I spent the first part of today chilling at my place for a few hours, getting in a light workout then writing a couple emails. Then I made my way to the VW dealership. I drive a 2010 Jetta that I\’m a pretty big fan of and it was time for my free 10k mileage maintenance and car wash. Before this car, I drove the 2007 version. Two days before my lease was up on that car, it got totaled when a drunk driver blew a red light in West Hollywood where my girlfriend and I were for the weekend. Neither of us were hurt, thankfully. He took off after we smashed into him, but he couldn\’t get very far with the condition his car was in. A good samaritan followed him and was able to let the police know where they could find him. I had my car towed to a VW dealership and was like, \”My lease is up… here\’s your car back!\” Then I leased a brand new model that same day.
I picked up KK in the first orbit of NL in late position, raised and picked up the blinds …
While at the dealership today I read through 944 magazine a bit. If you happen to live in a city that 944 covers, and you like going out, doing stuff and checking out new things in your city, I highly recommend picking up a copy. I also highly recommend they pay me for this advertising I\’m giving them but that\’s probably not going to happen. There are always so many things changing in the city of Las Vegas–new restaurants, DJ appearances/residencies, happy hours, special events–that it is nearly impossible to keep up. It\’s fun to try though, and it\’s obviously tough to get bored here.
After VW, it was that time: 7pm on a Thursday, which means Pokerati 1/2 PLO/NLH at the Palms. When I got there around 8 there was a full game up and running and Danielle was already on the waiting list. It took about 15 minutes before we had enough people to start a second table. Pretty impressive, I must say, but not entirely surprising. The half-and-half nature of the game is just so much more interesting and entertaining in my opinion, that I think you\’ll eventually see it spread elsewhere more regularly. This coupled with the fact that the WSOP is in full swing means there\’s no shortage of players around.
I picked up KK in the first orbit of NL in late position, raised and picked up the blinds. That was pretty much the only hand of note for me before this one: we\’re playing PLO 9-handed and there\’s a button straddle. Danielle limps, Randy Dorfman limps, I look at Ac Kd 7c7d and limp along. The pair is on the low side in this hand that I don\’t love, but I do love the AK double-suited and want to bring in lots of players that I dominate suit-wise. Pauly limps, Merchdawg raises in late position to 20. I immediately put Merch on QQxx or JJxx or something similar at best, just by the way he raised combined with my A and K blockers. All of us limpers plus the button call.
Flop Ax7s3s.
It checks to me and thinking back I kinda like leading in the hopes of Merchdawg bluff raising, but I checked and it ends up checking through. I was definitely going to check-raise a c-bet from Merchdawg and go with it if he reraised, assuming he has a flush draw. The turn brought an offsuit 8 and it checked to Randy who bets pot (120). I took a quick look around the table to gauge other people\’s interest and there didn\’t seem to be much. If there was I would\’ve shoved for 130ish more. As it is, Randy is never folding whether he has draws, a set, or two pair, and I figured flatting gives him a chance to bluff at a blank river, whereas I could possibly get away from a river spade based on my read. I\’m not sure, that could be flawed. The river is the As which looks like gin to me. Randy pots it and I call all-in for less. AT98 is good, Mr. Dorfman.
I just decided to bail after that. I\’ve been getting pretty pounded for the majority of the past two months, with a couple highlights here and there in between. It\’s really not that much fun, I must say, especially now that we\’re smack in the middle of the WSOP when all poker players hope to be reaching the peak of their run-good. But what can you do? I never have that moment of agony when the alarm clock goes off in the morning, and I get to play cards every single day, if I so choose. So it could be worse. I could\’ve been driving a car with fewer safety features that one night in West Hollywood.
Andrew Neeme will be blogging old-school at Pokerati about his adventures and insights as a low/mid-stakes grinder-pro. He\’s on Twitter @AndrewNeeme.
