The depressing part of life, poker, and the puppet of doom

So the last week or so has brought really depressing news. There have been a few phone calls that have brought nothing but news of death, and its really thrown me off everything. My neighbor of 18 years passed away over a week ago due to long standing heart complications, and a girl that I graduated high school with passed away two nights ago from a heart attack. That mixed in with on and off talks about death with various friends and people has just put me in very downer mode.

I was about to sit for a game at the Wynn when I got a call from my good friend Josh from high school about the news. I was quickly in no mental condition to play poker, so I hit the bar instead. After some long island iced teas and beers, I was feeling more comfortably depressed and decided to walk to the poker room, as a few friends were playing in there. Al (ALreturnsLOL) bustoed his short live roll in the 1/3 uncapped game. Rob and mike were playing the 10/20 uncapped game while Ari (AZK) and Alex (Gary Stevenson) were pwning 25/50nl uncapped featuring running back Lamont Jordan and trust fund baby with 100k on the table, action Dan. Quite a site to see such bad play at levels as high as 25/50.

I headed to grab food with Rob, Ari, AL and Mike at a high class asian restaraunt, enjoyed some nice sushi, and headed back to the pokerroom. After sobering up I saw Owen (Jshuttlesworth) playing a shorthanded 1/3 game, and though still a little bit buzzed, felt like I was ready to take an edge off and sit for a while.

I bought for 500 and quickly was getting involved in a few pots. The highlights:

I open the cutoff with 98o to 15 and get 2 callers, the button and out of the blind. The flop came 5c6c7 (nuts) and I led for 40 and the button thought and called. Now, this guy was trying to call all of my hands without a showdown with his girl sitting behind him, so, though I had no solid reads, I was willing to try and show him up in front of the Ms. The turn brought the 10c, and I led for 55 and got raised to 200. I thought for a few seconds and, though it was possible he was playing his flush like this, I couldn't narrow his range enough to seriously consider folding, and I certainly couldn't raise, so I flat called the raise thinking that he shuts down with all of his made hands that don't beat a straight, and probably wouldn't run a big bluff once called on the turn. The river paired the 5, and I checked and he checked behind, mucking to my straight.

The next hand I had QsTs and called an Early position raise. In the heads up pot the flop came Q high and reasonably dry. I called a bet. The turn checked through and when the river bricked as well, the bettor checked again and I quickly potted it. He quickly called and mucked to my top pair. I love the old "he checked the turn so he can't have a queen here" thought process.

After a bit more dabbling I started feeling hangover effects, got a major headache and decided that I had to get up. Finished the 1.5 hour session at +200.

I watched some more of the big games and eventually we recruited Brett to drive out and pick us up, as Rob was planning to stay all night and he needed the car to pick up Dave (Green Kool Aid) this morning. On to puppet.....

You can read up on the rules of puppet here: http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=11144258&page=0&fpart=1&vc=1

Basically its a sick sick game where hold em hands are dealt to the players, who ante up at a preassigned amount (1 dollar for our game) and a dead hand is also dealt (the puppet). Anyone who decides to play their hand (decides simultaneously) runs their hand out vs anyone playing and the pupper, and the pot is replaced by the loser (or losers, if the puppet scoops). You wouldn't think this game plays terribly big with 1 dollar antes, but...it does. If you scroll to a few pages in the above post you'll see both my posts (AMT) and Costanza's post with details. The short of it is that the puppet kept bad beating everyone in runner runner gutshot straights, boat>boat, and pwning actual flips and the pot quickly ran up to 2700, when bengiec wouldn't chop the pot to prove one of his ridiculous emo points about playing stupid gambling games (that he requested to be woken up to play). After one more 3 way beat where the puppet scooped, the pot hit 8k and bengiec still wouldnt chop the pot. Now, literally, we've rapidly approached puppet for ROLLS.

Futuredoc decided to play KQ for 8k heads up vs. the puppet, and the puppet turned over AK. After flipping a shit and going ballistic, he spiked a Queen on the flop, putting bengiec in the hole 4k and getting himself unstuck. It was...ridiculous, to say the least. Quite the game if you're looking to flip coins for bankrolls.

Anyways, thats what vegas has brought since the parents left town. I'm going to do my best to put in some poker time in the week before I leave, as after losing my prop bet with AZK I haven't had the motivation that I would have, and basically haven't played nearly enough. We'll see what this week brings, thanks for reading.


-Alex