Monday, March 8, 2004

Warning, bad beats ahead. Proceed with caution. LOL :)

Hold'em tourneys at the Belle are turning into my worst nightmare. I simply cannot win if we see a flop. It is a phenomenon, and a very strange one, but true nevertheless.

Tonight saw me get killed at two tables. At my first tourney table, I was dealt these hands during the limit portion of the tournament (the first hour): ATs (sb), TT, K2o (bb), A4s (sb).

Not that great, you notice most of them were in one of the two blinds. None of them won.

In the NLHE portion I went all-in immediately with AKo followed by KQo, both on the button and cut-off when no one had entered the pot. I won without a flop.

I was transferred to table one. Betty was to my right. Even poor Betty, who is absolutely clueless, can tell when a player is running bad. She can sniff it in the air, and goes for the kill. Yes, even the weak will prey on the lame and crippled, if they see everyone else running her down.

I got KK in the BB. It was passed to Betty in the SB. She only had 3 chips. One was for her SB, so she had two in her stack. She completed the BB with QTs, something she would normally muck, but she knew I was losing every hand. So she completed. I naturally put her all-in. She gladly called, knowing that no matter what I had, she would outdraw it.

Sure enough, runner-runner straight, 6-T with her ten. A few people at the table groaned. Someone asked, "Don't you feel bad?" She giggled like a schoolgirl and said, "No way! I'll take it!"

That is the difference between someone like Betty and me. Even though I don't care for Betty, I would have said something to make her feel a bit better about her constant beats. I wouldn't have smeared it in her face by raising my arms and pumping in the air, a la Rocky, while giggling like I was nine years old.

Right after this, I got AQs. I raised all-in for my last four chips. I was called in three places (yeah, these guys can sniff a bad beat coming on). JTo, K7o, 97o.

The 97o guy got a nine, the highest thing on the board. No hearts, no ace, no queen, even though my hand was completely live.

Usually I'd be happy to be getting all-in calls from hands so dominated like this, but the problem is, they know they are dominated, but they are all-too-glad to call, having seen me bust out of the last seven tourneys so horribly. What is 400 to them? "It is only twice the big blind, any two will do, and Felicia is running so badly, we can surely outdraw her."

I didn't even get in the top 20. Now Doc Campbell is so far ahead of me in points that I have no chance to catch up. Glenn will be playing in the WPT instead.

After I busted out, I watched Glenn. He was playing well. He made the final table with a few bold moves. He was the shortest stack of the ten there. He let players bust out, as the final table was very aggressive this evening. He went from tenth to fourth. He saw players with 7x his chip count bust out, while he moved steadily up in the money. I was very proud of Glenn, as he seemed to be in the "zone" during this tourney.

I have railed against Glenn before for not sticking up for himself or someone at the table when there is a problem. Well, I couldn't have been more surprised when Glenn suddenly started going ballistic when they were down to the final 14 or so. Glenn was at table two, along with Larry and this very, very old man. The old man is the sweetest thing in the world, he comes to Laughlin a few times per year, and wouldn't hurt a fly, but moves extremely slowly.

The problem started when a dealer named Ed pushed into the box. Ed is a very experienced dealer, and usually a nice guy. I have never had a problem with him. Well, Ed must have been in the mood from hell.

According to Glenn, both the elderly man and Larry were involved in a hand. The flop came down. Larry checked. The elderly man didn't respond. Instead of Ed asking him to make his move, or if he was checking, Ed just burned and turned. The elderly man protested. Ed pulled back the turn card. Larry protested then, knowing that card would be shuffled and another, which might not help him, would be dealt in it's place. The elderly man continued with, "I never got a chance to act."

Ed said, "Well hurry up! We haven't got all day!" Larry tried to call the floor, but instead, Ed just swept up the cards after the elderly man had bet and Larry said, "Fine, whatever!" and awarded the elderly man the pot.

On the very next hand, the same thing happened. This time, Larry held his ground. Glenn jumped up from the table yelling, "Doug, Doug!" Glenn tried to get Ed to stop. Ed was rude and condescending, once again, saying, "He didn't call the bet (Larry), it doesn't matter, we don't need the floor!"

Doug is the sweetest thing in the world, but he just stood there, and didn't really make any decision since Ed completed the hand before Doug could be brought over. We were all gaping at Ed and his atrocious behavior. Glenn really tried to stand up for the cause, but he didn't get anywhere. Larry just "gave up" finally and threw his cards at Ed's hand (something he doesn't normally do, and is not acceptable).

Oddly enough, Glenn, Larry, and the elderly man all got to the final table, and were three of the final five. The other was a young kid, late 20's maybe, who was very cocky and bordering on being a maniac. He raised about every three hands at our first table (when I was still in), and then raised about every other hand when it got own to the final five or six at the final table.

When Glenn got knocked out at fourth, the other three had about the same in chips. Larry, the elderly man, and the kid. Larry suggested an even chop. The kid looked incredulous, like he thought they were crazy that he would take a deal with "two old men whom I can obviously outplay." These kids never take into consideration that the blind structure is so high, by that time, that it is anyone's game. Not to mention the fact that Larry and the elderly man weren't senile. They can hold their own at the Belle.

Well, we left, but Larry told me that after he got knocked out in third, the kid thought better of his refusal and proposed a deal. I guess he wised up, but just a tad late for Larry. Go get 'em next time, Larry!

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Before the tourney, there was a guy from California playing at my table. He would not shut up. He could not stop talking for an instant. Dude, sometimes I talk a lot, but I am never rude while someone is in a hand or the action is on them. I try to be respectful. Mostly he was talking about how great he was and how everyone else sucks. Not necessarily at the Belle, but at poker, in general. He was trying to be the table pro. He was so happy to find out that he drew a seat next to me for the tourney. Luckily, Glenn wears headphones and listens to music, so he didn't mind switching seats with me. When the guy asked why I wasn't sitting next to him, and he had to sit next to Glenn instead, Glenn told him I liked the other table better, lol. Poor, old PC Glenn. I would have said, "Because you absolutely never shut up, and I can't even hear myself think! Not only that, but you aren't interesting in the slightest, and you think you are God's gift to poker." Glenn said he talked that way through the entire tourney, bragging about tourney wins in California, fish he kills at the cash tables, etc. Someone said he was a lawyer. I'll bet he wins all of his cases. The opposition probably just says, "Okay, okay, I give up, you win. Now will you please shut up???"

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During the tourney, at my first table, there was a couple from California. The man was Anglo, the woman was Asian and really as cute as a button. They were very friendly. I was sitting in the two seat, smack in between them. The woman had a hilarious sense of humor. After losing several buy-in's with bad beat after bad beat, she kept up her good cheer. Her husband asked her how many times she'd had to buy-in, and she told him. She asked, "Are we broke yet? Do I need to sell myself on the street? Oh, I know, I could sell those dirty pictures. You know, the ones I took of you naked?" I was cracking up at them all night.

They both got pretty far. The wife was out about 15th, the husband made the final table and got out at 5th, right before Glenn. He had such a huge stack I thought he would make it to the end, but it only takes a couple of bad beats, and at his demise, when he was crippled, he choked. He went ahead and called an all-in with 42o in the BB when it was raised. I guess he just had enough, and wanted to go home. Go figure.