Saturday, June 14, 2008

Lammer Heaven

I've had a chance to play an itty bit of poker here and there at the WSOP, and only in one official event, that being the Ladies Event last Sunday. Yes, detailed report at some point.

Instead I've snuck in bits of poker in very short doses at odd hours, including one very brief session when F-Train and I sat down at a $10/20 limit game in the cash area. I had to fly after about 90 minutes, but I was exactly dead even in that stretch, despite (*whisperwhisperwhisper*) this brief outing actually being the first time I played limit that high.

I held my own both literally and figuratively, cashing out exactly even after catching a large number of playable hands. F-Train can critique my play if he wishes, just as I need to congratulate him on his razz cash when I catch up with him tomorrow. We talked a bit about him entering the razz event as we played, and I saw him last night this morning at about 3am, as he happily clutched his chip-count pink slip, the receipt for his tournament chips after Day 1 play.

What I have instead played has been a small handful of those single-table satellites across the hall, because they only take an hour or so. And they have been so-o-o-o-o soft, that it's worth suffering the turbo format to take advantage of the wretched play.

I've played seven or eight of these things, perhaps one an average of every three days since the room opened two days before Event #1 began. I've played all $125 and $175, the very lowest buy-ins. I went on an early rush, too, cashing in five of my first six, in all cases doing some sort of late chop involving the lammers and cash, which is how it usually goes down. That's where my entry fee for the Ladies Event came from, just as I already have two of three lammers I need for one of the $1,500 donkaments. (I'll buy the rest directly if I fail to win one, and/or offer a few people a nibble of my action if they wish. But I'll take the majority of my own action regardless.)

I did play one higher sat, a $525, which included a couple of names you might recognize. I had no cards, made a bad read on what I thought was a re-steal, and got swatted. No harm in trying.

But the little babies have been gravy. Yes, I've been running well, though the two I didn't cash in required bad beats for me not to be in the mix. There was also the $125 where I was down to 275 from a start of 1,000, then sucked out with 9-7 against Q-Q and built as high as 7,000 before settling for a chop. Then there was the one where I caught A-A four times and K-K once and they all held up --- even though I still couldn't close out the deal and in the end had to give my last opponent one of the three lammers to go away. The luck runs both ways. A-A (x4) plus K-K in a turbo SNG is -sick-. Mikey the Chimp could've done as well.

Lately, each sat seat has been accompanied by a free debit card with a scratch-off code for a day's worth of access to CardRunners. Oh, and a fortune cookie from them as well, each with something more or less poker-related. Samples, as best as I can remember them:

"You should play as many events and satellites today as you can." (On that day, "as many" equaled the one, and I did get a lammer out of it.)

"You will change your table image if you bluff successfully with 7-2 and show your cards to the table." (Ya think?)

"Consider stripping naked and running around the poker room." (Considered. Rejected immediately... for the sake of humanity.)

But I have seen some strange plays both good and bad. In the most recent one in where I did not cash, I watched three players in a raised pot see a flop that came K-Q-10 rainbow. Maybe 800 in the pot. Each player has between 700 and 1,000 behind. Player 1, the early raiser, checks. Player 2 checks. Player 3, the button, jams. Player 1 oh-so-painfully folds. Player 2 chews the scenery, while Player 3 says "I have the nuts right now," and promises to show. Player 2 eventually open-folds K-K, top set after the flop. Player 3 shows J-10 for bottom pair and an open-ended draw and rakes the chips. Player 2 wants to puke.

Player 1 is just as sick -- he claims to have folded Q-Q for middle set, and the dealer flips over his cards and verifies this to be true.

Okay, legendary bluff -and- questionable fold(s) aside, it's not even the best hand I can report. I witnessed what I believe to be one of the top five worst folds I have ever seen in one of these.

It's about the middle of the second one of these I play, and I'm on the button. Blinds are 50/100 or 100/200, I forget. The UTG player has about 850 total and he makes it 500 to go. He's called by the cutoff, who has about 2,000 at the time. It's folded around.

The flop comes Ac-8d-9d. UTG checks. Cutoff jams. The UTG player chews the scenery for a good two minutes, then open-folds... 10d-Jd, the straight-flush draw. With only 350 behind and over 1,400 in the pot and two cards to come.

Worst. Fold. Evah.

Or maybe not. But way up there. Now you know why I play these.

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