Saturday, June 25, 2005

$300 Pastry Anyone?

I'm back home, and quite happy about it.

My final morning in Budapest, I decided to try my early AM luck at the table again, so I get there at 4:30 AM, and I have to leave for the airport at 5:30 AM. I leave my bags with a porter and do my buy in. There are only three other players, one is almost senselessly agressive, one is a calling station who is still asking newbie questions about how the rules work, and there's a gruff-looking older guy who I can't get a bead on, other than that he is big stacked.

At 5:25 I am up by $150, having taken the calling station all the way to the river, doubling the bet each time with my pair of pocket aces. I'm not sure what the CS was thinking, but maybe he had a small pair or something. He didn't show his cards.

At 5:31 I've neatly stacked my chips to cash out, and I don't cash out immediately, because I've still got one pastry left to enjoy before I go. I am dealt AQ suited-spades, and I'm still a little high mentally from taking all the cash from the CS. The maniac raises to 4BB total, big stack calls, and the CS calls, I am last to act. I call 'POT!' and raise the hand to about 16B, a bet of $80.

Maniac folds. Big Stack calls. Calling Station folds.

Flop. K, blank, blank two diamons on the board.

Big Stack Bets large. If I had been in my right mind, I should have licked my wounds and gotten the hell out, but I had seen so many bluffers that this table, I decide to pay $100 for another card.

Queen! Big stack bets large again. I call, since a pair of queens with an Ace kicker is usually enough to win in this crowd.

Big Stack bets large again to put me all in. I look at the board again. It's a queen of DIAMONDS, so there are now three diamonds on the the board. I think for about a minute, realize that I!m high on playing, and fold.

At that point, I probably should have gone all in just to see what he had, but I would put it at 3 to 1 odds that he had something better than a pair of queens.

IIKTWIKN: When maniac raised and got two callers, there was no reason for me to try to buy the pot, since all three of them clearly liked their hands at least that much. Granted, Maniac raised for no reason a lot, but Big Stack clearly liked his. I could have called the raise, and if I didn't catch the flop, it only cost me 20$. As it was, I only chased out the calling station.

IIKTWIKN: The corollary to 'All-In Fever' is 'Pot Fever'. It is a pure charge of adrenaline to say that word. Beware the expensive shot of adrenaline!

IIKTWIKN: Do the words 'Quite while you're ahead' ring a bell, Frank???