Bond18 - Around the World in 90 Days: Days 17-18

Posted by Bond18 | Filed under Bond18

Yesterday was my day off from the tournament while Day 1b played out. Celina and I got up in the mid afternoon and went around the city doing all those tourist things that will prevent future conversations like:

"So Tony, I hear you went to Paris, did you see ‘tourist destination X’?"

"Oh actually, I was really busy while I was Paris, so I didn’t get over there."

"You didn’t see tourist destination X!?"

So yes, I went and saw them all. I went and stood amongst the crowd snapping photos of the Mona Lisa and blurted "The fuck is she smiling about?" like a good tourist should. I spent most of the night watching Chapelle’s show clips with Timex and laughing my ass off, then tried to get to bed moderately early.

I wake up and walk over to a Chinese place down the street to get some food. When I get home I browse through the forums like I do every morning and upon seeing the Shaundeeb vs. Pearljammer and Imper1um vs. Lilhold’em threads on Pocketfives I suddenly find the inspiration to write one of my long absurd posts where I insult everyone involved which can be found in the ‘poker discussion’ forum there or the ‘multi table tournament community’ forum on 2+2.

I go upstairs to wake up Will who has made it through to day 2 and find him so ill he can barely stand. As we walk to the subway he’s half bent over, breathing heavily and apparently trying to hold back vomiting.

"Don’t you die on me Will! Don’t you die on me!"

"You know Bond, if I could trade having busted yesterday for not being sick today, I definitely would. This is the worst I’ve ever been sick."

"You’ll be alright. We’ll get you some water or something, you’ll be fine."

"I hope I don’t throw it up. I’ve been throwing everything up and crapping a million times a day."

"You’re a disgusting human being."

"Yea, I’m pretty disgusting to be around right now."

"Nah you’ll be fine. We’ll get you some food at the club, something light."

We arrive at the club a few minutes before the 5pm start time, but there is a 20 minute delay for some reason and we sit around doing nothing in the crowded and hot rooms. Cards get in the air and apparently the day 1b had fewer places bust out so the average is still around ~45k. My 62,600 has me in good shape.

The very first hand I find AQ and raise it up. The SB decides to flat call with only 20 BB’s and I check back a KQ7 flop. The turn is a 2 and he checks again. Online I normally value bet here but I feel like in live value betting thin on K high boards is less effective, so I’ll check one more time then pretend I’m desperation bluffing the river. The river hits a 9 and he check calls my 75% pot bet, then tables AQ as well. Fair enough.

After about an hour at my table and being totally card dead our table breaks and I’m moved to what turns out to be the TV table. I had no idea this event was going to be televised so I’m pretty surprised when I realize the room is not just recording a small piece for the news or something but instead has a full on hole cam table and has all of us wearing microphones. The room is extremely hot so I remove my jacket, which has the microphone attached to it. This causes one of the sound tech guys to come in and ask to adjust it, but since I can’t speak French I just nod and say "Go ahead." As a result he un-tucks my shirt, takes the microphone, then reaches up into my shirt and starts modifying its placement with his arm jammed up my shirt, all while action goes on at the table. The other players at the table stare at us awkwardly:

"Hey, when in Paris right?" I tell them.

To be honest, I find my time at the TV table to be miserable. I know most people want to play poker on TV, but if you’re goal is simply to just make a shit ton of money and exploit the bad players as much and as fast as possible, then this sucks pretty hard. The play is very slow, the table is uncomfortable, the lights are hot, everyone tanks forever because they don’t want to look stupid, and the microphone receiver is attached to your back, which is about twice the size of a deck of cards and jams into your back when you lean into your seat.

The only hand of even slight interest I play at the TV table is a pre flop spot. It folds to me on the CO and I see the button ready to fold his cards. The SB is a total nit and the BB is pretty unknown. I decide to raise K8o and both players fold. The BB tanks for a long time, then folds an A face up, then sits there for 5 seconds and folds a J face up.

"I am a very tight player!" he says.

I say nothing in return.

It’s not long before we’re moved away from the TV table and a new player joins our table. On day 1a I played with a guy who I thought was seriously the most psychotic player in the history of tournaments. The new guy at our table somehow manages to make Day 1’s guy look sensible. Example hand:

Psycho raises to 5000 on the button and the SB re-raises to 16000. Psycho calls.

Flop: Q T 2 two spades one diamond.

The SB fires 29,000 and the psycho tanks for a long time before folding.

Turn: 7

SB moves all in for about 35,000 and the button tanks for a very long time before folding Kc9c face up like it’s the sickest fold in the world. This is pretty much every hand with this guy.

Unfortunately, I’m so insanely card dead I can barely touch the guy. Guy’s like these can’t be bluffed so you need some cards or to flop hands to do damage. It’s a long time before I find a good spot verse him:

My stack: ~58. Psycho: ~110k. I hold AsKh in MP1. Blinds 600/1200.

Preflop: UTG limps, folds to me in MP1, I raise to 5200, folds back to UTG, UTG calls.

Flop: 7h 8h Ad

UTG checks, and I think a while before firing 8500 and hoping he does something insane. Instead, he almost insta-folds.

Then for a very, very long time nothing happens. I do my best to pick on the nit two on my left, but the guy between us is a mid 30’s French guy who keeps 3 betting me, realizing how easy it is the crush the guy on his left. I never ever have anything close to a real hand and his 3 bets are always a massive 4X re-raise, so I have to keep folding.

In the middle of my dry spell of cards, the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen at a live tournament occurs. Near the start of the 800/1600 level there’s a loud outburst of arguing one table over. Suddenly play has stopped on all tables and we sit there while the whole table argues with the floor in French, along with an American friend of mine, Tyler, who can barely get a word in to try and explain himself. The holdup lasts for several minutes and between my being absurdly card dead, constantly 3 bet, and having to sit here doing nothing I rip out my piece of note paper and scribble "LIVE POKER IS FOR MASOCHISTS" while glaring around the room in annoyance.

The game stays paused and eventually we get an explanation of what’s happened. Apparently when we came back from break, two guys sitting in seat 5 and 6 came back to their seats, and both sat in the other player’s seat. It seems both these guys were so absent minded that neither one realized their error and play continued for several hands without incident, with both players playing each other’s stack instead of their own.

Apparently there was roughly a 15,000 chip difference between the two stacks (the average at this point is 70,000 so that’s fairly substantial but not massive.) Now here’s where the insanity comes in; the two players get involved in a big pot and the guy who accidentally sat down behind the larger stack busts the guy with the smaller stack. That is, a guy got busted by his own stack. I mean, that’s just fucking absurd. The busted player walked away from the table without realizing and play continued for a couple hands. Then the guy who was in the wrong seat and now with a huge stack took a big pot off Tyler, and during the play Tyler suddenly figures out the guy had the wrong stack. The whole table then comes to the realization of what’s happened, and that’s about the time all hell breaks loose.

So we sit there enduring all this arguing and stoppage of play, with our table debating what exactly should be done about this situation. The arguing at the other table becomes so intense that Aviation Club owner and operator Bruno Fitoussi comes over and angrily kicks everyone out of the room, declaring that we are on a 5 minute break. Those of us standing near the door way during the break are barked at to "LEAVE THE AREA! BREAK!" by Bruno.

Our 5 minute break becomes almost 20 minutes while the guy who was busted by his own stack pleads his case in French, meaning I can’t understand a word of what’s going on. When the dust finally settles it’s decided that the busted player will stay busted and the guy who sat behind the wrong stack is still in and will incur no penalty. He’ll be allowed to keep all the chips he’s gained, and basically nothing will change from the status we had half an hour ago except dinner will now be at 11pm. God, live poker is so fucking ridiculous.

Play finally resumes and my trend of being 100% card dead and getting nearly every light open raise 3 bet continues. My stack slowly dwindles down to around 54,000 when the following hand comes up:

My stack: ~54k. Psycho: ~210k. I hold AhQc in the BB. Blinds 800/1600 with 200 ante.

Pre-flop: Folds to Psycho on HJ, HJ raises to 7000 (normal for him), CO thinks it over and calls, folds to me in the BB. Considering the psycho loves to see flops for an absurd price this seems like a perfect spot to go-and-go with the intention of checking the flop if it contains an A or Q and isn’t the worst texture possible. I make it 24,000 (yes I know that’s almost half my stack, trust me there is plenty of fold equity left in live poker) and the psycho close to insta-calls. The CO folds and we’re heads up.

Flop: Kc 3s 5s

After about two seconds thought I announce all-in and slide my stack in. The psycho tanks for a very long time, stares me down, counts out the amount, then stares at me some more. Finally he elects to fold, and then tables 99 face up. Wow.

My stack makes it way up to about 80,000 and I’m soon involved again:

My stack: 82,000. UTG: ~100k. Blinds 800/1600 with 200 ante at an 8-handed table. I hold 8d8c UTG+1

Pre-flop: UTG raises to 5000. UTG has been open raising a ton from a lot of different positions, always the same amount. I feel like he could have a pretty wide range here and call, but I don’t think I’m calling much wider. It folds all the way around and we see the flop heads up.

Flop: 9s 6d 3s

He checks and I think this is a great spot to check behind and induce bluffs on the turn since live players desperation bluff far too often. They also tend to check-raise the flop way more frequently than online players do after being the pre flop raiser. I check behind.

Turn: 4h

UTG fires 10,000 and I call fairly quickly.

River: Tc

UTG checks and I decide it’s unlikely I can value bet against his range. I check behind and he tables ATo. God damn it.

After this hand I take some flops with small pairs or overtype cards and end up having to give up nearly every pot. I’m still raising the button a ton since the BB has only played back once (and has never defended) and the guy on my left has 3 bet me something like 5 times in 3 hours. It’s exhausting. On the 6th time he 3 bets me I decide to play back:

My stack: ~63k. SB: ~80k. Blinds 800/1600 with 200 ante. I hold 9h8c on the button.

Pre-flop: Folds to me on the button, I raise to 4200. The SB thinks it over for quite a while, looks over at me, then makes it 18,000. This massive re-raise from him is pretty standard and I don’t feel like it means extra strength. The BB of course folds and I went into this hand with a plan, if he 3 bets me, I’m finally shooting back. I think for only a couple seconds then announce all in and slide my stack in. Even though the SB is getting a pretty good price, I feel like in live poker it’s less relevant and the fact that the majority of his stack is at risk, and that we’re 10 players from cashing, makes the play profitable. That and I’m fucking tired of his stupid 3 bets. The SB tanks for quite a while. Counts down his stack, asks how much more, and then sees how much he’ll have left. He lets out a slight *sigh* then announces call. Ah shit. The SB tables AQo and at least I’ve got two live ones.

Flop: 3 4 6

Turn: 5

River: A

Ah fuck. I tap the table and walk away exhausted. Man, it is just so frustrating to seem to guess wrong every single time in live poker. Maybe I should just never be making big moves when most players still in are awful. Who knows? I’m out of the tournament action until Barcelona and my brain feels kind of fried. I didn’t really get out of line all tournament and the one spot I picked vs. a guy who had been pummeling me all day blew up in my face. In a strange way, live poker is hard.

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