Where Sam doesn't play anymore ...Rick's Cafe Americain

As per usual, I arrived late to the tournament. At the 2:30 scheduled start time, I got a call from Ferrari asking where I was. At the time I was just getting back into my car. I belatedly realized that I had (a) not eaten anything all day and (b) had only $4 in my wallet. A quick stop on 14th St. and 8th avenue to pop into an HSBC and a sandwich shop and I was on my way. It turns out that it is much easier to find parking near the Blue Parrot on Monday nights than it is on Saturday afternoons. I ended up parking four blocks and an avenue away. At least the walk gave me time to finish my sandwich.

When I arrived I was told that I had only been blinded down 150. The table started laughing but I didn’t get the joke. It would have been more effective if I had be told the blind structure first. Instead, first they told me I was down 150 ... second that they were only kidding ... third that the blinds started at 10/20. Ha ha! Without knowing what the starting blinds were I really had no way of knowing if “150” was unreasonable. Anyway, I was only down 30 of my starting stack. (2000? 1500? I didn’t count or ask.) I took over as dealer because I was in the best position to do so (the table at the Parrot is much longer than it is wide). I managed to fumble the cards exactly zero times. asphnxma will never believe me.

Going clockwise around the table (starting on my left) were Mas, Toby, Derek, Toni, Ferrari, Pauly, Coach and Julie. For those counting: barely half of the players at the NYC Poker Blogger Invitational were, in fact, poker bloggers.

I took a few pots down early by being aggressive with my chips. I wasn’t calling, just raising. I became one of a series of people to push back at Ferrari. I was the only person willing to push back at Toni. My tight reputation was getting my raises plenty of respect at the table, so I wasn’t showing down anything. Then my cards went ice cold. I just folded for an eternity and waited for cards.

Pauly was the first to go down, the victim of a vicious one-two punch administered by Julie and Derek. Pauly raised preflop and only Julie stayed in with him. The flop had two Broadway cards and two clubs; Pauly bet the pot. Julie pondered for a bit then said I shouldn’t call but I’m going to. The rarely expressive Pauly’s face broke when the turn was 3♣. He checked the turn and Julie checked back.  (I may have the order backwards; I don’t recall where the button was.) The river was a brick and Pauly checked again. This time Julie threw about half the pot into the middle and Pauly, muttering I can’t believe she caught the flush mucked his cards. Julie offered to show her hand if Pauly wanted to see it. Pauly said yes and she turned over a busted gutshot draw. No clubs. No pair. Pauly looked like he got kicked in the stomach, but he took it like a man.  Not long after, Pauly reraised Derek all-in. Derek thought about it, looked at his tower of chips (and Pauly’s modest pile) and called, expecting a race. He flipped over AK and Pauly yelped Fuck! and turned over AQ. Brothers they may be, but they sure don’t collude. Pauly, out in 9th place.

A quick aside: I am often told that Brother of Ugarte and I look exactly alike. I don’t see it at all, but since strangers are always asking us if we are twins, I concede that I am wrong. Which brings me to Pauly and Derek. They don’t look exactly alike by any means, but they have the exact same eyes. If you only knew Pauly, hadn’t seen him for a few years and then ran into Derek, you would almost certainly say “Hey Pauly!” (or vice versa).

After Pauly busted out, attention turned to Ferrari as the shortstack at the table. He guaranteed that he would not be the next person out. With the swagger and gamesmanship that made Joe Namath famous, he then did not play another hand until Derek busted out Toby. I’m guessing he mucked aces at least once. He went out shortly after when he pushed with AK. Julie thought about it for a few seconds and then called with KJo. A jack on the flop sent Ferrari to the losers lounge happy with the way he played the hand. Julie blew off his attempt to discuss the wisdom of the call with the equivalent of Cameron Indoor Stadium chanting Scoreboard!

That said, the dominant theme of the day was Julie winning after making questionable calls. Her play on Pauly aside, she was almost always behind when the cards were turned over but she just kept winning. (One exception: Toni went runner-runner against Julie to add a flush to her pocket tens to stay in the game, but Julie never should have called her preflop raise with K6o.) That made the way I went out particularly painful.

Julie wiped out Mas by calling his push with 88 and catching her overcard, so we were down to 5. The blinds had climbed to 150/300. My cold cards had been coming for ages, so I was starting to steal blinds to stay afloat. I pushed with J8s, TT and AQ. I finally had enough that I didn’t have to make every move an all-in. Julie limped UTG. She had been limping all game with a wide range of starting hands. I had AJ and raised to 1000. Derek, Toni and Coach folded and Julie called. Do you hear the warning bells? I didn’t. When the flop came 7 high and Julie checked, I pushed. I figured that if she had a small pocket pair (or just a piece of that raggy flop) she would have to respect my preflop raise and get away from the hand. Based on her prior calls, I was thinking KQ, AT maybe 66… I call Aw crap. AA. I needed running spades or running jacks. When the turn was the not-jack of not-spades, I was drawing dead and out in 5th.

Derek has the rest of the action because he was there to see it. I took a few minutes to cool off and then joined the 2/4 ring game already in progress in the losers lounge. Congratulations to Julie and Toni, who chopped when the heads-up play dragged on for too long. There is also a report from Pauly but Mas and Toby have yet to write anything.

I bought in for $40, sat down and—as is typical of any time I play at the Parrot—I immediately got into a dispute with Ferrari. He wanted me to post in a five-handed game, but waited until after I had been dealt my cards to tell me. I remember playing 2/4 at the Parrot. People came and went from the game back in the day and never had to post. So of course Ferrari accused me of “violating a house rule.” Somehow I managed to refrain from telling him to fuck off. I think. Either way, they relented and two (folded) hands later I was the big blind.

I won a big hand off of Ferrari when I hit top pair with KTs. I had called his preflop raise from the BB and we capped the flop when it came K high. I knew that Ferrari didn’t have the king and I am sure that he didn’t think I had it. I suspect that he had jacks or a decent ace. He called my raise when the board paired 3s on the turn. He check-called on the river when a third three came out. Show me the king, said Ferrari. And I gladly did. Then I went to work on Toby, who didn’t deserve the beats she took.

I was in the big blind with K7s. Ferrari limped (I think) Toby raised and either Pauly or Mas called. Getting at least 5:1, I called as well. The flop was K high again and I check-raised Toby, who called. I immediately put her on a better king and was ready to slow down until I caught my second pair on the turn. I check-raised her again. The river was a brick and I bet out. She called What’s your kicker? My kicker is another pair, I replied.  Two hands later I took another big pot off of Toby when I flopped two pair with KT.  You are killing me with two pair!

I gave some of it back when I raised Mas’s blind with ATo and the flop missed me. I bet anyway, and he called. We checked the turn (brick) and when he bet the river (brick), I folded face up. Ferrari was shocked that I released a good ace, but I know that Mas defends his blinds like a mama bear with her cubs. He was going to call with ATC. When I explained my thinking, Mas admitted that he paired his 3 on the flop.

I leaked a little more to Ferrari when I made two pair on the flop, but he called and caught his flush on the turn. He says it was the river but he is wrong. Or he is a worse player than I give him credit for because he definitely wasn’t getting the odds to try for runner-runner. Either way, I was foolishly blind to the flush possibility until the fourth diamond hit on the river and it cost me extra bets.

Pauly and Toby burned through two stacks of $40. Mas finished +$22, I was +$23 and Ferrari took the rest of it. I don’t know where he got all of that damn money, because it didn’t look like he was winning many pots.  He had a lot of it when I sat down, but he went down and then back up. I’m starting to think he was sneaking chips off of my stack.

I followed up the NYC blogger event with a low-stakes Super Bowl poker tournament at my place, so the poker keeps on coming. That report will be up in a day or two.