Donkey Boy vs D-Bag

March 10-12th, 2009

"I'm going to play some big pots", I proclaimed.

We were driving down to Harrah's Resorts, making a Atlantic City run after a long hiatus. Mudmucker had just informed me that he wasn't going to play any poker, because he didn't feel like grinding it out for hours. I concurred; I wasn't going to grind it out either, and that's when I announced my aforementioned strategy aloud.

After sucking down some oysters and drinks at happy hour at Phillips on the 2nd day, I finally sat down for some $1-2 no-limit poker at the card room in Caesars. After a few hands, I got dealt A-5 of clubs in the big blind. A d-bag, the only person at the table wearing sunglasses (lightly tinted, so clearly it was for looking cool and not to obscure his eyes), raised it to $11 from the cut-off [he had raised 3 out of the last 4 pots]. I called and the flop came 10 high with 2 clubs. I checked, and d-bag led out for a pot sized raise of about $30. My previous tight poker incarnation would have just called, but this time, sticking to my new anti-grinder mindset, I popped it to $100- about what he had remaining in his stack. We got all the money in the middle for about $10 more, and after a blank on the turn, I hit the club on the river. I showed my nut flush, and he smirked before finally mucking. I assumed I had cracked either a pair of jacks or higher.

He muttered something about having been rivered 3 times already, and told me, "Nice hand, donkey boy. Keep playing that way."

"Thanks", I replied.

The d-bag soon changed seats at the table, moving from my right to my left. He continued to spew off chips to everyone at the table, busting, re-buying, and insulting people the entire time. D-bag was on serious tilt, enhancing his douchbaggery by ordering Coronas with lime wedges, raising pre-flop blind, and criticizing the play of everyone else. When he left the table to take a break, the entire table ribbed him, and we all agreed to "not to tap aquarium glass" (Don't scare the fish! Don't antagonize him, just smile and collect his chips!).

I soon got into another hand with d-bag. He raised from early position to $8. There about 4 callers, and I looked down at Q-Q in late position. I re-raised to $40 and after considering it for a while, d-bag was the only caller. I checked in the dark, and the flop came Q-4-5 rainbow. Boy, was checking in the dark ever the right move. I watched as he put out a $42 bet, which I considered, and smooth called. The turn was a bit scary, a 6. I didn't think he had 2-3 or 7-8, but maybe he had a 5-7 which would have given him a pair and an open-ended straight draw. I checked again, and he shoved for about $100 more which I insta-called. The river came another 4, and I flipped over my boat. He stared for a long time at the board and at his cards, saying he couldn't believe he lost with his hand. He called me "donkey boy" again, and reached in his wallet to rebuy for another $200. He claimed he had pocket sixes, which meant he was behind every step of the way in the hand.

I scooped a few more uncontested pots, and ended the session up $375. By my conservative estimation, d-bag lost at least $1000 in just the couple of hours I had spent at the table. Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.
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Lungfish's Poker Challenge update:

I'm currently north of $70, having graduated from $0.02-$0.04 to $0.05-$0.10 and recently, after my last session, I'm on to the $0.10-$0.20 tables. Nothing exciting, just playing solid A-B-C poker. Still doing cash games, but maybe I'll try some sit and gos soon too. It seems that every internet poker phenom I see on TV nowadays claims they started with just a $50 initial deposit and never looked back.

Memorial Weekend 2008

Our latest AC trip was about a month ago. Lungfish and I had been receiving free room offers from Harrah's in the mail for the past few months so we finally decided to check it out. 

I woke up pretty early on Sunday and packed a bag of multi-grain crackers and a bunch of almost all black bananas to snack on. I would later regret packing the latter when we finally checked into our rooms that afternoon and discovered that they had finished rotting and had turned into banana plasma. 

We arrived at Harrah's well before the daily 1:15 poker tournament started. Since we had some time to kill, I jumped on a blackjack table. It was single deck and they dealt the cards face down to each player. I wasn't used to holding the cards in my hand and then to make things even more complicated the dealer instructed me to 1. wave them towards me to hit, 2. tuck them under my chips to stand, and 3. flip them over if I busted.  I was already not feeling so hot about this table but then when I finally got dealt a blackjack I was only paid 6 to 5 on it.  Single deck blackjack sucks.

The buy-in for the tournament was $40+10 and I drew Table 7.  I sat next to a college kid who sat next to a grandma and a couple seats down from her was a heavyset older guy who said he just finished in the money the day before.  

I win a few pots and make it to the first break. Heavyset guy who previously finished in the money is the chip leader by betting aggressively and not being called.  I get dealt pocket J's and make it 5x pre-flop to go. Heavyset guy goes all-in and I call. He mutters "you got me" and turns over his suited K-10. But a K comes out on the flop, nothing hits on the turn or the river and I'm out.  Bad times.