andyfox
12-24-2003, 01:16 PM
It rained a bit today in Los Angeles. My guess is we probably had a quarter inch of rain. No doubt it will make the headlines tomorrow. We’re weather wimps.
But since it’s a Holiday week, the drizzle didn’t make traffic too bad and I arrived for my 12:00 lunch with Jim Rivett at 12:00. We went into the Commerce Sports Bar, which was already busy; I don’t understand why, because the food is a C-. Anyway, the service was better this time than the last time we ate there when Jim’s food never came. Never. This time it came with mine, although they did bring him his soup after his main course. OK, they’re improving. The chicken was OK and it was Jim’s turn to pay, which, of course, made it taste that much better.
Jim tells me he’s going to play the yellow ($5) chip game. But there’s no 15-30 game going. So we put our names on the 20-40 and walk over to check out the 9-18. It’s a long walk (which of course discourages the 9-18 players from moving up to 15-30). When we get there they tell us we’re locked up in the 20-40. So we take the long walk back. I hope Jim won’t be offended when I tell you we can both can use the walk, so that was OK.
We get into the 20-40. The game is tight. I mean tight. No good. I raise on the button with K-Ts behind one limper; both blinds call. The flop comes A-8-8, at which both the limper and big blind stare, telling me neither has nary an Ace nor 8 and the small blind would have bet out with either, so when they check to me I bet and they all fold. Jim keeps folding his blinds and they call me for the 30-60 game.
This is right when the collection light came on. As usual, the Commerce floorman is calling down a new 40-80 game, jeopardizing the 30-60 game. It takes us 10 minutes to get started. I get lucky and my big blind pocket 3s sees a board of 3-4-7-K-4 and I win a pretty big pot. After a while I’m up a rack, then I lose back a stack and now it’s another collection time. And of course they’re calling another 40-80 down. And of course the 30-60 games stops, short of players, and I decide enough, I’ve lost four sessions in a row, I’ll take my win, I’ve got to go in a half an hour or so anyway, I’ll go sweat Jim for a while.
I can see his usual smiling face is not smiling, although the game looks better now. Not that he’s mad or upset, he doesn’t ever get that way, but he’s not his usual smiling face. When I get there, he has about a stack and a half left from his $500 buy-in. His pocket aces were no good and not much else either. Finally I tell him he’s gonna win two good pots in a row, I can feel it. I was lying. Sorry, Jim. I get no feelings about such things ever.
Anyway, it looks like his pocket pair is going to hold up when a fishy type misses his inside/backdoor/long shot prayer of a ghost of a draw but hits a bigger pair on the river. Jim is down below a stack and it looks like he’s gonna leave with me, but not as happy as I was. Then he gets red pocket kings in the small blind. A few limpers, he raises, they all call, and sure enough, the first card off the flop is an Ace. What’s new? It comes with a Queen and a Ten and the Ace and Ten are diamonds, which, I guess, helped a bit. Jim bets and there are two callers (I think). The turn is a small diamond and Jim bets all in and gets a caller and the river is a 4th diamond, giving Jim the nuts. Turns out his opponent had an Ace, so he needed the river help.
Ah, that feels better! For me, anyway, and I imagine for Jim. He now has about 3 stacks. Later he gets Ks-Qs and the flop contains a King and by the river is also contains a Jack, a Ten, and a Nine and he’s almost even. And then he raises first in with A-8o on the button and one of the blinds calls, dammit, but the flop comes 8-4-2 or something like that and the blind checks and Jim bets and the blind calls and the turn is a Ten and the blind checks and Jim bets and the blind fidgets and stalls and thinks and shuffles and finally folds. And Jim is up! O-right!
And it’s time to go. And it’s still raining a bit and since I parked a little closer I drive Jim to his car and that was that. A nice day with a nice man.
Not much of story, but this is what poker is, mostly, I think. We post the exciting hands where we didn’t know what to do, or we won a big pot, or we got sucked out on, or there was a big argument, or something else exciting, but mostly it’s pretty commonplace. No Killer Poker here. Mostly, fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, raise, bet, win or fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, raise, bet, check, fold.
But we still love it. What a nice feeling, dragging those chips. That’s what brings us back in the rain, despite the food and the service, despite the long walk into the other room and the seemingly longer walk back, through the boredom of the fold, fold, fold, and despite the guy calling on the flop and turn with nothing that turned into something that beat us. We still love it.
Merry Christmas, my friends.
But since it’s a Holiday week, the drizzle didn’t make traffic too bad and I arrived for my 12:00 lunch with Jim Rivett at 12:00. We went into the Commerce Sports Bar, which was already busy; I don’t understand why, because the food is a C-. Anyway, the service was better this time than the last time we ate there when Jim’s food never came. Never. This time it came with mine, although they did bring him his soup after his main course. OK, they’re improving. The chicken was OK and it was Jim’s turn to pay, which, of course, made it taste that much better.
Jim tells me he’s going to play the yellow ($5) chip game. But there’s no 15-30 game going. So we put our names on the 20-40 and walk over to check out the 9-18. It’s a long walk (which of course discourages the 9-18 players from moving up to 15-30). When we get there they tell us we’re locked up in the 20-40. So we take the long walk back. I hope Jim won’t be offended when I tell you we can both can use the walk, so that was OK.
We get into the 20-40. The game is tight. I mean tight. No good. I raise on the button with K-Ts behind one limper; both blinds call. The flop comes A-8-8, at which both the limper and big blind stare, telling me neither has nary an Ace nor 8 and the small blind would have bet out with either, so when they check to me I bet and they all fold. Jim keeps folding his blinds and they call me for the 30-60 game.
This is right when the collection light came on. As usual, the Commerce floorman is calling down a new 40-80 game, jeopardizing the 30-60 game. It takes us 10 minutes to get started. I get lucky and my big blind pocket 3s sees a board of 3-4-7-K-4 and I win a pretty big pot. After a while I’m up a rack, then I lose back a stack and now it’s another collection time. And of course they’re calling another 40-80 down. And of course the 30-60 games stops, short of players, and I decide enough, I’ve lost four sessions in a row, I’ll take my win, I’ve got to go in a half an hour or so anyway, I’ll go sweat Jim for a while.
I can see his usual smiling face is not smiling, although the game looks better now. Not that he’s mad or upset, he doesn’t ever get that way, but he’s not his usual smiling face. When I get there, he has about a stack and a half left from his $500 buy-in. His pocket aces were no good and not much else either. Finally I tell him he’s gonna win two good pots in a row, I can feel it. I was lying. Sorry, Jim. I get no feelings about such things ever.
Anyway, it looks like his pocket pair is going to hold up when a fishy type misses his inside/backdoor/long shot prayer of a ghost of a draw but hits a bigger pair on the river. Jim is down below a stack and it looks like he’s gonna leave with me, but not as happy as I was. Then he gets red pocket kings in the small blind. A few limpers, he raises, they all call, and sure enough, the first card off the flop is an Ace. What’s new? It comes with a Queen and a Ten and the Ace and Ten are diamonds, which, I guess, helped a bit. Jim bets and there are two callers (I think). The turn is a small diamond and Jim bets all in and gets a caller and the river is a 4th diamond, giving Jim the nuts. Turns out his opponent had an Ace, so he needed the river help.
Ah, that feels better! For me, anyway, and I imagine for Jim. He now has about 3 stacks. Later he gets Ks-Qs and the flop contains a King and by the river is also contains a Jack, a Ten, and a Nine and he’s almost even. And then he raises first in with A-8o on the button and one of the blinds calls, dammit, but the flop comes 8-4-2 or something like that and the blind checks and Jim bets and the blind calls and the turn is a Ten and the blind checks and Jim bets and the blind fidgets and stalls and thinks and shuffles and finally folds. And Jim is up! O-right!
And it’s time to go. And it’s still raining a bit and since I parked a little closer I drive Jim to his car and that was that. A nice day with a nice man.
Not much of story, but this is what poker is, mostly, I think. We post the exciting hands where we didn’t know what to do, or we won a big pot, or we got sucked out on, or there was a big argument, or something else exciting, but mostly it’s pretty commonplace. No Killer Poker here. Mostly, fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, raise, bet, win or fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, raise, bet, check, fold.
But we still love it. What a nice feeling, dragging those chips. That’s what brings us back in the rain, despite the food and the service, despite the long walk into the other room and the seemingly longer walk back, through the boredom of the fold, fold, fold, and despite the guy calling on the flop and turn with nothing that turned into something that beat us. We still love it.
Merry Christmas, my friends.