How does it affect me?

Posted by SteelWheel

February 4, 2008

So in my last four live game sessions here at the Commerce, I’ve had two modest losses, and two fairly large wins. Here’s how the losses went down:

- I had been catching no cards for quite awhile, so naturally had acquired the image of “the tight guy”. I’m actually looser than most people would believe–but when I’m not catching cards, I’m perfectly capable of folding for hours, if necessary. In this case, I was UTG with KK, and raised, after not having played a hand for quite awhile. Of course, this piece of information was lost on the loose aggressive guy at the table, who decided to reraise. There followed a cold call from another player (this player has been quite notorious on the circuit since the ‘07 WSOP–let’s just say that she’s young, attractive, is willing to shoot it up, and appears to have some sort of arrangement with another “name” player, the one who just recently managed to avoid being deported back to his native country).

Anyway, I saw myself as having no option but to ship it all in, of course. Original reraiser folded, and the girl now started muttering about how she managed to get “stiffed in” by the reraiser (? Calling $500 cold is getting “stiffed in”?) against the guy who “never plays a hand”. Naturally, she calls with her pocket 99, and flops a set…

- Playing at a table where several people are walking, I find myself UTG with Qd9d..all three players behind me are already acting as if to toss their hands in the muck, so I’m effectively on the button here. I stick in a small raise, and get called by the BB. Flop is Qh9h4c. BB checks, I fire. He check-raises. If he flopped a set here, I’m paying off. I move all-in, and he calls. Turn card is a King, river is a Jack, and he turns over…KJ of hearts? You know, I expect to lose these kinds of hands when they call with nothing but a draw–that’s why poker is a beatable game after all–you have to let them get there once in awhile with the flush draws, or there wouldn’t be any fish to play against. Hitting runner-runner two pair was a little sick, though.

Now for the really good story: This past Friday night, I was playing the 20/40 again, and the guy seated on my immediate left was going by the initials “TJ”. This guy is also kind of notorious, though not for poker reasons. His claim to fame (?) is that he was the sports memorabilia dealer who got mixed up in the recent OJ-hoohah. I hope he got himself a huge advance for the book he’s writing, because he sure as heck can’t play poker. In the space of a few hours, I saw him bust out, go back to his box or whatever for more chips, return and bust out again, repeatedly, throughout the entire evening. His only saving grace was that he was doing one short buy after another, so the money was lasting longer. Nevertheless, he dumped off a fair chunk to me, as well as “sharing the wealth” around the table with my fellow players. Great game.

Now the best part: At some point during this evening, some skel goes dashing past my table towards the men’s room. He is being hotly pursued by two highway patrol cops. Suddenly we hear a booming “cop voice” saying: “Freeze m—–f—-r, I saw you reaching, make a move and you’re done!”

Apparently, there had been a drive-by shooting on the 5, which ended when the perp decided to try to shake the cops by driving into the Commerce Casino, dumping his vehicle, and then running through the casino–and heading for the men’s room? I guess after a rough night of popping people on the Santa Ana Freeway, you really have to go…

Anyway, needless to say, in all the confusion and excitement, everyone had jumped out of their chairs to see what was going on. I of course, remained focused on what was important–there was a poker game going on, after all. The action had gone small raise, call, call, to me. When the action was on me though, there was NOBODY seated at the table, except for the dealer and me. My hand was immaterial. I picked up some chips, and stuck in a raise. The dealer had no choice but to muck the other players’ hands, and push the pot to me. Everyone else got to satisfy their rubber-necking, voyeuristic implulses–but I picked up the pot.

So the moral of this story is: Never mind these extraneous distractions. Less blatant examples of this same kind of thing happen all the time: There might a big NCAA game on, and everybody at the table is focused on rooting for their bracket or whatever, and not paying attention to the poker game. Stuff like this is a license to loosen your game up. Just go ahead and stick in a raise. Trust me, they won’t play back at you unless they have a real hand. And if they do play back, you’ll know you’re up against a big hand, which will give you additional knowledge as the play unfolds.

The Giants just won the Super Bowl in a stunning upset? A beautiful girl just walked by? The cops pursue a perp into the casino? Who cares? I’m playing a poker game here..how does it affect me?.