Last Night's Poker Session - Where Poker meets Fun

Welcome to the very first Wild Deuce Apparel blog!

Starting a blog was really just a random idea that popped into my head this morning. I had a really fun poker session last night and wanted to share some of it. I don’t even know if blogs are a thing anymore, but I do like to write (as mentioned in the ‘About Me’ section) and I’m going to leave vlogging to the professionals (or at least more technologically competent than me).

This blog will be more story telling and less hand analysis. Likely centered around poker sessions, but not so much on specific hands. There will be some hands I talk about in today’s blog, but details may be a bit fuzzy as I really wasn’t thinking about including them in a blog when they occurred last night. But in the future, I will try to take some better notes on big hands for the benefit of the blog.

As a truly recreational player (with a full-time day job), I usually play about once a week, so that will probably be the cadence of the blog, unless I feel I have something interesting to share in between sessions. Given that I’m starting this blog on a whim, who knows where it will take us, or whether it will take off at all. At some point, I’ll probably get nostalgic and delve into prior experiences like how I started in poker and my WSOP experiences.

Disclaimer: I am a casual, recreational poker player (emphasis on the casual). I have certainly read my share of poker books and articles, watched my share of videos etc., but by no means do I pretend to play correctly (and certainly not GTO). All that to say, to the degree that I do share particular hands, constructive feedback is welcome, but trolls can stay away (from this page at least…trolls should still feel free to go to our ‘Shop’ page and buy a hoodie).

Also, it is inevitable that my blogs will include content about certain poker rooms or casinos. It is not my intent to endorse any particular locations, but merely share my personal experiences as they relate to my blog entries.

 

Last Night’s Session

You know you’re in a great $1/$2 game when:

1. Every player has an alcoholic drink in front of them;
2. Players at the table give each other nicknames;
3. You have players going all-in (including pre-flop) with 73o;
4. You’re pretty much playing with the same 8 players for over 5 hours;
5. You have someone observing the stacks at the table asking if it really is a $1/$2 table.

Anyone who has played poker long enough has experienced the gamut of table experiences. On one end, you have the table where no one is talking to each other and everyone has headphones on. These are the nights where it really is just about playing poker… and there’s nothing wrong with that. These are the types of tables that truly test your love for the game itself. But on the other end of the spectrum, you have a night where everyone is talking and having fun and there’s this awesome balance of poker and social interaction. While losing always sucks, it sucks a little less when you feel you’ve gotten some entertainment value from the night because of the great table dynamics. Now, when you also happen to win when you’re sitting at a fun table, you’ve truly hit the poker jackpot.

For the last few sessions, I’ve been playing at the new Palace Poker room in Grand Prairie. I usually play at Texas Card House, but Palace Poker was running a great promotion in August where you could buy a $30 membership for the rest of the year and buy 10 hour increments of table time at $7/hour. I did some calculations and figured that I could save at least a few hundred dollars taking advantage of the promotion (assuming I didn’t lose more with my actual play). If anyone is unfamiliar with how poker rooms work (with memberships and hourly rates), drop a comment and I’ll be happy to explain.

I arrived at the poker room around 8pm. There were a couple of seats open when I first got to the table and I grabbed the two seat. Personally, I like the corner seats (2, 3, 7, and 8) although I also do try to do some strategic seat selection at the start (trying to sit just left of any big stacks with the assumption that they amassed those chips based on solid and aggressive playing abilities).

I didn’t realize it at the time (otherwise I would have not sat down to his immediate right), but to my immediate left was our main action player (we’ll call him AP). His VPIP was easily over 90% and he was the first (but amazingly not the only player on the night) to go all-in with 73o (which he won when a 7 came on the river). In seat 6 was our second action player, who the primary action player referred to as Ricky Bobby throughout the night (Will Ferrell’s character from the film ‘Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby’). Seat six did kind of look like a cross between Ricky Bobby and Ron Burgundy. But if you ask me, he really looked more like Ted Lasso.

Those two (AP and Ricky Bobby) kept going at each other all-night, which was part of the entertainment. Towards the end of the night, they were essentially doing all-in flips with garbage. That was the kind of night it was. As expected, both players’ stacks went up and down like crazy thoughout the night. AP had well over $1k at one point that was subsequently dwindled down to zero (and then back up again). I think Ricky Bobby had a similar trajectory (although perhaps didn’t quite reach the upper level that AP did).

 

Me vs. AP

I managed to stay out of AP’s path most of the night. In the one hand where we did tussle, I had QQ with a shorter stack of around $200. Forgive me, as I don’t quite recall all the action (see my intro comments about taking better notes in the future). But I believe I may have been in the BB and AP raised to $25 or so. I think there was $5 ‘Dallas button straddle’ in play. For those who don’t know what that is, it’s a button straddle where the button gets ultimate last action, meaning they get to make the very last decision pre-flop. So after AP bet, it folded to the button, but because he straddled, it skipped him  and moved on to the blinds. SB folded. I could raise here, but when I have a premium hand and I’m guaranteed to have no more than two other people in the hand, I like to play it sneaky and just smooth call to disguise my hand. There was also the possibility that the button could reopen the action. So I called. It then went to the button who called, and now we have about ~$75 in the pot.

The flop came 864 rainbow and I checked to AP. Although I expected him to bet, I didn’t expect him to bet as much as he did. Button folded and it was back to me. The flop was certainly in his range (everything was in his range). To my surprise, as I was thinking about what to do, he said “I’ll let you see a card for $5”. I asked if he was serious. He shuffled his two cards back and forth and said “pick whichever one you want”. So I tossed him a red chip and flipped over one of his cards, which was an ‘8’. So he essentially has one of three hands:

• Set of eights
• Two pair (eights and sixes as I didn’t think he was quite crazy enough to have 84)
• Pair of eights with some random high card

Based on the action and his table talk, I just felt that he had something like K8 and so I jammed over the top and he folded (yes, probably a bad play on my part).

Me vs. Ricky Bobby

I had three major encounters with Ricky Bobby, one of which I was very fortunate to survive. 

1. Better Lucky Than Good

There was a young player to Ricky Bobby’s immediate right (seat 5) who was a very solid player and who had the largest stack at the table at the time. It appeared that he and Ricky Bobby knew each other, which comes into play in this hand (only because they were familiar with each other’s playing style…nothing improper). I don’t quite remember the action, but I had AKo and put in a raise. Again, there was a button straddle and we’re essentially playing $1/$2/$5. It ends up being the three of us going to a flop (me, the solid youngster, and Ricky Bobby).

The flop came Kxx with a diamond flush draw. I have top pair, top kicker. Both players checked to me and I bet about 3/4 pot and both players called. The flop came a third diamond. I believe the youngster checked and then Ricky Bobby bet big. I had seen Ricky Bobby bluff into these spots before and certainly thought he was capable of making a move to represent the completed flush. More importantly, I had the Ace of diamonds, so even if I was currently beat (by him and/or the youngster) I had an out to the nut flush. I jammed. The youngster tanked for a bit and then folded. 

The river was a blank. I flipped over my Ace King and Ricky Bobby mucked his cards. The reason I got lucky in this hand is because the youngster was distraught when he saw that Ricky Bobby did not in fact have the flush. He said that he had been trapping me and only folded because of the big bet made by Ricky Bobby as he was convinced that Ricky Bobby had the flush based on their knowledge of each other’s playing styles. Yes, I know poker players lie all the time about what they had, but I felt like he was truly upset. My guess is that he had two pair. But thankfully, Ricky Bobby’s aggression made him fold and let me sneak out with the win. Round 1 to Wild Deuce.

(ii) Sunken Costs Fallacy

Admittedly, the second big hand with Ricky Bobby was me just punting money away. I was in late position and had KJ suited. Seat 8 was short stacked and jammed for his remaining $50. At that point I was up about $150 for the night and felt like gambling. So I called the $50. Action was then on Ricky Bobby who raised to $150. I tanked and the following thoughts went through my head:

• I’m in position
• I have to put in $100 more into a pot of $250 
• Ricky Bobby might just be trying to get me out of the pot
• If I managed to hit, I could likely get Ricky Bobby’s stack (i.e. implied odds)
• I’ve already put $50 into this pot (sunken cost fallacy)
• My hand looked pretty (always a great reason to throw away $100)

So I put in the additional $100. The only good thing with my hand as played is that I knew I had to hit the flop or bail. So it was an easy decision when Ricky Bobby bet big on a flop of all low cards with no clubs in sight. He ultimately lost the main pot to the short stack but was quite happy taking my $100 side pot. Round 2 to Ricky Bobby.

(iii) Hoodie Magic

Our “Bullets” hoodie in red is probably my favorite hoodie and I was wearing it last night. The hand in question occurred late in the session, probably close to 1:00am. As the first card was being dealt around the table, AP (sitting right beside me) points down at the card he just received and yells ‘Ace’ as if magically summoning the card. The second card gets dealt to him and he again yells ‘Ace’. So it was quite funny for me to look down and see that AP had called the right cards, just for the wrong person. I don’t quite remember the details of the action, but I had made a standard preflop raise, Ricky Bobby reraised and then Seat 8 (who was no longer a short stack) jammed. Just a dream preflop scenario when you’re holding AA. I jammed over the top and Ricky Bobby called. I flipped over my Aces. Ricky Bobby flipped over one card, which was also an Ace, but did not flip over his second card. I felt good when the flop came King high, but then the turn revealed another King and I thought I was done for sure. The river came a blank and I waited for one of them to show a King. But to my delight, they both mucked their cards.

Calling It a Night

Towards the end of my session, AP and Ricky Bobby were jabbing back and forth, both in play and trash talk. Very entertaining as an observer but truthfully a little difficult to play with. Both players would just go all in on any two cards and it turned into a game of bingo. I watched this for a few rounds before deciding to call it a night.

Because of all the action all night and several reloads, there was a lot of money on our table. I think there were 3-4 players with stacks over $1k at the table. As AP and Ricky Bobby started getting more boisterous, we started to get a couple of observers. One guy was standing beside me looking at all the money on the table and asked if it really was a $1/$2 table.

Fun Fact (New Game Unlocked)

When you’re at a fun, talkative table, even the dealers tend to get involved in the [conversational] action. In one particular exchange, our dealer started telling us about a very interesting variation of Texas Hold’em that once existed in Vegas. Essentially, each player would be playing two different Hold’em games at the same time. The table was slightly larger and there were two dealers on opposite sides of each other, dealing hold’em hands from two different decks. I had NEVER heard of this before, but it sounded fascinating. My recollection is that he called it something like “Double Dealer Texas Hold’em”. I tried to do some research and while information is scarce, I was able to find something resembling what he was talking about called “Multi Action Poker” and it looks like Aria may have introduced it back in 2012. I guess it didn’t really catch on, but here’s the two things I found on it, if you’re interested:

1. https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/29/news-views-gossip/aria-announce-quot-multi-action-poker-quot-two-dealers-simultaneous-games-per-table-1273141/
2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRrzKAwvC4k 

What do you think of this crazy variation? Has anyone actually played this?

Final Thoughts

I know this was a long one, so congrats if you made it to the end. Hopefully you found it entertaining. As much as I enjoy writing, I’m not sure it makes sense having a blog with no audience. So even if you have to lie to say you liked it, drop a comment!

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