Friday Night at the Empire

CC and I ventured down to what has become a bustling Friday night poker scene at the Empire Casino in Leicester Square. We both had early nights planned, so we had a 4 hour window to do some damage.

Night started auspiciously when an old guy (later we learned he was 45) sat down to my right and started asking how much he had to put in every time the action came to him. He was the definition of a calling station. He had 150 pounds in front of him. CC and I had silently both called "dibs" on his chips, and we started probing, trying to siphon them off this dope.

I had tried a couple pre-flop raises from position to push the action, but missed the flops. Watching the old guy call EVERY bet post-flop, I knew I'd have little chance to bluff him off a pot, so I sat tight, patiently waiting.

A few hands later, I find AsQs from the button. A tight player limped in mid position and old guy called. I popped it 4x the BB to 8 GBP, tight player reluctantly calls and old guy asks: "how much do I have to put in?". FLOP comes AK7 (2 diamonds). Tight player makes a feeler bet of 12, old guy bets 25, as he has no idea how to size his bets. Figuring I'm ahead here, I raise it to 75 GBP. Tight player mucks, and old guy calls the 75 with only 50 behind. At this point, I'm sure he's on a diamond draw or has A-rag. TURN is a blank. He checks and I put him all-in for the remaining 50. He calls. When I see the RIVER Qd, my face cringes, knowing this guy probably just sucked out a flush on me. As suspected, he turns over Td2d as he announces: "It's my birthday!"

It was actually his birthday, and he put an 18% suck-out on me to prove it. Despite having half my stack stolen from me by this old guy, I worked back up to about even before CC and I moved over to the main game, which was 1/2 NL with 250 GBP buy-in.

Couple interesting hands of note. CC made a couple good laydowns in the face of strength and asked me to flip him a 100 chip from my pocket to re-stack to the full buy-in. On the next hand, I had straddled for 5. CC was on my left, and as was usual, he called my straddle from UTG. Middle position raised to 15, button calls and it folded around to me. I had the lovely J2 suited and promptly folded, knowing CC might re-pop this with virtually anything, which he did, making it 50 to go. Middle position makes the call, showing a lot of weakness and button folds. Middle asks CC how much he has behind (implying he his pot-committed). FLOP comes JJx. I don't remember if CC lead-out or checked, but all the money went in after the flop and CC turns over AA only to see middle position had called 25x the BB pre-flop with JQo and flopped the trips. (1) bad timing of getting the 100 pounds from me (2) bad timing of me straddling and CC was UTG (3) BAD play by middle position trying to squeeze the straddle with "JACK shit".

CC took off after working his way back to a reasonable stack. Table was not particularly good or bad, but was reasonably ABC poker. The cards were kind to me, finding QQ twice and KK once. All three times, I raised pre-flop, got 1-2 callers, and won the pot after the flop. By this time, I had a profit of 400-500 GPB and was feeling good.

But, the apex of the night was NOT a pot won, but rather one of the best laydowns I've made in recent memory. There was an American guy who was obviously drunk and talking non-stop. He was annoying to say the least, and appropriately held up the negative stereotype of US attorneys, which he was of the commercial, restructuring type. He had made some really obvious over-bet bluffs and showed the bluffs proudly. One was against me when I held top pair (9's) and pushed all-in with a gut-shot straight draw. That annoyed me slightly.

Then, came the hand of the night (my last). I found AsJs UTG and limped. Annoying lawyer raised it 12 (6x BB), which looked like a blatant steal attempt targeted at me. The table folded around to me, and I called. FLOP comes J58 rainbow. I checked, he bet 15 and I just called. TURN was another J, giving me trips and top kicker. I checked again and he bets 25 into a pot of 55. I promptly raised to 75 and he "insta-all-in" for 400 ish. Now, my instincts were 99% sure I had this guy NAILED on another bullshit bluff, but something held me back from insta-calling. As I stared down this guy, to get some read from him, his face turned white, as he completely expected me to fold immediately. My confidence went from 99% to 99.5% and I almost pulled the trigger to call him. Right then, he flashes his cards to his end of the table (away from me). THIS IS SO BIZARRE, that I freeze, trying to figure out what he has by the reaction of my fellow players. One of the guys on my left calls over the pit boss and complains that he is breaking the rules by exposing his cards to a few players before I act. The controversy quickly settles down and the bit boss just tells him to "not do it again" and play out the hand. I was hoping he'd declare his raise invalid and we could just show-down the hands, but to no avail. As I spend another minute contemplating the decision, I start to realize he is getting more and more comfortable as the time passes. I conclude the only thing this guy can possibly have is 55 or 88, making a full house for him. So, I fold my AJ and he flips over J5, the second nuts.

I am still reeling from that laydown, which saved me all of my profits for the night. I would have never put him on J5 given the pre-flop raise, but that's what you get with a maniac drunk.