An eventful weekend…

got back from an interesting weekend in vegas on sunday night. some interesting things:

BEST QUOTE: sitting at a no limit table on friday nigh-, er, saturday morning was a drunk guy who looked like a cross between dane cook and an alcoholic. he was actually a pretty good player, but he was hammered, which made him hilarious. every time any player at the table bet or raised against him, he would shout out:

hey… what would you do if i made it $650?

the pot was usually around $30.

BEST BET: thank you to the colts for coming through in a big way for me on sunday. i parlayed the colts to win with the o/u on the game (47) for a tidy sum of money. the joy of winning sports bets in the last minute of the game can never be overstated. if you don’t believe me, go sit in a sportsbook during a big game just once…

WORST DAY: on saturday, i was stuck for a non-trivial amount of money, playing in a few different games. early in the day in a no limit cash game, i raised under-the-gun with 4h6h (don’t ask why i did that, i was just doing those types of things this weekend). when the flop came 8h6s3h, i bet a healthy amount, a late position player raised me, and i immediately moved in on him. i figured i was probably in good shape, given the action and the player, until he called quickly with 5h7h, crushing my heart draw. when he spiked a heart on the river. fun times. the day was fairly enjoyable though, as i played in a mixed game (omaha-8, badugi, stud hi, razz, 2-7 triple draw, and stud-8) at the venetian. honestly, the real shame of the poker boom is that all of these other games get no exposure, which is unfortunate because they can be so much more interesting and fun than boring old hold’em.

BEST DAY: i had my biggest tournament cash ever this weekend on sunday, getting down to heads up and making a deal with a 3:1 chip disadvantage. it wasn’t a TON of money, but i felt like i played really well and overcame several cold decks, battling back from being the short stack with 12 players left. in general i played a very aggressive and loose game for the tournament, which matched up really well with my tables, as i was able to take down 2 or 3 pots every orbit uncontested. position is awesome. i also had an interesting insight this weekend: if you play as many pots as i was trying to play, you sure do have to make a lot of difficult decisions. on a couple of hands, i had to call opponents’ pre-flop all-ins with 2d2c, Kh6h, Jc8s, and 6s8c, just because the math was right. i also had to lay down JJ, 88, and AQ pre-flop multiple times. by the way, calling someone with 68 offsuit, having him turn over KT, and spiking an 8 on the river against him? hilarious.

MOST FUN HAND: on one particular hand in the tournament, i raised in late position with AQ, four people called me (this is what happens when you’re an “action” player), and the flop came 633. everyone checked, i bet 700 into a 1550 pot. this guy on the button, who was audibly frustrated, raised all-in for 2000, making the pot 4200. 1300 to call. i thought for a while and then called him, getting more than 3:1 from the pot with two overcards and a possibility that he was bluffing. anyhow, i obviously spiked queens on both the turn and river, beating his 77. anyhow, that wasn’t the fun part. the FUN part was when he came back to the tournament a few hours later, telling his friends, “hey, that’s the guy that beat me in that race in the tournament.” he was generally being an ass, talking about how bad i played, but he was also getting it wrong: we weren’t racing, he was way ahead of me at that point. so anyhow, i got to say the not often-heard line: “oh no, we weren’t racing. i put a bad beat on you. you were ahead 3:1, but i thought it’d be a lot of fun.” his buddy, still playing at the final table, nearly choked on his water laughing. now that is fun stuff.

MOST INTERESTING HAND: with around 9 players left in the tournament, i played a big pot against the guy who i was most worried about at the final table. i had around 12000 chips and he had around 22000, with the blinds at 200-400 with a 50 ante. he limped in late position and i called out of the small blind with 7hTh. the pot had 1950 on the flop, with four players. the flop came 7dQdQs. we checked around to him and he bet 1100 into the pot. i called, not quite believing him and wanting to slow him down (he’d have to be worried about a Q from me if he didn’t have one). i also figured i could probably bluff hard if a diamond fell. the turn came with a 5s. i checked and he checked behind. now to me, that felt like he didn’t have a Q. when the 3d came on the river, i made a play at the pot of 4150 by betting 3000. he proceeded to think for a long time and i didn’t have a good read on him. he then raised me to 7000. i thought for a long while, finally deciding that i wouldn’t be able to move him off the hand, and folded.

as i thought about the hand more later though, i’m now fairly sure that he bluffed me out of the pot. he was a very good player. i spent about 20 minutes talking to him after the tournament. he mentioned off-hand, in a very humble way, that he used to play professionally in vegas until he had kids, at which point he moved to montana with his wife to raise them (montana?!). since his kids were grown, he was now spending lots of time back in vegas, playing tournaments. he noted that he was surprised i took the deal, since he felt i could outplay the other guy. anyway, as we chatted, i realized that he thought i was very capable of moving at that pot.

i arrived at this conclusion: if he had a bare Q or a flush, he really wouldn’t have raised on the river, as he had to be aware of being beat by a full house. if he had a hand of that sort of value, he’d almost have to just call on the end, as he would only get called by a big big hand (since i had to also be scared of the full house), and i had played the hand like i could have a monster.

really the only reason to raise on the river was to either make a bluff look believable or get value out of his full house. but he was not the kind of player who would have been playing a hand that made a full house there, save for 33. i realized this as i was talking to him, thinking that i probably should have pushed all-in. as we finished talking, i asked him a parting question: “hey, on that QQ7 hand, did you hit a flush or a boat?” he looked at me and warmly smiled: “i’m sorry, i can’t remember.”

damn it.