Geeks in Vegas (Part 3)

From: lenny@aic.lockheed.com (Leonard J. Augustine)
Subject: Trip Report: Poker Geeks In Vegas 3 -LONG
Date: Sat, 1 Apr 95 01:11:21 GMT

Poker Geeks Go To Vegas (part 3)

Saturday morning, errr, afternoon
---------------------------------
Saturday 1:30 PM
Finally got up at 1:30 and placed a bet against the money line (+215)
on North Carolina - I picked them to win the whole thing before the
NCAA tournament started, and I never pick against Dean Smith when he
has a top 5 team.  Kentucky is good too, but +215 - them's good odds.

While downstairs, I call the S.O. from a pay phone.  Dave was still
sleeping upstairs, so it was the best option.  While walking to the
phone, I bumped into Phil and we decided to grab a bite together
after I am done.  I give Kat my trip report and find Phil.  We
almost ate at the Caribe Cafe, but decided it would cost even more
than the buffet with a drink, etc. so we decide to see what daylight
looks like.  After walking out the door, we are faced with an excruciating
decision ... left or right?  (Tell me you all haven't been faced with the
same dilemma on the Strip.)  After two minutes of hemming and hawing, Phil
pipes in with the idea that he'd like to go to the MGM to check out Elton
John/Billy Joel tickets, who are playing at the MGM that night.  Fine with
me - of the major casinos, the MGM is the only one I've never been to
(well, the Hard Rock too I guess), so off we go.  Many blocks later, we see
McDonalds .... "geez, I could almost go for Mickie Dees", "hmm, yeah,
me too", so we cross the street and on the way to McDonalds we see ...
Fatburgers!  Phil has never heard of them, and I have, but have never
eaten them, but dammit, there's something about a place called Fatburgers
that you have to eat there when you see it.  The decision was done (I
think only if we had seen another place called Lardburgers would we have
backed out at this point.)  (OK, well maybe Criscoburgers too.)  We
each have a Fatburger with fries (what else?), and I put on Leaving Las
Vegas by Sheryl Crow on the jukebox.  I happen to love the song, but I
really play it because I'm sure every two-bit tourist who comes to town
plays it, and I'm sure it annoys the hell out of the employees, and I
don't want to miss out on annoying some Fatburger employees if I can
help it.  No Kenny Rogers ("you've got to know when to hold 'em"), which
would really annoy them, so it'll have to do.

At the MGM, I head to the sports book to watch NC-KU second half while
Phil goes to the box office.  The MGM is huge!  Must have got lost 3 times
while I was in there.  Phil returns, and has paid $200 for a front row
ticket for EJ/BJ.  He sweated the decision, but he's a piano player, and
they are both two of his favorites, so the front row thing decided it.

Carolina pulls off the upset (yeah right, Dean Smith getting to the final
four is a real upset!), and I'm up another $43.  Ching-ching.

Meanwhile ...
-------------
Earlier that morning, Rafe makes a $100 bet on UCLA vs. UConn against
the -2.5 spread, and calls Phil (who lost $200 the night before on
hoop action) to see if he wants in.

Phil: "Hell no, don't bet that, it's a sucker bet!"
Rafe: "Well, I already bet it."
Phil: "OK, get me a hundred too."

(Phil would bet on the identity of the pallbearers at your grandmother's
funeral, claiming he had a tell.)

Good sucker bet - they both won.

More Poker
----------
Saturday 5:00 PM
By this time it's 5:00 PM, and there's no point in Phil returning to the
Mirage with the show starting at 8:00, so we decide to play some Holdem,
which is right next to the sports book.  I sit down shortly after Phil at
a 1-4-8-8 table, which is slightly higher stakes than I'm used to, but I'm
so far, so what the hell.

I should mention here that Phil is quite an excellent player (at least when
he doesn't tilt :-), and I have learned 90% of what I know about poker from
Phil, so it makes me a little nervous to sit at the same table (I know
I'll be critiqued afterwards - which is fine, I like to learn things,
but it still makes me a tad nervous.)

A few hands after sitting down, I raise with AQ on the button, and Phil
re-raises.  Only the two of us are in (it was the tightest table I played
at in Vegas), the flop comes Axy, and Phil pays me off to the river.  Just
by his reactions after the flop, I know he's got cowboys.

Phil did nail me on a few hands, but I don't remember those :-)

Then came this little beauty - it's folded around to Phil in the small
blind, who raises 4 dollars - OK by my, I've got J6 offsuit, he's trying
to end the hand and save me some money, right?  I toss them in, and then
almost jump out of my seat as Phil yells "Presto!" and tosses his pocket
5s down on the felt.  I silently hand over a 5 dollar chip as Phil sits
there giggling like a 10 year old school girl who just got a peek in
the men's locker room.

We moved tables and switched blind positions shortly thereafter and
I went on a mini-rush.  QJ spades won a monster pot with only top pair.
KQ clubs made a nut flush for a nice pot.

Then I got KQ hearts in the big blind.  I raised it to build the
pot (a play that Phil had discussed with me while we were sitting there)
took a flop of Q83 with the 83 being hearts.  I check-raised, hit my flush
on the turn, and wasn't called on my bet.

I had KQ clubs take a flop of Q75, the turn was a rag, and the river
was a K for a nice pot.

Then came my revenge on Phil - not Presto, but nearly as good.  I made
a nut flush on the turn while in first position with Phil and another
guy in the pot.  Good, I'm going to check-raise the SOB, because
he bet the flop.  Check ... check, check.  Doh!  River is some
rag, and now I decide to check-raise again - I'm pretty sure he'll
bet it this time (maybe the right play would have been to hope he
raised me though).  [Anyway, I don't think "grasshopper" would have missed
out on a chance to kick his mentor's sorry ass, would he?  Of course not!]
So, I check, Phil bets, 3rd player calls, I check-raise, Phil puzzles for
a moment, but not long enough and calls and pays off the flush.

I'm in the small blind on a hand with A9 off, and a pretty weak player
leads the betting with a really tentative call, there's another caller,
and I figure if I raise, Phil will drop, the tentative caller will drop,
and I will either be heads-up, or win the pot outright.  Phil folds,
but the tentative guy calls, and so does the other guy.  The flop was
KQ7 and I fold after a bet.  I tell Phil what I had, and he raises a
very Spockian eyebrow and drips sarcasm as he says "Pretty aggressive!"
(I did mention that he's kind of been my poker mentor, didn't I?)

Anyway, a short time later, Phil tries a very similar play ... with 84
offsuit.  He caught a flop of [somewhere between 9 and K], 8, 3, so he's
got second pair.  Someone bets, and Phil calls.  The turn brought a
rag, and Phil thinks and drops.  A 4 hits on the river, and Phil's
face looks like he just ate a lemon, whispering to me "I had 84".  I
raised a very Spockian eyebrow and drip sarcasm as I say "Pretty
aggressive!"  Phil's not amused (his amusement level after winning with
Presto tends to be higher than after losing a pot he would have won
with one more bet, I guess :*).

Phil left at 7:30 for the concert, and I cashed out around 8:30 up $85.

Return To The Mirage
--------------------
Saturday 10:00 PM
Dave had moved our room in my absence (Excellent!) so we wouldn't have
to get woken up by the jackhammers again.  Tony had a dinner comp from the
Mirage poker room (you are allowed one per week - sign up at the back
desk at precisely 6:45 and tell them your poker table number), and I
wasn't hungry enough for the buffet again, so we had pizza at the
California Pizza Kitchen - I hate California Pizza (for those of you
that don't know, California Pizza is another word for Yuppie Crap Piled
On Your Pizza), but it just seemed right at the time.  Tony and I
wrangled over which kind to buy for quite a while ("how about the pesto
and pineapple" "nah, too much garlic, what about the Southwest cactus
plant?" "no, I'm trying to cut down on my starch, would you be willing
to eat the ostrich egg and pig entrails?" "normally I'd say yes, but I'm
trying to cut down on my cholesterol" etc.), finally I say "it's a good
thing we're not married, Tony".  Dinner conversation centers around
Tony beating some grandmother out of her Depends' budget with his AA
versus her KK.

A Quick 6-12
------------
Saturday 10:10 PM
I signed up for 3-6, but hey, it is Saturday night.  The 6-12 list is
shorter, and I figure I can play really tight, plus I'll get to play
with Dave.  Dave is one of those players who always has a comment when
he puts money into the pot, and if you know him, every comment is a
real hoot.  "I'll bet just in case they didn't make their flushes",
"I've got this one", "I'll call against the nut flush", etc, etc.  And you
can be sure to have a good laugh with Dave when he sucks out on somebody.
Of course, every time at least two of the five of us sit down at a table
together, we start non-stop mouth drivel with each other and the rest
of the table - Rafe mentioned that his favorite sitting down line was
"Is check-raising allowed?", which I used about 5 times myself as I
sat down at a new table.  Funny how a bunch of perceived dead-drunk
moronic 25-30 year old obnoxious jerks get more action than quiet
church boys who play serious cards, dammit.

So I'm sitting there playing really tight, and somewhere along the line
I get into a pot where Dave has position on me (I think I was a blind
and he was the button).  I've got 86 diamonds.  I've seen two diamonds
hit on the flop, called a bet by Dave, don't remember the turn, though
I think I called another bet, and the river makes my diamond flush
(my recollection is the diamonds on the board were along the lines
of Q73.)  Lots of over-diamonds, so anyone with another flush has
got me beat, but hell, no way they have a flush, so I decide to
check-raise.  Dave bets it, I raise (remember that 6-12 is like heart
attack city for me, so my heart is beating a mile a minute, plus it's a
chance to nail my buddy), and Dave re-raises "I don't think you've got
a flush".  I'm sure he's just trying to push me around (all 5 of us
on the trip would take any advantage we could like this over each other,
just to be able to tell the tale later), but I just call.  Dave shows
the 94 diamonds - Doh!  I wasn't upset that he had the flush, but
re-raising with a 9 high! - well I can assume he didn't have a tell on me
because he tells me "I wouldn't have re-raised if I knew you had a flush" -
"thanks, Dave, that's very comforting".  So I missed that $100 pot
because I didn't have a T high flush instead of an 8 high flush.

Back to 3-6
------------
Saturday 10:30
My name was called and I quickly left the 6-12 to get to a game where the
variance doesn't smart as much (3-6).  As I sit down, Rafe tells me "I was
just at that table and the guy in seat 1 is the worst player I have ever
seen".  I referred to him from then on as "the-worst-player-Rafe-has-ever-
seen".  He was pretty darned bad, though I honestly think I've seen a worse
one or two.  Pretty much the mother of all fish, though.  The rest of
the table is not a heck of a lot better.  Unfortunately, the only times
the-worst-player-Rafe-has-ever-seen had a hand were when he went up
against me.  He filled in an A5 with 234, made trip 8s against my pair of aces
with 83 offsuit in his hand.  He filled in another A5 with 234 (and an
ace that turned my AA into trips).

Against everyone else he would slam down the 4th highest pair, and look
disdained when he lost.  Or no pair.  Or call out a flush, only to
be told that there is no flush, that Q is a spade, not a club.  But
against me, he's showing down the nuts.

I did make one major call against him - he was the kind who tried to
emulate what everyone else was doing, and at one point he got it into
his head that sometimes you could bet three times, and nobody would
call because they were afraid of the hand.  So one time I'm on the button
with A5 and I call.  He bets the flop, with a few callers, bets the turn
with two callers (including me), then bets the river.  The board looks
something like T42K8 with no flush.  I've been calling all the way with my
inside straight draw, and my intuition that neither one of them have
anything either.  The other player folds, and now it is up to me.  I've
got A high.  Hmm, I think, and think, and somehow I know the son-of-a-bitch
doesn't have anything, what the hell, I'll call.  At least I won't have
to show my cards if I'm wrong.  He shows 76 - never even had a flush or
straight draw, bluffing all the way.  I got a chorus of "nice call"s, and
the whole table looks at me like I'm Elvis, the King of Rock 'N' Roll.
"Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen".

I should mention here that one of the things I was really working on
this weekend was my betting aura.  I know I have given away too much
information by betting weakly sometimes, or thinking and calling, etc.,
being much too easy to read.  I was really working on making my decision
and betting like I had the nuts every time - and it really helped.  Just
not appearing weak helps a lot I think - I ended up stealing quite a
few pots, especially from late position.  I don't think I really
appreciated how much position is worth until you have people scared enough
of you at the table to start stealing pots.  I always knew it was
important, but it's so much more important when you stand a good chance
of not being called when you bet.

Meanwhile ...
-------------
Phil returned from the concert.  I had told Rafe earlier that Phil
was going to the show for $200 and he said "you know when he gets back,
he's going to say it was the most awesome show he has ever seen".  So
Rafe says to Phil "How was the show?"  Phil's capsule review: "it was
the most awesome show I have ever seen."  Phil would say your grandmother's
funeral was the best time he ever had, if he had paid $200 to go to it,
because he doesn't want you to think he got ripped off.

Here's also where we met Evan and Bill.  Another couple of 25 year-old
or so guys who introduce us to Banana Banshees (aaii-yahhh).  These two
guys were doing the moronic banter thing when Phil and Rafe moved to
their table.  Rafe pegged them for UC school boys and ... well... I'll
let Rafe tell it.

Rafe:
I pegged them for UC school boys and sure enough they
were from UCSD.  they were professional foosball players.  doh!  Phil
says he thinks they are good, and i say no, they're dumb as shit and
drunk.  so he says maybe they are just better actors than us :-) As it
turns out they were acting too.  so we all four got the table on tilt.

Back To My Table
-----------------
You might try the Banana Banshees at the Mirage if you don't mind
sweet fruity drinks - at one point we had a lot of young guys on two
tables just cutting everybody to ribbons, drinking Banana Banshees.  The
other drink of choice is (besides Rumplemintz of course) a Rusty Nail.
That's Scotch and Drambuie - I normally hate Scotch, but the Drambuie
really takes the edge off of it.  If you order this though, order an
orange juice too - the Rusty Nail isn't really all that thirst-quenching,
and you need the OJ for that.

My table got short-handed a while later, and I started winning (the
opportunities for pot-stealing were abundant), but at some point during
the evening, the fish got replaced by some good players, and the table
filled up again, and I was still playing as if I was up against
a short-handed fish table, instead of a full table of good players.
I did have the pleasure of having one of the 5 most beautiful women
I have ever seen in my entire life sit at the table for about an hour -
she was with one of the guys who sat down, and stood a good chance of
being a hooker.  She was wearing a black jacket over a lacy black bra
(which left plenty of cleavage visible - and I mean plenty), with a
tight short skirt.  She didn't play at all, and that was just fine
with me - the guy she was with should have paid her a cut of his action,
nobody at the table could concentrate on their cards - you might say
he kept winning with a big pair (ba doomp CHA!).

[I would have to say that in general, the female poker players in Vegas
are far, far better looking than any I have ever seen at Bay 101 or
at Garden City.  I saw at least a half dozen honest-to-goodness, no-doubt-
about-it, what's-cookin-good-looking women playing poker.  But that's
probably mostly because there seemed to be a lot more young poker-
playing women in general in Vegas - it's a rare sight to see a woman
under 50 playing poker in San Jose at all.]

I ended up $101 for that session, finishing up at 6:00 AM, after paying
Rafe off for a Presto pot.  And I still hadn't even been dealt Presto,
forget about winning with it.

---
Lenny Augustine          "Dan Marino should die of gonorrhea and rot in
(lenny@aic.lockheed.com)  hell ... would you like a cookie?" - Ray Finkle's mom

Click here for Part 4

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