Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Knocking The Rust Off My Mojo


It's good to be back... Both home and in the poker room. I hadn't played any cards in over a week. Hell, I think it might've been more like ten days. I think the last time I played it was over at the 'M' and I busted a couple of Russians and tilted the guy with all the neck tattoos. That was a pretty good night.

After working a couple of nights after that, then going to Phoenix for a few days, and then working a couple more nights, well, one can imagine that my game was quite rusty. I hadn't worked at my 'part time job' in far too long.

So I was looking forward to Tuesday night. My plan for the evening was to watch the latest episode of The Deadliest Catch, then make my way down to the 'M' for an evening of 4-8 poker. When I left the house at 7:30, I called down there to put my name on the waiting list, and the hostess told me that they didn't even have a game going at the time and that I was only the fifth person on the interest list. I figured that there would probably be a few stragglers coming in by the time I got there, so I still made my way southwest on St. Rose. Besides, game or no, it would've been nice to see Sammi, too.

By the time I got there, they were just getting ready to seat the players and start a game. I told the hostess that I was there, but the floorman missed the communication and gave somebody else my seat. Grrr... So I sat down with a magazine, content to be the second person on the new waiting list. About ten minutes later, I looked up and saw that I was suddenly now the fourth person on the waiting list. I went to the desk to find out why, but the hostess was nowhere to be found.

After getting jacked out of my seat at the beginning of the game, then somehow booted down the waiting list, I was kinda pissed off. To make matters worse, they only had four tables total going, so Sammi had the night off. Oh well, time to move on, I thought. But being a poker degenerate enthusiast, I have a whole mess of my favorite poker rooms on speed dial. So I started looking for a game. It was kinda strange though--it seemed that nobody had a 4-8 game going-- couldn't find one anywhere.

Eventually, I found a room a ways away that had two tables going, so I told them to put me on the list and that I'd be there in a half-hour. I was feeling no love at the 'M' last night, so I bailed.

When I got to the second casino, it didn't look good. Both 4-8 games looked kinda weak, and there was 7-handed 1-2 no limit game going, too. Before I bought in, I watched the no limit game for a bit, and I recognized a couple of the players--guys I'd beaten a few times in the past.

Hmmm...

So instead of playing 4-8, I got two stacks of red and a stack of white (that's $220 for you beginners out there) and sat down at the no-limit table. As soon as I sat down, the gal in the seat on my left said Mikey! What are you doing here?!?!?

I did a double take and started chuckling to myself--it was my friend 'Sheena', who I swear, I must play with two or three times a week over at my casino--and she usually plays 4-8 also. She was in disguise--I totally didn't recognize her when I first came in. Her hair is usually curly, but it was straightened, and she was wearing a ball cap down low over her eyes and had sunglasses too.

I asked her what she was doing, and she said that she was incognito because it was such a juicy game...

Juicy game huh? Then why do you only have $150 in front of you? Heh.

I think she slugged me after I said that.

I sat down and ground away about $50 in the first half hour, completely airballing every flop I played. But then I took a few down without a showdown and started building my stack. Two other guys had the bad sense to go all-in against me when I was holding monsters, and I broke them, which in turn broke the game.

Sheena was right, it was juicy, right up until the part where I mowed down the other players. There were only five of us left--not worth playing--so both Sheena and I got seats at a 4-8 table. Before I sat down, however, I went to the cashier and pocketed $260 in profit.

I spent the next four hours grinding away at the 4-8 game, not really winning any huge pots, but constantly building my stack. I did, however, lose a triple-digit pot on the river with pocket Kings against pocket sixes when the board ran out 8-K-5-4-7. That kinda sucked. And my iPod cost me an extra $24 on a kill-pot when I raised with the second-nut straight, thinking I was heads-up against one player, when I didn't hear or notice the guy behind me who raised the river with the stone-cold nuts. Ouch.

But other than those two miscues, I did pretty well, and was happy to pocket another $100 for my efforts before calling it a night around 1:30.

I was starving when I got out of there, having not had anything to eat all day. So I hit the Taco Bell drive-thru on the way home and was denied. That kinda sucked. I thought they were open all night for that whole 'fourth meal' thing, but they shut it down at 1 o'clock in the morning on weeknights. Vegas might be a 24-hour town, but Henderson, not so much. I really wanted some Mexican food, but Fausto's also closes early, and the nearest Roberto's is way down on Eastern and Horizon Ridge. Laziness trumped hunger, so I stopped at the 7-11 and got a Gatorade and some 'Garden Salsa' flavored Sun Chips. Meh...

Anyhow, I'm not quite tired enough to go to bed just yet, and I'd really love to start moving stuff down to the garage since it's not so damn hot outside. But my roommate is asleep downstairs and if I started hauling stuff around the house, it would drive the dogs nuts. So I guess I'll just watch some TV for awhile, go to bed in a few hours, and then later this afternoon get all of the non-essentials down to the garage.

Maybe tonight I'll give the 'M' another try. My poker mojo might be back, but I haven't flirted with Sammi in over a week.

Mikey

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