Saturday 14 May 2011

No Longer a Live Poker Virgin

I embarked on a trip into central London today with the sole goal of playing live poker. This is all very new to me and even went into a "poker club". I have talked about going to a few people so many times and failed miserably. My live experience before this was a few home family games and a few games with friends but drinking beer and been sociable was the primary objective.

What I didn't know when I turned up that there are some terrible players, even the online fish seem to know more than the bunch of fools I was playing with today. They guy to my right, young guy who plays regularly, said it was the weirdest table he has ever witnessed (thank god he wasn't talking about me).

Here are a list of calamitous things that I saw today in order of the funniest/stupidest:

1) We have just had a break and the clock ticked down for the cards to be dealt, it was 9 handed, I fold from UTG and everyone folds to the button that turns over his cards and folds face up. Now this is not funny in itself, except the SB and BB were not even sat down at the table so their hands would have been auto mucked if he even min-raised! Label OLD FISH!!!

This caused a bunch of debate as the other guys on the table said the SB and BB should chop, I pointed out that the BB would win and so the floor man was called over and ruled in favour of the BB who had not won a pot all day and had only 5BB left. Live Virgin is 1 up on the table! You kid opposite, you say you played online... where did you play fish cake... UB? Don't know how he though that it was going to be a chop! Label Oriental Fish Cake

2) The UTG+1 (Oriental Fish Cake) limps UTG+1 9 handed, everyone folds to the BB who instant mucks! Sorry dude, you can check, now that you have folded, you cannot have your cards back! WTF is going on, I thought I was the live virgin!

3) Another situation involving Oriental Fish Cake who was in the SB, Old Fish decided to limp UTG+2 and its folded to the SB who completes and the BB checks, the flop comes down and it checks to Old Fish who bets 50% of the pot and the SB tanks. Oh.. I think he is tanking, he is staring at the flop for about 2-3 minutes, shuffling his chips, looks like he is going to call stacking chips then asks the dealer... Is it on me?! CLOCK PLEASE! UNBELIEVABLE!

4) The guy to my right, NEVER raised once the entire time he was there. Every bet he vocalised, call, bet x, fold, it was getting annoying so the guy to my left started vocalising his actions to mock him but he was clueless to what was happening.

I am sure there was a string raise at one point that I pointed out to the dealer, the guy was lucky as the guy next INSTANT shoved and showed KK, you my friend can buy me a drink later!

Can someone who reads this is this the state of Live play???

It was pretty eventful in terms of watching the randoms playing. I am fairly sure that I was at least the 3rd or 4th best player sice there were 2 very good regs, guy to my left and the guy 2 to my right. The rest... OMG.

Here are a few note worth hands:

1) The 2nd good reg raised from the CO and I was in the SB, he raised 2.75x and I had 15BB behind and shoved my A7s. He was raising a bunch and I had not played many hands due to being between the only 2 good players. What was a little odd, that I was nervous as hell. I had a plan that if I was all in I would stare at the chips in the middle if I was all in to try and avoid giving off tells. I could see him counting down his stack and he had me covered by 3BB. My heart was racing and my palms were sweating (yes live virgin), not sure why I was so nervous as I shove hands online all the time without the slightest bit of nerves. Hopefully that will be eliminated the more experience I get. Eventually he folds and I am relieved but pretty sure I was behind.

2) I am in the SB with 9BB and its folded to me so I decided to shove. The good player in the BB tanked and started talking. When the guy folds, he explains he he folded ATo and wanted to know my hand. What do you tell a guy when he asks what you hand is, the only problem I had was I didn't look at my hand but just pretended by flicking them up in my usual manner. I thought it was a little funny. Sorry dude!!

3) The best hand I played all day was whilst on the button. Blinds are 300-600 and I have 8k in chips, Old fish limps in MP, the guy who limped every hand called in the CO, me on the button with JTss... hmm fold or call... decisions decisions, ALL IN!!! SB and BB insta folds, Old guy grumbles then folds, habitual limper gives a speech along the lines of, all in with 8k preflop, this is not poker and folds! Guy to my left looks at me and I think he knew what I did, it was pretty good feeling, even better than when I have done it online, only difference is now I can see the disgust on their faces!

Anyway I busted in standard fashion, 6 handed the CO shoves for 12BB, I call off my 8BB with KsQs and then insta knew I was in trouble when the the SB said ALL IN! CO had QJo so my read was right, the SB woke up with AK and I was drawing pretty slim on a AKx flop. The board ran out giving the CO a straight on the river!

I really enjoyed it and might try to get there on a regular basis since games online load even slower on a Saturday than they did before Black Friday!

Happy Live Grinding!!!