Some unexpected events have occurred here in Sunny (read: Damn Hot) South Florida. First, my flight is supposed to take off at 7PM. I get to the airport in the nick of time, board the flight and discover that rather than taking off at 7, the airline has decided the best course of action would be to keep us on the tarmac until 9PM. I wasn't in the air until 9:15, but once we were airborne, the flight was incredibly quick. I even managed to snag a seat in the comfy exit row because my reading light was broken and I used it as an excuse to take an empty seat. Not that I needed an excuse but I somehow feel guilty moving without 'permission'. I've got to work on that. Chad, the nice young gentlemen sitting next to me, starting chatting about his 14 soujourn from Morocco that he was currently on. Chad is a teacher in South Florida and he travels a lot during the summer months. I let him use my Blackberry to email his girlfriend that he was delayed and we got into a conversation about, what else, poker. He doesn't play, or even bet, but we managed to make a prop bet on when the over/under was going to be on our landing time. I took 12:15AM to be the approx. landing time and we bet $1. He took the under. Bad move on my part because we landed at 11:30pm! I was wayyy off. Still, it's nice to say that I got my mile-high gamble on a little early.
I got my car and headed to my parent's place, putting my head to the pillow at about 1AM. I was definitely excited to start playing some poker. I had originally planned to get up Thursday morning and play golf with my dad, but those plans were scuttled. Instead, I got up late and went out to brunch with my parents and two of their friends. We had a wonderful little brunch of bagels, smoked fish and eggs, capping it off with a nice mid-afternoon nap. It was too hot to be outside (about 97 degrees), so I lounged on the couch for a bit. Then my mother and I went to see my Grandmother for a bit. I got back to the apartment about 5PM and called Wendy to see when she would be coming down. Turns out, she woke up that morning very sick and she wasn't going to make it. Due to the price change for coming down the next day, it was very likely she wasn't going to come down at all! This wouldn't do. I called and begged but to no avail. What's worse, I called Abbie to see if her plans were still solid and now *she* was debating. But after much begging and pleading, it looks like Abbie is going to stick to her original plans. So at least I won't be the only Wall Streeter in attendance.
But for that night, I was on my own. Around 7PM, I got the energy to make the trek over to the Hard Rock and check out how the new No Limit poker laws are affecting traditional South Florida poker. Very nicely, thank you. The law was recently changed in South Florida to allow for No Limit poker with a max buyin of $100. Surprisingly, they are still spreading the old $1/$2, $2/$2 limit games but they've added a very Atlantic City $2/$4 regular limit game. In addition, they are spreading $1/$2 NL, $2/$5 NL and $5/$10 NL!!! All with $100 max buyin!!!! I was very surprised to see the higher limits allowed with the max buyin so low. I glanced at a $5/$10 table, and the big stack at the table was at $1700!!! Naturally, I assumed this to mean that if you dropped below $100, you could make a full buyin of another $100, effectively raising the maximum buyin to $199. But I was assured this was not the case. All rebuys must be capped to $100 maximum at the table. Any money over $100 is money won, not bought. So I can only imagine the all-in fest at the $5/$10 NL table for a guy to have 17 times his buyin at the table. Sick stuff.
I was immediately (no waiting) seated at a 1/2 NL table and bought in for $100, as nearly everyone does. I took about an hour feeling the table out. The table was pretty tight, or so I thought. There was a lot of limping, and when I tried to steal a table full of blinds with a raise to $20, I got caught by someone who ended up flopping trips. What did he call my $20 with? How about K6 offsuit? Yep, it was gonna be one of those night. I was licking my chops. I spent $72 feeling out the table and reloaded back to the maximum and waited. And waited. And waited. I dragged a few small pots but basically sat back. A big stoned spanish kid and his incredibly hot spanish girlfriend sat down and played on opposite ends of the table. He was very loose, showing a big bluff on the first hand. He would regularly commit $50 into a $15 pot and I knew someone was going to crack him sooner or later. His girlfriend played tight (like her body, yes!) and wasn't in more than two hands all night. He, on the other hand, peeled off buyin after buyin. The table exploded in loose chips about 30 minutes later when a very drunk blond woman sat down, glass of wine in her hand. She came in with $100 and called every big bet the spanish kid made. He was usually bluffing at her and she kept winning with bottom pair, Ace high and an ocassional runner runner draw that hit. Soon, she had about $350 in front of her. But it was a matter of time before she peeled it away and she ended up losing half to a guy at the end of the table who flopped a boat. She called off $180 with pocket 4's and didn't seem bummed at all. "That's fine," she slurred. "I don't care anyway." Oh, this was getting good. I looked down at 9To a little while later and limped in with it. Amazingly, no preflop raise from the spanish kid who had slowed down a tad since getting felted by drunk blonde girl twice. The flop came 683, giving me two overs and a gutshot. A tight guy in early position bet $10 into a pot of about $14. Drunk girl called. I knew that if I was able to hit the seven, I might stack one, or both of them, so I called. Four other callers gave me great pot odds. A J came on the turn. Now I had the Open Ender though the turn made a club flush draw. The same tight guy bet out $25. Drunk girl called. It was now $25 into a pot of about $130. I would be getting at least 5:1 on my draw, not including any calers who might be behind me. And if I hit the OESD, I was confident I could get some more bets in on the river. So I called. Two players called behind me. I needed a 7 or a Queen to get paid and the Qc peeled on the river. Granted, it made a runner runner flush draw, but I was hopeful. The spanish kid and the drunk girl both went all in behind me. Normally, I would fold against two all-ins, confident one had the flush. But this time I was sure the spanish kid was bluffing and the drunk girl had something like bottom pair. The tight guy, who started the action, folded in disgust. I moved all in for $14 more and drunk girl put in the $14 for the side action. My straight, needless to say, scooped the whole pot. Hot spanish girl shot her stoned boyfriend a look of disgust. She called my straight before I could. Smart and a tight hot body. Wow.
Action went on like that all night. I scooped two other big pots when my KK in the SB got a $20 preflop raise from drunk girl. I re-raised to $100 and she moved all in for $180. I called, naturally, to see her expected A6o. No Ace came and I was golden. Also, I took down a good pot when my own K6 in the small blind turned trip 6's and got an allin from a guy playing 69. Oh, too bad. My kicker plays.
I was at a height of +295, but ended up staying until 4AM trying to get another big hand and I spent $90 for the privilege. Still, I finished the night up $201, confident that my trip was going to be a big money maker.
During all of this, I was emailing back and forth with Darko trying to convince him to come down for the weekend and take Wendy's place. He said he'd think about it. He was on his way to the Salami Club and needed to win some money for the trip. As the night progressed, he emailed progress reports. The first report was grim. He had 66 and the flop came JJ6. He and another guy ended up putting all their money in. His opponent turned over...JJ. Yeesh, what a cooler. But he reloaded and 45 minuted later came the next progress report:
"I'm up $650!"
Then: "I'm up $900"
Then: "I'm up $1500", "I'm up $2000", "I'm up $2500"
He ended up leaving at 5AM with 2800 in profit, that sick bastard. He's still debating on coming down. True, I can't offer him that kind of action, but we have an ocean. That's something isn't it?
Abbie is flying in later on and I'm going to meet her for poker at Pompano Beach. Can't wait...
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