A Poker Weekend: Part 2

Here's the rest of the weekend recap from Part 1

After Paul's 2 tournies there's always a small cash game, usually dealer's choice, and I'll usually play it. This night, however, Darsky and I had different plans. We were goin straight to Morongo to pull an overnighter and to keep a full poker weekend concentrated on playing good, solid poker, and not messin around with useless games. We wanted money.

The last time we hit up Morongo for the weekend back in December, I took a pretty decent hit, and Darsky took a small profit. That suited neither of our expectations so needless to say we were eager to get back into action there again. Last time we had a whole weekend of play, but this time we decided to just opt for a long night and morning of play, and if needed we would get a room. We took off from Paul's at around...midnight? Maybe. I don't really remember.

I followed Dar back to his place and left my car there and we were off. I started dozing off half way there thanks to a long night of drinking and reminiscing with the boys. When I woke up an hour later I started looking around and realized that it looked a lot more like we were heading to Barstow than to Cabazon. "Dude I asked you if it was North or South at the fork and you said North!!" Oh......sorry Dar, I was sleepin. So we turned around and Darsky let out a (somewhat frustrated) laugh. Time to pass out again. I woke up as were nearing the nicely lit up casino, and by this time it was 4AM. I dunno about Darsk but I felt well-rested and ready to play some cards!! (Haha I know I'm such a bastard)

It was refreshing to walk into that casino again, especially after cramming Chumash for months straight. Don't get me wrong, I love the Mash dearly, but it was definitely a welcome refreshment to get out to another playing ground. Considering it was a long weekend we figured that the poker room would be packed, and packed it definitely was. It was 4AM and there were games a plenty. There were three 2/5NL games going, and Darsky and I found an open table and sat at the 2s and 3s. I bought in for $200, and quietly sat and played next to this crazy, loud, obnoxious Iranian guy for twenty minutes before that table broke. We moved to another table with split seats, I took the 7s and Dar took the 3s. There was a very loud, and horrendously annoying lady in the 9s who obviously didn't know what she was doing, and hardly had any understanding of the concepts of poker. That's supposed to be great for players like me, but she was really getting on my nerves just being there and being alive and around me at that moment. I know that's not a good way to play poker, and I'm usually ok and would welcome that, but I think I was just tired.

The 4s quickly opened and I literally jumped out of my chair to occupy that one instead. Darsky was in the 3s, so having someone readily available to talk to and joke around with eased my nerves. Sitting on about $160, I limped the A6c from mid position, only to have the crazy lady in the 9s raise it up in the SB. It folded to me and I called. The board came up Kc-Xc-X. Crazy bet out maybe $40, and after a second of thought I pushed my remaining hundo. She insta-called and turned over JJ. A bit suprising, but actually not really. It went blank blank and it was time for a rebuy.

At this point I looked around and realized that somewhere within the hour that we had arrived, the poker room had widdled down to about 4 running tables. The entire room was practically filled when we showed up, and now the games were few and far between. It was really odd.

I rebought for $300 more and was ready to get my money back. The table was running weird though, and throughout the next half hour I managed to lose my second buy. By the time I lost it the table had gotten down to 4-handed, and I got tangled up in a QQ vs KK situation to an undercard board. Knowing that playing with Darsky in a 4-handed game wasn't good conditions, I decided to take a break and go over why I had lost so far. I took a quick breather and went back to the board. There was a 1/2NL, a 2/4, and a 3/6Kill going. I took an open seat in the 3/6Kill and plugged my iPod into my head. After about twenty minutes of mindless limit action, I looked over at the ongoing (now 3-handed) 2/5NL game where Dar was still seated, and saw him pickin up his chips. I sensed a sign, food was in order!!

It was time for sweet breakfast! We headed over the the cafe and discussed some plays, some players, and my overall hastely dumping of money in the first couple of hours. I enjoy my conversations with Darsky, because he always has insightful things to say, whether it be about life, poker, or whatever, he always just says good stuff. I try to soak it in every time I talk to him. He explained some things about my situation at the table, and we discussed a few hands. It's always good and I value those poker conversations because I feel like I can really benefit from what he says. It was rejuvinating and vitalizing and pumped me up to play some more after bagging a $500 loss just an hour before.

I downed a Red Bull and some french toast, and we were back to the action half an hour later. By now there was only a 1/2NL, a 2/4, and two 3/6Kills going. We put our names up on a weak 2/5NL wishlist, and as we waited we both noticed a smokin hot little chicky playing the 3/6 right in front of us. We (I should really say I, as I think my interest was a bit more peaked than Dar's) oohed and awed over the little hotty, and eventually after waiting for our game to open up, I saw a seat open at the 3/6 and took it as an open invitation to play with my little inflatuation. Not long after that another seat was open and Darsky took that one. Seeing Darsky in a low-stakes limit game made me laugh, but no matter what we're playing time at the table with Dar is always good times. Plus we got to stare and talk to a hot chick playing poker.......what more can you want.

A little while later she left and Dar piped up asking what we were still doing at the game now that she was gone. Good point. As I was looking for a rack the names were being called down for an opening of a 2/5NL game. Yessss. This time I took the 1-seat (or the knee-banging seat) and Dar took the 2s. The Morongo game is always fun because with $2 and $5 blinds, they have a no-max buy-in, which usually creates some decent action, and is a much welcome change from the limited buy-ins at Chumash. I bought in for another $300 (a pretty comfortable buy-in for my play) and was really ready to play some solid poker after my reassurance by Dar over breakfast. Nothing really big happened, but I flopped a couple sets against horribly scary boards and took it down on the flop both times for small profits. Other than that I just grinded it out. Darsky took some really stupid, stupid beats, and ended up a small loser on the trip, while I barely squeaked an even run for the trip on my last hand.

I raised preflop with the AQs, and got called by only the SB. He only had about $100 behind after my preflop raise to $20, and he pushed it all in on a flop of Js-10s-X. I put him on a jack (funny story, Darsky knows it) and pretty much called instantaneously figuring that I had to be ahead in the hand. He flipped over J6o, and I turned a Q and rivered a flush, so that pot brought me back to even on the trip. I ran the hand in an odds calc when I got home and saw that I was a %62.22 favorite to take down his J6 offsuit after the flop, so my thought process was right. We both headed home as tired, poker-playing bastards, who just booked a fun weekend of cards and good times. An In-N-Out stop before I took off back to Santa Barbara, and that was that.

Tonight Joe and I are headed to the dealers' game with the dealers from Chumash, so that should be great fun as well.

Until next time.