No Fold Em Fun

My poker playing gets greatly curtailed during the summer since my income from show choir dries up outside of the school year. This week I was able to make it out to play twice.  Tuesday afternoon I played the $30 buy in donkament at the Prairie Meadows poker room. It's a tournament with a structure that quickly becomes a shovefest after the second break. Because of this it takes a little skill to make it deep, but only luck will get you in the money because you just have to take your chances shoving or calling all-ins once the average stack gets to be about 7 or 8 big blinds.

I went out in 15th place.  It folded to me in the small blind and the blinds were 1000-2000.  I had about 6500 and shoved with K-4 off suit. The big blind thought for 30-40 seconds and called turning over A-5 off suit. I caught a king on the flop, but he got a four flush in clubs to match the suit of his ace and I was out.

Last night I went out to Prairie Meadows again and only took along $100 to play some cheap limit poker. I got to the room about 11:00 PM and got shown straight to the ten seat of a 3-6 limit holdem game with a half kill. I played much more conservatively than most of the limit players since I was still playing like I was at a no limit table. I tried to play in position as often as possible and only played against the players on whom I had pretty reliable reads.

The table went like this:

Seat 1: Harmless old Asian guy who was playing almost every hand and getting lucky.
Seat 2: Serious old dude who seemed to know what he was doing.
Seat 3: Middle-aged guy who fancied himself a pro. Got pissed whenever somebody ran him down.
Seat 5: Typical loose passive limit player.
Seat 6: Young Mexican guy who quietly complained whenever he lost a hand.
Seat 8: Young Persian guy who was trying to play way too tricky for a limit game.
Seat 9: Uber calling station.
Seat 10: The hero of our story.

I ran my $100 buy in up to close to $200 just by winning a few $20-$30 pots mostly off the Persian guy because he was playing very predictably. The nice little Asian guy declared that he was going to leave and started to rack up his approximately $500 in white chips. The dealer asked him if he wanted to play one more hand. He agreed and won a small pot, but it was his second in a row activating the kill pot, so he asked if he could play one more. Our table was situated very close to the cashier and the front desk, so the floor wandered over and said he could keep playing out of the rack if they colored him up.

Now typically at this room they'll only let you play one hand out of the rack after you declare that you're leaving, but if you decide to play past that one hand they make you unrack to stay. Since the floor had ruled he could keep playing I assumed nobody at the table was upset about the decision.  Nobody spoke up and asked to have him unrack so he played "just one more hand" about four times when the following hand occurred.

I was on the button and was dealt K-J off suit. I called the $3 big blind along with all but one other player. Little Asian guy raised to $6 from the SB and all but one player called. The flop was Kd-Jd-6d. I had top two, but given the penchant for flush chasing in limit games I wasn't thrilled about all of those diamonds.  Little old Asian guy bet and everyone called. The turn was an inconsequential 3s. Asian bet again and the whole table called. River was the 9s. Asian bet and the 3 seat 2 bet.  Everyone called and the Asian just called too. As the hands were revealed it turned out the Asian had hit a set of sixes on the flop and nobody had the diamond flush.  The 3 seat also had K-J off suit, but he was not happy about losing with his two pair.  I quietly mucked.

Then the 3 seat started ranting LOUDLY. "That's fucking bullshit! One more hand! One more hand! One more fucking hand!" He scooped up his remaining chips and spun around to the cashier to cash out, but continued his rant. "Complete fucking bullshit! That little asshole shouldn't have even been in the hand!" This obviously drew the attention of the floor who came over and very calmly told the guy that he needed to calm down and stop cursing. His response shocked all of us when he pointed right in the floor's face and screamed, "FUCK YOU!"

The floor didn't say a word, but walked over to the desk, picked up the phone, and said, "Yes, I need security in the poker room right away please." The guy from the 3 seat started pleading, "Oh come on, I'm already leaving. I'm sorry I cursed. I was angry." The floor escorted him out of the room into the hallway to meet security.  The floor that works late Friday and Saturday night is the most no shit guy they have on staff. I turned to our dealer, Lance, and said, "I had K-J too, but you don't see me freaking out. Why didn't that guy just yell I NEVER WANT TO PLAY POKER HERE AGAIN."

The little old Asian guy started hurriedly racking up with a terrified look on his face. Everybody at the table told him that he didn't do anything wrong and not to worry about it and he seemed to calm down.

I played about another hour and quit when it got down to four handed.  I left with about an $80 profit which I consider a success at 3-6 limit holdem.