Vegas November 2018

Day 6 - Not my best day ever

Last Updated: 2018-11-29 10:41:43

I'm gonna blow the ending and say right up front this was about as bad a poker day as I've had in a while. And there isn't that much to talk about on that front, so I'll start off with the story I didn't tell from earlier in the trip...

The weekend seemed like a French invasion had taken place. I didn't sit at a single table that didn't have at least two people for whom French was a first language and for some English was clearly not even a second language over the weekend.

Some of them knew poker terms and numbers but otherwise didn't understand a word of English.

Which is fine. I'm gonna say right now I'm very much the opposite of the sort of person who gets offended over people's inability to speak English. I'm getting ready to go to Italy in 5.5 months, I don't speak a word of Italian. It's not stopping me from going. I don't expect everyone who ever visits our great nation from a foreign country to be as fluent in English as I am.

That said...English only at the poker table!!! You don't get to communicate with your friends and companions at a table in a way in which the rest of the table cannot understand what you're saying. If YOU don't speak the language that everyone else speaks YOU accept that there will be information you will miss when you play. That's just how it is.

I saw two incidents come up around the same time. At another table, the tournament director got involved in a heated conversation and then told all the dealers to halt play, and she left the area...

Eventually she came back with someone else, heated exchange resumed, then I heard words along the lines of "that is the decision, the decision is final, dealers get the cards back in the air". I don't know if she went to get someone who spoke French or just had to get a supervisor to make a ruling, but clearly a big part of the problem was the inability to communicate due to a language barrier.

At my table we had a situation where someone sitting in the 10 seat was in a hand with someone in the 2 seat. If you read my BLOG from yesterday you know my issues with certain seats...

Well...

10-, 3- and I think 7-seats all French speakers. 3-seat spoke good English.

10-seat has his big chips out near the betting line and his small chips back up against the rail. He's in a hand with the 2-seat. 10-seat, big chips already in hand, puts them all out in front of him to make a bet.

2-seat, unable to see his other chips against the rail, thinks 10-seat all in. Tosses out a chip, starts to turn his cards over. Some of us saw them, but dealer stops him and he quickly turns them back face down.

10-seat wants to know what the cards were. Says "show one show all".

I took 2 yrs of French in middle school, 2 more in high school. The only sentences that I can put together are about 3 specific ones that were drilled into my head. But that doesn't mean I can't pick up a word or two here and there...

3 seat tells him in French what the cards were.

Table explodes.

Tournament director called over. "Show one show all" he repeats over and over.

Lengthy explanation that he is not entitled to that information, stern, stern admonishment to the French speakers that they had better keep it to English from that point on, we move on.

So for those how don't undertand what's going on here lemme spell it out :-)

"Show one, show all" refers to the fact that at the end of the hand you can't just show the guy next to you your cards. If you're going to reveal them to one person, you reveal them to everybody. Show one person, show all persons at the table.

In this case, the hand was in progress. You are entitled to any information you see with your own eyes, but you are not entitled to information other people have that you do not have while the hand is in progress. If someone flashes cards and you miss it, it's your loss! You should have paid more attention. You don't get to ask your friend what the cards were.

Period.

And if your friend tells you, they should be given a penalty.

In this case, based on the stack sizes, it didn't matter a whole lot and after the flop he did dutifully put the rest of his chips in the pot even tho he was crushed.

But I'll say this...the woman that told him what the cards were should have been penalized one time around the table IMHO. That was unacceptable.

But...he put the rest of his chips in, didn't change anything.

One final thought. It's one of my massive pet peeves at a poker table when people try to bastardize "show one, show all". I've heard people try to apply it to several different circumstances. For example, it doesn't apply to when a person decides to flip over one of their two cards. It does not mean "show one card, show all cards". Ever!

End of the hand, if you show your cards to anyone you show them to everyone. If you show one card to anyone you show THAT card to everyone. That's it. Only circumstance in which it applies. Ever. If you think it applies to anything else, with all due respect you are mistaken.

OK off my soapbox. On to my Tuesday.

Got in a good long walk up the strip, showered up and headed over for the 1:00.

Started out good, called a raise with 55 hoping to catch a set, called continuation bet on a J-4-3 board, that's a good flop for 5's...6 on turn, I thought about betting out but decided I didn't want to get raised so decided to check/call...he checked back.

Value bet the 2 river (bingo!), he called and looked rather annoyed...

He probably had a pair bigger than 5s but smaller than JJ. We both played the hand correctly (assuming he had that), didn't work out. Suck it up, buttercup :-)

Table broke up, at my new table I got what I think was my first real suckout of the trip. I'd have to go back and check my BLOGS to be sure, but...

It had occurred to me the night before that whenever the chips got in on a hand I was involved in with cards to come the best hand always held up. In my favor or not in my favor, I wasn't sucking out on anyone and nobody was sucking out on me. Maybe there was one I am forgetting, but it actually seemed statistically improbable that the best hand was holding up every single time.

Yeah the best hand always a favorite and is supposed to win most of the time...but not every time.

So loose guy who was playing a lot of pots raises out as he frequently did and I called with A-10 suited. Flop 10-rag-rag. Of course he has QQ.

A on the turn! My first suckout!

But after that, things go not so great. Pick up QQ, flop K-A-K. Raise out with 88, flop Q-J-T and I get bet into.

16,200 at break from the 12,000 start. Not bad.

Back from break I pick up AA, flop comes 9-J-X, all the chips go in, QQ guy had 99. Rivers quads just to twist the knife. Down to 1300 chips. Done next hand when I put them in with a suited ace and missed everything.

Ugh.

Walked over to Planet Hollywood. There is a WSOP Circuit event going on over there and there was a PLO tournament at 4pm. Nothing I would like more than to play in a PLO tournament!!

But...according to Card Player it's a 2-day. I have to leave on Day 2. I walk over hoping that maybe Card Player was mistaken.

Well...they were...but not about it being two days. They had the Day 2 restart time at noon, was really 3pm. So the only way I would play in it would be to ruin Thanksgiving. I'm not going to ruin Thanksgiving...

On to the 7pm.

I get a 7-seat, didn't get into too many pots before tournament director wants to move me to a new table they're starting up with alternates. Would I like the 10-seat or the 8-seat?

EIGHT!!! :-)

Guy raises into me, I call with double-infinity, few callers.

Flop 6-7-8 two hearts. Dude leads out, I call, everyone else folds.

Turn a 9. Not loving that, he bets, I call.

River a 6. He bets, I go over the top for half his remaining stack, he calls. He had 8-10, so he sucked out on me on the turn and I sucked out on him on the river.

About 15 minutes later I'm on the button or in the cutoff, several limpers and I look down at 99. I also limp. One of the blinds raises it up, everyone calls. Big pot.

Flop 983. Blind leads out, one guy calls, I go all in, blind calls, other guy folds.

Blind has QQ.

Q on the turn. Unreal.

I'm crippled down to 1400. But I triple up next hand when I river a nut flush (for the record my A-high was good on every street, other two never got a pair). Up to 4000.

Next hand steal a limped pot and get to like 5500.

Next hand guy early to act goes all in, I look down at 99 again, I go all in, QQ guy also goes all in.

QQ guy has KK, other guy has 88 (he had more than me but not a huge stack by any means).

Folks you CAN. NOT. MAKE. THIS. UP.

Final board in the hand is...are you ready?

J-9-K-8-7

Three sets. I lost two hands set over set in the space of four hands.

At some point you have to realize it's just not your day. Rebuys were still open, but this just wasn't my day.

Only 1 cash in 11 tries. I should be doing better than that! I usually am doing better than that. Frustrating.

And frustrating how a few of them ended. You can't help what happens with the cards tho.

I assume there won't be another poker trip until June, but you never know. Unlike last year I don't have the June trip planned yet, still waiting on the WSOP schedule.

Until next time, thanks for reading!