New Orleans... Day 2

Let me start with a quick nonpoker take. I know I said it in my previous post. But Mother's is freakin amazing. I mean it is fantastic. If you ever have the chance to go to New Orleans, you have to check out Mother's. And their poboy.... a treat for your tongue, little tough on your stomach. What do I mean? They have this thing called a "debris" which is basically like all the soft juicy meat that usually falls off when they are cooking the roast beef. And this restaurant is like a hole in a wall. The atmosphere really reminds you of like the cheesesteak places in Philly. There's always a line, no one is in any hurry to prepare your food but the food is fantastic, atmosphere is very homely and it's just a very cool place. Well, the legend goes that long time ago, when this family owned Mother's, there were always the same customers. So one day, when one of the customers was waiting for his food, he was looking in the kitchen and noticed all this juicy meat that was accumulating at the bottom of the pan. He asks, "What's that?" "Why, that's debris. That's just the meat that falls off the roast beef. It's really soft and juicy. You wanna try it?" "Sure, why not." So then, the cook slapped some debris on the bread and a legend was born. I know, that to some, this sounds nasty. But seriously, if greasy food doesn't turn you off, then this is like heavenly. I mean it's not grease and fat. But it's soaked in the grease from the roast beef which is why it may be tough on the stomach a little. I had the "John G." which is baked ham, roast beeft, and debris. The poboy is huge and the bottom bun is soaking with the juice from the debris. Mmmmmm.

Well, after that treat for my dinner, I walked two more blocks to play at Harrah's. Based on my previous trips, for some reason, that casino is filled with less than average poker players. So, I got myself on the list to play 1-2NL but meanwhile, I noticed a few open seats at the 3-6 limit table so I played just to kill some time. Nothing significant happened there so maybe after 30 minutes, I was up like $5. But spending 30 minutes at the table confirmed what I already knew. These guys were not good and so if the caliber of play is the same at the NL tables, as long as I don't get unlucky, I should do alright. Well, sure enough, my name was eventually called and I went over to the 1-2NL tables. Just to set the stage. Opening hand, I had the button and I'm dealt pocket 5's. Everyone folds to me so I raise to 7. Both blinds call (I also forgot that a raise to 7 is like nothing at this casino. 7 is a standard raise online at 1-2 NL but not at Harrah's). Flop comes out K-10-5. Both blinds checked to me so I bet $10. Small blind folds but big blind calls. I don't remember the turn but it didn't help my 7 and he bet out $15. I fold. Made it seem like I was trying to steal the blinds with nothing.

Few hands later, I'm first to act (under the gun) and I'm dealt AQ off. I raise it to $10 hoping to eliminate most people. After getting 4 callers, all acting behind me, I wasn't too excited about the prospect of my hand. Until the flop came Q-4-4 with, rainbow. Ideal for my holding. No weird straight draws or anything and very unlikely that anyone has a 4 so the possibility of someone having a set is slim to none (and more none than slim). But I'm not one to slow play a hand like this with 4 players behind me and the pot is already like $50 so I bet out $40. I get one caller. Since this was very early, I had no read on this guy as to whether he might be tight, loose, donkey, chaser, etc. Well, the turn is a 2 of spades which now puts two spades on the board. I really wanted to protect what I thought was still the best hand so I bet $80. Well, this guy calls again. Now, even though I don't know him, I couldn't imagine that he's on a flush draw because well, there was no reason for him to call the flop if it were. So, I narrowed it down to two possibilities based on the preflop action. He either has JJ or 10's or KQ. So now, I'm hoping for another low card and the river comes 3 of spades. I was convinced that he didn't have spades but rather that he held KQ so I pushed all in, hoping he would call with KQ. He just smiled, checked his cards again and then mucked it. I don't know what he had but I couldn't get him to call so it must have been pocket pair lower than a Q. That gave me a pretty healthy stack (we all started with $200... well, most of us did. That was the max buy in and there's always people that buy in short).

Few hands later, I'm under the gun again and this time I have KK. I wasn't sure how to play this one so I decided that I will limp and see what happens. Well, the very next guy behind me raises it to $20. Very big raise. So, I immediately put him on a medium pair, QQ at best but more likely 10s or something and everyone obviously folds to me. I wasn't sure what the best move was at this point so I decided to just call instead of reraising and giving my hand away. Now at this point, I have seen this guy play and he's one of those players that is looser than he thinks he is. So I am fairly comfortable when I see a flop of Q-10-x (it was a low card I can't remember) with two hearts that I am ahead. But I check to see if I can really trap him. He bets out another $20 so I call. Turn comes another low card and I check but he quickly checks behind me. I felt like I missed my opportunity. The river completed a flush draw by bringing another heart but for some reason, I was very confident that he didn't have a heart so I bet like $20 thinking that if he had any piece of the board or a pocket pair, he'd pretty much have to call. He muttered something along the lines of how there were too many hearts on the board and folded. So, I assured him that I had him the whole way.

Now that guy that just folded in the above paragraph was kinda short stacked. So, maybe another round and I am dealt pocket 10s from under the gun (I had monster hands UTG tonight). I limp this time and sure enough, my next door neighbor makes it $15. The caller who was involved in the very first hand calls, and I obviously call. So, there's $48 (including the blinds) in the pot. Flop comes J-6-6. I check, just to see what ensues and the guy next to me goes all in for $40. The other guy folds and now it's back to me. Now I had to go in the tank on this one and I really had to think about it. But like I said before, this was a good who was looser than he thought he was so I honestly thought he could be making this play with an overpair, maybe even middle pair (like 99, 88, or 77) or with two overcards. I just couldn't give him enough credit for a J so I decided to call (plus I was getting better than 2-1 odds so given the range of hands I put him on, I thought it was laying pretty fair odds). Well, I was wrong. He had AJ. And as I congratulated him and said "nice hand" a 10 spiked on the river to give me a full house and the $128 pot.... I really felt bad and so even though it's generally not like me to apologize for a bad beat, it was more a reactionary thing and a "I'm sorry sir" spilled out of my mouth. He took it well saying that's the way his night's been going. I truly did feel bad.

So, I was sitting pretty with over $200 in profit when this hand came up. I was in the big blind this time with K-3 of clubs and bunch of limpers later, I got to see the flop for free. Well, the flop comes 7-9-3 with two clubs. I just hit bottom pair and a 2nd nut flush draw. I checked as did everyone except for one player who hasn't really been active and he bet out $15. I felt like that was a pretty big bet so I immediately thought that maybe he had a 9 or something weak that he wanted to end the hand right there. Well, it was folded back to me and so I call because now, at this point, I'm thinking I have 14 outs (9 to the flush, 3 other kings, and 2 other 3's). Well, the guy I just gave the bad beat to also calls. The turn comes an offsuit 8 which doesn't help me and so I check, my neighbor checks, and the initial better bets $50. That was a tremendous bet and so once again, I had to go into the tank. Based on what I see out there, I still thought I had 14 outs (if for some reason he played J-10 and made his straight, I still had 9 outs). The only concern was the guy next to me who also called the bet on the flop. I was worried that he also had a flush draw. I wasn't worried that he might have a better flush draw but I was concerned that maybe two of my outs were in his hands. But, with the pot being $55 and his bet of $50, it was giving me approx 2-1 odds. I also thought that if I call here and my neighbor calls, my implied odds would be 3-1. In other words, I only need a 25% chance to win. Based on my 14 outs, I was getting close to 30% so I called and sure enough, neighbor calls. River is unfortunately an offsuit 9. For some reason, I hesitated and I thought about firing out a bluff but I didn't have it in me. Well, I should have. Because we all checked, I showed my pair of threes, the guy who did all the betting folded but my neighbor had like 8-x of clubs and catching his 8 on the turn, his pair of 8s held up for a monster pot. Oh well, at least he got his money back from the bad beat I dealt him.

So, at the end of all that, I left Harrah's up approx $100. Not bad for a couple of hours of poker. And I will say... even though I didn't get to be involved with some of the other players, there were some real bad ones out there... I forgot how juicy that place could be. Harrah's could expect to see me very soon.