Long Night at The Orleans

On Monday night I played the 8:00 PM $80 tournament at The Orleans. Just to clarify, the stereotype about players at the Orleans is pretty much true. It's basically a lot of old men, many of whom are grumpy. I saw a couple of players abuse dealers and act generally unpleasant. Late in the tournament an older woman got knocked out and actually threw her chips across the table at the player who had eliminated her. There were a few younger people in the tournament (i.e. under 50) and I think there were a couple people who were actually younger than me.

I got off to a great start when somebody who obviously didn't have a clue doubled me up. I limped into a multiway pot with 89. The flop came 56T and it was checked around. The turn brought a 7 which gave me the nuts. An early position player bet, I raised to 1200, and the player in the small blind when all in for about 4000. The original bettor folded and I of course called. Shockingly the other guy turned over JJ and he was drawing dead. I don't think it would have been possible for him to play the hand worse, but his ineptitude was my good fortune.

There was another pretty big hand I won but I don't remember the details. All I remember is that we started with 4000 chips and about 30 minutes into the tournament I was up to about 12,000. There were about 130 people in the tournament and if I wasn't the chip leader at that point I'd be surprised.

At one point a new player got moved to our table. He was wearing sunglasses and a leather jacket, he was from Jersey, and he was pretty brash. He started in on me right away. The conversation went like this:

Jersey: Are you a pro?
Me: No, I'm an amateur.
Jersey: All those chips you have would say you're a pro. You look like a pro.
Me: No, I just got lucky.

I was playing pretty tight at this point, and he must have noticed because next he comes at me with this.

Jersey: What are you waiting for?
Me: Aces. Or kings.
Jersey: Yeah, I bet you are.

What would happen on the very next hand is one of those great ironies that happens from time to time in life. Jersey-boy raises in early position which is actually pretty standard for the way he's been playing. I look down at two kings. There were two callers behind him so I put in a pretty big re-raise to 3000. It gets back to Jersey-boy and he goes all in. I have him covered and I call pretty much right away. The other two players were gone at this point. As the dealer is straightening the pot I ask him if he has aces, and he responds in the affirmative. The board gives me no help.... I double him up and now my massive stack has been cut down to a modest 4 or 5 thousand.

So I was honest when I said I was waiting for aces or kings.

I thought it would be downhill for me after this, but I eventually managed to chip my way back up to a pretty good sized stack. It seems like me and this guy from Jersey tangled in a lot of hands. He was playing really loose and aggressive, and I couldn't tell out if I was enjoying his presence or if he was just being a jerk. He was definitely arrogant, and he was making some comments to other players that bordered on being out of line, but he also seemed like he was just having fun at times. It's hard to tell with some people.

Eventually we were down to 3 tables Jersey-boy still had a pretty good sized stack while i was hovering right around the 10 BB area. I got dealt AQ and limped, and he raised about 3x the BB. I called as did one other player. The flop came Qxx and I immediately went all in for my last 10,000 or so. He sat and thought about it for almost two minutes before finally folding reluctantly. He revealed that he had KQ and I kicked myself for playing the hand so strong. If i had check raised him I probably would have doubled up. For the next hour or so he kept asking me what I had and was having fun denying him the information. It seemed like he was going to lose sleep over it, so I told him that as soon as he or I got knocked out I'd tell him what I had. He got eliminated later doing a stupid bluff and stormed off before I could tell him. I hope he didn't lose sleep.

Anyway, to cut to the chase, we eventually got down to two tables and I was in all-in mode, just waiting for an ace, a pair, or even a good king. Eventually I get dealt A9 and go all in. The guy behind me goes all in, AND the big blind goes all in. Great....... They turn over JJ and AK, so I'm basically hoping the flop comes A9x or 99x. I actually caught an ace on the flop but could not hit my 3 outer and the AK held up. I was gone in 20th place. Only the top 10 paid.......