Hagar
01-07-2006, 01:36 PM
Since the scheduled game didn't get off the ground, I hauled up to Jackson after work to get in some more action.
I got there around 3:30 and signed up, only 5th on the list for one of the 2 1/2 games in progress. Could have taken an immediate seat at the 2/5 game, but still not quite ready for it so I waited. Rammer walks up and says "hey" and tells me that he's been sitting there for a few hours running cold. I watch the game while waiting and see him take down a pretty good pot after flopping a boat. Excellent! He's getting a little fortune.
A few minutes later I get called for one of the open seats and decide to take the game I've been watching and end up a few seats to Rammer's right. Didn't really want to have him that close ot my left, but it was good to be able to chat while I was watching the crap flow through my hands.
I was seated directly beween 2 of the worst players I've ever seen. On my right was an older guy who was going on and on about his crappy cards but continued to make many bad plays. The kid to my left (Yappy)was just a flat out splasher without a clue. He kept yappin on and on about what he was thinking, but nothing he did or said made any sense. On one hand, he'd call with rediculous odds to hit a flush on the river with a 54 (had I been stupid enough to stay in, I would have made a better flush with 97, but didn't feel it was a good call - figured my flush was no good even if it hit.) A few hands later he claimed to have laid down a made flush against a moderate river bet figuring that the other guy had a boat. There were several other examples of just bass-ackwards play- calling with pretty bad holdings and folding when he actually had the proper odds to call. And all the while, telling us all about how "deep" his thinking was. He actually started driving me a little nuts with his jabber.
After a few orbits, I caught a couple hands and hit top pair decent kicker on one. I opened and Rammer was eying his cards and giving me that "wouldn't this just piss Hagar off" chuckle. He finally mucked and said "I just couldn't bear to hit runner-runner to snap you off; I don't want to be the subject of your rant tomorrow." :lol: "You got that right, I'll make you famous!" :lol: Good chuckles, good fun. I drug that pot and another small pot without showdowns.
Back to crap for a while until I hit a hit a little skid and ended up bleeding most of my stack away trying to muscle my way through a couple pots. I was down to about $35 when I picked up JT in the BB and called a $10 raise to see the flop. THe flop came JTx with 2 hearts. I checked, the raiser made a small bet and suddenly the guy in seat 3 Egghead (an older guy, a litle fishy, a little splashy, but typically on the tight side) shoved all-in for $100+. Well I was obviously going to call and figured we was chopping it up. The PFR got out and we flipped up. Egghead flips up QTs, middle pair and flush draw. Son of a bitch. His cards are suited, I'm dead. Turn blanked, but I could hear the groans from the other end to know I just got beat before I even saw the card, Q. Beautiful. A little disgusted, but not steamed I pulled out my second buy "Looks like this is gonna be a short session."
I sifted through the crap for a while waiting for some more trouble to get into. While waiting, Rammer was doing a little good and his confidence was growing. He fired a raise from BB and the whole table but Yappy "had to play the hand when he got it" and called. Flop was A5Q. Yappy fired at the pot and Rammer was quickly all-in. Yappy beat him to the pot with his call. Rammer fkipped up AQ, Yappy flipped up 55. Ugly flop for Rammer, but I think we're all gonna lose some chips to Yappy in tha spot, just a brutal flop. I hate to tell Rammer this, but I think it was the only significant pot Yappy won all night. He eventually pissed away all his money without much drama.
A bit later, Rammer racked out, I think he was up a half stack, but he had somehwere to be. ?!? I thought you were planniung to play in my game tonight, where do you have to be? He didn't answer (don't hink he heard me) racked out, said good night and split. Having him leave was a mixed emotion for me; it's nice to have some freindly faces at the table, but he was one of about 3 players on the table that I had any worries about, so having some competition leave wasn't a bad thing.
I was still stewing (just a little) about the JT hand and was getting nothing to play. And right about this time all the crappy dealers paraded through our table. Bad, slow and stupid. I was just geting agitated and considerd to just get the hell out of there. BTW, they just added betting lines to all the tables a la' Cache Creek. If the chips cross the line, they're in the pot. There is definately going to be an adjustment period getting all the deralers and players used to this "new and improved" idea. Anyway, one of the dealers was constantly trying to instruct players about the line. His English isn't so good, but he kept yammering on and on about it. It was getting old and annoying. I'm looking at my watch, wondering if it's time for dinner - getting damn close.
We had another situation where ther was a short all-in raise and the original raiser tried to re-raise, but he didn't go all-in. I asked the dealer if that was allowed, trying to explain what I was told the other night. Floor was called and they let the raiser just raise, not all-in. I shook my head and mumbled about getting their rules figured out. I was actually pretty cranky. Fuck this, I'm gonna get some dinner.
Went down to the usually reasonably quick Mexican place and found 20 orders in ahead of me. "Gonna be 20 miutes or so." Lovely. I ordered and went back up to play an orbit so I wouldn't be gone too long. As I returned to the table, the jabbering, Emglish-challenged, dealer was being replaced by Slomo. The s l o w e s t dealer in the world. And of course, right at this moment, they swapped decks. 10 minutes to get the new decks in play. 2 minutes to figure out what my $3 missed blind post was about. Finally a hand was dealt. I'll shorten this post by skipping to the part that it we got 6 hands in in 30 minutes. I hung around that long because I wanted to at least play off my position before bolting again. I mucked all 6 hands and went down to eat.
Ate my food and came back to see Slomo gone. I sat down and went on a bit of a run after a few orbits. Cards were coming and they were hitting and getting paid when I wanted and noshows when I really didn't want the action. It was fun. I quickly built my stack up to about $300. Then it kept on going. For about 2 hours, I was in complete control of that table. If I raised, I got a little, but not schools of, action and was given respect when I fired at the pot. Things were just working. When I did show, I had people crushed. The whiner to my right was the poor soul to get caught in most of my hands - it probably looked like I was trying to beat up on the poor guy, but it just worked out that whenever I had a hand, he had half a hand and kept paying me off. Hate to keep thumping on the same guy, but can't really control when the cards come.
Me and Egghead cleaned out Whiner. I was holding AT and the flop came KQx, 2 hearts. I made the fishy flop call to hit my gutshot on the turn. I checked, Egghead checked and Whiner fired $10. I raised it to $30, Egghead went all-in. Whiner called as did I. Whiner had QJ and Egghead had the same hand as me. Sorry to see your soft money go, but have a good one.
I hit a couple of BB specials: 72o flopped 2 pair and I relieved one new guy of his stack (top pair with lousy kicker). A little while later I had 67, flopped 2 pair and turned a boat. I let the guy in late pos. drive for a while and value bet the river to make sure he wouldn't check through. Unfortunately, the river was an 8 (scare card) so I think he was a little more afraid than he would have been). He called and the table was in shock (at the strenght of my hand). Next hand, the kid that had moved into Whiners seat hit the Ace high flop. I caught second pair and called him on his flop bet. I missed the turn and got out. The kid on the right said "Man, was I glad to see you get out of the pot. You're too tricky. You make me nervous." I laughed, but inside I was laughing evily. Pefect. Things have worked out so that my table image is perfect right now. They are afraid of me when I check. My game is top notch when players fear my checks and that opens a lot of doors. Unfortunately, the cards really wouldn't let me take advantage of the situation. While I had half the table trained, we were going through a lot of turnover so my image wasn't real useful.
The last big hand that I was involved in was with a new guy that had just replaced the kid to my right. It was his second hand. I was in BB with AK and just limped. Flop came A98. New guy (NG) checked, I fired pot sized bet (flop was coordinated and all red, my hand was black) everyone folded to NG who c/r me for $20 more. WTF? This guy's new to the table and he's already putting th moves on? He doesn't have a read on me, so he doesn't know how tight I play. I was really worried about him having 2 pair (c/r flop from EP is a classic sign for 2 pair on a dangerous board). Let's see what this guy is up to. I just called. the board paired the 8 which was the worst card that could have come. If he had 2 pair, he still had me beat and he could easily have a boat. He bet $20. $20! My stack was way too big to not pay this guy off if I was behind for $20. I called. River brought a third diamond. Again he fired $20. "I'm gonna see just what you are up to." and called. HE flipped up AQ and my AK held up. "Thanks for scaring the crap out of me!" Wow. If he would have bet that stronger on the turn or the river, I would have been gone. He just kept sucking me in and it backfired for him.
My stack was now over $500, and I was starting to get a little weary. The table had become a transplanted home game with 5 or 6 players who all played together. They were all in the "I'm gonna show off for my friends" mode pulling their typical home game "bluff offs" with each other. One kid came in and bought a little pot with nothing with a stupidly huge bet. we all folded, he showed his crap and bellowed "Clock work!" with great pride, like he had just conquered a small country. Good work kid, keep it up. My cards were pretty much keeping me out of trouble and I just watched for a while. Clockwork raised one hand and got a couple of home gamers in the pot. Flop was a dismal 92J and he fired. One of his buddies made a slight raise and the 3 of them stayed around for the turn. River was a blank and Clockwork fired again. He was trying to talk his buddy out of the pot, but his buddy went all-in. The other guy got out, Clockwork called and flipped up 92. His buddy had AA. As much as I hated to see Clockwork drag that pot, his buddy completely deserved to lose that pot when he didn't play his Aces stronger before the flop. Clockwork went on and on about how his play was perfect. Blah, blah, blah.
It got to be 11:00 and the cards weren't showing me any interest. I was tiring of watchiing the home game clowns and decided to rack up and head out. $555 in the rack for a $355 profit. Considering I was close to poking my eye out with a rusty spoon about 2 hours in, I was very pleased with the session. My intuition was working pretty well most of the night and after I got rolling, things pretty much went my way. Still need a couple more of these sessions to get my BR back to where I was before I hit that slump a few months ago, but it sure is nice to keep my BR growing again.
Nice to see Rammer for a while who's heading to Vegas in a few weeks. Hope he's able to represnet and bring some of that Vegas monet home with him.
As much as it was nice to make a good score, I still would have rather got our game off the ground. It'll be several weeks before I can host again, hopefully someone will step up and put something together before we completely forget how it's done.
I got there around 3:30 and signed up, only 5th on the list for one of the 2 1/2 games in progress. Could have taken an immediate seat at the 2/5 game, but still not quite ready for it so I waited. Rammer walks up and says "hey" and tells me that he's been sitting there for a few hours running cold. I watch the game while waiting and see him take down a pretty good pot after flopping a boat. Excellent! He's getting a little fortune.
A few minutes later I get called for one of the open seats and decide to take the game I've been watching and end up a few seats to Rammer's right. Didn't really want to have him that close ot my left, but it was good to be able to chat while I was watching the crap flow through my hands.
I was seated directly beween 2 of the worst players I've ever seen. On my right was an older guy who was going on and on about his crappy cards but continued to make many bad plays. The kid to my left (Yappy)was just a flat out splasher without a clue. He kept yappin on and on about what he was thinking, but nothing he did or said made any sense. On one hand, he'd call with rediculous odds to hit a flush on the river with a 54 (had I been stupid enough to stay in, I would have made a better flush with 97, but didn't feel it was a good call - figured my flush was no good even if it hit.) A few hands later he claimed to have laid down a made flush against a moderate river bet figuring that the other guy had a boat. There were several other examples of just bass-ackwards play- calling with pretty bad holdings and folding when he actually had the proper odds to call. And all the while, telling us all about how "deep" his thinking was. He actually started driving me a little nuts with his jabber.
After a few orbits, I caught a couple hands and hit top pair decent kicker on one. I opened and Rammer was eying his cards and giving me that "wouldn't this just piss Hagar off" chuckle. He finally mucked and said "I just couldn't bear to hit runner-runner to snap you off; I don't want to be the subject of your rant tomorrow." :lol: "You got that right, I'll make you famous!" :lol: Good chuckles, good fun. I drug that pot and another small pot without showdowns.
Back to crap for a while until I hit a hit a little skid and ended up bleeding most of my stack away trying to muscle my way through a couple pots. I was down to about $35 when I picked up JT in the BB and called a $10 raise to see the flop. THe flop came JTx with 2 hearts. I checked, the raiser made a small bet and suddenly the guy in seat 3 Egghead (an older guy, a litle fishy, a little splashy, but typically on the tight side) shoved all-in for $100+. Well I was obviously going to call and figured we was chopping it up. The PFR got out and we flipped up. Egghead flips up QTs, middle pair and flush draw. Son of a bitch. His cards are suited, I'm dead. Turn blanked, but I could hear the groans from the other end to know I just got beat before I even saw the card, Q. Beautiful. A little disgusted, but not steamed I pulled out my second buy "Looks like this is gonna be a short session."
I sifted through the crap for a while waiting for some more trouble to get into. While waiting, Rammer was doing a little good and his confidence was growing. He fired a raise from BB and the whole table but Yappy "had to play the hand when he got it" and called. Flop was A5Q. Yappy fired at the pot and Rammer was quickly all-in. Yappy beat him to the pot with his call. Rammer fkipped up AQ, Yappy flipped up 55. Ugly flop for Rammer, but I think we're all gonna lose some chips to Yappy in tha spot, just a brutal flop. I hate to tell Rammer this, but I think it was the only significant pot Yappy won all night. He eventually pissed away all his money without much drama.
A bit later, Rammer racked out, I think he was up a half stack, but he had somehwere to be. ?!? I thought you were planniung to play in my game tonight, where do you have to be? He didn't answer (don't hink he heard me) racked out, said good night and split. Having him leave was a mixed emotion for me; it's nice to have some freindly faces at the table, but he was one of about 3 players on the table that I had any worries about, so having some competition leave wasn't a bad thing.
I was still stewing (just a little) about the JT hand and was getting nothing to play. And right about this time all the crappy dealers paraded through our table. Bad, slow and stupid. I was just geting agitated and considerd to just get the hell out of there. BTW, they just added betting lines to all the tables a la' Cache Creek. If the chips cross the line, they're in the pot. There is definately going to be an adjustment period getting all the deralers and players used to this "new and improved" idea. Anyway, one of the dealers was constantly trying to instruct players about the line. His English isn't so good, but he kept yammering on and on about it. It was getting old and annoying. I'm looking at my watch, wondering if it's time for dinner - getting damn close.
We had another situation where ther was a short all-in raise and the original raiser tried to re-raise, but he didn't go all-in. I asked the dealer if that was allowed, trying to explain what I was told the other night. Floor was called and they let the raiser just raise, not all-in. I shook my head and mumbled about getting their rules figured out. I was actually pretty cranky. Fuck this, I'm gonna get some dinner.
Went down to the usually reasonably quick Mexican place and found 20 orders in ahead of me. "Gonna be 20 miutes or so." Lovely. I ordered and went back up to play an orbit so I wouldn't be gone too long. As I returned to the table, the jabbering, Emglish-challenged, dealer was being replaced by Slomo. The s l o w e s t dealer in the world. And of course, right at this moment, they swapped decks. 10 minutes to get the new decks in play. 2 minutes to figure out what my $3 missed blind post was about. Finally a hand was dealt. I'll shorten this post by skipping to the part that it we got 6 hands in in 30 minutes. I hung around that long because I wanted to at least play off my position before bolting again. I mucked all 6 hands and went down to eat.
Ate my food and came back to see Slomo gone. I sat down and went on a bit of a run after a few orbits. Cards were coming and they were hitting and getting paid when I wanted and noshows when I really didn't want the action. It was fun. I quickly built my stack up to about $300. Then it kept on going. For about 2 hours, I was in complete control of that table. If I raised, I got a little, but not schools of, action and was given respect when I fired at the pot. Things were just working. When I did show, I had people crushed. The whiner to my right was the poor soul to get caught in most of my hands - it probably looked like I was trying to beat up on the poor guy, but it just worked out that whenever I had a hand, he had half a hand and kept paying me off. Hate to keep thumping on the same guy, but can't really control when the cards come.
Me and Egghead cleaned out Whiner. I was holding AT and the flop came KQx, 2 hearts. I made the fishy flop call to hit my gutshot on the turn. I checked, Egghead checked and Whiner fired $10. I raised it to $30, Egghead went all-in. Whiner called as did I. Whiner had QJ and Egghead had the same hand as me. Sorry to see your soft money go, but have a good one.
I hit a couple of BB specials: 72o flopped 2 pair and I relieved one new guy of his stack (top pair with lousy kicker). A little while later I had 67, flopped 2 pair and turned a boat. I let the guy in late pos. drive for a while and value bet the river to make sure he wouldn't check through. Unfortunately, the river was an 8 (scare card) so I think he was a little more afraid than he would have been). He called and the table was in shock (at the strenght of my hand). Next hand, the kid that had moved into Whiners seat hit the Ace high flop. I caught second pair and called him on his flop bet. I missed the turn and got out. The kid on the right said "Man, was I glad to see you get out of the pot. You're too tricky. You make me nervous." I laughed, but inside I was laughing evily. Pefect. Things have worked out so that my table image is perfect right now. They are afraid of me when I check. My game is top notch when players fear my checks and that opens a lot of doors. Unfortunately, the cards really wouldn't let me take advantage of the situation. While I had half the table trained, we were going through a lot of turnover so my image wasn't real useful.
The last big hand that I was involved in was with a new guy that had just replaced the kid to my right. It was his second hand. I was in BB with AK and just limped. Flop came A98. New guy (NG) checked, I fired pot sized bet (flop was coordinated and all red, my hand was black) everyone folded to NG who c/r me for $20 more. WTF? This guy's new to the table and he's already putting th moves on? He doesn't have a read on me, so he doesn't know how tight I play. I was really worried about him having 2 pair (c/r flop from EP is a classic sign for 2 pair on a dangerous board). Let's see what this guy is up to. I just called. the board paired the 8 which was the worst card that could have come. If he had 2 pair, he still had me beat and he could easily have a boat. He bet $20. $20! My stack was way too big to not pay this guy off if I was behind for $20. I called. River brought a third diamond. Again he fired $20. "I'm gonna see just what you are up to." and called. HE flipped up AQ and my AK held up. "Thanks for scaring the crap out of me!" Wow. If he would have bet that stronger on the turn or the river, I would have been gone. He just kept sucking me in and it backfired for him.
My stack was now over $500, and I was starting to get a little weary. The table had become a transplanted home game with 5 or 6 players who all played together. They were all in the "I'm gonna show off for my friends" mode pulling their typical home game "bluff offs" with each other. One kid came in and bought a little pot with nothing with a stupidly huge bet. we all folded, he showed his crap and bellowed "Clock work!" with great pride, like he had just conquered a small country. Good work kid, keep it up. My cards were pretty much keeping me out of trouble and I just watched for a while. Clockwork raised one hand and got a couple of home gamers in the pot. Flop was a dismal 92J and he fired. One of his buddies made a slight raise and the 3 of them stayed around for the turn. River was a blank and Clockwork fired again. He was trying to talk his buddy out of the pot, but his buddy went all-in. The other guy got out, Clockwork called and flipped up 92. His buddy had AA. As much as I hated to see Clockwork drag that pot, his buddy completely deserved to lose that pot when he didn't play his Aces stronger before the flop. Clockwork went on and on about how his play was perfect. Blah, blah, blah.
It got to be 11:00 and the cards weren't showing me any interest. I was tiring of watchiing the home game clowns and decided to rack up and head out. $555 in the rack for a $355 profit. Considering I was close to poking my eye out with a rusty spoon about 2 hours in, I was very pleased with the session. My intuition was working pretty well most of the night and after I got rolling, things pretty much went my way. Still need a couple more of these sessions to get my BR back to where I was before I hit that slump a few months ago, but it sure is nice to keep my BR growing again.
Nice to see Rammer for a while who's heading to Vegas in a few weeks. Hope he's able to represnet and bring some of that Vegas monet home with him.
As much as it was nice to make a good score, I still would have rather got our game off the ground. It'll be several weeks before I can host again, hopefully someone will step up and put something together before we completely forget how it's done.