Pagliacci

Pagliacci

Pagliacci is, reputedly, the most tragic of Italian operas, although if you asked my opinion, having to sit through multiple hourse of fat costumed singers warbling through some melodramatic excresences is tragedy enough.

Life mirroring art, I was that singer experiencing the melodrama on Thursday night and yesterday morning.

Venetian 

After my last post I went to surroundings familiar. The table was nothing remarkable - a few locals, some tourists and a couple of Chinese kids. The latter turned out to be both native Chinese, but both had come to college in America. Both played that aggressive, large-betting style that their compatriots seem to favour. So be it, it can be turned against them. It was interesting to hear one of them talking about the college poker scene in his university (Urbana-Champaign) amongst the Chinese students. Absolutely mad stuff. Playing 25-50 no-limit with 10K and 20K stacks. There are either some very rich Chinese students (probably) or a very tiered system with the weaker players donating their money to the few (probably also true to some degree).

I really only had two pots of note - one against each of the kids. One was a bomb pot where we got it in - I had a wrap draw and top two pair on the top board and a nut flush draw and gutshot on the bottom. He had a set on the bottom and two pair (middle and bottom pair) on the top baord. I bricked the top, where his set held up and he hit his bottom card to fill up and scoop the pot.

In the second, I got outplayed - simple as. I raised UTG with KQs and was called by the other Chinese kid. I flopped the flush draw and led for 2/3 pot on an 855 board which felt pretty safe. The turn was an Ace, which can't have been a card he liked so I led again for 3/4 pot and again he called. The flush came in on the river, and at this stage I reckoned he probably had a lower flush draw, so I decided to check, representing just a bare ace. He bet about 1/4 pot and I raised, only for him to re-raise. It didn't feel nice, but I had to call with the 2nd nut flush. He showed 88 and took down a big pot. Well played by him, and not so much by me. Good, but expensive, lesson.

I decided to call it a night, and upped my total prostitute encounters to 3, when I was propositioned by 2 on the way back to the room.

Wanted Rating: 0/5 stars
Cars Stolen: 0
Prostitute Encounters: 1
Poker winnings: -$202

Bellagio

Feeling a bit chastened from the night before, I decided to take a nice gentle start to the day, and after breakfast went back to bed and read some of my Rumpole anthology for an hour. John Mortimer really was a wonderfully evocative wordsmith.

About 12 noon, I headed to the Bellagio to start another days poker. I got seated pretty quickly, and even though it was early there were some very big stacks at the table. That can indicate some really good players or some whales donating funds. Either way, time to get to work.

The table turned out to be very loose and aggressie, with the 'table captain' building his stack to over $2K (typical stacks at these tables is $300), raising a huge range of hands and prepared to go to war if he had any part of the board post-flop. Those kind of players can be tough to play against - they don't really seem to have any regard for their money and their constant aggression can be unnerving. Still, I know what to do - just bet your value relentlessly. I tangled with him in 2 pots - losing with AK when it didn't hit, and his T8 held up, and taking a nice pot when my AK beat his A8 on an ace-high flop - although I should also have bet the river rather than checking it back.

I had two somewhat unluckly hands - calling a pre-flop rasie on the button with 66 and hitting my 6 on the JT6 flop vs two players who'd checked to me. I bet 1/3 pot and got called twice. The turn was a Queen and again it was checked to me. I bet 2/3 pot and the first player folded while the second min-raised me. Easy call and we went to a river. It couldn't have been much worse - a King bringing a four-straight and a flush. She bet and I had little choice but to lay it down - it turned out she had AK.

The final hand was vs the table captain. He raised big vs some loose limpers. I called on the button with AQs. The flop came Ace with a back-door flush and villain bet big. I called and so did one of the other players. Big pot brewing - I was pretty confident I was ahead given villains general agression, and the other player was pretty weak and didn't have a big stack, so I wasn't worried. The turn came another club to give me the nut draw, and villain went all in. The other player folded and I called. Villain had A6, and hit his two-outer on the river to bust me in what was an $800 pot. Yikes...

Wanted Rating: 0/5 stars
Cars Stolen: 0
Prostitute Encounters: 0
Poker winnings: -$300