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Friday, February 27, 2015

Monkey Does St. Louis...

I've been here a full week...and am 20 minutes from going down to the poker floor to get started on Day 1A of the Main Event...which I avoided buying into for the full $1675 by winning the $250 Mega Satellite last night, on my 2nd buy in, after my KK fell to QQ early in level 2. 

I'm not sure what kind of crowd to expect for these two flights of Main Event action. As I looked around yesterday, I didn't see too many of the 'tourney regs' come flocking in like they usually do the Wed/Thurs before the Main Event starts.  But with the field sizes in the $365 events being around 250-400 I imagine they will draw enough to make it at least lucrative if I can find my way to the final table.

As for how I've been running this week? Well, it's been kind of a weird week. To summarize, I won a nightly for $4000, then picked up two 3rs, both good for $1800...so those have been good to me. I've only played 3 nightly's. The first nooner...the big one, 792 players....I was deep and in the money when I got two-outed on consecutive hands, on the river....to finish 69th for a min cash of $625..picking up another 7.5 freeroll points and bumping me up to around 40th place with 100 points. 

But the rest of the week has been frustrating. I bubbled the next days's noon event...stone bubbled it. 22nd place, paying 21. That sucked. Then next in the 6-handed I went out 45th...also paying 21. So I've been deep a lot and don't have much to show for it, unless your counting nightly tourney's which I guess I should.

The cash game? Wow....that has been a green pastured every time I've sat down in it. 3 out of 4 sessions I've booked a profit of $500 or more. I won't go into detail about the way they play here...but if you are an experienced player...it's pretty easy to figure out how to play against most of these people if you are trying to have success at the table. 

The hotel room here is really nice...very spacious...and located very close to the poker room. I picked up a roomate, BJ McBrayer, for this trip...so it's nice to half my costs there. BJ has been running pretty well himself, finishing 4th in the $500 tourney and min cashing another before getting hit with some bad luck. 

One negative to this place is the presence of the Missouri Gaming Commission, who, as it's been explained to me, are the losers who weren't good enough to make it as regular cops...so that was their fall back plan. They basically just roam around the tournament area antagonizing the players, almost daring them to engage in a confrontation with them. I've heard story upon story about them. As for what the poker room management or casino management can do about them? I don't think here is anything they CAN do...I think the law stipulates that they HAVE to be here...so they just basically loiter around looking for things to bust people's balls about. Real fucktards.

One thing that has really stood out in my mind here. The Official St Louis 3-bet...is just ALL IN. Pot size does NOT matter. Stack size does NOT matter, either. If a guy limps...and someone raises...9 times out of 10...if he isn't folding...he is shoving all in. Same thing for if he raises, and someone actually (probably not from here) makes a reasonable 3-bet...once it gets back to the ghoul from St Louie....he is shipping it all in! It's just mind boggling. 

One of the eventual circumstances of this type of play...is the play getting whittled down VERY quickly. In just the last three days...with field sizes of approximately 175....the field has been narrowed down to about 32-36 by dinner break...which has been just 10-15 from the money. That doesn't happen unless people are just bombing away with their whole stacks and playing almost ZERO pot control poker. And that is pretty much exactly how they play here...and why the fields are being blazed through at the speed they are.

The other thing I've been noticing is the amount of 'hero play' that takes place here. I can count at least four times...in hands where there was betting on the flop, the turn and the river...where one of the two players in the hand would turn over two cards that made no connection...NONE...with the board. No pair,  No draw. Nothing. Just the desire to get into a back and forth battle with the other player in hopes they could make them fold. Only...in this place? People don't ever fold...especially if they have so much as bottom pair. So this really adds to the amusement element of the attempted bluff play. 

I thought my five-year break from this  place would see an improvement in the play up here. I was wrong. It has not gotten one tiny iota better...if anything,  it's gotten worse. But I think my game may have evolved to a point where I've learned to be a little more evasive when it comes to avoiding getting into bad spots with these jokers...by either keeping the pot small to avoid going bust on some ridiculous river result...or just bailing in certain hands when I know it's got a good chance of being one of those 50/50 death hands. I choose the path of least resistance, knowing they are bad enough that I can just peck away at them one chunk at a time...instead of trying to get the whole ball of wax in one fell swoop. Yes, it's mentally taxing, and time-consuming...but a lot more safe, and effective.

Okay...I have a great table draw...and I say that because I got my favorite seat 6...so I think I will try to get down there on time...when they tend to spend a lot of time giving away chips early. Maybe I can bag up a fat bag of chips on Day 1a...then take tomorrow off and do something away from the poker table. For those of you up here and playing...good luck to you as well!


MONKEY

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