Heck of a Way to Make a Living

18 SEP 05

So, I’m on my way to a live home game yesterday, but traffic is miserable on I-5 North. Conveniently, I get off in Fife and I’m forced to drive right past my old stomping grounds – Freddie’s of Fife. They usually spread 3/6 (and 4/8 when they get busy), and they have a fairly good payout structure for their Monte Carlo. I’ve never hit the jackpot, but I’ve been close. Anyway, I hate 3/6 almost as much as 4/8. Statistically it should be a better game because the small blind is only $1. That SHOULD mean that the small blind wouldn’t call with weaker hands because he has to pay more than 50% to see the flop.

Yeah. Right.

There was an average of 5 people to see the flop every time. I reraised in late position after sitting quietly for 5 minutes and the flop came A J 6. They all checked to me. My bet got 4 callers. The turn was a 10. It’s checked to me again. I bet and get one caller. The river is a blank. I bet again and get called.

By pocket 8’s.

Do you realize how ridiculous that is? I sure did. It would be great if I could say that he read my “tell.” The truth is that no one in that room knows how to read tells, and wouldn’t care to look if they did. I just ran into a calling station before I knew what to do about it. I mucked without showing to the great surprise of the rest of the table.

So, at least now I have bluff equity, and should get paid for decent hands.

None came.

As my chips dwindled, I get Jc 8c in the big blind. 5 callers see a flop of K J 8. I’m thinking my two pair is good, but I check anyway in 2nd position (the small blind called the flop, of course). One MP bets and everyone calls.

6 on the turn. Rainbow board.

Now I come out betting, and 4 call me. Bluff equity, right? I’m getting paid, baby!!

The river is a 6.

Shit.

Now I’m beat. With the board paired, anyone holding a K or a pocket pair higher than my Jacks has me beat. On the off chance that this was not the case (all right, so it was a stupid move), I bet. I get three callers.

Two of them had Ace-high. I’m reaching for the pot exclaiming how I can’t believe no one stayed with the case K. The dude on the ends waits until my hand hits the chips and slow-rolls his pocket K.

If I wasn’t on tilt before, I was now. I stood up and pointed my finger in the guys face and said, “that’s called a slow-roll, and it’s not right!” He just gave me a blank look. I took my remaining three dollars and left to the sound of “seat open!”

Strange that I lost my cool like that. I’ve had much worse bad beats. The combination of not winning a single hand in that session (!) plus the slow-roll was too much, I guess.

So with that chip on my shoulder, I went to the home game. I was .25/.50 dealer’s choice with a buck on the river. One joker was good for Aces, straights and flushes. We took it out for a couple rounds of Hold ‘em and one round of Omaha.

One game of baseball had me just calling with a Hollywood (straight flush wheel – in this case A thru 5 of spades) because I was afraid of 5 Aces. Fortunately, he only had 4 Aces. I finished up 7 dollars for the night, and I had a great time. I was going to say BUT I had a great time, but that wouldn’t be fair. A win is a win, and we had a good time to boot.

To finish the night, I played a little NLHE .25/.50 on PokerStars, and I brought my A game. Started with $20 and finished over $60 in about 30 minutes.

Sheesh.