I walked into the Pensacola Dogtrack followed by two young men. One of the guys looked big enough to play tight end in the NFL. As I walked up to enter the Sunday $80 event, David the dealer asked me if I had hired a body guard. David is a tall guy himself. For him to describe a fella as big. The guy has got to be big. There would only be only be 2 tables, there were only 15 entries. Both the young guys were at my table. The big guy sat to my left. So, I gave him my card. His name is Chance, and he is originally from Utah, but currently works door to door sales in the Birmingham area. I gave him my card, and he passed another one of my cards to his fellow salesman coworker who is much shorter than he. The shorter of the two is Enzo. When he heard that I write about poker. He asked me if I coach poker. I said I didn’t but I did write about another newbie pissed me off when he pushed me out of a hand by bluffing into a dry side pot.
Sitting to my right was Paul who suckered me into taking that Ouija Board off his hands. Paul and I grappled on a few hands. In one hand, he had pocket Queens and I flopped to pair with Jack-9. He checked his over-pair because three hearts had flopped. I bet my top pair, but he made the crying call. I put him on an Ace-King type hand. When we checked it down, I thought my top pair was good, but he had pocket Queens and beat me.
While Paul and joked and bantered back and forth. Enzo, despite his apparent intimidation kept building his stack to the point that he was chip leader. I was up and down. I had double up with pocket Jacks, only to lose a lot of chips to Paul’s Queens. As the blinds were going up, Chance was knocked out. I survived a few all-ins. Chance hung out, sitting near the table, because Enzo was the chip leader. Eventually, we got down to 9 handed, and combined tables. Now I was sitting directly to the left of Paul. Dwight was at that table and when I said he was an expert in Karate, he corrected me, and clarified that Judo is not Karate after Enzo knocked him out of the tournament. I had warned Enzo to be careful after eliminating Dwight, because of Dwight’s expertise in martial arts. Let me say right now, that Dwight is a gentleman, so he doesn’t want beat me up in parking lot next time he sees me.
I enjoy seeing the familiar faces who frequent the tournaments at the Pensacola Greyhound Track Poker Room, like Jenny, Phil, and his wife Alice. Alice was nicknamed psycho-killer by me, because she loves to kill people in tournaments. When I received Paul’s Ouija Board a few weeks back I was ranked number 1 in the player of the year rankings. Since then, Alice has me by 1 point, 201-200. I saw her last night, and showed her that she had passed me in the rankings.
They were paying 4 spots today, but I had the smallest stack with 6 of us remaining. Enzo raised my blind. I looked down and saw pocket Queens. He made it 5,000 with the blinds 1,600-1,600-800. I decided to just call. Earlier this week, I had lost with pocket Queens to pocket Aces. I decided it best to wait and see the flop before making my play. The flop came Jack high with 2 spades. I check-raised all-in, and he called without deliberation. I showed my Queens fearing he had Aces or a set. I was surprised to find I was ahead in the hand. He showed Ace-8 of spades. My joy was short-lived. He caught his spade on the turn, and I didn’t even survive long enough to eat my soup. That f@%$ing newbie knocked me out 2 away from the money. After eliminating one more guy named Robert who I hadn’t seen before today who played soundly. They chopped it up. Enzo was named the winner, because he had the most chips. Paul, fresh off of sticking me with the Ouija Board, got a quarter of the money that remained after Enzo received the first place money. Now, I told Enzo that it would only be fare if he gave me a cut of the money I negotiated for him in chopping up prize money, but Paul wouldn’t even support my play, so I asked Enzo to just buy book. He and Chance are salesmen, and my book contains the best sales advice anyone can receive: ABC, Always Be Closing!!!!!
First things first. Am I pissed off at Enzo calling my all-in with the Ace-high flush draw? Not at all, but me and that Ouija Board had quite a talk when we got home. I’d have to be quite a hypocrite to be mad about that play, because I’ve been known to do it. But I’ll admit to Chance, that I moved all-in against him with a double-end straight draw, and he folded. The key is that I bet the hand instead of calling. When you’re the better, you have two chances to win. First, they might fold. Second, if they have you beat, you can only win if your hand improves. Generally speaking flush draws offer 9 cards that can win the hand. Enzo had 12 cards if you count the 3 remaining Aces in the deck. However, Snarky Mark, he didn’t bet. He just called your bet. Is Snarky Mark trying to say he’s pissed off at yet another newbie? Not at all. Enzo had be out-chipped roughly 80,000 to 15,000. His call was a no-brainer. The only question I have is should I have gone all-in prior to the flop. I really don’t think Enzo would have folded, and the outcome would have been the same. For a newbie, he never showed any fear. He could have had Aces or Kings or flopped an Ace. I’m okay with how I played the hand. My goal is to put my chips in the pot with the advantage. I did that. What happens after that, I can blame on the Ouija Board.
One of the 4 players to make the money was Alex. He was also new to the Greyhound track. I’m glad to see some new faces as well as the old faces that greet me with trepidation for fear that I talk too much. My nicknamer was there who labeled me Snarky Mark. It was nice to see Bill, Dwight, and Jenny who wish me good luck before each tournament, but I know a bluff when I see one, because I’m bluffing when I wish them luck. I also like the staff, like Olivia who tidies up after Sloppy Snarky Mark and Sara who brings soup, and the occasional alcoholic beverage. For some reason, the other players want them to bring me alcohol, but I don’t like to become intoxicated. I tell the other players I hope I outlast my soup before getting eliminated. Enzo didn’t let me do that.