Atlantic City Donkaments
When I left you I was on the bus to Atlantic City, recounting past adventures with colorful degenerates. So, I was on my way down to Caesar’s in AC to play the $340 buy-in WSOP Circuit event. The tournament gave plenty of chips to start and nice long levels, so there was no reason to bust out early.
I found my table and sat down in the 4-seat. Looking around, the table did not look too worrying. The guy immediately to my right was youngish & aggressive looking, while the rest were middle-aged to old and either looked uncomfortable at the table or looked entirely too confident. In the words of Quagmire from Family Guy, “Dear Diary, Jackpot.”
We played raise and take it for a while, followed by raise, continuation bet, and take it, which brought me up to about 6000 chips (from a starting stack of 4000). I had most of the table covered, with the exception of the 7-seat, who had been given a gift of a double-up by a guy making a move with 2nd pair. Then this hand came up. I was on the button, the 1-seat called, I raised with TsTh, the big blind called, and the 1 seat called. The flop came 2s5s7h. Big blind checked, 1-seat bet into me, I went all-in (having them both covered by about 2000 chips), big blind called, and 1-seat called. Big blind had a set of sevens and 1-seat had AcQc for the nut flush draw. Turn was a 9h and the river was the Tc. I rivered a set, but it made the 1-seat’s flush. Thankfully the big blind had more chips than the 1-seat, so I got a small rebate.
After raising or 3-betting a few hands, I worked my way up a little, and when I failed ot get paid off with the nut straight, I made my way back up to about 4000. Then came my rapid demise.
Blinds were 100-200, button was on the 9-seat, the 3-seat called, and I called with 99. The 6-seat threw in 2 chips, meaning to call, but actually throwing in a purple and a black for a raise to 600 (As soon as he realized his mistake he said “Crap, is that binding?? And the dealer declared a raise to 600). Knowing this, the 8-seat just called, everyone else folded, including the 3-seat, and I was put to a decision. With 1900 in the pot and 4000 behind, I thought there was a good chance I could just take the pot right here. The 6-seat will almost always fold to a raise, unless he is shooting an angle, and the 7-seat has to fold. His call has shown that he has something like KQ, QJ, or a pair, mostly likely 99 or worse. After the mistaken raise he would have re-raised with any decent hand. So I shoved.
The 6-seat insta-folded and the 7-seat thought for at least a few minutes. I had him covered by 200 chips, so he was calling 3800 chips to win 5700. After a few minutes, he finally calls… and rolls over KQ offsuit. We are off to the races. He rivers a Q on me and that is pretty much it for my tournament life. An interesting play, and one that really should have worked, but sometimes shit happens.
Busted from the tournament I stuck my tail back between my legs and grabbed the next bus back to the City. I could have sworn I saw the crotchety old dealer sitting in the back seat.
