Friday, February, 20, 2004

Oh, jeez, so much for my new and improved tourney strategy. I was one of the first players out of the tournament. I just had to make a move with AA9K ds and go all-in before the flop. Naturally the big blind called my 750 bet, and got the flush with two diamonds.

Glenn ragged me about my horrid play all night. This is NOT Hold'em, I didn't have that much of an advantage over any other hand. Why does he know this, yet I don't? Because I'm a super-duper-doper, smoking crack on my days off and frying my brain like Crackhead Bob. Next I'll be stripping for Howard Stern.

I railbirded Glenn for the rest of the tourney. Maybe some of that super-passive play will sink in. Naturally, he passed me up in WPT points again. So did the 5th place dude. Now I'm in 5th, lol. At least if I finish 5th I won't have to worry about playing for the media in the WPT.

Glenn got moved to a new table when his broke up. James has changed the rules for railbirds. Now we are allowed to stand around the players, we just can't engage them in conversation. So I went to stand by his table, and just happened to be standing behind an empty seat, with Betty in the seat to my right. Betty immediately gave me, and the dealer, an evil look. No surprise there, every look of Betty's is evil. She started talking about me seeing her cards. Betty holds her cards like movie poker, high up in the air, for everyone to see. Somehow she got it into her brain that I was going to see her four cards, then give Glenn some baseball signals so that he would know what to do. Um, okay. Betty folds everything anyway, so even if I was out to cheat, it wouldn't do me much good to signal Glenn. Second, I am about the last person someone should be accusing of cheating. Me, constantly trying to protect the integrity of poker. Me, constantly busting other cheaters, even if it hurts my EV. I basically snapped at Betty, "Yeah, I'm going to look at YOUR cards, Betty. Right! Haha ." She didn't even get it, she is so sure everyone in the poker room is out to get her.

I moved behind another seat, but not long after, Carl got knocked out and decided to railbird behind Glenn. I said in really loud, sarcastic voice, "Better not stand behind Glenn, Carl. You might see his cards! Shock, horror!"

So much for Betty quiting the tournaments. She is a loser, but she has decided to stick it out, I guess.

I think I've cemented my place with Betty. If she didn't hate me before, she does now. She is just sure everyone is out to get her. She even accused the cocktail waitress of serving her sour milk on purpose. What a miserable wretch. She reminds me of Vehn on 2+2.

Anyway, Glenn made a few desperation moves and stayed afloat, although shortstacked, as always. He made it to the final table, woohooo! Go Glenn! That dude can really survive playing Omaha.

The final table lineup was very aggressive. There was a lady we'd never seen in the two seat. She kept making string bets and claiming she'd never played a tournament before, nor live poker. She played every hand, and had about 16,000 in chips, lol. She had more chips than everyone on the table combined, times two! Maybe I should try that strategy.

Idiot Ali was to her left, and somehow got the idea that he could outplay her and get her chips. He didn't have much, maybe 3000. He kept raising her, and bluffing into her, until he was down to the felt. Then he would get a hand, double up, and start in on her again. He absolutely hated her. He kept laughing at her right in her face. He would turn to the rail and make fun of her to the railbirds. He would mock her voice and then turn and look at her and laugh at her. No one said a word. NO ONE. April was running the tournament, and not paying attention to the final table. I have no idea why, but she should be at the final table all the time. It's not like she has anything else to do by that time. The payouts are divided up, the extra chips are stored away, she doesn't have to move players anymore. She should be there all the time. Doug is always at the final table. Ward, when he ran the tourneys, was at the final table for every hand.

For whatever reason, people at the Belle are letting Ali make a complete fool out of himself, and run over other players and dealers. His behavior was so offensive that some of us complained. There was an elderly lady in the one seat, and she was too polite to complain. The lady in the two seat who was being ridiculed was too polite to say anything back to him, although she was obviously hurt. Ionizer Bob was still in, but didn't say anything, although he usually will not take much crap. He was having a conflict with Ali at the time about cheating (I'll address that below). Glenn was wearing his headphones and claimed he was trying to drown Ali out. Darryl was in the nine seat, across the table, and is pretty much deaf. Myself and a couple of other railbirds complained about Ali's behavior. This should not be tolerated. If Ali had acted this way towards me, there would have been physical violence.

It is the job of the tournament director, the dealer and the other players to police an offensive player. I feel that Glenn failed in this respect, by refusing to get involved. There was the honor of a real lady to protect. She WAS a lady, unlike me, and it was his duty to stop this abuse.

A "friend" of Ali's was standing behind him on the rail. This guy was looking at Bob's cards and telling Ali what to do! Bob went nuts, yelling and cursing. I tried to get April to do something about it. April, myself and another honest player on the rail were yelling at the railbird and he was trying to pretend that he was innocent. Then he got angry and started stomping around saying he didn't have to listen to us. It was ridiculous. Both he and Ali should have been thrown out immediately. The way the Belle is run, though, players who break rules are always given "another chance." Their last chance never comes.

Glenn managed to hang on to 6th place by letting the crazy, aggressive players knock themselves out. Then he made a fatal error and knocked himself out. A bad call, with a bad hand. He got sick of being bullied by the chip lead lady who played every hand, and Ali, so he went all-in against both of them, with a poor hand. He didn't get either the high or the low, and was dominated by both players. He realized his bad play instantly, almost before he said, "All-in," but by that time, it was too late, and he was sent packing, with $104.

Bob told me that after Glenn got knocked out, he brought up the idea with the lady in the two seat the possibility of a deal. She was willing to split the first three places evenly between herself, Bob and Ali, even though she had both of them outchipped at least 7:1. The fourth and fifth place players were very shortstacked. Ali refused the deal! He bragged to everyone that he could outplay her, and refused to split for about $800 each! What a dope! In the end, of course, he didn't even win third, for $400, much less first! Hahaha, the cheaters never win in the long run, do they?

When I was sweating Glenn, I got to talk to Joanee, the dealer who was in the box when Betty caused such a stink. She apologized for Betty's behavior, and then we got into a conversation. We talked about 30 minutes, and had a fantastic discussion. Mostly it was about God, so I won't go into it, but needless to say, we had quite a meeting of the minds. I had not previously liked Joanee very much, but I see that she has a lot of baggage, and we can relate on many levels. I felt very good about our conversation.

My cold is just about over, and I'm feeling much better. Unfortunately, Glenn has it now, and is hawking up loogies by the dozen, lol. These are true head colds, as the saying goes, but at least they seem to pass quickly. Everyone seems to have the same cold.

The Riverside is losing dealers daily. Now, not only do they have to pay per hour to deal, pay the cashier, prop and pay to take breaks, but they are required to pay $5.00 upfront when they enter the poker room, just for the privilege of coming in to work. This is required whether they deal a down or not. They have also hired a brush person, and are required to pay him daily, as well.

Three dealers walked out as soon as they heard the rules. Every day, more dealers are leaving. Several of them are auditioning at the Belle. I'm sure the Belle will hire as many as they can. Go Belle!