Josh W
05-01-2004, 10:55 PM
(written in Word, so if there are formatting errors after copying/pasting, blame anybody but me)
Thursday. 11:30 a.m. Work is dragging. My weekend trip to Sacramento to visit one of my closest friends was just cancelled. I got a call from T, saying I should be in Vegas.
I haven’t slept in days. There’s a little private turmoil brewing in my apartment. I’m in need of sleep, so I need to get outta town. Sacramento is off the list. Vegas is on the list. I call my Thursday lunch date and cancel. I leave the note on my desk saying I’ll return on Monday (maybe). I go home, pack, and hit the road.
Zoom.
The best part about trips like this is the complete and total lack of planning. Well, this was kinda weird, cuz even though I didn’t plan on GOING to Vegas, I had my whole weekend already planned. Odd that.
I was going to play the $1,500 NL tourney at the WSOP on Friday. If I made the final table, I’d stay Saturday for that, then return to LA LA land. If not, I’d leave very early on Saturday. And Thursday night, of course, was meant to be spent making the $1,500 I needed for Friday.
The drive is remarkably unremarkable. I stopped by the gas station, put 89 octane in, and spent most of the rest of my trip wondering if “Supreme” and “Premium” have the same roots. I came to the obvious conclusion that, as always, I’m an idiot.
I call my buddy T, tell him and his wife and 1 yr. old daughter (I love kids) that I’m taking them to dinner at 6:00…make reservations, and I’ll make good time on the road. We have a nice dinner, T gets the requisite permission to play, and he and I head downtown to see if there are any poker players in town.
Whoa. There are. Wacky. We stroll through the Shoe, watch the final table a bit on the $1000 NL w/ rebuys. They are on break. Somebody asks Danny N. “Is it true you rebought 27 times?” Danny replies “No, I’d be a bloody fool to rebuy that many times”.
“I rebought 26 times”. Thanks for clearing that up.
Bah. Poker isn’t a spectator sport (GAME), so T and I head downstairs. He plays a few satellites. I hop in a TREEEEEmendous 30-60 game. I play for an unremarkable hour, win a few hundred, then head over to the Nugget to get my hotel room and maybe perhaps play some pokah.
As I meander into the (very nice, spacious, clean) poker room at the Nugget, I see Clarkmeister in the 50-100 game. FLOOR!!! Put me on the list!! While waiting, T and I play 20-40.
The 20-40 is a new game. We draw for the button, which T gets. I’m in the SB. All fold to T who raises, I muck 72o, and BB calls. Flop comes AT2, two clubs. Check/bet/call. Turn is 5c. Check/bet/call. River is another club. Check/check. BB has Qs8c for a rivered flush. He flopped a veritable monster. T had A5d.
Duke is sweating us. I grab $800 (duke hates playing live), give it to duke, tell him to sit down (we were 6 handed), and declare that I get half of what he wins. I mean….I had seen one hand, and I knew the game was softer than Cinemax Porn.
I quickly get called for the 50-100 game. Clark is in seat #1, and I get seat 6 (9 handed game). Seat 5 is a fan of straddling. And, I made a conscious decision.
Usually when I play, I know a few of the people at the table and am very social. But when I know nobody, I’m very very very silent and anti-social. Here, I only knew Clark, but decided to be as social as possible. I knew that this goal would be aided by lots of alcohol. So I start ordering double crown and cokes (deeeeelish). The whole table thinks I should be carded (bah!), so I explain that I’m 19, so there shouldn’t be a problem. I show my ID, and basically try to be as goofy as possible. I wanna do anything I can to make it seem like I’m a loosey goosey player.
And I succeeded. My success was probably due more in part to the fact that I was playing loosey goosey than any other factor.
The first real hand I played, UTG limped on Clarks BB. When he got dealt in, he was flop committed. I had A7o one off the cutoff, and raise. All (including Clark) obediently fold, and UTG calls. Flop comes 9h 7d 5h. Check/bet/call. Turn is 3h. UTG checkraises me (the filthy scum!). Well, one of my cardinal rules is to get to showdowns early in a session to create an image, and to learn about other players, so I call, and decide I’ll call the river, no matter what shows up. River pairs the 7. UTG bets, and I call. He has J9o, and MHIG (the good cards always come on the river!).
This was just the first of MANY attempts to play a hand w/ Clark. But he folds too much. I raised his BB with a bunch of poo, just hoping we could tangle in a hand. But alas, this didn’t happen.
Clark left, Coilean (pronounced more like colon than koy-lean) sits down, and the game gets bad. I’m guessing that whenever Clark leaves, the game gets bad (kidding, of course). The game is just incredibly horrible, so I leave. Coilean and I tangle in one pot.
He raises in Early position. All fold to me in SB. I threebet w/ AKd. He fourbets, and it’s heads up.
Flop comes J88, with one diamond. I check/call, deciding to take one off. As Coilean has mentioned before, he’ll cap it (or 4-bet it) with position with a variety of hands (after raising, and getting threebet outta early position). Because of this, I think I can take one off on the flop.
Turn is an ace. I check, he bets, and I hmm and haw. I know I’m gonna call him down, but I want him to think that the ace scares me, so he’ll ‘value’ bet QQ on the river. I say “Ace doesn’t scare ya, huh? Oh well, I guess I’ll call you down”, to which he responds “promise?”. Ah, he has AK also.
River pairs the Jack. Check/bet/call. We both have two pair. I have Aces and Jacks with a king kicker. He has red eights and black eights with an ace kicker (he flopped quads). Poo.
I leave the game shortly thereafter, crushing it for (normally I don’t publish accurate results, but I will here) $4. The cashier was cute, so I gave her half of my winnings.
Duke cashes out of the 20-40 game, winning a few hundred for each of us, and we head back to the Shoe. I register for the tournament, then get the revelation that shoulda hit me before I hit the road.
I can’t play NL. I mean, I just can’t. I’m far too passive. Yeah, I’ve won numerous NL tournies, but I have no confidence. In a limit game, I have a ton of confidence. In NL, I’m always scared. And I just spend $1,500 entering a tourney that is sans limit. The lesson, as always, I’m an idiot (thanks Bill Simmons).
I head back to the Nugget, and see that the 50-100 game is now three handed. NOW WE ARE TALKING!! Coilean is still in the game…So Josh W should be too.
Coilean and I are far better than the other two players in the game (I think). The game grows to 5 an 6 handed, but never fills up. An obscene bastard comes over from the 20-40 game, stuck, and decides to play with us. He lost a lot of money, and that made me happy. I won more than $4 this session, then call it quits. I have a tourney to play in a few hours.
I wake up Friday morning neither excited or nervous. I’m pretty convinced I’m text-book dead money. I shower, then give myself a pep talk in the mirror….”Josh, you are good enough, you are smart enough, and gosh darn it, people like you”.
The tourney started well. I showed up a few minutes late (on purpose), don’t play a hand till I pick up KK (still first round). I raise to 125 (blinds 25-25), and some guy makes is 500. A couple hands ago, he had put in the third raise preflop w/ AK, and went allin preflop. I don’t really wanna gamble against AK, I’d much rather be up against a smaller pair. So I call, wanting to push on any non-ace flop. Flop comes 9 high, I push, he calls w/ JJ, and I double up.
I take KK up against JJ again later, and AA up against KT on QJx flop, and build a nice stack. I decide to open up a little bit, since I’m by far the chip leader on my table, and there aren’t any great players. Blinds 50-100, and I raise in early position to 400 w/ 44. A new player at our table calls quickly. I put him on AQ/AJ/KQ. Flop comes KJ9, with two hearts. I click on the ‘check/fold in turn’ button, and he checks behind. Turn is Th. Same action. River is 5h, putting a four flush on the board. I have the 4h. I check, he bets 900 of his 2500. I have 4000. I think, get some definite reads, and call. He says “one pair”, and MHIG. Finally, I got to play some real poker.
Then, we go on a break. And I go card uberdead. I pick up zero hands the next 4 hours. I had 10K, down to 8k, then I lose a few K w/ A4 in SB on A64 flop. Turn was 9s, putting three spades out there, and I fold to a hefty reraise. Bah.
I double up w/ QT vs AK (yeah, I sucked out), and I’m back to 8800. I was at 8800 most of the day. We go to dinner break. There are 145 of the 831 entrants left. Avg stack size is about 9100, I think. I’m UTG, which is bad.
I steal blinds/antes a few times, come over the top w/ AK, and suddenly have over 11K. Life is good. Scotty Nguyen is two seats to my left, and he has about 27K. I’m second in chips at our table, and the table is fairly soft. Peter Costa comes and sits down, too, but I’m still feeling good.
Blinds are 200-400 w/ 50 ante. 110 people left. They pay 81, but I won’t fold to make the money. I want big money, not little money (as an aside, they pay too many people…). Dude on my right makes his standard raise to 1400. He’s loose aggressive. He has about 7500 chips. I push w/ AK. Scotty thinks and thinks, then folds (he later said he has AQ). Dude on right thinks and thinks, then calls….with AJ. He flops a jack, and my morale is crushed. Turn was a queen, and river brings no help. Scotty tells me that dude on right saved me, cuz if I had raised, Scotty woulda pushed, and he woulda busted me. This news really encourages me, I give myself another pep talk (good enough, smart enough, people like me), and decide to rebuild my 4100. UTG, I push w/ AQ, and steal the blinds. Good.
I fold the next round, blinds go up to 300-600 w/ 75 ante. I have 99 UTG and 4100. I push, SB calls (he has 5-6K) w/ KQ. Fancy that call. He flops a queen, I get 106th place, head out of the joint, call a cab, go to the Stratosphere, get in the elevator, go to the roof, and jump.
In reality, I head over to the nugget, feel substantially less demoralized than I thought I would, and play some 50-100 w/ Clark. I don’t remember anything remarkable about this session. I had more crown. And more coke. Succulent.
Clark leaves, I’m playing horribly and up $xxxx, so I leave too. I sit around and chew the fat w/ Clark, Ed Miller, Duke, and Joe. Joe is a buddy of my brothers from Texas. He had never met me, but guessed who I was based on my appearance and my voice. Odd that.
In the 50 game, there was a drunk maniac who we’ll call Justin. They are now playing threehanded. I try to talk Justin into playing me heads up for $5k. He says no. I even had talked to the floor about getting a dealer. He wanted to play for big money, so I wanted to comply. I said “how about $2500?” He said no. “$1000?” No. Fine.
The game is 3 handed, and the other two players are on full blown tilt. They can’t figure Justin out, and aren’t spectacular short handed players to begin with. I hop in the game, with Joe sweating me. Joe plays low limit, and (I think) thought he could learn a lot about poker by watching me.
I play so atypical. I doubt that anybody could learn anything by watching me. And, in a shorthanded game, this is especially true.
My cards were ice cold, and there was no bluffing at this table. This presented a bit of a problem. Fortunately, they gave me ample action when I had a hand. The two others leave, and I play Justin heads up for a while. I went from $500 down to $500 up. Then the dealer really upset me.
Now, as many here can testify, I don’t get upset at a poker table. I certainly never show it. But the Nugget….they have incompetent dealers. They are (almost) all new, and very slow. But this guy, really bothered me. See, Duke and Joe are sweating me, and Justin makes a remark about me having a posse. Then the dealer starts talking.
He says that they are probably trying to learn from me. The dealer goes on and on and on about how good I am, and how I’m much better than Justin.
Justin racks up his two racks of chips. He raises in the SB (button), and I call w/ 86. Flop QJ6. I check/call. Turn is a 2. I checkraise, and he calls. He checks the river blind. It’s a 5. I check, and he turns over 56, for a rivered two pair. He mumbles something about wanting to win one more hand.
I win a few small pots, and get the feeling that he’s leaving after he wins one more hand. So, the push comes, and I say I’m done (not wanting to leave on a losing note). I didn’t catch up to that dealer, but I want to, and I want to make sure he knows how incredibly inappropriate his comments were.
All in all, it was a great trip. I’m still semi bummed by the WSOP. Oh well. I’m probably the only person who goes to Vegas looking for a good night sleep, wins $3000 (approx. my net profit for the 40 hr. trip), and comes home bummed out.
But it’s okay. I had a good time, I’m good enough. I’m smart enough. And, gosh darn it. People like me.
I think.
Josh
Thursday. 11:30 a.m. Work is dragging. My weekend trip to Sacramento to visit one of my closest friends was just cancelled. I got a call from T, saying I should be in Vegas.
I haven’t slept in days. There’s a little private turmoil brewing in my apartment. I’m in need of sleep, so I need to get outta town. Sacramento is off the list. Vegas is on the list. I call my Thursday lunch date and cancel. I leave the note on my desk saying I’ll return on Monday (maybe). I go home, pack, and hit the road.
Zoom.
The best part about trips like this is the complete and total lack of planning. Well, this was kinda weird, cuz even though I didn’t plan on GOING to Vegas, I had my whole weekend already planned. Odd that.
I was going to play the $1,500 NL tourney at the WSOP on Friday. If I made the final table, I’d stay Saturday for that, then return to LA LA land. If not, I’d leave very early on Saturday. And Thursday night, of course, was meant to be spent making the $1,500 I needed for Friday.
The drive is remarkably unremarkable. I stopped by the gas station, put 89 octane in, and spent most of the rest of my trip wondering if “Supreme” and “Premium” have the same roots. I came to the obvious conclusion that, as always, I’m an idiot.
I call my buddy T, tell him and his wife and 1 yr. old daughter (I love kids) that I’m taking them to dinner at 6:00…make reservations, and I’ll make good time on the road. We have a nice dinner, T gets the requisite permission to play, and he and I head downtown to see if there are any poker players in town.
Whoa. There are. Wacky. We stroll through the Shoe, watch the final table a bit on the $1000 NL w/ rebuys. They are on break. Somebody asks Danny N. “Is it true you rebought 27 times?” Danny replies “No, I’d be a bloody fool to rebuy that many times”.
“I rebought 26 times”. Thanks for clearing that up.
Bah. Poker isn’t a spectator sport (GAME), so T and I head downstairs. He plays a few satellites. I hop in a TREEEEEmendous 30-60 game. I play for an unremarkable hour, win a few hundred, then head over to the Nugget to get my hotel room and maybe perhaps play some pokah.
As I meander into the (very nice, spacious, clean) poker room at the Nugget, I see Clarkmeister in the 50-100 game. FLOOR!!! Put me on the list!! While waiting, T and I play 20-40.
The 20-40 is a new game. We draw for the button, which T gets. I’m in the SB. All fold to T who raises, I muck 72o, and BB calls. Flop comes AT2, two clubs. Check/bet/call. Turn is 5c. Check/bet/call. River is another club. Check/check. BB has Qs8c for a rivered flush. He flopped a veritable monster. T had A5d.
Duke is sweating us. I grab $800 (duke hates playing live), give it to duke, tell him to sit down (we were 6 handed), and declare that I get half of what he wins. I mean….I had seen one hand, and I knew the game was softer than Cinemax Porn.
I quickly get called for the 50-100 game. Clark is in seat #1, and I get seat 6 (9 handed game). Seat 5 is a fan of straddling. And, I made a conscious decision.
Usually when I play, I know a few of the people at the table and am very social. But when I know nobody, I’m very very very silent and anti-social. Here, I only knew Clark, but decided to be as social as possible. I knew that this goal would be aided by lots of alcohol. So I start ordering double crown and cokes (deeeeelish). The whole table thinks I should be carded (bah!), so I explain that I’m 19, so there shouldn’t be a problem. I show my ID, and basically try to be as goofy as possible. I wanna do anything I can to make it seem like I’m a loosey goosey player.
And I succeeded. My success was probably due more in part to the fact that I was playing loosey goosey than any other factor.
The first real hand I played, UTG limped on Clarks BB. When he got dealt in, he was flop committed. I had A7o one off the cutoff, and raise. All (including Clark) obediently fold, and UTG calls. Flop comes 9h 7d 5h. Check/bet/call. Turn is 3h. UTG checkraises me (the filthy scum!). Well, one of my cardinal rules is to get to showdowns early in a session to create an image, and to learn about other players, so I call, and decide I’ll call the river, no matter what shows up. River pairs the 7. UTG bets, and I call. He has J9o, and MHIG (the good cards always come on the river!).
This was just the first of MANY attempts to play a hand w/ Clark. But he folds too much. I raised his BB with a bunch of poo, just hoping we could tangle in a hand. But alas, this didn’t happen.
Clark left, Coilean (pronounced more like colon than koy-lean) sits down, and the game gets bad. I’m guessing that whenever Clark leaves, the game gets bad (kidding, of course). The game is just incredibly horrible, so I leave. Coilean and I tangle in one pot.
He raises in Early position. All fold to me in SB. I threebet w/ AKd. He fourbets, and it’s heads up.
Flop comes J88, with one diamond. I check/call, deciding to take one off. As Coilean has mentioned before, he’ll cap it (or 4-bet it) with position with a variety of hands (after raising, and getting threebet outta early position). Because of this, I think I can take one off on the flop.
Turn is an ace. I check, he bets, and I hmm and haw. I know I’m gonna call him down, but I want him to think that the ace scares me, so he’ll ‘value’ bet QQ on the river. I say “Ace doesn’t scare ya, huh? Oh well, I guess I’ll call you down”, to which he responds “promise?”. Ah, he has AK also.
River pairs the Jack. Check/bet/call. We both have two pair. I have Aces and Jacks with a king kicker. He has red eights and black eights with an ace kicker (he flopped quads). Poo.
I leave the game shortly thereafter, crushing it for (normally I don’t publish accurate results, but I will here) $4. The cashier was cute, so I gave her half of my winnings.
Duke cashes out of the 20-40 game, winning a few hundred for each of us, and we head back to the Shoe. I register for the tournament, then get the revelation that shoulda hit me before I hit the road.
I can’t play NL. I mean, I just can’t. I’m far too passive. Yeah, I’ve won numerous NL tournies, but I have no confidence. In a limit game, I have a ton of confidence. In NL, I’m always scared. And I just spend $1,500 entering a tourney that is sans limit. The lesson, as always, I’m an idiot (thanks Bill Simmons).
I head back to the Nugget, and see that the 50-100 game is now three handed. NOW WE ARE TALKING!! Coilean is still in the game…So Josh W should be too.
Coilean and I are far better than the other two players in the game (I think). The game grows to 5 an 6 handed, but never fills up. An obscene bastard comes over from the 20-40 game, stuck, and decides to play with us. He lost a lot of money, and that made me happy. I won more than $4 this session, then call it quits. I have a tourney to play in a few hours.
I wake up Friday morning neither excited or nervous. I’m pretty convinced I’m text-book dead money. I shower, then give myself a pep talk in the mirror….”Josh, you are good enough, you are smart enough, and gosh darn it, people like you”.
The tourney started well. I showed up a few minutes late (on purpose), don’t play a hand till I pick up KK (still first round). I raise to 125 (blinds 25-25), and some guy makes is 500. A couple hands ago, he had put in the third raise preflop w/ AK, and went allin preflop. I don’t really wanna gamble against AK, I’d much rather be up against a smaller pair. So I call, wanting to push on any non-ace flop. Flop comes 9 high, I push, he calls w/ JJ, and I double up.
I take KK up against JJ again later, and AA up against KT on QJx flop, and build a nice stack. I decide to open up a little bit, since I’m by far the chip leader on my table, and there aren’t any great players. Blinds 50-100, and I raise in early position to 400 w/ 44. A new player at our table calls quickly. I put him on AQ/AJ/KQ. Flop comes KJ9, with two hearts. I click on the ‘check/fold in turn’ button, and he checks behind. Turn is Th. Same action. River is 5h, putting a four flush on the board. I have the 4h. I check, he bets 900 of his 2500. I have 4000. I think, get some definite reads, and call. He says “one pair”, and MHIG. Finally, I got to play some real poker.
Then, we go on a break. And I go card uberdead. I pick up zero hands the next 4 hours. I had 10K, down to 8k, then I lose a few K w/ A4 in SB on A64 flop. Turn was 9s, putting three spades out there, and I fold to a hefty reraise. Bah.
I double up w/ QT vs AK (yeah, I sucked out), and I’m back to 8800. I was at 8800 most of the day. We go to dinner break. There are 145 of the 831 entrants left. Avg stack size is about 9100, I think. I’m UTG, which is bad.
I steal blinds/antes a few times, come over the top w/ AK, and suddenly have over 11K. Life is good. Scotty Nguyen is two seats to my left, and he has about 27K. I’m second in chips at our table, and the table is fairly soft. Peter Costa comes and sits down, too, but I’m still feeling good.
Blinds are 200-400 w/ 50 ante. 110 people left. They pay 81, but I won’t fold to make the money. I want big money, not little money (as an aside, they pay too many people…). Dude on my right makes his standard raise to 1400. He’s loose aggressive. He has about 7500 chips. I push w/ AK. Scotty thinks and thinks, then folds (he later said he has AQ). Dude on right thinks and thinks, then calls….with AJ. He flops a jack, and my morale is crushed. Turn was a queen, and river brings no help. Scotty tells me that dude on right saved me, cuz if I had raised, Scotty woulda pushed, and he woulda busted me. This news really encourages me, I give myself another pep talk (good enough, smart enough, people like me), and decide to rebuild my 4100. UTG, I push w/ AQ, and steal the blinds. Good.
I fold the next round, blinds go up to 300-600 w/ 75 ante. I have 99 UTG and 4100. I push, SB calls (he has 5-6K) w/ KQ. Fancy that call. He flops a queen, I get 106th place, head out of the joint, call a cab, go to the Stratosphere, get in the elevator, go to the roof, and jump.
In reality, I head over to the nugget, feel substantially less demoralized than I thought I would, and play some 50-100 w/ Clark. I don’t remember anything remarkable about this session. I had more crown. And more coke. Succulent.
Clark leaves, I’m playing horribly and up $xxxx, so I leave too. I sit around and chew the fat w/ Clark, Ed Miller, Duke, and Joe. Joe is a buddy of my brothers from Texas. He had never met me, but guessed who I was based on my appearance and my voice. Odd that.
In the 50 game, there was a drunk maniac who we’ll call Justin. They are now playing threehanded. I try to talk Justin into playing me heads up for $5k. He says no. I even had talked to the floor about getting a dealer. He wanted to play for big money, so I wanted to comply. I said “how about $2500?” He said no. “$1000?” No. Fine.
The game is 3 handed, and the other two players are on full blown tilt. They can’t figure Justin out, and aren’t spectacular short handed players to begin with. I hop in the game, with Joe sweating me. Joe plays low limit, and (I think) thought he could learn a lot about poker by watching me.
I play so atypical. I doubt that anybody could learn anything by watching me. And, in a shorthanded game, this is especially true.
My cards were ice cold, and there was no bluffing at this table. This presented a bit of a problem. Fortunately, they gave me ample action when I had a hand. The two others leave, and I play Justin heads up for a while. I went from $500 down to $500 up. Then the dealer really upset me.
Now, as many here can testify, I don’t get upset at a poker table. I certainly never show it. But the Nugget….they have incompetent dealers. They are (almost) all new, and very slow. But this guy, really bothered me. See, Duke and Joe are sweating me, and Justin makes a remark about me having a posse. Then the dealer starts talking.
He says that they are probably trying to learn from me. The dealer goes on and on and on about how good I am, and how I’m much better than Justin.
Justin racks up his two racks of chips. He raises in the SB (button), and I call w/ 86. Flop QJ6. I check/call. Turn is a 2. I checkraise, and he calls. He checks the river blind. It’s a 5. I check, and he turns over 56, for a rivered two pair. He mumbles something about wanting to win one more hand.
I win a few small pots, and get the feeling that he’s leaving after he wins one more hand. So, the push comes, and I say I’m done (not wanting to leave on a losing note). I didn’t catch up to that dealer, but I want to, and I want to make sure he knows how incredibly inappropriate his comments were.
All in all, it was a great trip. I’m still semi bummed by the WSOP. Oh well. I’m probably the only person who goes to Vegas looking for a good night sleep, wins $3000 (approx. my net profit for the 40 hr. trip), and comes home bummed out.
But it’s okay. I had a good time, I’m good enough. I’m smart enough. And, gosh darn it. People like me.
I think.
Josh