A trip to the Turtle (much poker content)

[Holm Fries]

Since I have read and thoroughly enjoyed many of the trip reports in this forum, I thought that I would try my hand at writing my own. I have posted the first few parts below - if there is interest, I will post the rest over the next few days.

HF

Introduction
For the past four years, I have looked forward to mid-March like an eight year old looks forward to Christmas. Several years ago a couple friends of mine had the foresight to institute an annual trip to Vegas. The tradition of the trip (which started with two people and has added a lucky customer each year) has withstood grad school, marriages and assorted kids. This year, someone (I don’t remember who, so I will take credit) had the idea of instituting “Vegas Training” (brilliant!), which would involve a trip to the neighboring state of Wisconsin for a day of NL hold’em cash games and a tourney at Turtle Lake (TL) Casino. Although primarily limit players, we resolved to center training day around NL, as this seems to be the flavor of the month (and thus likely all that we will be playing) in Vegas.

Our party of five was reduced to three due to a mysterious malady and work circumstances. Here is the cast of characters:

CP – sitting this one out because of work. C’mon man, you work in a poker room – tell them this is market research or something.

TP – TP is this year’s addition to the trip, but is sitting out training due to a tummy ache (alright, it sounds more like the stomach flu, but still….). As a result, we resolve to call him “pledge” while in Vegas and subject him to several bouts of hazing.

Seven Footer (SF) – is tall (obv.) and a pretty established limit hold’em player. He also has some pretty solid NL cash and tourney experience, with favorable results.

SRP – has been playing longer than the rest of us and pretty much introduced me to limit hold’em. He has been battling some demons in our local 6/12 game, but has also emerged as a really strong tourney player. He won a tourney based poker league last year and took 8th in a NL tourney at TL in December (the only time that he has played it).

Fries – that’s me – just a poor white man tryin to make it in Bel-Air. I recently moved to 8/16 limit at our home casino and have a reasonable amount of cash NL experience on-line, but wouldn’t call myself a great player by any stretch of the imagination.


Part 1 - Goal Setting and Preparation
Similar to our Vegas trip, there was the standard bravado and bantering going back and forth leading up to the Turtle Lake trip. TL spreads a Saturday tourney (the day of our trip) that SRP had decided that he needed to win in order to offset his recent limit struggles. SF was on the fence about playing the tourney and I had already decided against it. Instead, I set an arbitrary goal of building a $1k stack at the $1/2, $200 buy-in NL game, mainly because I thought a stack like that would look sweet. At some point during the 75 mile car ride (during which SRP made SF sit cross-wise in the back seat of my ’99 Accord so that he could have shot gun), SF decides to play the tourney and tries to convince me as well. I decline, giving my reason as not wanting to play for 3-4 hours, bust out of the money and feel like I wasted my time and cash. He then decides that his goal is to either bust early or make the money, but not get stuck in between.

We get to TL about 11:30, in plenty of time to sign up for the noon tourney. It is a $100 + $15 buy-in, with T4000 in chips, 40 minute levels and blinds starting at 25/50. Not the best structure I have seen, but certainly not the worst. This ends up being the biggest Saturday tourney that they have held, with 101 entrants. SRP and SF draw the 1 and 10 seats at the same table and I get a seat at the only cash game that will be running during the early stages of the tourney.

I haven’t been to TL in over a year, but I really like the room. It is 11 tables on a small (but not confined by any means) loft above the casino. It is non-smoking (except for a cordoned off section away from the tables), has three plasma TVs and free snacks (hot dogs, fruit, etc.). It looks as though they put in some shuffle masters since I was there last and the wait service was prompt (after the initial influx of tourney players).


Part 2 - The cast of characters
I fold my first several hands and size up the players at the table. About what I expected, there are two decent players (other than myself) at a table of ten and they both appear to be waiting for the $2/5NL game to start. Mixed in are a handful of loose-passives, one seemingly tricky LAG (who is way overplaying his hands) and a horribly weak tight girl sitting next to me. Once the decent players leave (which they do about an hour in), this table seems about as perfect as you could ask for.

A description of the tourney players from SRP:

The tournament players were typical – one or two aggressive players who picked their spots wisely amongst a myriad of donkeys playing way too many hands. Throughout the tournament, we ran into a number of players who seriously over-bet their hands. Going all in PF for 4,000 when the blinds are only 100-200 isn’t a particularly smart idea. There was a serious lack of understanding in regard to such relativity, and bets were all over the map.


Part 3 - Getting our feet wet
I pick up a couple pots in the early going after making small raises in position with Axs (once flopping the nut flush and once rivering two pair that was somehow good on a four flush board).

My first notable hand, I pick up AJo in late position and raise one limper to 8. LAG calls on the button (cause that’s what buttons do), BB calls and limper calls. Flop is AT9, with two spades (I have no spades). BB bets 6 (with what I am guessing is ace rag), limper folds, I make it 20 and the button and BB call. Turn is the Jh, BB checks and I bet 50, hoping that the button will fold his flush draw. He calls and the BB folds. The river pairs the T, it goes check, check and the button takes in down with 87o.

I pick up Ah6h on the button and raise one limper to 6. BB calls, limper calls and we see a flop of AT5r. BB checks, limper bets 6, I raise to 20, BB folds and the limper calls. We both check a J on the turn and a Q on the river. He scoops the pot with the nuts (KJo) and leaves to play $2/5. I consider whether I might be in the wrong game, but decide to stay. I add another $80 to top off to 200 and stop to see how the tourney is going. SF and SRP are floating about even. I sweat SF as he cold calls a 3x BB raise with TT in the CO. Flop comes T43, two hearts and they both check. Turn is a blank and SF picks up the pot with a bet. I decide that I am good luck and return to my seat.


Part 4 - Thinking juice
At the first tourney break, SF has about T5900 and SRP has about T5400 in chips. They describe the play as “two card poker” with very few flops being seen after the early stages. The blinds are already like 300/600, or something ridiculous like that.

I fold for awhile, then pick up QQ in MP. I make it 12 after two limpers, button cold calls (you know why), SB calls and limpers call. Flop is Th6s4s (I have the Qs). Checked to me, I bet 30 into a 60 pot (seems a little light, now that I read it) and only the SB calls. Turn is the 2h, he checks and I bet 50 (he has ~150 behind, having just bought in) and he quickly calls. So, according to the little green book, he has to have a draw, otherwise he would have given some consideration to raising or folding. The river is the 6c and he checks again. I decide to check behind, as he isn’t paying me off with a draw. Then, it gets interesting. The SB yells out (literally) “why do I have to show first, if he was betting all the way!”. The puzzled dealer, who up to this point hasn’t said anything, starts to say that showdowns are in turn if the river checks through. I say the same thing in unison and add “but whatever” to the end as I turn over my hand. He mucks and proceeds to tell me for the next five minutes that he made good calls on the flop and turn (he finally claims to have had a flush draw + gutshot). I congratulate him on his calculation of pot odds and we move on.

I win a small pot when JJ flops an overpair and have ~380 in my stack at the start of this hand. One limper, I limp Qc9c in MP, button raises to 6, BB calls, limper calls, I call. Flop is Q72, with one club. Checked to the button who bets 10, BB calls, limper calls, I call. Turn is the 5c and the button bets 10 again. The BB calls, limper folds and I call. River is an offsuit 9 and I donk 30 into the pre-flop raiser, who folds. Now the BB makes it 80 total with about 50 more behind. This one throws me and I think for a good minute. I have no read on the BB, as he sat about 10 minutes ago after busting from the tourney. I couldn’t see him having 86, but a set was a real possibility. Finally, I folded while flashing my cards to the weak tight girl next to me (I figured she would appreciate it). She proceeds to berate me for folding top two on a raggedy board against someone who was in the blind. Yikes…I actually think that I agree with her now.

Next orbit I am dealt QJo in late position and limp after UTG, UTG+1and the weak tight girl (WTG) to my right. Recently, she played AA by raising to 10 PF (and getting 4 callers) and betting 10 on the flop, turn and river. Also, she somehow managed to not get all her chips in on a three way pot with 88 on a board of 2899T with three spades. So she has issues with massively underbetting her big hands. Back to the hand – the button limps, SB calls and the LAG checks in the BB. He has taken his stack from ~600 to the felt and back to ~400 in the couple hours that we have played. Flop is KJJr and the BB leads for 6, UTG calls, UTG+1 folds and WTG makes it 20. I think for a second and raise to 50. Folded back to WTG who starts talking to herself, saying “did your get there already, do you have KJ?”, which actually makes me a bit nervous that she has AJ when she finally calls. Turn is a blank and I put her AI for her last $84. She hems and haws, but finally calls with J9. No help on the river and I scoop a sizable pot.

I had been chatting with WTG prior to the hand and found out that she and her boyfriend (who it turns out played the hand against me with KJo and was getting shelled at the $2/5) were on their way to a concert. I decide that it is time to train for the second main activity in Vegas, what SRP eloquently would call “consuming massive amounts of alcohol”. I am driving home in about 5 hours, so I decide to limit myself to a 6 pack or so and to give myself a few hours of Diet Pepsi before we debark. I need my reaction time to look out for deer on the pitch dark country roads facing us on the ride home. So I race WTG to six beers and I am pretty sure that I win. The wait person does not seem the least bit annoyed when we are ordering another beer every time she brings one. And to top it off, they are $2 for Leinie’s out of the tap, which is not at all shabby.