The Meadows, Summer 2009 - Day 1

For a good part of 2009 I have been doing my best to support the local economy by donating money at the poker table. If you would like to know the formula for getting your butt kicked, it is as follows. Get your money in good (or at least “appropriately” as it relates to PLO) on 12 out of your 15 biggest bets for the year and then proceed to lose 13 of those 15. That’s really all it takes. I’m down for the year and am dead even since the biggest pot of my life last Halloween but I’m happy to report I took out my frustration on The Meadows (that’s English for Las Vegas (Spanish)) over Labor Day Weekend. Highlights are as follows.



Day 1, Thursday. $2-5 NLHE at the Venetian

Just started, I’m up a little, playing fine, at an average $2-5 table at the V. Haven’t adjusted to the waitresses yet, so I’m a little distracted but otherwise ok. I’m starting the trip at about one-quarter tilt waiting for my fun-like-surgery 2009 to continue and this little bit o’ fun strikes:

KJ in early position, I raise pre-flop and hit a Jack on the flop (JT3). I bet $50 into $75 and get one caller.

Turn (JT3): 6. The way I’m running I just want to end the hand so I plan on just getting it all in. Here’s where the fun starts. I think $200 will do it so I push out two stacks of red. This knucklehead has got red chips everywhere and starts building stacks of $100. He’s looking annoyed and (in hindsight I realize) he’s on monkey tilt. He’s actually got $205 and puts the last $5 on top too. I say something like “oh, is it $205?” and throw out the last $5. He gets all upset with “You’ve got to have my last $5, huh?!” and I’m also pretty sure he swore at me in Spanish, but I mumble “no, whatever” and take the $5 back.

River (JT36): K. I conclude we’re just checking it down so I check to him, and he yells “FIVE DOLLARS!” and tosses it in like it’s a live grenade. I chuckle a little and call; I figure my two pair is WAY good but he tables AQ for Broadway. If this was anything other than my first kidney punch of the weekend I’m sure I couldn’t have done this, but I just sit there saying nothing while the blood in my brain goes from simmer to boil. My neighbor finally chuckles and tells me “Man. I have no idea how you’re just sitting there.”

But I suck it up and take $1,040 off the table in 5 hours, very pleased with my recovery. Trip total: $1,040.

Later I get suckered into PLO at the Venetian. I've really been trying to keep my PLO play to a minimum cause it's just way too easy to start flipping $500 quarters and I'd had my fill of that for a while. The game is playing pretty tight, I really just hung around long enough to have a little fun and play some poker with my buddy Matt. Why wouldn’t we travel 1,000 miles to take each other’s money, right? Although he did crush me at $1/point Chinese poker on the flight over, so I guess I wanted revenge (joke).

PLO is generally a lot more fun than Holdem because everyone is less guarded, ready to GAMbol! And my buddy Matt is good, funny, loose and the table has now perked up after Matt’s second blind raise to $50 off the straddle.

I’ve got frenchy on my left who is tight but bad and his English is worse than his poker. He’s asking me questions and is talking about “You Americans” a lot.

He loses a few hands and finally gets all-in pre-flop with TT65. I think Matt blind raised to $50 pre-flop so there’s $200 or so in the pot after frenchy went all-in for a little more. I’m in the pot with AK98.

Flop: JT8 (checks around)
Turn: (JT8): 7. Matt checks, I figure my straight (98) is good, I bet $150, Matt folds.

So now it’s just me and frenchy. He starts yelling “Double! Double!” and I feel like asking everyone to hold on while I figure what I’m supposed to be rooting against. You probably get it (I did not), but that’s frenchy for pair the board. Me no-par-le-vou frenchy.

The board pairs on the river, and frenchy is now feeling a little better about You Americans. Frenchy is stacking my chips and everyone except for one person is laughing at “Double! Double!” His neighbor sees an opportunity to start an international incident and leads out with “You know what I love about French people? They are the nicest people in France.” which cracks everyone up and frenchy is getting a little concerned. He picks me out of the crowd, since although I am laughing, I am still brooding a little over “Double! Double!” and am laughing less than the rest of these degenerates. He asks “What is this, complement?” I just smile, needing my $200 back before I can allow myself to cooperate. We move on….

Later in the session, I run into Jeff Hwang (of PLO publishing fame) who moved from Saint Louis to The Meadows last year. Jeff’s a good guy and has written two really good PLO books, both of which I’ve bought and read. I consider him a friend of mine. I am a character in the second book (although I’m fairly certain all PLO players are “characters”, regardless of whether or not they are in a book) and am referred to as “non-crazy, somewhat raw at PLO”. Might be the nicest thing anyone ever said about me.

Strangely enough, I don’t consider Jeff to be better than me at PLAYING pot-limit. Jeff spent about 75 pages of his first book talking about how the best wrap is better than a good wrap, etc, which is actually really good information. Lots of players start out flopping T9 with J87 and don’t understand that they can be absolutely crushed by KQJ. All PLO players should read both books and understand these concepts. But my experience with Jeff is that he waits about 7 hours for the 37-card nut wrap with bottom set, and when it never happens, he just pours it all in pre-flop with AKT9 when he can’t take it anymore. I do, however, have to give Jeff high marks for his pimped-out photo found on the back cover of the more recent book.

Anyway, a good time at PLO, played for 3 hours and pulled $275 off the table. Trip-to-date total: $1,315. End of Day 1.