Monday, July 19, 2010

Wow, so soon (poker, gambling)

So I started grinding online poker again recently and just started writing about poker again this past weekend with the intention of keeping it up. Ironically, the very next day (last night), I went on massive massive tilt and almost destroyed the online BR. Luckily, the damage was limited due to a good run, but it was really really bad. Out of control almost. Had to call my friend to talk me down. Hopefully I'll learn something from this since tilt has always been an issue for me whether at poker or at trading.

Even though I didn't play any, there was some poker from Vegas that I forgot to mention earlier. On my last day, I was killing time and decided to watch some poker as they were playing the WPT Bellagio Cup in one of the cafe spaces at the Bellagio. The disclaimer for the WPT is pretty scary. I only glanced at it, but I think it mentioned that just by being in the playing area, you consent to them using your image (if recorded) for any promotional material and media in perpetuity.

Anyway, I walked in to watch and decided to watch the table that John Juanda was at. I don't know if he puts on any makeup, but his features are very striking and very dark, especially for an asian guy. About 10 hands in I see UTG raise, UTG+1 call, and Juanda call from the big blind. The flop comes A55 rainbow. It goes check check and last to act now bets out. I didn't know any of the chip denominations so I couldn't follow everything closely, but had a general idea of what was going on. Juanda raises, the preflop raiser folds, and the flop bettor quickly calls. The turn is a 6 putting two hearts on the board. Juanda bets out now and his opponent agonizes a little before making the call. The river is a 7 putting 3 hearts on the board. Juanda leads out again and his opponent goes all in. Juanda says something about how he knows he's beat but he's priced in to call. Indeed he does call and his opponent shows AK of hearts for the flush. Juanda mucks his hand, but from my vantage point I could see that he had a 5 in his hand. Two hands later, middle position raises followed by two callers. Juanda pushes all-in and the preflop raiser quickly calls with A9 suited as the others fold. Juanda shows 88, loses the race and is out. That's poker, folks.

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