Fallsview = Pain, a humerous andecdote, and a big day...

Man, that's easily the stupidest title for a blog ever. I originally was going to rip off a classic poker book's title for an entry where I included this andecdote, but I decided to just absorb it into a bigger blog. The rip off was going to be of Michael Craig's "The Professor, The Banker, And The Suicide King", I was going to title it "The Professor, The ATM and the Suicide Kid".

Clever huh?

Anyway, we'll start with the andecdote since it's one of my favourite stories from my entire poker career, and has absolutely nothing to do with me except the fact that I just so happened to be at the table during the hand.

Sonny Rattan, aka my boss and aka the voice of Pokerstars broadcasts now, and basically the single person I'd say I owe the most to as a poker player considering he's the one that tought me how to play poker, and myself went to go play a game at Casino Niagara, a simple 1/2 NL game. I went bust when my AA got cracked by 44 when the guy re-raised my UTG raise all-in and spiked a 4 on the turn. I got up and was actually ready to leave when Sonny offered to buy me back into the game. So I put my name back on a list and ended up on a table with him, to his right. He loves to tell this story so he can throw in his little dig at how I was totally card-dead and the only three times I raise in the span of like 4 hours, he came back over the top and had me fold(AQ, AQ and 99 to his AK, AK and JJ). What a jerk.

Anyway, the story isn't about me so let's delve aside, Sonny was doing very well, up to around 900 deep or so at this point(max buyins 100 so that's pretty steep), when this hand occurs with a kid about 400 deep, give or take.

The player raises it up from EP, and Sonny calls from the Cut-Off. The flop comes 9/10/Q rainbow. The kid fires out a continuation bet, and Sonny calls. The turn is a 7, but puts a flush draw on the board. The kid fires out another bet, and Sonny raises him all-in, at this point I'd say the kid's 100 deep into the hand and will have to call off 300 more.

Remember the flop, 9/10/Q, turn 7. He calls off 300 deep. Sonny tables K/J for the stone nuts, and this num-nuts turns over pocket 8's, in what I can only assume was an effort to make a heroic call for the ages. Honestly, if you make that call against a fairly tight, solid player, and are ever right, please write a book about that call and name your book "I'm better than you : How I made the best call ever in the history of ever."

I digress. The kid then really makes a comment that shows I suppose he's blind, "That's fine, I only need the Jack to chop." This is where I love Sonny's response, because me? I'd have played it differently, I'd have let him cling to that hope, praying the river was a Jack so he'd feel stupid when the pot was still shipped my way. Sonny? He's what can only loosely be described as a soul-crusher. His response? "No, no you don't need a Jack...King high? See?" The kid didn't even stick around to see the river card, he left for the ATM and came on back to the table. This is where the story becomes interesting...upon sitting at the table the kid looks at Sonny and declares "I'm coming to get my money back!"

For the next hour or so, he's raising every single time Sonny is BB, which is actually kind of silly considering he's UTG+1 when Sonny was BB, but he's that tilted. Every once in a while I re-pop him and steal dead money. Finally, he does it once, and Sonny calls(the first time he's fought back at all). The flop is 10/9/7 rainbow. The kid fires a continuation bet, and Sonny calls. The turn comes an 8. The kid fires another bet(he's pretty deep again now, over half of his stack is in the pot at this point). Sonny asks him for a count, the kid declares he has 45 dollars behind, and Sonny calmly responds "I'll raise you 40, leave you some money for the bus." The kid goes into the tank, looks at his buddy standing on the rail behind him "God...you did this to me last time too!", Sonny responds with "Ya, and did you learn your lesson last time". The kid then tells us he's going to make "a GREAT laydown", and folds A/10 face up, and asks Sonny if he made the right fold.

Sonny : "Ya, you made a great fold."
Suicide Kid(to a friend behind him) : "I knew it, I knew I made a great fold!"
Sonny(still with cards in hand, finally tables it...5/3 offsuit) : "You made a great fold because if you call I can't possibly win"

The kid makes this sick face, and from then on it's absolute game on. Everyone at the table realizes this kid's borderline suicidal at the table, and he's an easy target, and the kid eventually gets stuck at least another 4 buyins to the table before he finally leaves.

I always liked that story...so, onto my day at Fallsview...

I went down to Fallsview with 2 friends of mine, Alex and Curtis, both friends I have incredible respect for as players, Alex and I talk about poker all the time, and although Curtis and I aren't as close, he's a good friend and an amazing player. Anyway, we go down, and Curtis buys in to the 2/5 NL game, Alex and I sit at 5/5.

My table draw, if you read my last blog, was the polar opposite of my last table. This was the most agressive table I've ever sat at for 5/5. If there was a flop dealt with less than 150 bucks in the pot it was a borderline miracle. Either 2 players would get real deep preflop, or it'd be a "cheap" 40 bucks preflop with 5 callers. I had just sat down and got the feel for how insane the table was when I limped Ah/4h in EP hoping to see a cheap flop, and it was raised behind me to 40 dollars, then 6 callers called by the time it came back to me, so I laughingly called the 40. The flop was Q/5/5 rainbow, I checked and the initial raiser bet 150, got called, and got called. Pot's now at nearly 700 dollars. Turn was a J. Initial raiser bet 250, got called all-in for about 200, and re-raised to 500. Initial raiser called the extra 250. So now the pot is 1300 main, 600 side. The river comes a brick, like a 6, and the initial better checks to a very solid player who puts in 300 more which represents the last of the initial raisers chips. The raiser says "What the hell do you think I'm bluffing you here?" and calls, and tables...KQ. He played a 2500 dollar pot on a Q/J/5/5/6 board with KQ. I didn't even need to see the other kid's cards, I couldn't help it I just started laughing. The solid player tabled QQ for the win. Ship it all over there for one of the most rediculous pots I've sat and watched at a table.

Anyway, I was immensely card dead, and slowly widdled away to around 400 left, then I tried to run what I think is still a solid bluff, since only one hand can call me and he just so happened to have it. This fairly tight player raises preflop to 20. Now I'm really looking to play because that's dirt cheap for my table, and I have that gorgeous little white chip infront of me with the word "DEALER" on it. I call with K/8. The flop is J/9/8 with two diamonds. He bets out 75 at a pot of just 45 bucks. I now go into the tank, that's either a big hand on the flop, that's scared of the obvious large draw capabilities of this board, or it's an outside chance of a real big draw, but since he's a tight player I decide it's a big hand(a set or AA or KK), so I call off hoping for a scare turn. The turn is a 10. He fires out a really weak 40 bucks at nearly 200, and I decide that's him just making an exploratory bet with a scared hand, so I slam over the top to 200. He goes into the tank for a few minutes and then shoves all in. Damn, he had the draw. I fold and he shows Ad/Qd. Unlucky but I still feel that's a good play, he just played really well, his turn bet was great, he left the door wide open for me to slam over the top, if he was thinking that deep about the hand which I doubt. But if he was kudos, well played.

Anyway, I rebought but went down to 2/5 with Curtis, who at this point was up 700 bucks or so(buyin's 200, he had 900 infront). I buy-in for 200, and one of the first hands I play is maybe the one debatble hand I played, although I still don't see a way out of the hand for me. I had AQ in the SB after a few limps, I raised to 25. Got 2 callers, the BB and a MP player. The flop comes Ac/9h/7h, I fire out 50 bucks and BB calls, MP player folds. The turn is a Js, a bad card because it is in his wheelhouse for a convuluted straight with 10/8, or more likely 2 pair with AJ, but I had decided I put him on a flush draw on the flop when he called quickly, so I had already decided the turn was a push as long as it wasn't a heart(besides, I don't have another bet in me, the pot is now over 200 I have 100 behind), so I shove the turn and he calls, with AK. Without a r-raise preflop or on the flop, I don't see a way I can avoid going broke when I'm OOP.

I rebuy one more time, and one of the first hands I play under this buyin, is calling a 6 way pot at 20 bucks with 5d/6d. The flop is nice, 10c/6s/5h. I check, deciding I wanted the player to my left, the initial raiser, to get himelf in trouble here. He fires out 40, and the player behind calls, and I slam over the top all in for 160. Not alot I can do here, I give myself the highest fold equity here, and I hopefully freeze out that player hanging along barring him having a monster, I'm positive I have the initial raiser beat. He calls, and the other player folds. The raiser tables JJ. 10d on the turn for a higher 2 pair, ship my money over there. Nice. About 6 hours, and I'm stuck close to 1000 dollars. I guess the one good peice of news is I asked a pit boss where he recommends me staying for the Jackseven Birthday Bash next-week, and he says that if I call Fallsview and have them patch me through to the Hilton across the street, they offer a great discount for poker players. So I'm probably doing that. Good advice.

Curtis ended his session up 1100 dollars, Alex was stuck 1 or 2 hundred I think.

Tomorrow's shaping up to be a big day for me, I'm playing both the real big online tournaments tomorrow, the Pokerstars Sunday Million at 4:30, and the Full Tilt Poker FTOPS Main Event 2 million-guaranteed at 6:00. Hopefully I'll just calmly win them both and make half a million or more.