10/20 Live at the Bellagio

I played this for a few hours last night, thinking the games would be softer than usual because of the current Five Diamond series they are running. Wrong. Almost everyone in the game was a regular, and although I was still one of the best players at the table, there was only one guy there who could be described as bad, and even he was bad in a loose aggressive sort of way, making him much tougher than the typical loose passive bad player.

It didn’t help that I wasn’t playing very well. For one thing, the last few times I’ve played live, it’s been 2/5 and 5/10 NL games, both of which use the $5 chip as the standard betting unit. When you play live, you generally keep your chips in stacks of 20, so I’m accustomed to a stack being worth $100. The Bellagio 10/20 game uses $20 chips, and for some reason I could not get the idea out of my head that these stacks were worth $200 rather than $400. As you can imagine, that’s a pretty big error to make.

I got a seat pretty quickly, and folded the first few hands just trying to observe the table. Just after I sat, a very well-dressed and sophisticated-looking young Asian man sat down. He looked wealthy, and I was hoping he was going to be a rich fish, but he was only holding two $500 chips in his hand, enough to buy a 50 BB stack. But then he passed one of the chips to the runner and told her he wanted “1000 in orange [20-dollar] chips and the rest in black [100-dollar chips].” I looked closer at his remaining chip, and saw that he was in fact casually spinning not $500 but $5000 on the felt as though it were a penny. There’s no cap on the buy-in for this game, and he was in for 10 Grand. I had a little over $6000 with me and no way to get more that night, so I was only putting $2000 at a time on the table myself.

This guy immediately started raising every pot and showing garbage hands. This was a typical live table, though, so no one was playing back at him. I finally reraised him with QTo on my BB, and he folded. A few hands later, he opened to $80 UTG and got called by the second most active player at the table. I held AJs on the button. Ordinarily I’d just call here against an UTG raise, or maybe even fold. I was way ahead of this guy’s range, though, so I slid two nearly full stacks into the pot, intending to reraise to $380.

His eyes bugged out and he folded. No sooner did I see his reaction than I realized what I’d done. Goddammit, those stacks are worth $400 each! To my greater dismay, the second player asked how much I had behind. It was just shy of $1200, meaning that 40% of my stack was already in the pot. He moved all in, and I knew I was going to have to call it off. Against anything except AA, I was getting more than the right price. Thankfully, he turned over KK, but the flop gave him top set, and just like that, I was reaching into my pocket again. ‘At least stacking off with AJ pre-flop should give me a good table image,’ I thought to myself.

I counted out twenty bills and laid them in a stack in front of me. Bills play at the Bellagio, so I didn’t even need to bother converting them to chips. A few hands later, I got 99 in the CO and opened for $80. The same Asian guy called in the small blind, and we went heads up to a Jc 4d 3d flop, a pretty favorable one for me. He checked, I bet $140, and he raised to $300. I’d previously seen him call down two bets out of position with K4 on a Kxxx board, so I didn’t think he was too likely to be check-raising me with top pair. That means he probably had either a set, an unlikely two pair, or much more likely, a bluff or semi-bluff. I called.

The turn brought the 5s, and he bet $400, which I called again, planning to call a non-diamond river. The river was not a diamond, but it was an Ace, also a bad card for me. I was really torn over whether to call on this particular card, since if I was right that he was on a flush draw, the nut draw was his most likely holding.

Ultimately, it was his bet sizing that convinced me to fold. He bet just $700 into a pot of more than $2100, which really felt like a blocking/value bet. Looking at the numbers now, I kind of feel like I should have called, since he doesn’t have to be bluffing very often to make it profitable, but at the time I just didn’t feel there was any chance he’d do this as a bluff. Ironically, I would have been more inclined to call an all in bet. I agonized and folded. He didn’t show his hand, which he’d generally been doing when he bluffed, so I felt pretty good about the decision at the time.

I didn’t feel good about laying out five more bills on the table, but I didn’t want to play a real short stack. Those bills didn’t have a bright future with me. The next pot I played, the same guy raised my big blind to $80, and the other softish spot at the table, a young Asian woman who was tight but not particularly good, called from the SB. I decided to come in with Jh 6h on my BB. Not exactly a monster, but these two were the ones I wanted to play pots with.

The flop came Qc Tc 9h, giving me an open-ended straight draw. We both checked to the aggressive Asian, who also checked. That told me a lot: he didn’t have a strong made hand, a club draw, or an open-ended straight draw. I was pretty sure he would have bet any of those.

A 5h on the turn gave me a flush draw to go with with my straight draw. The Asian woman bet $160 from the SB, and I just called. Given how tight she was, I might have been able to get her to fold with a semi-bluff raise, but the stacks were awkward for it, and I figured I could represent clubs if they got there on the river but my draws did not. The Asian guy called as well.

The river brought the 4c, completing a potential flush but not the one I wanted. Still, I was pretty sure neither of my opponents had made it, either. The woman checked, and I tossed my $500 in bills into the pot. The man quickly grabbed five black chips, thought for a minute, and placed them in the pot. The woman reluctantly folded, and he showed me 54o for two pair. It’s not a bad call if he realizes that my range is going to consist of exactly flushes and bluffs, and that there are two busted draws I could be bluffing, but I had a feeling he only called because he made two pair.

That left me with about $1200 in chips and a little under $2000 in my pocket. I decided I was just going to play short stacked for a bit, since I wanted to preserve enough for one more nearly 100BB stack. I was thinking that at least I’d have an action image that would help me get paid off, but around this time I realized how many players were getting moved away from the table. It dawned on me that we must be a ‘must-move’ table, meaning that players are seated at our table from the waiting list but required to move to one of the other 10-20 tables when a seat opens. So most of the players who had seen my unintentionally wild play were getting dispersed, and soon enough, so was I.

My new table was no better than the last, filled mostly with competent, tight young men. Thankfully the aggressive Asian guy got moved over with us, so there was at least some action at the table. I started reraising him pretty aggressively and win a few hundred dollars pre-flop. I built up to around $1700, then found AJ on my BB after an $80 raise from my little yellow friend and a call from someone else. I popped it to $400, and this time he shot me a dirty look and called. The other guy folded, but the flop was an awful Q98. I was sure he wasn’t going anywhere, so I just checked and folded. “Bad flop for Aces,” I told him.

“Yeah sure,” he smiled.

The next orbit, a pretty tight aggressive kid to my left who was playing a kind of short stack opened to $100, and the Asian guy called, as did the button. I called with Qs Js on my BB, and the flop came down 9s 7s 4d. I checked, the kid bet $300, and the Asian called. I felt like the kid probably had an overpair, but there was a chance at least one of my high card outs was good, along with the flush outs, of course. So I moved all in, and to my surprise the kid folded. The Asian guy asked if I had a flush draw and then called. The Ks came on the turn, I showed my flush, and he mucked, so I don’t know what he called with, but he was kind of upset. I, on the other hand, was happy to get my stack well over $2000 for the first time all night.

I won a few more medium-sized pots, and once again found myself squeezing the Asian guy with AJ in my BB. Again he called, but this time the flop was a bit more favorable to me: 9c 7c 2c, with me holding the Jc. It was from a monster, but I knew he was calling light pre-flop, and he’d seen me check and give up in this spot before, so I thought a bet would get some respect. I bet out $800, nearly the size of the pot, with about $1200 behind, obviously planning to call it off if he moved in. “Aces this time?” he asked as he folded.

The very next hand, he raised again, and this time I really did have Aces. I reraised, but he finally figured out how to fold a hand pre-flop. Possibly for the better, since playing out of position against him, even in a reraised pot, could have gotten ugly now that I was >300 BB deep.

By the time this next hand rolled around, I was sitting on a stack of nearly $3600. I limped UTG with 43s. Limping in is something I pretty much never do online, especially at a 6-max game, but at more passive full ring live tables, it’s easier to get away with. The tightish kid from before raised to $100, the Asian called, and I called.

The flop was a potentially interesting 234r, giving me top two pair on a coordinated board out of position against two opponents with very differently sized stacks. The kid had just over $1000 left, and I had a feeling he’d move all in with an overpair or a big Ace, since those hands would have a gutshot and, from his perspective, overcards to a pair as well. Sure enough, he did start counting his bills, but as he did, I noticed that the Asian was watching him intently and loading up his own chips.

Ugh, what did that mean? He was loose, but he wasn’t stupid. How light was he going to call $1000 with me already showing interest and with another $3000 or so that I could still move into the pot after he acted?

The kid did indeed move all in, and the other guy quickly called. Christ. I could see him calling with a big pair, maybe JJ+, but I think he reraises most of those pre-flop. The last time he had K’s he made a huge reraise and showed the hand. Was he dumb enough to call with a smaller pair like 88? I wasn’t sure, but his call was awfully quick and confident. I didn’t think he’d call 23 or 24 preflop, and while it would be a fine play for the kid to move all in with AK, it would be suicidal for the Asian to call the all in with it. Fold equity is an important part of that play.

So what did that leave? Draws? He’s already getting bad odds on those, plus he has to be concerned about me forcing him to put in another pot-sized bet before showdown. Maybe a combo draw, but only 54 was likely to be in his range. That leaves sets and straights as a substantial part of his range. I folded.

The turn brought a 3, which would have filled me up. The river was a 2. “I missed,” the kid said.

“7 high,” the Asian announced, still not turning over his cards.

Blood pounded in my temples. Are you fucking serious? He must have had exactly 75, if that was true. The kid turned over AK. The Asian mucked. Jesus fucking Christ, I am such a fish. Why am I making nittish folds against a rich, crazy Asian gambler? Why am I assuming he knows what he’s doing? He was the reason I hadn’t quit the game already! Plus I held a 3 and a 4, making 22 his most likely set if he was going to have one at all, and I have four outs against that unlikely scenario. Why didn’t I think this shit through?

It was my turn to post the BB, but I indicated for the dealer to skip me and packed up my things. The game was bad, I was frustrated, and I wasn’t playing well. No reason to chase losses, I finished down barely $1000, just half a buyin and well within a standard deviation for me these days, though it always hurts more to lose at live poker than online.

And of course it always hurts more to lose when you know it is your own fault. I’ve had enough bad beats and cold decks to know they are par for the course and not get too upset no matter how much I lose as a result. But when I have a bad night because of my own mistakes, a bad fold or a failure of 3rd grade math skills, I beat myself up over it for days, no matter how much it did or didn’t cost me in the end.