Belgium 
Canada 
China 
Germany 
Denmark 
Spain 
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United Kingdom 
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Japan 
Korea 
Netherlands 
Poland 
Romania 
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Russian Federation 
Sweden 
Thailand 
United States 
Vietnam 
Day 3 evening session: Poker stories!
Day 3 evening session and poker stories
Wandered back to Bellagio, and it's predictably much busier in the evenings. I waited about 20 min until a new table opened up, and played about 4 hours. The games were at least as high as 10/20 NL, 80/160 FL, and that's not counting whatever lunacy is in Bobby's Room. My table was pretty quiet, looked like at least 3 regs, and I was none too happy about that. Almost no friendly table talk. I decided to just BI for 200 and play snug til I had a read on the table. I've become so used to my local, where I can suss everything out in a matter of seconds since I know the usual suspects, and I always buy in for the max, so this was new for me. Eventually an African American woman say on my left, and she fit many of the stereotypes we have in our heads. Loud, garishly dressed, and involved in about 80% of pots. It's limped to me on the btn with KK, I make it 15 or so, she calls from the SB, everyone else gets out of the way of the nit. Essentially a perfect scenario. Flop is AQJtt, essentially a worst-case scenario. But I can't not c-bet, so I stick $15 out there and she calls. Turn is a rag, checked thru, and river brings another brick. She donks for $20, and I'm chatting here up, “But I'm soooo curious!” I say. “Don't do it,” she says, but I just have to know, so I call and she turns over J6 for a rivered 2p. Everyone's eyes pretty much doubled in size, she's like, “I told you don't get curious!” and everyone smiles (including hero, cuz how can you not?).
Later on hero plays AK super passive, no cbet on a QJx board with 3 callers. It's checked all the way down, and pocket 3s takes the $55 pot. Another tourist looks at me like wtf son? And I just shrug, smirk, say, “I guess I left my A-game in Vancouver.” I seriously think about leaving at this point, cuz I was tired and obvs playing like a donk, but I do believe that moments like this are a chance to work on playing through the weeds. At least I was smart enough to not top up, limit the risk. I'm whittled to about $100 (33BB, it's a 1-3 game), and I've never been this short in a cash game in, well, perhaps ever. Anyway, I'm in the SB with 64spades, 2 limpers (god I love live poker), I complete, BB checks. Flop $11, KJx, all spades. God loves all his children, even the fishies. I decide that I'm fine with risking another spade, it's double up or go home time, so I check. Flop checks thru, not ideal. River is a T, I lead 10, one reg calls. River is an ace, so V has to have something. I lead 20, he raises to 55. Really the only thing he could have that beats me but didn't bet the flop is Ax spades, every other flush, if played passively on flop and turn, would just call the river. So he has to have a straight. And live low-stakes, V raising here is fine, plenty of donks will call with 2p thinking Well I beat a bluff. And by now my image had to be pretty farking bad. So I play around with my chips a bit, I'm obvs gonna call but wondering if I can shove for value. I mean, he can't call with a straight, until I realize that I only have about 70 in front of me, and a shove will only be about 30-35 more to him, so he'll have to call anyway. I'm seriously never this short, so it took me a few sec to get me head around the maths here. And that's how it plays out, and hero's in the black for the first time tonight. And with that I wake up, and tired wussy tourist boy goes away and Cycle is back. I'm generally non-stop patter, but I've been subdued/out of my element so far in LV. But one dumbass hand that I lucked into, and now it's on.
So I'm somehow engaged in a religious discussion with the African American lady, and I'm playing good church boy. I start teasing one young Asian kid who knows all the dealers/prob local reg, about tithing, giving 10% of your income to charity. The lady knows what I'm taking about, it's a church thing, and the kid looks horrified by the idea. Kid bluff shoves on an A-high board into another reg who had AQ, it's his 2nd BI, and I'm like, see, God smites the non-believers! Kids shakes his head and is off into the night. Somewhere along the way I used the term “pagans”, and now I'm in a convo with an older Indian guy (the one who looked at me like I'm a clown when I butchered AK), and he says he's one of these “pagans”, and we have a friendly, teasing conversation about religion. He says it's like how maybe both our moms are great cooks, but we have different tastes in food. I counter, “But what if you're mom's cooking isn't nutritious?” He says it is, and I say, “But what if you're not getting enough vitamins and minerals? What about manganese?” and everyone else can tell I'm taking the piss, but he earnestly tries to defend his heretical ways. We eventually land in a happy spot as it turns out we're both vegetarians.
Church lady and I are in a few hands together, me with my iso-betting ways and her with her apparent need to see every flop. Well, I know this sounds crazy, but since she and I are god-fearing souls, we end up in a rhythm of “playing honest” post-flop, which isn't too different from agreeing to shoot it pre for a set amount. So I'm cool with it, and it's keeping the atmosphere light. It also sets up an image where I only bet when I have a piece, and naturally when I'm in a hand with the pagans I abuse them. I'm pfr with who-knows-what, Txx flop, I cbet and you can tell the Indian guy doesn't believe me but he folds, I shake my head like I just lost so much value, and I tell the dealer, “Miss, it will save us all time if you just deal my cards face-up, since they can all read me like a book anyway.” Eventually I'm not in a hand, church lady is with 2 others, 3 hearts hit the board, and she shoves about 150 into a 50 pot. She literally tells everyone, “I have the flush”, and they both lay down what they say are overpairs (one guy showed), and sure enough she showed 65s.
Anyway, that's what a night at the table with Cycle is like. I am loud, I laugh a lot, and as long as everyone is having a good time, more often than not, moneyz will flow. Though my take was 4 hours, only +28, but +fun, and that can't be beat.
Day 3 evening session and poker stories
Wandered back to Bellagio, and it's predictably much busier in the evenings. I waited about 20 min until a new table opened up, and played about 4 hours. The games were at least as high as 10/20 NL, 80/160 FL, and that's not counting whatever lunacy is in Bobby's Room. My table was pretty quiet, looked like at least 3 regs, and I was none too happy about that. Almost no friendly table talk. I decided to just BI for 200 and play snug til I had a read on the table. I've become so used to my local, where I can suss everything out in a matter of seconds since I know the usual suspects, and I always buy in for the max, so this was new for me. Eventually an African American woman say on my left, and she fit many of the stereotypes we have in our heads. Loud, garishly dressed, and involved in about 80% of pots. It's limped to me on the btn with KK, I make it 15 or so, she calls from the SB, everyone else gets out of the way of the nit. Essentially a perfect scenario. Flop is AQJtt, essentially a worst-case scenario. But I can't not c-bet, so I stick $15 out there and she calls. Turn is a rag, checked thru, and river brings another brick. She donks for $20, and I'm chatting here up, “But I'm soooo curious!” I say. “Don't do it,” she says, but I just have to know, so I call and she turns over J6 for a rivered 2p. Everyone's eyes pretty much doubled in size, she's like, “I told you don't get curious!” and everyone smiles (including hero, cuz how can you not?).
Later on hero plays AK super passive, no cbet on a QJx board with 3 callers. It's checked all the way down, and pocket 3s takes the $55 pot. Another tourist looks at me like wtf son? And I just shrug, smirk, say, “I guess I left my A-game in Vancouver.” I seriously think about leaving at this point, cuz I was tired and obvs playing like a donk, but I do believe that moments like this are a chance to work on playing through the weeds. At least I was smart enough to not top up, limit the risk. I'm whittled to about $100 (33BB, it's a 1-3 game), and I've never been this short in a cash game in, well, perhaps ever. Anyway, I'm in the SB with 64spades, 2 limpers (god I love live poker), I complete, BB checks. Flop $11, KJx, all spades. God loves all his children, even the fishies. I decide that I'm fine with risking another spade, it's double up or go home time, so I check. Flop checks thru, not ideal. River is a T, I lead 10, one reg calls. River is an ace, so V has to have something. I lead 20, he raises to 55. Really the only thing he could have that beats me but didn't bet the flop is Ax spades, every other flush, if played passively on flop and turn, would just call the river. So he has to have a straight. And live low-stakes, V raising here is fine, plenty of donks will call with 2p thinking Well I beat a bluff. And by now my image had to be pretty farking bad. So I play around with my chips a bit, I'm obvs gonna call but wondering if I can shove for value. I mean, he can't call with a straight, until I realize that I only have about 70 in front of me, and a shove will only be about 30-35 more to him, so he'll have to call anyway. I'm seriously never this short, so it took me a few sec to get me head around the maths here. And that's how it plays out, and hero's in the black for the first time tonight. And with that I wake up, and tired wussy tourist boy goes away and Cycle is back. I'm generally non-stop patter, but I've been subdued/out of my element so far in LV. But one dumbass hand that I lucked into, and now it's on.
So I'm somehow engaged in a religious discussion with the African American lady, and I'm playing good church boy. I start teasing one young Asian kid who knows all the dealers/prob local reg, about tithing, giving 10% of your income to charity. The lady knows what I'm taking about, it's a church thing, and the kid looks horrified by the idea. Kid bluff shoves on an A-high board into another reg who had AQ, it's his 2nd BI, and I'm like, see, God smites the non-believers! Kids shakes his head and is off into the night. Somewhere along the way I used the term “pagans”, and now I'm in a convo with an older Indian guy (the one who looked at me like I'm a clown when I butchered AK), and he says he's one of these “pagans”, and we have a friendly, teasing conversation about religion. He says it's like how maybe both our moms are great cooks, but we have different tastes in food. I counter, “But what if you're mom's cooking isn't nutritious?” He says it is, and I say, “But what if you're not getting enough vitamins and minerals? What about manganese?” and everyone else can tell I'm taking the piss, but he earnestly tries to defend his heretical ways. We eventually land in a happy spot as it turns out we're both vegetarians.
Church lady and I are in a few hands together, me with my iso-betting ways and her with her apparent need to see every flop. Well, I know this sounds crazy, but since she and I are god-fearing souls, we end up in a rhythm of “playing honest” post-flop, which isn't too different from agreeing to shoot it pre for a set amount. So I'm cool with it, and it's keeping the atmosphere light. It also sets up an image where I only bet when I have a piece, and naturally when I'm in a hand with the pagans I abuse them. I'm pfr with who-knows-what, Txx flop, I cbet and you can tell the Indian guy doesn't believe me but he folds, I shake my head like I just lost so much value, and I tell the dealer, “Miss, it will save us all time if you just deal my cards face-up, since they can all read me like a book anyway.” Eventually I'm not in a hand, church lady is with 2 others, 3 hearts hit the board, and she shoves about 150 into a 50 pot. She literally tells everyone, “I have the flush”, and they both lay down what they say are overpairs (one guy showed), and sure enough she showed 65s.
Anyway, that's what a night at the table with Cycle is like. I am loud, I laugh a lot, and as long as everyone is having a good time, more often than not, moneyz will flow. Though my take was 4 hours, only +28, but +fun, and that can't be beat.
Eventually keep on crawling, find a spot to admire the whole place. It was pretty darn cool, but again, there is no way photos from a cell phone can really capture what it's like, so I didn't bother.
@thetallpaul
