Back in Black

A very solid fifteen hours or so, +$1,662 for the day and +$1,232 for the trip to date. Before I get into anything else, let me give you this great hand. Late twentysomething with glasses (not that there's anything wrong with that) raises, is called by Asian lady and called by middle-aged European guy. I'll give you the board, you guess their hands (I'll give it to you at the end). 872 is the flop, 8 on turn, 7 on river.

We started a new table that was supposed to break up for the Super Satellite into the $15,000 WPT tourney starting Monday (480 paid $1,500 for that privilige, with something like 44 seats available). I get stuck another $200, tread water for awhile till I'm moved to another table (original table was a must move). I get there and there is an older lady who is an absolute maniac, raising 80% of the hands, either taking down pots or catching two pair with 960 or whatever. So she has something like $2,500 in front of her. I continue to tread water, folding to her on most everything, when I decide to attack her in position. I raise with 860, she three-bets from the sb. Flop comes KJ6, she bets, I raise, she re-raises. Turn comes 9 and I call, then river comes 8 and I raise her on the river. That seemed to turn the tide for her and for the table as she redistributed all of those chips and had to re-buy. It was something to see to have all these wolves start coming back at her, etc. My monster hand for the night was with AQs, flop came AKQ, Q on turn, and 7 on river. Heads-up I was in position, and I raised him on the flop and turn, only to have him three-bet both times. I just called him on the river (he could have had AA or KK, and he had taken me apart once limpin with AA to my KK). I missed a few bets through the night, primarily due to just being a bit gunshy at times. Not good for sure. Toughest hand for me was flopping top set with TT and three clubs on the board, only to have the turn and river come clubs. That was fairly early and kept me rather frustrated. I took more breaks today and started my climb after eating (I only had one meal at 2:30 or so).

One major point of contention that I had with the maniac lady and the European guy (he was in 5 seat, she in 6 seat). Twice she raised me out of my blind after he limped (not too tough to do with T5o for sure), then when they got heads up she said, "OK, we'll chop the pot." That is absolutely unethical and forbidden. At the best case it is simply poor etiquette; worst case, it is collusion. There is significant risk of pairs or teams colluding at any poker room, especially a place as busy as the Bellagio. The lady next to me filled me in on her behavior, that she gets very abusive when things are going south (as she bled her $2,500 off, she was throwing cards at the dealers, yelling at me for having my iPod, and bad mouthing the play of everyone who beat her with her neighbors). My demeanor at the table is either silent or a chatty cathy, but there are a few things that will push my buttons. She was one of them. It was interesting how her behavior impacted the table significantly for awhile, and you really have to focus I think when you're in a situation like this.

Got to see Joe Hachem for the first time. He was playing in the Super Satellite (they had 20 tables going in the poker room and 25 going in the Fontana Lounge). I think he is going to be more similar to Greg Raymer as far as an ambassador for the game as he seemed very pleasant and accomodating. I saw too many people to name for sure, and the Big Game was going on in Bobby's Room when I left with Doyle, Barry Greenstein, Phil Ivey and some others (oh, and I think I mentioned Erik Seidel yesterday when I meant Ted Forrest, who I remembered today). Several pros were slumming playing lower limits (lower meaning things approachable to modern man like $75/150 something).

I don't know if I have the energy to play much tomorrow. My flight is at 4:00 something, so I think I see a good night's rest in my future. If I play anything, I might play NLHE which has a max buy-in of $200 or I might just play $4/8 like the olden days, we'll see. I'm pretty tired now.

OK, now back to the hand. Remember, the flop was 872, 8 on the turn, and 7 on the river. The younger guy on my left ended up all-in with the Asian lady in between their four-bet and five-bet action (he was all-in on the turn). The Asian lady rolls her 22 first (which she should have folded on the river for sure, but she flopped her set and caught her boat on the river). The European guy then rolls over 88, with the younger guy flipping over his 77. He loudly proclaimed that he would have checked the river, which is absolutely preposterous. I mean, if he believed that the guy had 88, then what in tarnation is he calling the five-bet or whatever? I told him if that was the case then he's the best player I've ever seen as I would have driven to an ATM to keep betting my quads. Quad over quad is something to behold for sure.