SUPER Seniors - Levels 1 & 2

First hand - A4.  I pass.

First hand I play - K 10 clubs on the button.  Blinds are 100/100, and I call a 300 raise.  The big blind (John Morgan) raises to 800.  I decide to speculate and call along with another guy.

The flop is KQ7, two hearts.  The 800 raiser goes 1500.  I think long and hard about it, but decide there are too many hands that beat me, including AK, KQ, and KJ, not to mention AA, KK, Q7 and K7.  So I fold.

In retrospect, I’m not sure why I was in the hand in the first place.  If you aren’t willing to play it after the flop, why play it at all?

Morgan has been on what poker players call a “heater,” taking down pots on junk hands.  It won’t last.

Next hand I play - AJ.  Weird hand.  From middle position, the guy to my right raises to 400, and I call.  We get another caller and then a raise to 1200.  Everyone calls the reraise.  The flop has nothing for me, and the guy to the right bets 4000.  We all fold.  Sigh.

Now I get KQ.  I raise to 400.  Two callers and then a guy raises to 1200.  I call.  The flop is KJ8.  The 1200 guy bets 2400.  I smell a big hand from him, too big, but I call.  The turn is nothing helpful, but the big better goes all-in.  I have to fold with top pair.  He announces to the table as he rakes in the chips that his hand was “very, very good.”  Sigh.

So much for playing tight.  This table is full of maniacs.  With 11,500 left, now I have to really play tight.

We had breakfast this morning at Cafe Hollywood at Planet Hollywood, and I raised the question of what goes on with the guy at the poker table who grandiloquently greets every newcomer with “Welcome to the table!”  Like it’s his table.

The consensus was that it’s a benign thing, but I kind of view it as what a polite alpha does, asserting his primacy.  I respond to such things like a competing alpha would, a thin smile and a nod, no other response.  We will be butting heads soon.

Nothing happening since that flurry of bad hands.  I am getting that feeling like I will never win a hand again.

Yesterday, I made $1200 playing a poker game called - be patient here - $5 five-card double board bomb pot.

Next playable hand - AJ clubs.  I call a 400 raise and three players come along.  Flop misses everyone.  One guy goes 1200 and two guys come along.  The next card misses, so I bet 6000.  One instant fold, the other guy ponders briefly and the. Folds.  My first win.  17,500.

A10 next.  I limp along with four other people for 100.  Then Mr. Vegas, wearing an impressive stack of gold necklaces, raises to 2200.  Instant fold for me, but one guy really stews, and folds.  A long discussion ensues about whether the raiser was just using his position to sweep the small bets, or if he had a hand.  Mr. Vegas claims a pair of sevens, but his claim is met with some skepticism, to be kind.

Now I get QJ hearts.  I raise to 400.  Another guy raises to  1200.  I call.  A king hits the flop, so I fold.  One stubborn player hangs in down to the end, where the 1200 bettor shows AK and wins the pot.  Why can’t I get those hands instead of the fools gold hands I’ve been playing so far?

At the end of the first hour, I’m at 15,800.  I am due for a turn of fortune.

Funny sight:  a man wearing a chef’s toque carrying a steam table tray of hot dogs, probably wondering if this is why he went to culinary school.

I love Vegas patois.  Example: at the end of a hand when the players have to reveal their hands to see who won, the dealer says, “I’m from Missouri.  What do you have?”  Get it?  He’s from the Show Me state, and he wants the players to show him their cards.  Ha!

I need psychological help.  I have K2 in the small blind, the worst position in poker after the flop.  So I should fold, right?  I raise to 700, intending to take down the big blind and the one caller.  Nope - they both call.  Flop is 10 5 2.  Traditional strategy says you now do what is called a “continuation bet” to reinforce the original bluff.  I don’t.  I just check.  There is a 7 on the turn.  No one bets.  Then a 5 hits the river.  I bet 1400.  They fold.  Lucky me.

AJ next.  I raise to 700, and get a caller on the button.  Junk flop (as usual).  I raise to 1200 and he calls.  Turn is no help so I stop betting.  The button understands what this means - I was bluffing and have given up on bluff, so he does what all competent poker players do and raises 2000.  And that is the end of that ill-fated hand.  14,400.

Mr. Vegas is out, losing QQJJ to 333.  For some reason, however, he is refusing to leave his seat while he rebuys into the tournament.  Finally he goes.  He will be missed.

Vegas patois 2:  When Mr. Vegas pushed all-in, the dealer called out, “All-in!  Ham sandwich!  All you can eat!”  I love it.

Our dealer is a character and kind of incompetent, but he carries himself with a great deal of confidence, so when he is called out for a mistake, he strikes a pose of incredulity.  He says he lives in Vegas and has horses and a party boat he skippers on the weekends.  I did not know dealing was so lucrative!  Or maybe he’s puffing.  Who knows?

That’s the cool thing about LV.  You can be whoever you want to be here - no judgments.  At breakfast, Doug told us that Planet Hollywood was hosting a convention of piercing professionals.  That explained the collection of goths outside the PH poker room, tatted up and pierced everywhere, like Pinhead from the Hellraiser movies.  I asked him if they were piercers or the pierced and he said, “I think they’re the piercers, but they have to use the product they’re selling.”  Good on them, not for me.

I also met a guy from Houston a few days ago playing cash hold-em.  He was wearing a straw cowboy hat and Western clothes, including some very comfortable boots.  We started chatting and it turned out he worked at Republic Boots in the Heights.  He gave me a card and told me he wanted to sell me some custom boots.  After this week, I’m not sure I can afford flip-flops, however.

I am getting a callous on the inside of my right pinky from repetitively shoving my cards into the muck.  Poker can be intensely boring.  I am glad I have this live blog to pass the time instead of staring at these coots and trying to plumb their consciousnesses.  I can’t imagine doing this for a living.

14,400 at the break.