Tuesday, May 11, 2004

Monday at the Blue Parrot: Another Ferrari Home Game
"You can't fake quality any more than you can fake a good meal." - William S. Burroughs
I've been on a rush. I have not had one single losing session this month and that streak continued after I posted a $235 win and chopping two monster pots including a rare $340 pot!!! Last night's action at the Blue Parrot feature yet another intra-blogger game. This time Dave from the poker blog, Riding the F Train joined the mix, which meant that I got to meet yet another poker blogger. Very cool, since I recently started reading his blog. Once Rick Blaine moves to California with the wifey, Ilsa, it looks like Dave will be filling his seat. Before we begin, I must say that I was shocked to hear that Ugarte blew off the Monday Night game at the Blue Parrot to hang out with.... (gasp) a girl! He blew us all off for a friggin' chick. Early into the relationship, she's already got poor Ugarte by the balls. He already lost position. Alas, I kept Haley waiting... until almost 3am. She knows Mondays = Ferrari's home game at the Blue Parrot. Alas, with Ugarte MIA... that opened up a spot for someone to take over the role of table comedian... which was quickly siezed by Coach and Swish.
The Players:
Seat 1: Swish
Seat 2: Rick Blaine
Seat 3: Dave from Riding the F Train
Seat 4: Signor Ferrari
Seat 5: James
Seat 6: Joel
Seat 7: Coach
Seat 8: Pauly
7:47pm EST...It took less than 17 minutes for Coach to bust out a an ER and Dr. Corday reference, in an attempt to get Ferrari on tilt.

8:02pm EST... If you don't know the buy-in at Ferrari's is $100. I won a monster pot with Stud 8/b... it's a $1-5 spread game with $5 being the max bet. I had been playing a decent amount of Stud hi/lo on Party Poker to improve the holes in my game. I have also been reading a lot of Felicia's journal to get some pointers on how to play an effective Stud game. With hi/lo games, the pots tend to get extremely high. Coach looked like he had the low hand locked up... with low cards showing by fourth street including an ace for his doorcard. I was heads up with Ferrari for the high. My opening cards: A-6/A. Not a bad starting hand, eh? By fourth street, it appeared that Ferrari had x-x/4-4 and was betting strongly. Either he had two low cards or had the trips because he was jamming the pot. I caught my trip aces on fifth street and by that point I started jamming the pot. I was hoping to pair any of my other cards to insure a full house, just in case Ferrari had made one himself on seventh street. It was a $250 pot... and just the second hand of the night and my trip Aces held up against Ferrari's trip Fours. Coach and I chopped the pot and I was off and running.

8:41pm EST... +78 after a round of hold'em, I was in the BB with 8-2o and limped in with no raises preflop, despite a decent amount of callers. The flop: 8-J-2. I check raised and got three callers. I caught my full house on the river, which didn't matter because I already had everyone else beat. It was a monster pot with the infamous Big Blind special.

9:08pm EST... Swish is in town to cover the Nets-Pistons playoff game, which was great because I really miss our heads up battles. This time it was Omaha 8/b. My starting hand: 2c-2s-3c-Ks. By the turn, there were three 4s on the board. I thought that Swish was bluffing the full house and I called him down to the river hoping that my boat would be the winner. Alas, he turned over a 4 and once again, Swish took me down! I was up +61.

9:40pm EST... I won the biggest pot (for me) ever at Ferrari's. Joel called his favorite game... 5 card Stud hi/lo with a Replace. For $1 ($2 if it's your down card) you can replace any card after fifth street. It's a game that has a lot of bluffing and takes balls of steel to properly play right. My opening cards: 8/8. I looked around and Joel had one 8 so I figured I wasn't going to win the high, and unless low cards came out soon, I was not going to stay in any longer. Rick was jamming the pot with an Ace showing. On third street: 8/8-8. Yep. I fucking caught my trip 8s. I figured that was a solid hand. But Rick had x/Ac-Qc and I was slightly concerned even after he caught another club on forth street. Ferrari and Swish were battling it out for the low and Ferrari looked very strong with a decent low. He even taunted Swish a few times by telling him he'd show his 6 underneath, in an attempt to get him to fold (because we all know that Swish will see anything to the river... and Ferrari didn't want him to catch anything). I think Ferrari sensed that trouble was coming. I was concerned that Rick would catch a back door straight or a flush after the replace. Before the replace the betting had gotten maxed out each previous round. It was a monster pot with $5 and $10 chips all over the place. In the end, Rick didn't catch anything to beat me and his pair of Aces didn't hold up against my trips. Ferrari ended up folding when he made a questionable move, standing pat and not taking any replace cards. I would have taken a card but I understand the logic behind why Ferrari did what he did. Alas, when he knew he was beat, he folded and Swish and I chopped a $340 pot. Yep, I got $170 out of that and I checked and I had almost $410 in chips at the table.

11:30pm EST... +230, two hours later and I lost a little of my huge stack. I got beat in a few hands of Omaha 8/b, and saw too many flops in hold'em.

11:55pm EST... Coach called Midnight Basbeall. Seven cards no peek with 3 and 9 wild (you have to pay for the wilds) and you can buy a card with a 4. Early on James had 3 Queens showing and it came to me. I discovered four of a kind... three 6s and one wild card. Dave was next and he previously had A-A for his first two cards. He rolled the next two: A-A for A-A-A-A. Un-friggin-real! And he even had a wild card rolled up for five of a kind!

Late Night Poker

Coach left and despite having his low A2 cracked in an Omaha game, he fared very well. After a few folks left, it was shorthanded... and that's when it can get ugly.
The Late Night Players:
Seat 1: Swish
Seat 2: Ferrari
Seat 3: James
Seat 4: Pauly
12:23pm EST... Ferrari suggested we bump up to $3-6 hold'em. Normally we play $2-4. He slowly made a comeback after being down a severe amount. I only saw him rebuy once prior to last night, but he had to dig deep a few times. Alas, he chipped away at his losses and slowly built back up his stack. Swish was into me for $200. I had given him that much in chips on multiple rebuys. And that amount went as high as $290!! But he made a decent run as well and it looked like he was going to break even after he took down a huge pot from Ferrari. Swish smooth called AK preflop and of course by fourth street he had a full boat with two kings and an Ace out there. Ferrari caught a nut flush but it wasn't enough to win. That seemed to be the story for Ferrari all night. He got excellent cards, but almost always ended up with the second best hand, which was why he had to rebuy a few times.

12:55pm EST... Ferrari was jamming the pot with KK and of course with 10-7o Swish called him down all the way to the river and caught runner runner for a flush! It was insane. I never saw someone catch so many river cards at the Blue Parrot... than Swish.

1:29pm EST... It was pouring outside with a severe thunderstorm. We all wondered if we could catch a rare lightning bolt strike the Empire State building. I told Haley we'd hang out by 2am. Alas, the guys wtill wanted to play and the Kings-T'wolves game went into OT so I hung around. The last hand of the night was Seven card stud with Dueces Wild. And Ferrari took down a monster pot with a Royal Straight Flush heads up with Swish, who had just a flush. That was a huge pot for Ferrari, who took easily $100 off of Swish in that hand, and alas, he finally broke even! It was an impressive run and Ferrari hung in there, knowing that he played well all night, but the cards didn't fall his way. He was down $240 at one point and stormed back. I counted my chips and cashed out. I went with Swish to an ATM in the 24 hour deli downstairs (you gotta love NYC) and he paid me back the $185 he owed me from his various rebuys all night. By the time I finally got out of there... it was well past 2am and by the time I got a subway uptown, I didn't see Haley until almost 3am!
The Final Tally:
Pauly +235
Coach +166
Dave +23
James +12
Ferrari +5
Joel -34
Rick -110
Swish -290
Next week at the Blue Parrot... Ferrari's second NL tourney!! Dave has a write up on his blog: Riding the F Train. Check it out.

No comments:

Post a Comment