Revenge at the Hustler 6/12 (x-posted from SS)

[private joker]

This is an SS post from last night, but I've had 1 or 2 requests to post this story in B&M, so here it is again.

***

South Central Los Angeles. Gardena. I cruise into the Hustler Casino and snag a seat at a 6/12 table. Toss 3 bills on the felt and stack up 150 chips, ready to sit and grind it out boringly like I always do. Try to walk away with 4 bills after a few hours, then drive home listening to the new New Pornographers CD and go to sleep.

Sitting to my left is some doofus in a bad slogan t-shirt who's not paying attention to the game because FSN is playing Fulltilt.net Poker Championship or whatever with Clonie Gowan and Phil Gordon and some other pros.

Sitting to his left is his girlfriend, the blonde female version of every arrogant WPT-wannabe jerk-off at the B&M. She's got the biggest, darkest sunglasses this side of Bono. She's consciously dropping her voice an octave to fit in with the guys. The first decent cards I get in the first orbit are J9s in the SB. A few limpers to me and I complete, and then Mrs. Travel Channel raises from the BB (her boyfriend was sitting out between us in this hand).

Everyone calls, and the flop is J63 rainbow. I check, she bets, limpers fold, I check-raise. Mrs. Travel Channel sits there staring blankly through her shades. The dealer prompts her for three more chips. She startles, then says, "he raised?" She turns to me. I say, "three more chips please." She calls. Turn is a 4, I bet. She goes in the tank. Then folds.

Unfortunately, Mrs. TC and her Moose b/f are to my left, and I want them on my right. The three players to my right are all tight and decently aggressive. My relative position sucks, and the table is playing very tight. Despite the entertainment of Mrs. TC, I table change.

I find seat 2 of a loose, fishy table -- just the kind I go to Hustler for. After just three hands I'm up half a rack from value betting middle or top pair. A couple players start to notice I'm the only guy raising preflop, then also notice I have the biggest stack at the table. I yawn.

Then our Maniac comes back from his break to sit in seat 3, just to my left. He's spilling a glass of vodka all over himself. A 50-ish Asian man in a purple Members Only jacket and light grey stubble on his chin. He decides he's going to play LAG-tastic. Two fish at the other end of the table get pissed, and try to play back at him to no avail. Maniac Man wins a few pots. Fish rebuy.

The next hand gets dealt and Maniac Man open limps UTG. The fish limp like good little fish and an LP donk raises. I wake up in the BB with AA, so I 3-bet. Maniac limp-caps. It's like 4-5 to the flop for 3 bets each.

Maniac ends up having QT and flopping 2 pair, and one of the fish goes all-in on the flop. I call Maniac Man down to see his 2 pair, and he wins the side pot while the all-in fish turns over a runner runner straight.

I go into the weeds and wait. Luckily I get a few orbits of junk hands, so I lay low, fold, and eat a tuna sandwich on rye from Hustler's surprisingly decent kitchen. I wash it down with a diet Coke. (The Beck's comes later, folks).

Cut to a little while later. Fish have re-bought again. Maniac Man is up to 3 racks stacked up on the table. He plays out of his rack. He orders another cocktail. I'm down a bit for the night thanks to that AA hand, a few whiffed AKs and AQs, or draws that never came in. Then I get dealt The Hand. This Hand is nothing too special: 7[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] 7[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]. A decent middle pocket pair. I think I will play it.

A donk limps in EP, I limp in MP, and Maniac raises. Folded to the BB who calls. Donk calls, I call. 4 to the flop for 8 small bets.

Flop comes 6[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] 7[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] 6[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]. Well, it's not every day you flop a full house. But I'm playing against a Maniac and a calling station, so there's no way I'm going to get tricky and slowplay this. They like to call and raise, so I'm gonna let 'em. I decide to play it fast.

BB checks, Donk checks, I bet. Maniac raises, BB folds, Donk cold-calls. I 3-bet. Maniac caps. Donk cold-calls. 3 to the turn for 10BBs.

Turn comes 5[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]. Donk checks, I bet. Maniac raises, donk cold-calls. I 3-bet, Maniac caps. Donk cold-calls again, looking unbelievably frustrated with Maniac. Maniac turns to me and slurs, "you wanna go again?"

Someone nearby comes over to railbird this hand. I'm putting Donk on a diamond draw (and praying he hits it on the river). I'm putting Maniac on... Jesus, I have no idea. The only hand that beats me is 66, and there's one way to have it. I've now got him on either a legit PFR hand like AA-KK, or maybe he got lucky with A6. Yeah, he's not retarded -- just maniacal. Let's give him A6. I dunno. Whatever it is, this pot is getting absurd for B&M play (sure, you see it on Party a lot, but live? Not often, especially not at Hustler 6/12 which is mainly a loose but passive game).

3 to the river for 22 BBs. River comes the beautiful J[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]. Whatever anyone's got, I can't imagine my third-nuts isn't the best hand. If Donk or Maniac have JJ, God bless 'em. If Maniac has 66, good job, bastard. But otherwise, let 'er rip.

Donk checks. I bet again. Maniac turns to me, sighs, looks upset (now I'm putting him on A6 and realizing I just outdrew him with a flush). He says, "you want me out?" I say, "yeah. Go ahead and fold, please." This seems like the "tell" he was looking for. "Okay, one time!" And he raises.

Donk shakes his head brutally and cold-calls. Maniac laughs his ass off at Donk -- "Look! He still call! He still call!" I still reraise. Maniac makes it 4 bets. Donk cold-calls again. On one hand, I'm upset that the betting is capped because there's 3 players, but on the other hand I'm glad that in the bizarre case I'm up against 66 or JJ, I have a third player to buttress the overlay.

34 BBs are in the pot. $408. Time to show down. "I flopped a full house," I say. And turn over the 77. Maniac looks, and laughs. He chuckles good naturedly and turns over J6 -- wow! He raised PF with J6, and flopped trips, filling up on the river -- he probably thinks his PFR was so deceptive I'd never put him on a boat and think my "flush" was good. Donk whips over 9[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] 8[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] for the turned straight. He scowls at Maniac for charging him so much to get to showdown.

I immediately call a chip runner over so I can color up. Then I buy a Beck's. And I tip the waitress. And the dealer. And two orbits later, as the hour gets late, I rack up. Cash out. Drive home listening to the new New Pornographers CD.

Now I'm gonna go to bed. Tomorrow, I just go to work.

[CCx]

good read, nice pot

[belloc]

nh, Zach. Good report.

[DeuceKicker]

Good read. Well written.

Do you find the Hustler to play more passive than Bike/Commerce? (Commerce is always pretty aggro; The Bike can be tight at times, and crazy at others.) I've had my ass handed to me the last five or six sessions of 6/12 at those places. In my version of the story, maniac would show JJ, and Donk would have 66.

[IndieMatty]

Good stuff PJ.

[private joker]

</font><blockquote><font class="small">Svar på:</font><hr />
Good read. Well written.

Do you find the Hustler to play more passive than Bike/Commerce? (Commerce is always pretty aggro; The Bike can be tight at times, and crazy at others.) I've had my ass handed to me the last five or six sessions of 6/12 at those places. In my version of the story, maniac would show JJ, and Donk would have 66.

[/ QUOTE ]

Commerce is definitely more aggro -- but that goes mainly for their 9/18 and 4/8 games. I've found the Commerce 6/12 to often be pretty passive, but that's only in 5 or 6 sessions; I don't like that game because they have so few tables running and because the green chips are skanky, disease-ridden filthy fossils. And because the 9/18 is more profitable.

As for the Bike, I do prefer Bike to Hustler. I think both places are equally passive, but the Bike is looser, whereas Hustler can tend to tighten up. I think the more you play at the Bike (I probably have about 200 hours there), the more you'll find it's deliciously loose-passive overall, with a few exceptions. If you find an exceptionally tight/aggressive table, just change. There won't be two of them at the same time.

That said, at any casino in Los Angeles at any limit below 10/20, you really can't find a bad game. Just adapt if you must to the conditions (loose vs. tight, passive vs. aggressive, etc.) and you'll be fine.

Also, live players -- unless they are maniacs like in this story -- rarely raise or 3-bet any street without the virtual nuts. They are generally terrified of bigger hands, and are happy to leave bets on the table by calling down with big hands or checking the river with an overpair. For example -- I had QJ and a flop was AA4. Checked through. Turn Q. I checked, there was a bet and a call, so I folded. I'd never do this online, but it was easy to read that the caller had an A -- and in fact he did, but with a "lousy kicker," so he didn't raise.

Another time I had something like 65s and the river brought my flush but a weak-tight player check-raised me. I insta-mucked and he turned over the nut flush. It's amazing the adjustments you can make at B&amp;Ms.

[itsmarty]

</font><blockquote><font class="small">In Antwort auf:</font><hr />
Maniac laughs his ass off at Donk -- "Look! He still call! He still call!"

[/ QUOTE ]

Beautiful

[Rick Nebiolo]

[ QUOTE ]
This is an SS post from last night, but I've had 1 or 2 requests to post this story in B&amp;M, so here it is again.this hand).

[/ QUOTE ]

My vote for most appreciated cross-post of the year! Great read. Ni han!

~ Rick

[BoxTree]

[ QUOTE ]
Good stuff PJ.

[/ QUOTE ]

Heh. PJ. I used to call you that.

Nice read -- but the interactive story via telephone was more fun. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Btw, I hate 77. But only because of my 88. Bitch.

[The Armchair]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Good stuff PJ.

[/ QUOTE ]

Heh. PJ. I used to call you that.

Nice read -- but the interactive story via telephone was more fun. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Btw, I hate 77. But only because of my 88. Bitch.

[/ QUOTE ]

I was thinking about your 88 hand when I read this, and was about to conclude "California is rigged."