dis ish ish still epoch

That sucks! I remember seeing Raptor on PAD protect his cards with his fingertips resting on the table making a cage over his cards that you could see the cards through.

I wonder if PS Pro's method is a sort of angleshoot to **** with amateur's heads.

Great COTW!

It is.

DAY TWO WINDING UP

Hot girl at the table eventually busts. She was the last female in the event. Just us chickens now.

There is a ruumor flaoting around we are going to play down to 3 tables and quit for the day. After 1am sometime word comes that we're down to 27 players - 3 tables. The floor people come around and deal out bags and I'm not the only one who thinks we might be done for the day. But they soon follow it up with seat assignments for eveyone. We find out we're playing through level 20 or down to 2 tables, whichever comes first. Everyone who has a clue says we'll be finishing level 20 tonight.

I bag my chips and check my seat assignment. I've pulled the "feature table". Phil Hellmuth is playing on the feature table. Its off to the side and on a riased platform, with bleachers around it for spectators. I figure they're going to keep PH on the featured table and draw around him, so I head over to find my seat, seat 4. Phil Helmuth is sitting in seat 5 stacking chips. Effing great, I 'm playing with Phill Helmuth and he gets to sit on my left.

Then he takes his nice stack of chips and shoves them into a bag like everyone else. Oh. I guess they didn't draw around him. I'm on the featured table and PH is with the plebes on the floor. Heh.

Jimmy is here in seat 7. "Hey Jimmy!" I don't know anyone else. It takes the TDs quite a while to sort everything out and get us dealers and get everything underway, but they eventually restart the clock and resume play. For myself, I resume folding.

I'm too exhausted to carry on my chit chat anymore, so I'm just sitting quietly and folding. Luckily there's a friendly gent in seat 1 to take over the duties for me. I don't remember his name, but I'd recognize him if i saw him again. He first got into it with seat 3, an early 20s blond clean-cut kid named Devin. They exchanged online handles tried to figure out if they played in the same games. Seat one went around the table talking to everyone. And I'll tell you what, no one was holding anything back at this point! Everyone was some combination of too tired, too happy to be here, or just plain old friendly. Everyone gave up the goods.

Seat 2, Saar, made his money in business and was from Israel. Seat 6 made his living crushing a certain juicy homegame in St. Louis. Seat 7 chimed in and shared online handles with seat 1 and 3. Seat 9 was Kieth. Everyone at the table seemed to know him and call him "cheesemonster". I found out he plays highstakes on FTP under that handle, and he was a bracelet winner.

I just sat quiet and listened. I didn't volunteer any information. I don't know if it was strategic, or if I just didn't feel like talking, or what. You know what though? Jimmy wasn't talking either. Haha, how funny that the two of us are now the quiet ones! I'm the shortsack at the table so I'm just sitting in my Zen state (stacks, position, reads, ranges, hand, decision) looking for my spots. Friendly guy in seat 1 is the other shortstack.

Eventually it gets folded around to him on the button and he shoves. Saar in the SB calls. Devin insta-mucks and seat 1 turns up AK. Nice hand! Saar tables AA and once the board runs out friendly seat 1 is sent packing. Now I'm the only shorty. I get a shoving hand but there was already a raise in EP so I just muck it. The big stacks are feeling each other out, ducking and weaving, ducking and weaving. No one seems to want to get into a confrontation.

Finally there are 4 folds in front of me and I look down to see 99. My M is under 5. 4 players to get through. This is a no brainer. I'm allin.

Guy in the blinds calls. This could be it. I table my nines and get up out my chair. Villain tables 66. I nod. The dealer puts out the flop and I furiously scan it for a 6.... nothing. Turn is safe. Time slows down. River is blank. I win.

I'm up over 200k chips. Phew! Breathing room! I'm still the shortstack at the table and my M is still under 10, but I've got a little life left in me.

Blinds go up and those things are really starting to hurt me. 6000/12000 with 1k antes and a significant portion of my stack is dissapearing every few minutes. We're in the last level of the day. Again, I don't want to be weaktight, I don't want to fold my way into day 3. But I'm completely card dead and that's just the way it works out.

We get word that someone busted on the other table. We're down to 25. Just like yesterday, with 10 minutes left in the day they draw a random number from 1-10 and play that many hands instead of letting time run out. They pull a 3. I'm in early middle position now, so unless I catch a beast my day is probably done. I start counting chips.

First hand I fold. There is a blindsteal from LP. It is not called.

Second hand I fold. The BB gets a walk.

Third hand I fold. I'm in day 3. I hear Jimmy sigh loudly and I know exactly what's going on. He just wants to fold but his hand is too good to fold. I smile because I know what that's like! He thinks for a couple more seconds then puts out the riase. BU folds. SB thinks. Uh oh! SB raises. Kieth is in the SB. The raise is more than half of Jimmy's stack. The BB quickly gets out of the way. Jimmy has a choice to make. Put his tournament at risk here or be a pussy and live to fight another day. He is clearly agonizing over the decicion. Someone on our end of the table jokingly says "Will you show me if I fold?"

This cracks the table up, Jimmy included. He laughs and says "No way! I was going to ask him to please not show if I fold." He turns to Kieth "Please don't show me. Please." and Jimmy throws two black jacks face up into the muck. Kieth politely obliges, and buries his cards deepin the muck before collecting his chips and counting them down.

I'm so exhausted and my mind is addled, but somehow I get my 177,000 chips into my baggie all by myself. I pick up my seat assignment for the next day. Then I wander off looking for pfapfap to ask him if he'll drive back downtown because I don't know if I could manage it right now.

_______________________________________________

Links to the rest of the story:

Rest

Day 3, Go!

Rolling On

Final Table

Final Table 2

Final Table 3

Finale

IMHO he was just unaccustomed to playing live. This is explicitly against the rules and the dealers weren't enforcing it. If I finish this TR I'll go off on a little tangent about all I learned about live procedures in those 3 days.

I'm not a vegetarian for my health.

you are a vegetarian because of



George Bernard Shaw?

great story.

would read again.

[X] searched thru half the Kurt's on 2+2 to find this thread again

MOAR

Probably cause lol it's live, they'll catch mah tells! I think it's because 1) most only-internet players aren't comfortable playing live and 2) that's the way you're supposed to dress/act.

I much prefer sitting there relaxed and interacting with others. I feel like it's -EV to project such a "don't bother me, I don't want to talk to you" attitude. I have no basis for this though.

I think most people who go from online to live would do well to just practice not being emotionally attached to an action/card so they don't give off tells, practice handling chips and cards, and just get used to having others around them. Shoot, when I play, and I'm in a big spot, bluffing/valuebetting/whatever, I pay attention to how I'm breathing/reacting and practice keeping it all calm and like I'm just tying my shoes, so when I'm live and in a similar spot, I've been there before.

So are you a vegetarian because you're from California and all Californians are tree huggers, and all tree huggers are vegetarians?

I have to go out to dinner with some family that's in town. I promise to finish day 3 before I go to sleep tonight.

Can't wait for final table

write a bok

Title:
"Kurt > Hellmuth"

Great read. Monsters, sirens and focus on the goal. All that's missing is the description of the wine dark felt.

So do I, and neither do I - not really, at least. I cut my teeth on live poker, and this was always a part of the game, at least it was for me.

I can't remember the last time I got a read on somebody for splitting oreos or something, but your villains might be more inclined to tell you what they had (if not at that moment, then perhaps later on), or you might find that you simply enjoy yourself more at the table (and play better as a result - a happy player is a better player), or even make a poker friend for life.

Simply put, it pays not to be a douchebag, at the poker table or otherwise (if for no other reason than karmic repercussions, if you believe in such things).

In any event, looking forward to the rest of the story!