Change100 at PokerWorks

After breakfast, Pauly and Derek made one last check on the lines before placing their bets on the night’s four Sweet 16 games. I don’t like knowing how much Pauly is laying on each game because the size of his bets make me nervous. But he lives for these moments, the thrill of the two-hour-long sweats with constantly changing leads, missed free throws and perfectly sunken treys to turn everything around at the last minute. While they staked out a prime viewing spot in the sportsbook three hours in advance of tip-off, I listed myself for the $4-8 with half kill.

I was seven deep on the list, so I got to hang out for a while with the McGrupp brothers and Miami Don, who practically lives in the Red Rock sports book. He knows the waitresses all by name as well as their approximate shift schedules. And the waitresses love Miami Don, bringing him round after round of free shots of Petron. He had all sorts of bets going that afternoon– NCAA, NBA, first half totals, and some ridiculous hockey parlay that he made with Pauly and Derek.

Once I got my seat at the poker table, I played for about two hours. I got lucky right off the bat and picked up pocket aces in a kill pot (where the limits are upped to $6-12). The flop was Q-3-3 and I had two old guys with Q-T and Q-8 hitchiking along for the ride, so I dragged in a very nice pot when my hand held up. On the very next hand I got A-Q of spades and went to a Q-J-baby flop with the tightest player at the table, a serious young Asian woman who worked on a Sudoku puzzle between hands. I bet out, she raised and I called. When the turn came a jack, I slowed down and check-called to the river. She had K-Q and I dragged another.

I kept thinking to myself throughout the session, “Jesus Christ, poker is so much fucking easier for me when I’m not playing on the goddamned internet.” Within 30 minutes I had a dead read on the table, which was peppered with tight cranky old guys, a WPT fanboi complete with iPod, two early twenties college students who had clearly never played limit before, Sudoku girl, and a woman who had just flown in from Hawaii only hours before and ate popcorn with a plastic spoon. Seriously. She’d get about two pieces of it on the spoon, shove it into her mouth, and crunch away.

I quit up about $150 and joined the boys back in the sportsbook. I made a last-second $55 to win $50 bet on UCLA with the points and later that night, won my first-ever sports bet! After a long afternoon of drinking and sweating the games, the five of us had an amazing steak dinner at T-Bones. I had the tuna poke as an appetizer (raw tuna, seaweed and a drizzling of wasabi cream sauce on top served with wonton chips). It was heavenly and the tuna was just velvety, melt-in-your-mouth deliciousness. As was the petit filet with a side of bearnaise sauce that I enjoyed as a main course paired with a glass of ‘03 cabernet. For dessert, it was the apple cobbler served with a side of warm caramel sauce.

At some point in my food coma, I played pai gow with Pauly. This goomba dealer cold-decked me like you wouldn’t believe. On one hand, one I declared that I was “100% pushing,” I held a Q high straight on the bottom with a lowly 3-4 on top. Wouldn’t you know it, the dealer ends up with a BROADWAY straight on the bottom and 3-6 on top. That was the first of six hands in a row I’d go on to lose. As he was about to deal the seventh, Pauly suggested I push my last $45 all-in.

“Mathematically, it’s so unlikely you’ll lose a seventh hand.”

Mathematically, my ass. I got dealt an ace-high pai gow and the dealer turned over three pair. I grabbed my purse and stormed away from the table on uber-pai gow tilt.

The boys will be back in the sports book and I in the poker room this afternoon. Because now, I’ve gotta get unstuck…

This entry was posted on Friday, March 23rd, 2007 at 9:42 am and is filed under Uncategorized.