bdub72's Journal

Reno
Since this is my first post in a journal/blog I decided to go with a poker related post. I have an audience of one and I forget the particulars of any poker related story relatively quickly so I thought I would write it down for posterity. I was attending a bachelor party at Reno last weekend. I am not sure why people in Sacramento would ever to Reno instead of Tahoe given the grime of the Biggest Little Dump versus the serenity and cleanliness of Tahoe but to each his own. I am not even a clean person but the chubbiness and lack of hygiene of the average Reno gambler is exponentionally higher in Reno than anywhere else in the world. Lots of meatskirts as my wife’s friends calls them (that is when a big-un has fat rolling over the belt line). But I digress.

The crew of nine I was with had a surprisingly nice and relatively inexpensive meal at the Circus Circus steakhouse on Saturday night. I am not much of a wine aficionado but three of us (the others drank cocktails and beers) split a couple of bottles of good, reasonably priced wine (a Simi cab and a Duckhorn merlot). The rest of the boys went to the Wild Orchid (strip club) and I decided to head to the 2/5 no limit game at the Circus. I have limited experience in NL ring games as I usually play low limit hold em and the occasionally multi table NL tournaments (both online and in Tahoe when I get up there) so I bought in for $200 at the $500 max table.

The table was a mix, as usual, of a few good players and several bad ones. I sat in the 2 spot and the best player was in the 8 (or at least my perception of the best player) spot. My stack slowly fell after a few hours of folding, getting pushed off a few flops and generally playing tight (the guy in the 8 spot told me after the game broke up the 9 spot had identified me as “the rock in seat 2”). I lost about 60 dollars to an all in from a short stack after I had raised to $20 with AKo. I sat for a while drinking manhattans and then picked up A8s on the button and limped for $5. 4 saw the flop of 852 rainbow and it was checked around to me. Seem like as good as time as any so I pushed the rest of my stack. The big blind called and the 9 called as well. Sadly, the turn brought a K of diamonds (the 2nd diamond on the board) and the other two went at it, eventually getting the rest of their money in the middle. These were reasonable stacks too (both over 300 from what I could tell). The river brought the a Jo and a I assumed I was dead. The 9 turned over A5o, no diamond, and the BB mucked. I did not see that coming but was grateful for the triple up and sat back for a while.

I won a few smalls pots and had my stack up to about $300 or so when the following hand occurred. Sitting in the BB with AJ of spades, the loose guy who mucked the previous hand at showdown was UTG and raised it to $15. The 9 spot called and I called from the BB. The flop came J92 with two spades so I bet out $20. UTG folded and the 9 spot raised $60 more. I decided to push the remainder of my stack with my top pair, top kicker flush draw. The 9 took about ten seconds and called. At that point, the guy in the 8 who I thought was a good player and had a good sense a humor says, “Wow, big pot, lets see ‘em boys. Not knowing any better (as mentioned my NL ring game experience is limited for the most part) so I turned over my hand. The Qs hit the turn and a blank on the river. The 9 never did show and quietly mucked his hand muttering under his breath. As I was pulling the pot I asked the guy “what did you have?” which apparently is a major breach of etiquette in a ring game as this guy stood up and went off on me. Something about it was not enough to put my lips out and suck out on him but then I had to rub it in by asking what he had. I apologized explaining my lack of experience, my lack of intent to show him up etc. to no avail. After ranting for about 3 minutes, the 9 took the remainder of his stack, got up and walked away explaining he could not stand playing with bad players etc.

Apparently he told the 8 after we got the money and prior to the flop that he had Kings. If that is true then I think I was a slight favorite if he did not have the K of spades:

http://twodimes.net/h/?z=2076260
pokenum -h as js - kh kd -- jh ts 2s
Holdem Hi: 990 enumerated boards containing Ts 2s Jh
cards win %win lose %lose tie %tie EV
As Js 505 51.01 485 48.99 0 0.00 0.510
Kd Kh 485 48.99 505 51.01 0 0.00 0.490

Regardless, I played for a few more hours with only one other hand of consequence with the 8 spot from above. I raised with KK from early position, flopped a K, played it fast and then pushed a reraise on the turn when I thought the 8 was pot committed. He ended up folding telling me later he folded bottom set. I am not sure I believe him but he was a nice guy nonetheless. I ended up winning about $700 and finally went to bed at about 6 am. Nothing makes me feel more grown up than waking up on the floor a cheap hotel room in my sleeping bag with 3 other guys in the room with a wicked bourbon hangover. Overall, I had a great experience with live NL but certainly felt I was playing above my comfort level when I had a $900 and others at the table had similar stacks.

Cheers,
WB

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