Et tu Brute

Joe Louis statue in Caesar's

Joe Louis was way before my time but anyone into boxing will know of him as a legendary fighter who inspired others such as Ali. Known as the Brown Bomber, he boxed in an era when fighters didn't make a fortune, so after retirement he parlayed his fame as a 'meet'n'greet' man in Caesar's, where the casino rightly estimated that it was worth paying him a handsome salary as people would want to come into the casino to shake his hand. Decades later, the darker and altogether mor tragic figure of Sonny Liston would do the same, before his untimely and suspicious death.

I went back to Caesar's yesterday about 5:30. The room was surprisingly quiet, and I got seated immediately - and as it happened beside Larry from Chicago who'd played with before. The table was ok. An old guy from California sat down, and had a few interesting stories. Had boxed competively in his youth before giving up for a tennis scholarship to college. After a maths degree he went to work for Raytheon (who have a lot of government defence contracts). He had some good stories - initially, the problem being he went through the same spiel with everyone he sat down to the table with.

Things went along quietly enough for a while without any real hands of note. Then an old lady with an "I'm not bluffing" t-shirt sat down. T shirts like that pretty much universally mean they are, even though the stereotype old lady sits there with 100 dollars and only plays premiums. This lady though did lots lof raising and calling and didn't appear to be much good; just splashu.

Naturally I looked forward to getting into a couple of pots with her. The poker gods were listening and they obliged. Sadly they were obviously paid off by the Ides of March, as I got done twice for large amounts. In the first one she called a large raise from my AQs in the small blind. I flopped the flush draw and she called a 3/4 pot bet. The turn completed the flush and to my surprise (and joy) she led out for 1/2 pot. I paused and debated raising, but given that I could get her all in on the river I just called. The river paired the board and she led out again for 1/3 pot. I raised her the remaining chips and she snap-called. My ace-high flush had been beaten by runner-runner. She had second pair on the flop with her 7, hit her 5 kicker on the turn and another 5 on the river, with her 75o taking down my AQs. You just have to smile, as those pots will come to daddy 90% of the time, so I congratulated her and waited for the next hand.

About 1 orbit later I got QQ and put in a nice raise. She called from the big blind and we went to the flop heads up. The flop came T92 rainbow and she checked and called my pot-sized bet. The turn was a 4 and she called another 3/4 pot. The river was an 8 and she shoved for about 2/3 pot. She wasn't really a slow playing type so I didn't expect her to have TT, 99 or T9. QJ was pretty unlikely, given my two queens, so after taking my time to think I called. She flipped J7s for the straight.

At that point I decided to cut my losses and took my remaining chips and left.

Wanted Rating: 0/5 stars
Cars Stolen: 0
Prostitute Encounters: 0
Poker winnings: $-271