WSOP Day 29 - Jon Kalmar

WSOP Day 29 - Jon Kalmar

Hard to believe half the year has gone already and I hope the second half will be more prosperous than the first.

The Ladbrokes second chance World Series qualifier was being held today at the Hard Rock Casino. This is the first time I have ever been to the Casino and it looks pretty cool. It is filled with music memorabilia and I was pleased to see Steve Jones of Sex Pistols fame have his guitar on display along with lesser famous artists like Eric Clapton, Jimmy Hendrix and Paul McCartney.

After a little filming with Steve Davis for the Ladbrokes site he decided to join me for some cash games at the Venetian. I hadn’t played in over a week and needed to start earning some money again. (I have to say he is one of the nicest blokes I have ever met. It’s good to meet celebrities and find them to be as you’d expect. I know this is not always the case).

He played some 2/5 PLO and I got in the 5/10 no limit game. With 2 kids re-raising just about everyone I decided to stay tight, well mostly. One of the kids bet 50 from the small blind. Not only was he out of turn, not one player on the table had acted. This smelt of a stroke and after a few people had limped to me I asked for the ruling. As I thought, the bet stands. He must bet 50 unless someone else raises before him. I know the rule but I stressed this point so everyone else knew I knew the rule. I make the call of $10 with 6 8 off suit and he now has to bet 50. He gets 3 callers and its back to me. I make it $250 to go. The raiser passes instantly. Another guy shouts “I knew it” before mucking along with everyone else. I show the cards and inform him to be careful next time he tries these things.

There are a few jokes in poker that are just over used. They barely raise a grin due to the fact you hear them constantly. One I heard every half hour was from the guy to my right. He’d say to each dealer coming in “hey do I need to pay another 6 bucks, I just give it some guy half an hour ago?” Stop, stop my ribs. Each dealer grins at him pretending it’s the first time they have heard it but you can tell they are thinking “%***!”

To say the seat I was in was cold was an understatement. Not only was I was picking up nothing I was stuck directly under the air-con fan. I was losing the feeling in my fingers. I asked for a seat change and a fortunate bonus from this was I was now to the left of my aggressive young opponents. I then get aces. Under the gun raises (one of the aggressive players) and I am to his immediate left. I don’t want to play a multi-way pot with this and I re-raise to 120 bucks. It is folded back round to him and he makes the call. The flop is J 9 8 rainbow which he checks to me. Not a bad flop but it is one an aggressive player can make moves on. Now we both are quite deep with around $4k in front of us. I don’t want to be put to a tough decision. He could have flopped a set. He may have flopped the nuts but hands like 10 J and 9 10 also get aggressive. These are hands well in his range here and I want to control the pot against him. I decide if he has nothing the best thing to do it allow him to bet into me, I am certain he will. If he is ahead then I will lose the minimum by simply calling his bets. If he has nothing then I get nothing betting into him. I check and the turn is another 8. He bets out 230 that I call. The river is a King and he immediately bets out 600. The alarm bells rang yet it still didn’t stop me from calling. This card must be a scare card to someone holding a marginal hand or a bluffer. Why bet so strongly? After I re-raised pre-flop and called his turn bet what does he have me on. The king on the river would slow down any hand that aces is beating. Even AK would likely check here or at best make a stopper bet. He flips over 8 5 and I kick my self. Not for the way I played the hand but for paying him off on the river. I have been running bad I know, but unless I plug these leaks winning again will prove difficult.

I had been around $2.5k up but after that hand and running JJ into QQ I finished up only around 900. Considering I’d only played around 2 and a half hours I couldn’t complain.

Jeanie (Steve’s good lady) and Kila joined us for dinner at the Asian Noodle place in the Venetian after which we headed back to get ready for a heavy night on the ale for the Skalie Pub Crawl.