A Nice Wholesome Trip
When Sally won those consecutive Omaha flips she was in a good mood regardless because that weekend Nicole, her daughter, Sally, Izzy, and Sally's husband were all going to a resort in Orlando and to Disney. Sally and Nicole had hit it off as bffs, and it made things easier as I could play poker and bring them both along. Sally would play too, and Nicole would just drink at the bar. We went to the local track and when I went there with Sally I would always play 1/2. 1/2 here, as it was in most places I had played in Florida, was basically just coolers unless you had a real spewy character that was either wasted, a snowbird/tourist, and usually both. It was getting near to the end of season and there was still a good crowd - the new $100 no rake tournament was in full swing and no one tried to run a home game on Wednesdays because it attracted most of the cash game players because of the value.
Sally usually would prefer that I sit at her table when we drove up to play at Hard Rock or here if I wasn't playing Omaha, so I got a 1/2 seat at her table and sat down with the max of $200, and would critique her play in significant hands on smoke breaks. We would rarely go to war, although we had in the past. After about three orbits I picked up 10
10
and in MP made it 20 to go after a button straddle and a Sally in the BB. It folds around to Sally who calls and we see a flop of 8
3
2
. She checks to which I bet 25, and she knows I am not trying to bluff her off her hand. She responds with a check-raise to 60 (gotta help her on sizing) and I call. What frustrates me is I taught her to apply pressure to opponents with equity such as flush draws and now I have a player and a friend I taught to do so using it on myself. The turn is the 3
and she leads out for $25, which made no sense because its not enough to be value or a bluff, but I call. The river is a J
and she checks, I tap the table and she shows 7
8
for second pair and 10s are good. She gives me this smirk like she got caught stealing.
"I was trying to get you off a flush draw," She said in a serious tone.
"You're going to need to stick in all in to get me off that, not a minraise."
"I think YOU should stick it all in..." She was trying to be funny yet sexual at the same time and the table started laughing and ooohhing at the same time. I could have said something real dirty but considering I just took her for a decent pot and Nicole was right there at the bar it wouldn't go down well.
In a nice gesture, I ordered a couple shots of tequila for Sally, myself, and a guy named Tequila Jim who was a beast when it came to the consumption of this particular liquor. Jim was a professional ticket scalper and he made a good living doing it. He had come to a few of our games at Vito's, and I was talking to him about coming to our game, and he was up for it as long as there was tequila.
"How do you two know each other?" Jim asked, as he knew me but had not met Sally.
"Oh, that's my ex-girlfriend mother." He laughed and did not believe me. I told him to ask her how we knew each other and she confirmed it.
"See, I thought you two were together by the way you acted." He seemed interested in talking to Sally, who usually blows off the OMCs and creepy dudes at the room that she doesn't know. For a middle aged woman she could definitely hold off the guys that usually drove most females away from playing here. I told him I was with the girl at the bar, which was easy to point out because there were like 3 girls in the whole room.
"Oh, you're with HER?" He was surprised, just because most girls who dress like that aren't here with dudes playing poker, they are here to make money. "You know you can see right through her dress, right?"
"Yeah, I know." I gave him a lifted eyebrow that I was fully aware, and that kind of threw him off - it got him to stop asking questions though.
"SHOTS FOR EVERYONE!" Jim screamed to the table, and he bought another round of tequila for all who wanted one at the table plus Nicole, who by this time was on her 2nd Long Island. Nicole gets all friendly and touchy-feely when she drinks, and I wasn't looking forward to mopping her off the floor later.
Sally ended up hitting quad 7s for $300, and I got in a leveling war with one of the 1-2 "pros" at the track, I picked up A
K
in the HJ with a "pro" OTB straddling. I made it $25 after two limps and get minraised to $45 by the button. I have seen people do this before to isolate players so the pot doesn't go multiway in 1/2 games.
"Oh, are you trying to isolate ME?" I asked him, I wasn't used to getting isolated, but I did not know this player like I did much of the room. He must have seen me talking a lot to Sally and thought we were a couple of rec players, and with the drinking I have to be incompetent. I started a mini Will Kassouf style talk asking him if he wanted me to stick it in the same way that Sally wanted and the table laughed a little. I decide to call, and do something I rarely do - check dark. The flop came out 10
9
6
and he bets $60, to which I again play the part of a spewy incompetent player and minraise to $120.
"I just isolated you here, you can't just call, you have to stick it in or fold. Do you really want to fold the best hand on camera?" I was hoping that needle was getting through the hoodie and sunglasses, and he said nothing but stuck his two stacks in after about a minute. I dropped a chip in the pot and he shows A
10
. The turn had him drawing dead and he had this "I can't believe my bad luck" look on his face. I throw the dealer a red chip and take the $450 pot. The next hand I lose $150 of it back running KK into AA and it was slightly tilting.
At this point, I notice Nicole is not at the bar, and hasn't been for 15 minutes. I asked the bartender who has gotten to know her well where she had gone, and he said outside to smoke. I went to the smoking area and she is there hanging out with Jim and some other guy who I knew by face but not by name, he was a 2/5 player. I am pretty sure I had a displeased look on my face when I approached them.
"Hey Liam, we had no idea this was your girlfriend. We all went out for a smoke and she wanted to come along, I hope that was okay." The guy who I didn't know was clearly picking up the fact I was a little angry and tilted and was trying to be nice.
"Oh, to SMOKE." It finally hit me that they went out to the car to smoke weed. Guys did that here all the time and seeing as it was only 15 minutes, I figure nothing else could have happened. I took Nicole aside and she was still very lucid, but it was time to take her home. This is why you don't bring your girlfriend to the poker room, whether she wants to go or not. I knew these guys meant nothing sketchy, but now I had a liability on my hands. I can't have Nicole wandering around and getting in some dude's car, I was lucky it happened to be people that knew me.
I went back inside to tell Sally that we had to get going soon and she was pounding some green colored shot. I asked her if she was good to go and she was, just not sober. Great, two liabilities. She cashes out down a little and I do too, up about $50 and they are walking out to the valet like a bunch of drunken hobos. I get them in the backseat and head off towards the highway home. About 10 minutes into the drive I hear kissing in the backseat. I turn around and Nicole is kissing Sally and I was in a little shock because I just found it weird my ex's mom is making out with my current girlfriend. It wasn't anything hardcore, but definitely enough to turn me on, and thought about this. It would be very interesting to pull that threesome off, but I had learned my lesson about that with Marcy and Kendra. I had no problem watching them, however.
I was in a little bit of a conundrum because Sally couldn't drive home from the condo. She wasn't wasted, but I think she would have blown well over the limit and the cops were brutal back towards her house. It started to pour and we rushed into the condo, Sally sat down on the comfy chair and Nicole and I on the bed. Sally fell asleep and in this cramped area, Nicole got on top and started riding me, being a little too loud. I am pretty sure Sally woke up and saw what was going on, and just closed her eyes to pretend she was sleeping. It was a little awkward in retrospect, but she conveniently woke up after I got out of the shower. She insisted she was sober, and although I didn't fully believe her, I figured she was okay to drive. Nicole said goodbye to her with a smile and I felt that there was some "missed value" there.
Maybe the next time I go up there they can just get tipsy again and we can try something a little different? That's what was going through my head as I fell asleep - thoughts, but not necessarily thoughts I could act on.