Where feminine hygiene is no laughing matter ...Rick's Cafe Americain

Ferrari’s Home Game

The action at Ferrari’s is dealer call, with most of the calls either 7-stud with a .25 ante and spread limit .25-5 or a round of 2/4 hold ‘em or Omaha/8 (so that everyone gets the button and everyone pays the blinds).  The buy-in is a cool $100.  Ferrari upped the buy-in for two reasons: (1) he is trying to coax the crew into higher limits (though we are essentially content to keep playing the game we’re playing) and (2) the higher buy-in means less need to rebuy.  Reason #2 didn’t work out so well.

The game had so much action and there were so many swings that there were rebuys all over the place.  Sam and Joel both bought more chips from Pauly.  Helmut bought chips from Ferrari ... who then bought them back from Helmut.  Pauly passed the cash from Sam and Joel over to me when his stack dwindled toward the felt.

I was the first to call, so I called Hold ‘em, feeling it was too early to annoy the table by calling Omaha/8 - a game that only I really like. Ferrari came out of the gate like a madman.  There were only five players for the first deal, and he raised on four of the five hands in the hold ‘em round.  I am pretty sure that he saw the river on each of the first four hands, and may have seen it for the last one.  It is difficult to believe that he had so many raising hands in a row, but he claims otherwise.  I don’t recall that he ever had to show his cards, so I rely on his word that the worst hand he had during that stretch was 99.  I didn’t have to worry about Ferrari’s aggressive play because I saw paint only once in five hands; I just stayed out of his way.

In any event, Ferrari won a few pots early but lost a big one when Pauly called his pre-flop raise with junk but caught a monster flop.  This was the beginning of a long night for Ferrari.  His strong starting hands never developed into anything and Pauly’s loose-aggressive play meant that flops bad for Ferrari were inevitably pro-Pauly.  In short order Ferrari was grumbling about the river and Pauly’s willingness to see a lot of flops and Pauly was almost invisible behind his giant stack of chips. But when Pauly’s contract with the devil expired, I was quick to sign on the dotted line. 

In reality, I just played hold ‘em tight and Omaha tighter.  I bluffed a bit more than I usually do in stud, but I had the up cards to represent strength - and the final down card kept giving me what I was telling the table I had all along.  I also decided to dispense with tactics like slowplaying or check-raising.  There were too many people willing to call to allow anyone to get free cards and I was able to build bigger pots by betting than I could have by trying to trap the rest of the table.

In my absence Rick was taking down the table like a pro, but in my presence he played a lot of the night on tilt.  I don’t think one thing had anything to do with the other, I’m just saying ...  Of course most of Rick’s problems came from two hands where he got sucked out on.  In addition to Pauly’s miracle full house, Joel chased a flush all the way to the last card in a game of 7stud and Rick paid dearly when he caught it.  Of course he also lost a big pot to Pauly when he tried to use four clubs on the board to make a flush in a game of Omaha, so it wasn’t just bad beats for dear Rick.  He took a couple of late pots to keep his losses respectable and actually was never down far enough to need to buy chips.  Not a good night, but one that certainly could have gone far worse.

In any event, I got a lot more action than I usually do.  I have a reputation as a tight player (maybe tight-weak, but at least tight) and so I don’t get flat called very often.  Tonight, though, I was getting paid off left and right.  Pocket 10s became trips on the flop and a boat on the turn; despite my raises, Helmut kept betting into me. In a game of 5stud/hilo/replace, I caught a pair of jacks that, by the time of the declare, was clearly the nut high. My 7♦8♦ flopped 6-9-T and I had callers through the turn.  But I made real money at Pauly’s expense twice.

First, in a game of Anaconda (the “screw your neighbor” version) I was playing eights full of sixes.  This is about as low a hand as I am willing to play in Anaconda because (a) someone always has a full house; (b) people with full houses always call all the way to the end; (c) one of the parts of the full house is usually higher than an 8, making it hard to have any confidence in the hand; and (d) at a capped $20 in betting per round, it can get very expensive to hope for a bluff.  It might have been the case here also, except Pauly made a mistake setting up his hand and was unable to effectively chase me out with his threes full of aces.

Pauly ordered his cards 3-A-3-3-A.  I assume that Pauly was trying to bluff quads.  This is a tough bluff because in a HiLo game, it is inevitable that one of the low hands has the case 3 showing somewhere else on the board.  This was, in fact, the case.  By fourth street it was clear that I had the nuts, but Pauly and I (along with the low) had capped the betting on the second and third rounds and Pauly had committed too much money not to see the river and make sure I wasn’t bluffing.  Big pot for me.  (Of course, I hate Anaconda.  I lost the money to Helmut on the next hand when his wheel beat my A2356 for the low pot.  I also threw away 99944 when Joel bluffed KKKJJ and Rick was bluffing a straight flush - Rick won the hand with a Q flush over Joel’s two pair.)

The second big win was more of a burn, and Pauly deserves credit for taking it well.  I was dealt 2334 in a game of H/L Omaha/8.  An A and a 7 on the flop meant that I was willing to call any bet while hoping for the turn to bring a qualifying low - I had the nuts no matter what the card was.  When the turn was a 6, I jammed the pot and Pauly jammed right back at me.  Helmut came along for the ride through the river. The river was a 5, making a board of A-x-7-6-5 with no flush possibilities.  I split the low with Helmut, who had been wisely (but futilely) hoping that Pauly and I would stop raising one another because getting 1/4 of the pot when only three people are betting is a losing proposition.  Everyone (including me) initially agreed that Pauly had the high with Aces up - until Helmut noticed that the 5 on the river gave me a straight to the 7.  I was so focused on having the nut low that I didn’t even notice that I had an inside straight draw.  Pauly had to turn over a half pot of almost $50.  I’d have felt worse if he hadn’t been trying to win an Omaha hand with two pair, but I have to admit I felt pretty bad about miscalling my hand and ripping away the satisfaction of a win from Pauly. He got me back, though.

Uncharacteristically, I played A2o and even called Pauly’s preflop raise.  In my defense, I thought that Pauly was only raising at me because I accused him of paying the homeless for sex.  The flop was A-x-2 and I bet like crazy, as did Pauly.  I had him pegged for AK or AQ and was thrilled to have caught him.  We capped on the turn and the river and Pauly showed me a pair of bullets.  A kevlar vest won’t prevent the pain when someone fires bullets at you during the showdown.  I was betting my ass off, but I was essentially drawing dead from the flop.  Ouch. But bonus points to Pauly for pulling off the illusion that the preflop raise was “revenge.” It probably doubled the size of the pot.

As good as the night was, it could have been better. The last two hands cost me ~$20.  The table was down to five, so I loosened up and played K3.  I even called on the flop even though it had an A and a Q and I didn’t even pair the 3.  When the turn was similarly useless, I laid the hand down.  On the next hand I finished the bet from the SB with Q♥8♥.  The flop had a Q and I bet the top pair.  Helmut called my bets on the turn and the river (since I was still holding the top pair) and outkicked me with QTo for a modest pot.

At the end of the night I was up $102 and Pauly’s +$9 was the only other positive finish of the night.  I think I am going to keep the good karma going too.  When the cab driver inadvertently passed me a fin instead of a single for my change, I pointed it out and took the right amount of change.  That has to count for something.

Poker Blogs

I have to give a shout-out to The Fat Guy.  The two of us have been going back and forth on weather the Yankees are the apotheosis of evil and whether the Rangers could find their way out of a paper bag with a broadsword.  His current rant on the media’s fetish with the First Amendment while openly hostile to the Second is interesting, even though I am skeptical of the modern reading of the “right to bear arms.” He also blogs about poker, but between the liberals and the Rangers he is being kept pretty busy.

I have to wonder if Suited Trash is ever going to update or if the site has been abandoned.  Her last post is from BEFORE I left for Pakistan two weeks ago.

Thanks to Felicia Lee who sent me a primer on low stakes online SNGs and did me the favor of providing guidelines for tipping the dealer in a casino.

Finally, Iggy has done his usual comprehensive write up of the world of poker.  If I could request one thing of him, though, it would be to do something to set off quoted material from other sources.  Say, with italics or even quotation marks. That is petty, however.  The more important Iggy-related news is that I am now registered for the Second WPBT Tournament at True Poker.

Look out world, here comes Ugarte.  Bring it on, Wil fookin’ Wheaton!!!