photo: Jackie Endsley
Putting your last dollar toward a bad-beat jackpot may not have been the best career strategy for this guy.

Audio

I got a call yesterday at the WSOP from the Butler. I haven’t seen the guy for a couple months — not since me and my jiu-jitsu coach and heavy metal teacher got booted out of our sweet pad (pool table, poker table, dart board, 65-inch HDTV, Strip-view bedroom, fireplace/jacuzzi bathroom, no utilities) on the Eastside. We of course knew all was headed south when the Butler — the guy who set the whole housing arrangement up — walked into our casa unannounced to do a cocaine deal, and shortly thereafter got busted by The Boss (who owned the house, in theory, though not on paper) for stealing rent money.

(I met the Butler last year at the WSOP, as he was trying to sell his private concierge services to poker players and convince me to turn him into a recurring character on Pokerati.)

Anyhow, so I got a call from an unknown 973 number yesterday that I answered in the press box. “Hey, Dan, it’s John. Are you at the Series? How’s it going?”

“Um, uh, pretty good? We’re just getting rolling … so what’s up? Did you make it to Kansas City?”

“Yeah, and it’s not good. I’m calling because I need a stake.”

“Yeow, dude … can’t help you out. Wouldn’t know how to get you money if I could.”

“Western Union.”

“Sorry, man Have you tried Tom? His number is 602-97… .”

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THACKERVILLE, Okla.–Damnit, where’s my head? I guess I went on tilt when I folded away a $700 pot. I had K-J (with a jack as the top card on a no-straight, no-flush board) and folded to an all-in from Mr. iPod Hoodie Happy Feet. He showed me Q-J.

Tight is wrong! That or I shoulda thought longer to keep him on the hand I put him on on the flop.

Two questionable all-ins later (one of which fell victim to a three outer) I find myself down about $500 and some change. Have already put a call in to Goldfarb to talk me through this mini-meltdown.

Four what, you ask? Since coming home from the WSOP I have had four of my worst live-action, cash poker sessions in a long time. All have been 40+ BB losses. Sure, I have had losses this big in the past…in fact I expect to have one every once in a while. You can play perfectly and they will happen. I never like them…and its not much fun having them come all within a 10-day stretch.

I came home from the WSOP with the plan of rebuilding the portion of my bankroll that was expended in tournament buy-ins over the past two months. I was counting on the super-juicy $40/$80 and $60/$120 limit hold ‘em and mixed games at CA (Casino Arizona) to do the trick. I’m not off to a good start. There is a $1,000 buy-in tournament at CA on August 18, limited to 450 players with a guaranteed $250,000 1st place prize. I am planning on winning, so that just might get me even for the series.

I have always kept perfect records of every session of casino poker I have ever played and whenever I have an especially brutal run, I have found comfort in being able to reflect on the bottom line. As long as I can boot up the spreadsheet and see black ink, I can remind myself that I am a winning player. Individual losses hurt, but it’s one long game.

Partially inspired by a recent Fresh Princess post, BeyondTheTable’s new producer, Sit-n-Go Steve, and I decided to settle our long running fued over who is BeyondTheTable’s true heads-up stud. I understand that there are more characters in the BeyondTheTable cast, but a recent BTT episode featured Dan admitting to squandering his ENTIRE online bankroll in heads-up SnG’s while hopingly chatting with on the phone with his female ex-tolerator. As for Tom,… well… it’s been a while since he’s seen heads up action. (Tom, unlike Dan, my ribbing is intended purely for motivational purposes Yeah, that’s it).

The Players: F I2 O G G Y (Karridy, duh.) -vs- Raistlin32
The Prop: Online heads-up, Best of seven.
The Bet (Summary): Loser will wear a sandwich board, created by the winner, for 30 minutes at the intersection of the winner’s choosing.

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TUNICA RESORTS, MS (thanks Poker Shrink) — First, let me say the Gold Strike has the nicest looking poker room I’ve seen so far, and the friendliest staff. Now normally I don’t play rebuy tournaments because they draw too many sucking out donks and the real play doesn’t start until after the rebuy period is over. But what the hay, I’m on (poker) vacation. Entry fee, two rebuys and a double add-on later ($120 total), I’m sitting in the big blind (1,000 with 75 ante) with about 5,000 chips (under average) when a guy in late position raises to 3,000. I call with A-7 suited, the flop misses me, I go all-in and the raiser calls me — with A-4 offsuit! He also has hit nothing. Yes, he was priced in but why did he raise in the first place? Because this is a non-deep-stack, quick-blind-structure sitch, like so many poker tournaments all over.

Compounding the problem is the weirdness of the rebuy structure. Let see if I can explain it without writing an encyclopedia. First hour, you can rebuy as many times as you like: $20 for 1,000 chips if you get below the initial 1,000 that cost you $40. Or if you bust out, you can buy 1,000 for $20 or 2,000 for $40. Then at the hour break, you can add on 2,000 chips for $20 or 4,000 for $40. Correct me if I’m wrong but it sounds like the thing to do is not even show up the first hour (or play extremely carefully) and take the value add-on(s) at the break.

Back at the hand: You guessed it. The raiser sucked out, hitting a straight on the river.

NEXT UP: More gambling. No, not poker but a trip to “beautifully restored” downtown Tunica.

ALT HED: mannysbadbeats.com

LAS VEGAS–Fawcett is out — he couldn’t have played AK worse, in my respectful opinion — Troy is hanging on at about the starting stack … you can find plenty of good coverage at PokerBlog, and in the meantime, I’m about to go on the radio. Click here to tune in to “Bad Beats” w/ Eddie & Brad on AM-1300 The Zone in Austin.

Show starts at 7 pm central time.

LAS VEGAS–Be sure to tune in to “Bad Beats” on AM-1300 The Zone in Austin. I’ll be going on the air in about 20 minutes (7:05 pm CST) to talk about what’s going on at the WSOP. (If only I knew!)

Also, Eddie and Brad, what’s up with your near non-presence on AM-1300’s website? I swear, sometimes they treat you like second-class citizens there. I’d say it’s probably because you are only about poker and there are very few Longhorns at the final table, but really it probably has more to do with Eddie’s being black. Seriously, like you’re not even listed in the line-up. When you go to company parties, do you have to drink from a separate water fountain?