Salami and a show, perfect together

What a great night I had last night! Stephen P and his wife had gotten free (zero cost, nada, gratis) tickets to a show near Union Square called FuerzaBruta. It's hard to describe except to say it's kind of like a combination of the Blue Man Group and Cirque de Soleil, with an pre-90's East Village grittiness and attitude. I put out feelers to a few friends to come join in the fun and Viv took up the call. The show started at 8PM and ran for 70 minutes (more on why later) so I was able to sneak home for a few minutes before. Because I knew that we would be getting out of the show relatively early, I took my gangster poker roll with me, just in case the Salami Club called out to us afterwards.

Stephen and his wife and Viv and I met up at Chat n' Chew at Union Square at 7:00 and had some food. If you haven't been there, and it was my first time, the Mac N' Cheese is some of the best I ever tasted. 'Nuff Said. At 8PM, we were in the theater and the show was just beginning. I noticed something askew when we got into the theater though. There was a bunch of people in a long darkened room, and no chairs! That's when I spotted a placard stating that we would be standing the entire show! Hmmm...maybe Mac N' Cheese wasn't the best idea.

The show was a blast and a lot of fun. Set pieces were constantly being moved out amongst the audience and we were constantly moving around the theater. Trance and Techno music was being spun expertly by a DJ and the visual effects of the show were spectacular. My two favorite set piece were the woman who were doing acrobatics along the side wall, defying gravity. And also, the clear swimming pool that was suspended ABOVE the audience where 4 nymph woman frolicked. The pool was raised and lowered for effect, until at one point it was only a foot above the audience's heads. The effect was fantastic.

After the show, Stephen and his wife retreated to their homes and Viv and I, what else, went to Salami. When we got there, we found W dealing, rocking the push-up bra. Go W! There was only seat available at the time, which I gave to Viv and I played some backgammon ($2 a point, for fun) with a guy who walked in, with a backgammon book in his hand. Whoops. To my credit, he got lucky in one game to win and I was ahead in two others when I made horrendous mistakes. But there's no denying that he swept me for 5 straight points before a seat opened up for me.

When I sat down, I took $300 in with me against stacks ranging from $200 to $1000. I got garbage for 4 straight hands until the dealer changed and W sat down to deal. Normally, this woman is kryptonite to Superman, but I must have gotten bitten by the luck bug. Her second hand to me, she deals me TT. I'm in MP and I call an early raise to $20 with two other callers. The flop comes down QQ3 with two hearts. The original raiser comes in for $45 which I read as a continutation bet. I raise $75 on top and take down the pot. The very next hand, I get KK. This time, I raise to $25 PF and get a re-raise to $75 from another player. When it gets back to me, I put $100 on top of that and he calls. The flop comes with three unders (T53 I think). I bet out $150 and he calls. The turn, of course, is an Ace. But he checks to me and I consider a bet, but check methodically. The river is a 5, pairing the board. The worst turn and rivers I can see. He checks and I flip over my KK. He mucks and I take it down, toking W a nice amount. That pot paid half the time for the table, so I lost some money out of it, but I'm not complaining. Now, with some profit in my hand, I muck the next two hands and then get AQo UTG+1. I decide to limp and get lucky when no one raises PF. The flop comes down Kd-Jc-Td. Hooyah! I flopped the joint! Now, in previous days of yore, I've not gotten paid off on these hands. So I put a plan in my brain to bet it hard, reasoning that if anyone called, they'd be going against pot odds. I wanted to give the other players a tough decision. The nice thing about flopping Broadway, is that there is a GOOD chance, especially in a multi-way pot, that one or more of your opponents is holding a good hand. The BB checked and the UTG player bet out $75. A nice overbet, designed I thought to get rid of the flush draw. Or he's on the flush draw and betting the come. So I decided to raise. $150 on top. It folded around to the BB who went into the tank and finally gave up his hand (What he claimed later was the nut flush draw. Impressive given that he also had the gutshot straight to go with it). The raiser called me, which was surprising. He's either chasing the flush, in which case the turn will be helpful to see, or he actually has a made hand, probably KJ. The turn was a merciful brick. He checked to me. I bet out $150. He called. The river was a black 2, giving me the nut hand. He checked and I moved all in for $187. He muttered about the straight and starting eyeballing me. I made a mistake because he asked me to count it out and my hand was shaking a bit. That's a strong hand tell, but he must not have picked up on it. Next time, I'll have to remember to have the dealer count it out to offset that. Instead, after I counted it out, I concentrated on trying to give off a false tell. So I froze up. I held my breath and stopped riffling my chips and I froze. Something about either my performance or his hand made him make the call and I flipped over what he knew in the back of his head I had. The nizzuts! He mucked and I doubled through. I had, in the space of 15 minutes, turned $300 into $880.

I was feeling great about it, because I hardly EVER get paid off on good card runs and it was a nice feeling. I went card dead after that, except for a few small pocket pairs which didn't connect on the flop. One fun hand I got away from, I had 8h9h UTG+1. I limped and it limped around to the BB who put $50 on top. Now, it's true I had nice crackers, but there's no reason for me to commit that much when I'm only in the pot for $5. So I mucked. When I threw my cards in, they landed on their side and one of the players got a glimpse of them. So the dealer exposed them and a player at the other end of the table commented on "how could you give those up?" He was being serious too. God bless your loosey goosey ways Salami club! The BB ended up taking it down and then, uncharacteristically, asked the dealer to rabbit hunt the flop. The dealer dealt out the 3 cards quickly and looked at them himself. He shook his head with a low whistle and said to the BB, "You don't want to see it". He showed the table TJQ rainbow! I would have flopped a straight! I felt a touch cruddy about it until the BB exposed *his* hand, AK. Oh Wow. If he had bet about $25, I would have called and he would have flopped Broadway to my lower straight. Can you say, "dodged a bullet"? Genius fold! :-)

I sat on my stack for the next 30 minutes and left at 11 PM, still up $562 for the hour's entertainment. It's SO nice to book a good win.

Tonight is a private game at my place and there is a 1-2 NLHE rakeless game tomorrow night. Saturday night is first night of Passover. No rest for the weary. I'm looking forward to matzoh and gefilte fish.