and, as a result, they stick us all on the same table. Awesome.

Like yesterday, we start with 2,000 which becomes 4,000 after the rebuy. The add-on is worth 4,000 more. The levels are a half-hour long and the structure is vomit inducing.

I take down a few small pots early and add a few hundred to my stack. Yet again, the whole of the rebuy period is uneventful and almost nobody at the table takes the instant rebuy or plays aggressively.

I increase my stack from 4,000 to around 5,000 without playing a single interesting pot in the rebuy period. We go on our long first break and walk down the street to get Timex and Will checked into a new hotel. When we come back, I have around 9,000 and get involved in my very first hand:

My stack: ~9,000, BB: ~8,000. I hold As-Kc UTG. Blinds 75/150.

Pre-flop: I raise to 400, UTG+1 calls and it folds to the button who calls, BB calls.

Flop: Ac-4c-4d

The BB leads out 800. I think it over and decide he’s likely leading with a medium Ace trying to find out where he is, as live players love to do. I think he’ll fold a lot of his leading range if I raise, plus I want to let someone behind me do something stupid. I call (I don’t think I would without the K of clubs) and both other players fold.

Turn: 3c

The BB leads 800 again. Again I think if I pump it up on a card that got there with a flush he’s going to fold a lot. I decide to wait until the river since there’s not really a “bad” card in the deck for me and he’ll be more committed. I call.

River: Kh

BB leads 800 again, and I can’t imagine him paying off too much. I make it 2,400 (going a bit bigger like 2,800 or 3,000 would be fine I think) and the BB thinks quite a while before calling and mucking when I table my cards.

I run to the bathroom for a moment and come back to find Timex out having lost a coin flip with A-K to Q-Q. He walks back to the hotel and our table soon breaks. I’m moved beside an enormously fat man who allows me almost zero space to move in to my seat and keeps me permanently in a scrunched position. I find 6-6 my first hand on the table and raise it up. I get called in one spot, C bet, and take it down. After that, I go card dead for a full two levels (which is only an hour, and with all the misdeals at the Aviation club, about 7 hands) and when we go on another break I’m down to 10,400.

We come back to 200/400 and, on the very first hand, I look down at some ladies:

My stack: 10,400. MP1: ~9,500. Blinds 200/400. I hold Qd-Qc on the CO.

Pre-flop: Folds to MP1 who calls 400, folds to me and I raise to 1,400, folds back to MP1 who calls.

Flop: 3-8-T rainbow

MP1 checks and I think about my bet size, then fire out 2,200. He stands up a little, looks over at me, and asks to see my stack. He gets a good look at it then quickly slides his stack all-in. I call and he tables Q-Jo for 4 outs to the straight.

Turn: 2

River: A

Suddenly I have a stack to work with and begin finding some hands. A couple of hands later another player limps, I raise A-Q and he folds. A round later I find A-Q again after two limpers and announce my raise, then make it 2,000. One player makes some remarks in French and seems to be confused with the dealer, and the dealer asks me if this is indeed a raise. I inform him it is and both players fold. I begin to wonder if perhaps my use of the English word raise was inappropriate here and turn to the gentleman on my left who is bilingual and ask him whether I should be using the French word. He tells me more French actually use the English word and I’m making no mistake. Fair enough.

For all the flak they take, based on my extremely small sample size of interaction with the French, the people here seem entirely nice and affable. I haven’t had any rude or nasty experiences outside the one asshole who kicked me out and wouldn’t let me inform Timex and Will, and I have the feeling that was more a result of him being a needs to get the sand out of his vagina rules nit asshole on a daily basis than any nationally motivated snootiness. When I got here I thought it was possible I’d be coming home and raving every night about the horrid and intolerable people, but thus far, I’ve found it to be the total opposite.

Communication is certainly an issue though. Just trying to communicate the name of a street or place can be very difficult since the pronunciation of words when read aloud is vastly different between the two languages. Luckily I’ve developed a fool-proof situation that allows me to pronounce words in a way everyone can understand. The steps are as follows:

1. First I drink seven beers as quickly as possible

2. Then I imagine the last two letters in all words with four letters or more don’t exist

3. Lastly, I say the word, slurring as much as possible

BAM! People can suddenly understand me.

Anyway… I now find myself in the upper 20-thousands and the blinds increase to 300/600. I go card dead for a little while and am soon moved to a new table. I raise a hand or two which I don’t take down and drop a couple thousand. The blinds increase to 500/1,000, skipping 400/800 and making stacks very short. The player on my right is playing pretty loose aggressive (having raised two of the last three hands and seems kind of reckless in general) when the following hand comes up:

My stack: ~26K. MP2: ~23K, I hold 8-8 on the HJ. Blinds 500/1,000 with 50 ante.

Pre-flop: It folds to MP2 who raises to 3,000. I debate between calling and shoving, and elect to call. Everyone else folds.

Flop: J-7-2 rainbow

The MP2 player looks at the flop, looks at me, then stands up and moves all his chips in the middle. I ask for a count and suddenly realize I’ve made a totally retarded mistake. MP2 has shoved for about 15K total, meaning he started the hand with about 18K. Yesterday at the Aviation club we were using black chips with a 100 marker on them as hundreds, now today, the blacks have 1,000 on them. Yesterday we had white chips with 1,000 on them for thousands and today we have grey chips that have 100 on them. I miscounted his stack pre-flop like an idiot and flat called in a spot where shoving is standard, and now I have this weird situation. I tank for a while trying to figure out what in the hell shoves this flop. Against most players in the tournament this would be an easy fold, but this guy has been pretty aggressive and spewy, and just seems weird. Nothing about his shove makes sense; if he wants value why shove (thinking like this, that is, thinking that your opponent has thought something like “how to get value” in live poker is, in general, stupid and only going to get you in trouble), and I decide when things don’t make sense I should call, so I do. The MP2 player proudly tables K-J then roots for his hand to hold.

Turn: 6

River: T

I’m suddenly crippled and a hand later we move tables.

I fold the first hand when there’s a raise in front of me and, on the second, it’s folded to me on the HJ with 8,000 at 500/1,000 and J-2s. I move all-in and the BB looks down and quickly calls, then tables KK. Shit.

Flop: K-9-8

Turn: A

That’s about it for me. I tell Will I’m heading out and try to get on the train back home, but I’ve just missed the last one. God damn it. I take a cab home instead and my fail-proof system of pronunciation blows up in my face when the driver misunderstands me and takes me to a similar sounding street which results in a 15 Euro cab ride before we actually get to my hotel. I suck at this live poker thing.

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