Vegas Friday Cash Hand

Alright.

I will attempt to depict the details of my donkish poker playing that RR is referring to in one of his blog posts. I am not going to make ANY excuses about my play. The bottom line is – it was pathetic. My only caveat is that, at the time, my head was just not in the right space and I was not thinking like a poker player. That is it.

From a pure odds perspective, it was probably the worst lay down I have made in over two years in playing cash games. The sad part is it was in Vegas! Where the donkeys go to die a slow and painful death – one stack at a time.

So here we go:

We had just moved to a new table where myself, Recess and LJ were lucky enough to all find a seat (3 seats at the same table, what are the chances!?). We had been playing for about an hour at that point and were basically trying to kill time as we waited for the all mighty BAYNE to arrive on Friday evening. We were all pumped to see him (partly because he held the keys to our limited sleep plans and partly because we missed the bald cuddly degenerate). Either way, we weren’t playing too seriously and for the most part, stayed out of each other’s way. There were some good hands played, some bluffs, and of course some poorly played hands by yours truly.

Still a bit steam from getting my aces cracked at the previous table, I was only playing on a $100 stack and had built it up to about $125. I wasn’t looking to play any big pots, I really didn’t want to get my money in bad and I certainly didn’t want to lose my last $100 (for that session anyway) and have to sit on the sidelines and WATCH. ZZZZZZZ. Besides, if Recess and LJ weren’t at the table then my thought process may have been different. Such that, I would probably give it the “awww fuck it” and just throw my remaining, pot odds calling, stack into the middle without hesitation.

But this situation was different, mentally anyway. I went about it entirely the wrong way. I wasn’t thinking like a poker player, I was thinking like a pathetic little tourist boy who had no clue about poker and what the right decision would have been. In this case, it was call off the remainder of my stack (about $60) when I knew I wasn’t going to rebuy, I knew I still had another hour to kill, and I knew that might actually be beat. Jordan’s mantra even crept into my head a little when I said to myself “if you know you are beat, fold.” In this case, this rule should not apply.

So I look down at AJs in the SB and there are a couple of callers. I am hoping there was a raise, but I can’t recall at this time. The story would sound a lot better if I called a raise from the SB with that hand, so let’s go with that. There was a raise to $8-10 and there were three players in, including the button. Maybe RR or LJ can recall if there was a PFR. Still not sure this early in the morning as I type my ass off when I should be learning work stuff.

The button is some dude that Recess apparently used to spoon with back in high school because they had not seen each other in that amount of time and were very excited to see each other. Ghey. They may have even kissed, I am not sure. LJ was on his right and I was on his left while Recess was across the table gazing deeply into his eyes and gushing about the past 10 years and what he had been up to. Turns out he was a Lawyer who went to Harvard. Uber ghey.

His stack was up, up to about $500 at that point. He had been playing a lot of pots (according to Recess) – see I don’t even pay attention. I was drinking beers and the odd red bull & Vodka as a result of the previous night and the all day golf action.

I flop top pair and wait for some action like a decent player might. He leads out on the jack high flop with a $10 bet (I have TPTK) and I check raise him for another $25. He calls, other person folds.

I lead out on the turn which shows a King for about $45 and he install shoves… ummm whoops, I am thinking to myself. Meanwhile, RR is giving me a dirty stare and I can’t make much of it. I try to get a read on this Ivy League playa who admittedly does not play very much and I still can’t seem to make the call. Did he just turn two pair I think to myself? Am I beat? I must be beat. Who insta shoves?

I tell ya who. A guy that wants me to fold, that’s who. I didn’t pick up on it at the time – because I am bad. I play bad, and I am just an all around shitty fucking poker player. That’s the bottom line!

I still beat myself up over it, and I still wonder why I didn’t chuck in my last remaining measly stack for ~$60. I am in Vegas! It set me up for tilt for the rest of the weekend. Why on earth would I NOT CALL in a situation like that getting something sick like 5 to 1 odds. I didn’t do the math, I didn’t really do much of anything but muck. My last thought was “save the $60.” Like are you KIDDING ME.

I puked that much in two craps hands with Bayne and Recess later that night.

Here is my new tag line:

My name is Schaubs, and I suck at poker!