It Must have been a Full Moon

Seat Two: Ralph Perry
Seat Three: Me
Seat Six: Abe Mosseri
Seat Seven: Eli Elezra
Seat Eight: Jennifer Harman Chau showed up about 10 minutes after I did and took the five seat. The game was the usual mix, $2000-$4000 Hold’em, Omaha H/L, Stud, Stud 8, Stud H/L Regular, and 2-7 triple draw. I jumped right in and played props heads up taking the black suits and my 7 props. About 20 minutes in, I hit a nice little prop in 2-7 triple draw when I was dealt: Ad Ah Jh Jd 9h. I counted it up, and figured $4000 for the AA, $1000 for the JJ, and an additional $2000 for color, as all my cards where red. Just as my hand went to the muck I realized… doh! I slept one! I actually had a fourth prop that I missed: 51 points which paid an extra $3000. Oh well, I’m a props rookie and that’s bound to happen I guess. My props opponent quit after a short session and I won $11,000 in the props, but would have won $14,000 if I didn’t sleep the 51 points prop. With no more props to play, it was time to just focus on the poker. Out of the blue, a random guy walked into the room with $40,000 and took the last seat. Apparently he had played once before as a few of the regulars recognized him. His $40,000 lasted about 30 minutes and while he claimed he was coming back he never did. Johnny Chan took his seat so we were still 8 handed. There were a few interesting hands on the evening and I’m going to continue the “Who Made the following Play” feature in the forums at www.fullcontactpoker.com. Basically, I’m going to give you details on a hand and then it will be up to you to figure out who made the play: In triple draw, I raised with 2-2-2-6-7 and only the big blind called me. The BB drew 3 and I drew 2. I didn’t catch any help on the first draw catching a K and a 6, but when my opponent checked I decided to bet since I had valuable discards, burning two deuces and a six. On the second draw I caught a J-8 making me a J-8-7-6-2. My opponent who also drew two bet out, and since I had a “convertible” (a hand that I could stay pat with or break) I decided to raise it. I had position on the hand so if my opponent drew a card, I could stay pat with my Jack. If my opponent stood pat in front of me, well, chances are that a Jack wasn’t good so I could go to the deck and try to make my 8. My opponent called my raise and stood pat. So much for staying pat, I drew a card hoping to improve. I felt like my opponent had a rough 9, or possibly even a 10 just hoping that I was still drawing. My opponent checked and I looked down at a… Jack! I got the same card back, oh well. I checked, and my opponent called out, “Jack.” “Jack what?” I replied suddenly feeling like I had a chance. My opponent turned over the J-8-7-6-5! I ended up winning the hand when I thought I was dead. So the question I’ll be asking in the General Forum at www.fullcontactpoker.com, will be simple, “Which of the following players had the J-8-7-6-5?” The next hand of interest happened in Omaha H/L. The SB raised and the BB defended with As Qd Jd 9d. The flop came Ks Js 7h. The SB checked, and the BB bet. The turn card was the 10h giving the BB the nuts straight. The SB checked, the BB bet, and the SB check-raised. Rather than re-raise with the nuts, the BB just called. The river was the 8s and the SB bet again. With the nuts straight and the naked Ace of spades, the BB raised. The SB called the raise, and the A-Q scooped the pot! The question here will be, who was in the BB? Bonus points if you can also figure out who the SB was. Throughout the night, we saw a wide variety of bizarre drop ins. Alex “A-Rod” Rodriguez was there watching for a little while as an invited guest, but several other people walked into the room with cameras trying to take pictures. They were quickly whisked away by the floor. A couple of drunk girls that looked like they were going to be sick walked into the room looking for a bathroom! Another foreign gentleman claimed that he wanted to play, but he didn’t know hi-lo games. We overheard the gentleman talking to the floor and let him know that we’d try his games (Stud, Hold’em, Omaha… or so we thought). He kept telling the floor that he is a 12 time European champion in Pot Limit Stud. That was the only game he really wanted to play. We weren’t about to play that, and the fact that the guy smelled like a toilet didn’t help. I thought it was Ralph’s soup that stunk, but man the dude was only in the room for a few minutes, but the stink lingered for at least the next 15 minutes! Another European woman later walked into the room smoking a clove cigarette which also smelled terrible, but nothing like that dude. Apparently she was lost and looking for directions. Totally bizarre. Yet another player walked in claiming that he wanted to play, and this time Ralph looked at him and then said to the table, “I’ll lay 1000-1 that guy doesn’t play.” Johnny Chan jumped out of his seat and threw a $1000 chip on the table, “I’ll bet $1000,” he said, “I’ll stake the guy and give him a free roll!” Johnny was kidding of course, but we all got a kick out of it. It was a fun night. Cracking jokes, good company, and 80’s hits playing in our private room. Anything from Air Supply to Phil Collins and “Sooo sooo sooodio!!” That, and a good diet of Boy George and that song, “Coma coma coma coma come Chamelion… you come and go… you come and gooo oooo.” Chau loves him some Air Supply and he was rockin’ to the beats all night long. That’ll crack you up, I promise you that! At about 3:30am as the game was breaking down Allen Cunningham showed up to play. He’s not quite the guy that we were looking to pick up, but hey, a body is a body. Allen was there to witness an early Christmas gift in my favor. Playing hi lo regular, I made the following hand 7-7-3-3-A-2-K, for two pair and a king low. My opponent’s board was A-10-10-Q. I turned up my hand and my opponent stared at it for a while and asked, “King what?” “King seven perfect,” I replied. He then showed me a King in the hole and mucked his hand. The hand was over and one of the player’s got to thinking, “What did you have? What could you have had?” It then dawned on all of us that it was impossible for me to scoop with two small pair and a king low. With my opponent’s board reading A-10-10-Q, there are NO three hole cards he could have that didn’t get half! If he had K-J-9 he’d have a straight. If he had two pair he’d win the high! Wow, that was a nice little gift for me. The game ended up breaking up at close to 4:00am and I was down $105, 500 after 5.5 hours, but also won $11,000 in props for a net loss of $94,500. As for who made that blunder, that will NOT qualify as a “Who made the following play” at the forums!]]>