Back to the Yamakazi home game. But it's Passover, and so the usual crowd isn't around this week. Also 5/5, $750 max buy in game has recently turned to a 5/10, $2k buy in. Which I thought should slow the pace down a bit, but wow was I wrong. The Fireman, a cartoonishly surly blue collar fireman who's conversation is always a half joke about how he hates basically all minorities. A Vietnam vet, so he has quite a few more pointed barbs for the Asian dudes who play and deal there. He plays it off as his sense of humor, and so we all laugh about it, but I think he'd be way upset if his sibling or child married a slope, kike, or shadow. You never hear the word “nigger” come out of his mouth, and maybe that would be the line of people thinking that he actually is a racist. I don't know. This one Asian dealer started calling him “my nigga',” as in “Twenty five to you, my nigga'.” This of course is about the most hysterical thing I'd heard, and cracks me up everytime he says it.
Yeah, so the first $1500 that I blow, I have 77, I raise to $100, a Crazy Asian calls, and Fireman calls. Flop = AKX all clubs. I make it like $250 on the flop, Asian folds, Fireman puts me all in. I'm like “Do you just have a club or did you hit the ace?” I put him on a club.. and I'm such a fucking idiot for not folding this fucking hand. Yeah, he had KxQc. So, I was beat before, but luckily a club (the 7... giving me a set.... barf) came on the river so I was able to sell to the table that I had an ace. Man, I should have folded, I wanted to be a fucking hero, and make the huge and stupid call. But, yeah, I mean, wow, you really need a good reason to call someone in that situation, and wanting to bust him is about the worst reason ever. I don't show anything, I have this look of disgust on my face, mostly from hitting the set and knowing I was dead anyway, I say nothing. I get sympathies from the rest of the table, but I refuse to tell anyone anything when asked what my hand is. Get another $1500, try to calm down, sit for awhile, observe for awhile...
The Landlord who loses at least $10k in these games has a predictable schedule. The third of the month he's there playing hard, bluffing every hand, laughing as he loses a few thousand, or even harder when people freak out when he hits some retarded one outer. By the twentieth of the month, he's developed a sour look on his face, nothing is funny, he doesn't bluff so much. By the twenty-fifth of the month he's nowhere to be found. By the third of next month, he's there playing hard, bluffing every hand, laughing as he loses... Of course what keeps him coming back, what gives him the most glee is sucking out on people.
So, yeah, my two hands with the Landlord in the space of about an hour.
I have AQ, bet $100, 3 callers. Flop = A7X. Bet, raise, all in. He has A7 of course. He agrees to give me business, so we run the turn and river 3 times, I catch a Q on the 2nd one, so only lose like $500 on that one.
Not too long after that I have AK, raise $100 pre flop, he's the only caller. flop = Q99, one club. Check, check. Turn = Ac. He bets $200, I raise to $500 he puts me all in. I call, he has JT of clubs. Before I can offer business the river is out, and of course it's another club. I show my cards here, as I was getting ready to take the pot, or offer business. This gets me some condolence from the rest of the table, and Landlord who says “sorry.” Which is nice of him, but yeah, you really shouldn't say anything after you suck out on someone unless you're going to give them the money back.
Well, I'm in for $3k at this point. And I have $1500 on me, and another $1500 at home. So, I stand up, and talk to the owner of the place. I explain my money situation, and ask if I can get another $1500. I'm stuck, I'm tired, but, the Landlord has a big stack, and he's still stuck for about $2k at this point. Which is great, as it means that he's going to keep throwing his money trying to get even. So, I want to stay and play with him.
He is undoubtedly the worst player I've ever played with. I've never even seen a close second really... the other very bad players have either an aggressiveness about them that can allow them to win some of the time, or they have a tightness about them that keeps them safe from big losses (and wins). This guy has some of the aggressiveness, but it only comes out when he's losing and everyone will call him. The other huge factor that makes him so bad is that he'll call huge bets with almost any hand... bottom pair, under pairs, any gut shot, any flush draw.. pre flop any suited cards are a calling hand for almost any amount, any limped button is a raising hand. The game gets very different with him in it, the maniacs shift gears and sit quietly to try to get in a position to play in hands with him. It was odd seeing him play this way for the smaller stakes. But, now that all the old hats of those older games have come to play this 5/10 game, and the 5/5 before it, his play is astounding. He's been doing this for about twenty years, back when the only game in town was stud, and he hasn't learned anything.
Anyway, after sucking out on that hand he had about $3k in front of him which took him about fifteen minutes to lose. He of course has an unlimited credit here, his checks are like gold, and the owner never tells him that he can't have more chips. So he's in for about $5k at this point, rebuying for $1500 at a time, and within about two hands his money is always in the pot. Any ace at this point looks good to him, any suited cards for any money looks good to him.
And I get back to even nearly all from him...
A9 of clubs goes runner runner to a flush, vs his two pair. Board was checked to the turn, where he made a weak bet on his bottom pair, that I had very positive EV to call.
One hand he's not in.... I have JT, flop = AQ8. Checked to the river, where there is a beautiful 9. I make a small bet, but no one calls, but still take down a $600 pot, mostly from Fireman and a very good pro sitting to my left,who I think had at least an A, as it took him a long time to fold.
He goes all in with AQ, and I have AA. He wants to run the whole board 3 times, and I win them all.
Ok.. so, just like that I'm down only $300. And I'm about ready to go to the gym, as I'd been planning to play the later game as well. And so I leave. Workout, shower, shave, feel pretty good...
The late game...
Well, there are a couple women there, so no porn on. Early in the game, I wind up being up somewhere around $1k. This one guy, who I think had me kicked out of this other game, I beat with KQ. I make a raise pre flop, and on the flop of nothing for me, which he calls. He checks the turn, I check. River = Q, and I bet it, and he calls. I show him, he's really pissed at it, he's like “ahh, I knew that card hit you.” Like in a way that he wants to beat me up. I'd taken like $5k from this guy in January on KK on a Q high board, where he decided to go all in on me, and I called him pretty quickly. This was en route to my biggest win ever ($10,600), which I wound up leaving the game after only about two hours of play. This caused someone, I'm guessing him, to complain to the guy who runs the game, and now I'm not allowed back there. Which sucks, as it's the biggest, most profitable game I know about in town.
Anyway, after winning this hand, I start to think that my shit must not stink as I've managed to come from down $3k to a small profit. But, of course, I get cocky and bluff off like $650....
I have 88, a quiet Indian pairs his ace on the flop. Check the turn. River = another A, I make a huge bet, and of course I get called. Raising him out of the blue like that on the flop wasn't so bad, but then not firing the turn, and then firing again on the river, I might as well have told him that I was bluffing. It was fucking stupid.
Then the guy from above busts my A5 with his AJ on an AXX, X, X board. And the same guy again delivers a nice cooler when I flop a set of 3's, and out of the bb, on an un-raised pot, turns a wheel. He's a moron for not putting me in for the last $300 I had on the table (and we see this flaw again). He shrugs to the rest of the table acknowledging this. I say nothing, sit there thinking about how I can either throw this $300 away, or I can leave. And I do leave, and I'm rather proud of myself for this.
Ok.. so, two losses in a row. On a bit of bad luck, but on mostly my own stupidity...
Bobby Fischer, despite being completely insane, had quite a few great quotes, one of which was "That's chess, you know. One day you give a lesson, the next day your opponent gives you a lesson." So, what lesson? On my spreadsheet, I made a front page, where I put my seven game, $26k disastrous losing streak, from the end of Jan to mid Feb. So, now whenever I open the sheet, I am forced to look at this. And now, each time I lose, I start to think about what's the similarties between this and that unparalleled disaster? What's the difference between when I win and when I lose?
Well, in the space between playing and sitting down to write this, I've come up with something that Greenstein mentions quite a bit... Sleep. It's not the abstract concept that I was talking about in the last post of degenerate gambling vs being a good player... In reading that again, I'm thinking that that idea is bullshit. It's quite simply sleep. When I've slept well is when I'm on my game. 99% of my shitty sessions are after I haven't slept well. It's simple. Bad sleep = bad play.
So.. I spent all of yesterday (tues) buying bedding, and putting up dark curtains, and setting up a fan to drown out the noises the creaky floors and old pipes make. And I finally got in eight hours of uninterrupted sleep in my new apt, and I'm feeling that I'm about ready to go and play today.
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