We found ourselves at the I.P. poker room with much of the L.A. Friday crew. Facty wanted no part of the no limit madness and wandered off to find a 3/6 game. We cracked a new $100 nl table with 3 strangers, Hdouble, Absinthe, rwampler, ephro and I. Ephro mentioned that some guy back in Indiana used to call treys “tater legs” and we quickly adopted that as a theme for the session. when I bluffed at a pot with 5-3 and had to eventually fold, I showed Ephro and said, “I liked my five high, but the middle kicker was trouble.” This busted Ephro up some and led us to coin the abbreviation ‘5hmk’ for ‘five high - middle kicker’, which I suspect will come up again at some point in the friday home game along with the equally prestigious ‘smtl’, or “snowman - tater leg”. now i see why Phil Gordon was so eager to bust me with it back on october 13, 2005.
Which leads nicely into the MGM. We arrived a little late and the 3 HORSE games were already in full swing with deep waiting lists. I signed up for the HORSE and some low limit holdem, then went off to meet and re-meet bloggers. Of course, no one was moving from the horse games so I got called for 2/4 holdem and sat down at a table with helixx and change100. I sat down in the 8s.
The table looked like it was out of a video game, with all the poker cliches represented. The two Tuan Le / John Phan gamboolers next to me, the big fat guy in the track suit and pony tail with lots of gold who played every hand to at least the turn was in the 10s. And the confused soccer mom way down in the three seat. Shortly after I sat, track suit rivered a flush against her top two and she cocked her head and furrowed her brow and rechecked the board, dog-whistle style.
Position wasn’t really an issue for track suit, so when he limped utg, it started the limp parade around the table. 6 limpers to me and I look down at 5-2 or diamonds. I limp too, looking for a wheel flop or a set, I guess… flop is 3d 4d Js. …or an open ended straight flush draw . I lead at it, track suit calls, as does soccer mom. Turn is the beautiful 6d. I lead again. Track suit folds, buyt soccer mom stops and thinks. Under my breath, but loud enough for the 7s and 9s to hear, I mutter, “raise me, raise me” and she obliges. I three bet and again plead quietly for a cap. She just calls. The river is a blank and, with an unpaired board, I lead again, hoping she sees nothing scary and raises me. She just calls and turns over the nut flush. I flip the nuts over and rake in a nice pot. She looks for sympathy from the 2s. Of course, I took this to mean that my luck was now used up for the weekend.
Amongst all the blogger anarchy, I heard my name called for the HORSE game and picked up, +$40. Rini had finally appeared after the previous night’s I.P. blackjack and cowboy jamboree and delivered my personalized tiltware hockey jersey (see last post). as I arrived at the HORSE table, I got to show it off to Stb, Daddy, Drizz and his pyramid of chips, -Ev, Performify, and others (sorry, I missed some introductions). Had a great time, but no real hands to speak of. Frankly, it was more about socializing and not donking off chips too quickly.
Things get a little blurry at this point, but the next thing I know I’m at the infamous sportsbook bar watching Drizz and Speaker eat pretzels while Daddy, Human Head + Mrs. and a cast of seemingly thousands congregate. At some point, Speaker is pushing a $100 into Mrs. Head’s hands and she is being coaxed into challenging Phil Gordon to a roshambo match. Speaker tells it better than I will, but I raced over with everyone, pulled out the cameraphone. One must capture ” the greatest gambling moment” of one’s life.
I was privy to Gordon’s post-game interview with Dr. Pauly and it was classic. Gordon was still on tilt and it will show in the interview.
All in all, the MGM was the highlight of the trip for me. Hanging out with bloggers, joking with bloggers, buying drinks for bloggers, having drinks bought for me by bloggers, etc. This is really the essense of these events. The poker is absolutely secondary.
next time: king(s) kong…
