Beware the Drunken VJ
Posted by Wolfshead on Nov 26, 2011
Ok, it’s now Friday and somehow I’m up reasonably early. Not as early as Thursday but earlier than I really want to be given the late night and tequila consumption during that night but it’s moving day and I have to pack up, something I usually do the night before, shower up, check out and pick up Josie. The first three items go ok considering my state but the last item hits a snag, I kind of got lost in the parking garage. Ok, not really lost but I covered more territory than I really wanted. I used the TV checkout option and cut through the casino towards the elevators in the garage. Couldn’t take the inside route as the escalator was too narrow to accommodate both me and the bag so have to go outside and cross the street and ride the elevator from there. First problem. I’m pretty sure I parked on the 4th floor so I punch the 4 button. Doors close, elevator goes up, doors open and I get out. Head in the direction of my car and realize this ain’t where I parked. Instead of doors opening to the garage this floor is enclosed with hallways running all over. Hmmm, only thought the second floor was like that, guess not. Not until I get back to the elevators do I realize it is the second floor. For some reason the damned thing stopped on the second floor and I wasn’t paying attention and just walked out. So again I get in a push the 4 button. Get to the 4th floor this time and it looks right. Walk out in to the garage and can’t see my car because of the line of cars and rather than walk the length decide I’ll be smart and hit my alarm. This way I’ll know if I actually parked on this floor. Hit the button and nothing, no obnoxious screeching. Guess I’m wrong, must be up on the 5th floor. Back to the elevators and up one more. Look out the door once I’m up there and nope, it ain’t the 5th as that half of the 5th floor is rooftop and I know I didn’t park outside. The 3rd maybe? Down we go. Nope, it ain’t the third as the spaces near the elevators are empty, they’re reserved spots. OK, back up to the 4th and this time I start walking down the line of cars and there hidden between two bigger SUVs is my small one. Damn battery in the fob must be going. Getting lost in the garage, not a good sign for starting the day.
I’m in the car and buckling up just as VJ calls to say she is checking out. Tell her I’m in the car and heading over and will meet her out front of the Borg. Get there and she’s not there yet and the valets tell me to pull down drive a bit and wait there. Day is nice and sunny but blustery. VJ shows shortly and off we go. We’re moving 5 minutes down the road to the Fairfield Inn in Absecon. Stay there sometimes in the summer. Not as convenient as staying in the casino but a lot cheaper when the freebie days run out. Plan a trip to Ocean City before we check in though. Need to get something to eat and pick up a few things. Figure I’ll take VJ to Uncle Bill’s Pancake House for breakfast though it’s getting closer to lunch time. First though need to tank up, the vehicle is running on fumes. Stop at a Mobil but they don’t take my EZ Pass so I need to dig the wallet out for the credit card. Rather than trying to get the wallet back in my pocket I toss it in the console and tell VJ to remind me not to forget it when we park. We get to OC and VJ puts the kibosh on Uncle Bill’s. She doesn’t want breakfast. Last trip the biatch walked my legs off because she needed breakfast, today she doesn’t want it. Wish she would make up her frikkin mind. So now we hit the boardwalk. It’s a beautiful day if windy and we aren’t the only nuts on the boardwalk but it’s closed up tighter than a bull’s arse in fly season. Mack and Manco’s is open but Josie doesn’t want pizza for lunch. The souvenir places are closed up. Josie is looking for something for her son. Last trip she pinched the room service ketchup bottles from someone’s tray in the hallway to give him. You have to be kidding me? Anyway we find nothing on the boardwalk. Never thought we could have hit the other side of town. The 5 and 10 might have been open and they had the tee shirts and stuff. Do hit a jewelry store on the boards, one of the only places open. It’s not the same one as last trip but the one I had looked for on that trip. Unfortunately they don’t have what either VJ or I’m looking for though I do pick up a new earring. Fortunately I have some cash in my pocket as VJ forgot to remind me about the wallet. Can’t trust her for anything. We head out and decide to check out the other jewelry store but it’s closed as is the caramel corn place next to it. Looks like I need to hit the other end of the boardwalk for my fix of Johnson’s. I can’t figure out why half the places that keep a store open in the off season make it the one on the lower end of the boardwalk while the other half keep the upper section open. We head up to the other end of the walk and VJ decides to pick it up for me. Guess she’s tired of seeing me gimp along. All the walking is finally starting to tell on my legs. So she grabs a couple buckets of caramel corn for me and we decide to find lunch. Originally it was going to be 5 Guys burgers but as we are now headed back towards Absecon I decide to hit East Bay Crab Co., the place we were supposed to go for dinner the last trip before things got screwed up. East Bay is nice, nothing fancy but good food and not ridiculously priced. And they serve escargot.
We get to East Bay with Josie threatening me if they aren’t open but they are. We grab a late lunch with VJ having a salad and Bahama Mama shrimp while I order my escargot and shrimp in a basket. The escargot are awesome and the leftover garlic butter is great for dipping the fresh bread they give you. I indulge in one of the house drinks but we pass on dessert and are off to finally check in to the Fairfield. Check in is swift and the ladies at the desk are friendly and we wind up with rooms across the hall from each other though the walk from the elevators is a bit farther than I would have liked. I tell VJ I need a shower before heading out again. The air is cool but the sun is hot and I’ve been sweating like a race horse from it shining through the car windows. While in the room I check up on tourneys for her. We decided to change things up and hit a new place this evening, either the Taj or Showboat, maybe both as they are next door to each other. About 5 I call and ask if she’s ready as the tourneys at either place both start around 7. She says she took a nap so give her a bit and we soon head back in to AC. I decide to start at Taj because while not a favorite of mine it’s the second biggest room in AC and they usually spread a bigger variety of games than Showboat. Someone told me Showboat was drying up, spreading only 1-2 and 2-4. Tourney wise I used to like both places but it has been years since I’ve hit either.
Arriving at the Taj the signs are not good. The parking area is empty and it’s Friday night but we get a spot next to the elevators and head to the poker room. It at least has a decent crowd. I plan to hit the tourney desk but it ain’t there, just a lot of black curtains across the back half of the room. I grab a floor and ask where one registers for tourneys and what kind of field do they usually get. He says we can register at the cage and directs me to another floor person who he says knows more about the tourneys. Says that they are remodeling the room, hence the black curtains. Not looking good. I go see the other floor and she says the tourney fields are highly variable, sometimes 50-60, sometimes only 15-20. That ain’t good. I decide to wait and see and put my name on the 5-10 LO8 list and grab a seat at a 2-4-6 table. Like the idea of that 6 river bet, it seemed to keep some of the calling stations from making that river call with a less than stellar hand.
Head over to the 2-4-6 and who do I see but G, who I’ve written about before on some of my Chester trips. Great, just what I needed. If he’s here it means he’ll be at the LO8 table. Seems he’s a regular here too. According to one of the other players he has a number of women he is usually with which is why he usually disappears from the table. Just goes to show the power of money as he ain’t the most prepossessing of men. Either that or he’s hung like a horse. As it is he’s called for the LO8 just as I sit down at the 2-4-6 so at least I don’t have to worry about his antics for awhile. I play that table for about an hour or two before I get called for the O8. VJ stops by saying she can’t register for the tourney yet so she’s at a 1-2 table. Lots of luck I tell her. She later stops by to tell me she’s been getting yelled at for her play but that she is winning. Typical. Lots of attitude at the Taj 1-2 tables. They are the cause of some bad cases of testosterone poisoning which is one of the reasons I avoid 1-2 there. If I had wanted to play NL I would have hit Showboat. Much more suited to my game.
I finally get called for the O8 and leave the 2-4-6 up around $100. I wind up in the 4 seat across from G in the 1. Older woman in the 2 and older gent in the 3. Mention them because they seem to be there as much, if not more so, to have fun as to win. Me I want to have fun but this game I’m also looking to win. There is a kill in this game and seems to me to be kind of light, only a $75 scooped pot. Usually at 5-10 it’s $100. Have a feeling will be playing for double stakes a lot. The other two persons of note at the table are the 9 and 10 seats. The 9 is a young guy who likes to chatter a lot and gets on the nerves of the older players, especially the woman in the 2 and the guy to my left in the 5. During one exchange the guy in the 5 calls the kid a weasel and the term sticks. The kid even refers to himself as a weasel. Guy in the 10 is an older guy and takes all day to make a decision which is aggravating people almost as much as the Weasel’s antics. Table was as bad as a 1-2 table for the amount of griping going on. Me, I decide to just sit back and keep my mouth shut and play my game. It’s a very loose game, most of these folks seem to have more money than sense. I seem to be the only player folding preflop consistently. In fact later in the evening the Weasel seems to have noticed this as he starts referring to me as tighty whitey as I’m wearing a white shirt. Good, glad you noticed. Hopefully I get respect when I’m in the pot, at least from that end, as he isn’t above raising light. My stack fluctuates quite a bit as the night wears on. I’m up, I’m down, usually up a bit to even. Just can’t gain any traction to build a stack. My guess about kill pots is wrong mainly because we are getting a lot of low flops, keeping those playing lows in the game and leading to a lot of chops. I do take one nice pot when I flop flush, straight draws and lock low with 2-3-4-5 double suited. The turn brings me a set of deuces and the river gives me a boat and lock low. Even better I’m in the pot with the Weasel. And he’s betting. Schweeet. He starts ranting when he sees the hand. Don’t know what his problem was except that he was beat. He decides to take a walk while the guy next to me in the 3 is loving it. Too bad the 5 seat had already pulled up stakes as he would also have gotten a kick out of it.
Somewhere along the line VJ had stopped by to tell me about the tourney. She was ready to pull her hair out. Seems they only had 15 runners and most of them fresh out of “poker school”. Seems her aggressiveness was going nowhere with them. Oh well. She has no idea of how this game is played but she’s telling me I should be playing a hand because it has T-J in it. Never mind there is no low possibility and it’s 4 suited and the kill is on, the all powerful T-J will provide. No thanks, I toss it. Doesn’t help that the damned thing would have won. I get a look that reminds me of a situation with my daughter. It was a home game, .25-.50 NL that started at a picnic we were at. It was late and the kids she had been playing with either left or had dropped off to sleep so she crawls up on my lap to watch the game. I had something like 9-5 off and trash it. The kid says why and I say it’s not a good hand to play. She says how do I know until the flop hits but I say trust me, it’s no good. Well the flop gives me a gut shot and I get a see, what did I say look. Trust me, not a hand to play. Turn would have made it double gutted and the look gets even worse. River would have brought the straight for a win and now I’m getting the “you idiot, I told you so” look. How the hell you supposed to teach the kid to play when the cards pull that shit on you. That’s the look I got from VJ before she went back to her tourney. Just what I needed. Somewhere around this time I continue my tequila jones from the night before and order a margarita. I have to drive back to Absecon so I’m not hammering them like the night before but I figure I can have a few. The guy in the 3 says it sounds like a good idea and decides to go the boat drink route also. Thinks for a few and then decides he wants pina coladas. Oh boy. He’s been an interesting guy to talk to and has made the night enjoyable. He was down early but has mounted a comeback and has been stacking reds, thankfully not mine. I’m still treading water.
Eventually VJ comes back over saying she went out 4th with 2 cashing. She also says she’s drunk. Hey, she can be, I’m driving. In the meantime I’ve actually won a few and am up with about $450 or so in front of me. Not for long however. There’s a young guy in the 6 seat who’s been playing fairly tight and we’re both in a pot together, a kill. I’m playing for a high flop as I have now low possibilities but sitting with A-K-Q-J double suited. Flop comes K-7-K, nice start. I bet and the young guy raises. Couple of callers including me. Turn a 7 and I check and young guy bets and another guy raises. I just call and young guy 3 bets. Everyone drops out except me and the other raiser. I’m figuring one of them for K-7. River brings the Q. Yahtzee. I check and the 6 bets, the other guy calls and I raise. The 6 3 bets and the other player drops. I make it 80 and the 6 seat calls. I say I got the kings full of queens, does he have the sevens, not really expecting it. Yup, he has sevens. Damn, thought that pot was mine. Instead it took a nice chunk of my stack. Of course the Weasel has to throw his two cents in. Why did the 6 seat stop betting? Heads up, no cap. And how could I go 4 bets when he three bet me, should have known he had quads. Hell I had second nuts; even in Omaha you really can’t put anyone on quads. Of course if he had 5 bet I probably would have just called figuring that maybe the nuts were out there. Should have dawned on me a bit earlier though as this kid was playing even tighter than I was. Even though he took a good chunk of my stack it wasn’t the worst part of the night. That was yet to come.
Josie had been standing there watching and the guy in the 5 seat left shortly after. There was still a decent list and they start calling it. After about 4-5 names with no answers VJ decides to take over someone’s identity and says “that’s me” when the next name is called and gets no immediate response. She’s sitting in on a LO8 game? At 5-10 with a kill at that? This can’t be good. My mind goes back to a certain HORSE game in Vegas and a certain perfect, perfect, perfect draw in the Raz portion. These people have no idea what they are in for. Of course I might know but what can I do except bail now. And she’s on my left to make it even worse. Picture an aggressive NL player being plopped down in the middle of an O8 game that she knows nothing about. Yup, you got it. First hand she plays is a kill and first words out of her mouth are, I raise. Every one just kind of looks but come along. Flop hits and she’s in there pitching. Check isn’t in her vocabulary, it’s either bet or raise. VJ, it’s Omaha. Check or call are not dirty words in this game. Nope, no way. The fact that she’s loaded ain’t helping matters. Some of the players are loving it, she’s livened up the game. And trying to explain the kill button to her is just hopeless. With her betting patterns the kill is coming in to play a lot more than it had earlier. The low chasers just weren’t hanging around to those $20 and $40 bets so the chopped pots were fewer and it didn’t take long for the pot to hit $75 either. And the Joe C. luck was in high gear. No matter what she was betting on she was hitting more than her share. In the meantime she was bleeding me dry as I was pulling great drawing hands with over 20 outs but bricking like a frikkin mason. What that cooler had started Joe C. tied up with a big pink ribbon and she eventually bled me dry. My only consolation was the fact she found out the consequences of the kill button. At one stretch she was complaining she needed to take a wee but won about 3 straight kill pots which of course means she had to post the kill blind of 10. Of course she can’t leave, she’s already in the pot. Having to hit the ladies didn’t slow her down either. Raise was still the word of the day. I finally got up when felted and looked at my watch. Damn, it was 3 am. Didn’t seem that late. I let her play a bit more than tell her a couple more hands. She cons me into letting her play her button which is almost a full orbit which she plays at full speed. Her stack is bouncing up and down now, variance in LO8 can be a bitch but mainly she seems up. Her button comes around but she is making no move to leave. I give her to the hijack then tell her she better plan on walking to Absecon because I’m leaving. It’s 3:30 and we have to check out tomorrow. Of course I’ve been telling her she was walking home ever since she sat down and started bleeding my chips but this time I’m serious and start walking away. A number of the players hated to see her go but I’m not sitting around while they have fun. On the way out I clock out, the Taj hasn’t moved to the Bravo system and you have to manually check out or you lose your time and comps. The floor asks VJ if she needs to clock out and she says she does but then Ms. Tactful adds that it doesn’t matter as she’s never coming back there anyway. WTG Ace, we should nominate you as a goodwill ambassador to somewhere. We somehow make it back to the parking garage and then to Absecon. And thus was the morning and the evening of the third day.
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Thanks for the listen.
November 26th, 2011 at 14:35
LOL I did tell them I’d never be back. I’d forgotten that! Ugh to them and their drinks.
That game was fun. We’ll have to do it again!
November 26th, 2011 at 15:12
Only if you’re on my right
November 26th, 2011 at 15:33
Okay, you can pick the positions.
November 26th, 2011 at 16:15
Damn Wolfie, I laugh like hell whenever I read your trip reports. Go on a few more outings with Joe C and you’ll have material for a book.
November 26th, 2011 at 20:39
Gonna need a book deal if Joe sits in any more O8 games
November 26th, 2011 at 22:18
Wofie can grumble about me all he wants but I make his trips exciting! Lightning if you had any balls you’d join us and have an interesting post yourself!