March 7 - "Don't you know? / When you're defeated, young punk? / Won't you throw in the towel? Stop running your mouth. / Don't you know that we know you're just running your mouth? / Cause when this s*** pops off, we gonna run in your house. / Don't you know?"
The attire and the tools of the trade... The rest is in the safe.
I fluctuated between $250 and $350 for a little while, and a new player to the table was trying to loosen things up. The table wasn't bad, but it wasn't as loose as he wanted it. He kept saying he was trying to get more action. He straddled a couple times, then straddled again, then blind raised the button. Nobody was taking any aggressive action against it. He put in the blind raise from the cutoff, so I decided if I had a playable hand I'd limp-raise. At the Borgata, a blind raise stands if there is no raise in front of it, but if you raise, it can be removed.
I picked up 8
9
and limped. A few limpers, the blind raise to $8 stood. One call back to me and I made it $38. The guy trapped in the middle called, as did the blind raiser. The guy in the middle was a halfway decent regular... Not good, but not just leaking like a sieve either. He was on a huge heater, sitting on maybe $1400. Hard to tell the way it was stacked. The blind raiser said, "We need Ace, rag, rag, dealer."
Flop ($120ish): A77r
Usually when a player asks for a flop, it's not the one they need, so I rule the A out for the blind raiser. The other player's range probably has more pocket pairs than Ax, so this is actually a good flop for me. I bet $75. The guy in the middle tanks and folds, the blind raiser quickly folds. I show the bluff and say, "maybe that'll create some action for you."
The guy trapped in the middle is PISSED. "You're lucky he was behind me! You're lucky! That's ballsy betting into two people like that. I knew you didn't have the ace. You're lucky he was behind me."
I shrug, and on we go. At this point I'd like to point out, for the record, that he was wearing a driving cap. Now, I am a big fan of driving caps, for people who can pull them off. Justin Timberlake can pull one off and it looks pretty cool. I think you have to be like 75% as cool as him to pull off that look in general. At a poker table, you have to either be 75+ years old, 85% as cool as Justin Timberlake, or Eastern European/Russian/Greek and 45+ years old. Stereotyping? A bit. But it works for those people. Kind of like the dude in The Wire, season 2 was it? Anyway... This guy is none of those things, and his driving cap looks ridiculous.
Hot chicks can also pull off driving caps... because, you know, they're hot chicks.
A little later I play another hand against the blind raiser. The details aren't overly important. I raised AQ, the flop was QJX, I bet, he called. The turn was a K, he checked, I checked. The river bricked, he checked, I went for thin value betting like $50-$75 into a pot of $150, he jammed for $47 more and it was such a weird spot - basically AT, T9 or air - and does he really check a straight on two streets when my hand looks like either AQ or a complete whiff and a cbet and give up? I make the crying call getting 6-1 and he has T9.
Driving cap guy nods knowingly and complements blind raising guy extensively for outplaying me. He seems to indicate that I obviously was bluffing. Because, yeah, I called off $47 with absolutely nothing after the river.
I raise a few pots and c-bet, but nothing major happens as I run my stack back up to $400ish.
Later there is a straddle and one limp and I raise to $16 with Q
J
. I get three calls - driving cap guy, blind raising guy, and a relatively new young kid who had called the straddle. The blinds and the straddle fold. I have $370 and driving cap guy covers.
Flop ($65): T9Xr
It checks to me, I bet $45. Driving cap guy calls. Two folds.
Turn ($155): 8hh
I bet $100. Driving cap guy thinks for like 20 seconds and says all-in. I look at the dealer to confirm I heard correctly, he repeats, all-in. I snap call. I flip. He looks at it and can't see it from the other end of the table. "The nuts," I say. He hangs his head dejectedly and adjusts his driving cap.
River ($805): 9x
Not the river card I wanted, but he mucks. "Figures. Bluffing all night and he makes a hand. Hasn't had one hand all night. Not one. Never. But makes one against me, of course." He goes on about how bad I am and how unlucky it was I made a hand.
Meanwhile, he tells people he had the low end of the straight. Somehow I doubt he called a raise and peeled on the flop with 67 or J7. I think he was turning his hand into a bluff, possibly with like AhTh or something along those lines, or just a stone cold bluff, since I hadn't made a hand all night in his eyes.
The funny thing is, I'd shown two hands all night - AA and the 89 bluff. So I showed one bluff, and it cemented my image in his mind.
He's still muttering to his neighbor (blind raising guy) about 10 minutes later. The guy the next seat over blocks driving cap's view of his mouth with his hand and mouths the words to me, "He's still talking about that." We exchange knowing and amused smirks. The guy continues looking at me sideways and ranting to blind raising guy about his poor fortune.
I run my stack up over $900 and a few hours later cash out a $602 profit in 6 hours. Blind raising guy went busto, driving cap guy cashed out around 600-700 I think.
Solid first night of the trip.
Also, a great aside during the session. I'm talking about True Detective, Breaking Bad, The Wire and good tv shows/movies with my neighbors when another guy weighs in.
Him: "You've got to see Nebraska."
Me: "Never heard of it."
Him: "It's a great movie... Came out this year, black and white, great feel to it, awesome story, etc.. It's an incredible movie, you HAVE to see it."
Me: "Hmm, ok... Who's in that?"
Him: "[Pauses]... I have no idea!"
I just start cracking up laughing, I think he was a little upset actually. I was just like, "Dude, that's gotta be the greatest movie recommendation ever... 'Yeah, man, awesome movie, a must-see, a classic... Who's in it? Hell if I know!'"
The rest of the table got a good laugh, and I looked it up and there was nobody in it of note, so I told him he was off the hook.
The view from the room last night, which was probably a lot better in person than it shows up on the camera.
I just finished breakfast, which I can't really put into the "clean," column. There are just so few good options for breakfast here if you aren't up by like 10:30. Metropolitan stops serving breakfast around 11 I think, and that's the only place I know of to get an omelette, which is somewhat healthy. Everything else it's breakfast sandwiches, so I had a sausage egg and cheese sandwich. Yesterday I came woefully short on the steps taken goal, but ate clean. Today maybe I'll reverse those. About to take a walk outside along the waterfront walkway to get some steps in, then hit the tables.
If anyone is at the Borg, shoot me a PM if you want to say whats up.