Yes, Floyd is a master-baiter. It was Sunday at the $80 Hold’em tournament at the Pensacola Greyhound Track. The were new players to the left of seat number 2 at table 20 where I was assigned. In seat 3 was Shane a friendly guy who often missed hands so he could smoke. I asked if he had ever seen the movie, Shane, a classic Western where Shane is played by Allan Ladd. He said he had not seen it. When Shane left for his many smoke breaks. I would moan, “Shane, come back.”
That’s the iconic last line of the movie made in 1953. Early in the tournament Shane ran into the sneaky master-baiter, Floyd. I kept forgetting Floyd’s name. After the third time I asked him to repeat his name, it finally stuck in my brain. He probably regrets that now. Floyd, however, through sneaky play managed to induce Shane into betting into his quad queens with his inferior, albeit strong hand. Floyd quietly raised to 3,000, and Shane had to call. Nobody had a clue that the sneaky baiter had quad Queens. Shane deftly rebuilt his stack during the course of the tournament.
With only 19 entries that include 2 or 3 re-entries. It wasn’t a long tournament. Nik, the dealer and I had concluded the the over/under for the event would be 20. I took the over. He took the under. It was a gentleman’s bet. Since I lost the bet, I had to mention him in this article. I still have to decide if I want to kill him in a book. However, I did inform Matt that I would kill him in the book I’m currently writing that I’m calling the Reenactment Gladiators. He will die from a flesh eating bacteria of the bunghole. Since I’m a retired physician. I have to give it a scientific name like Uranus Pacmaniasis Bungholius. It will be a consequence of biological warfare against a futuristic hoard of gladiators who try to sack Washington D.C. like Spartacus sacked Rome in another movie starring Kirk Douglas in 1960, but I digress.
Let’s talk about Double Ray Vision as it connects to yesterday’s events and my article published on Friday. In that article, I describe two different Rays who play poker. I described Sinister Smiling Ray and Sincere Smiling Ray. In the 1pm $120 tournament, I was moved into the big blind of Sinister Ray’s table. While I’m organizing my chips and putting in my blinds, which were 1,200-1,200-600, Sinister Ray moves all-in for roughly 8,500. I had a little over 20,000 in chips. I looked down and saw I had Ace-8 suited. I know it’s not the best hand, but it’s like Sinister Ray had a bounty on his head. If it was anybody else, I would have folded. Sinister Smiling Ray is Poker Player Ray in my book, The Trained Ghost Gimmick. In that book, he’s the source of an insulting endorsement. People walk up to me and say, “Mark, I swear I didn’t insult you!”
Not Ray, he owns the insults, even if I do make some of them up. He often adds his own insults when he has opportunity. If I get a stack of chips, he will knock them over.. So, there I was saying I called with Ace-8, mostly because of the added incentive of eliminating Sinister Smiling Poker Player Ray. He had Ace-King off-suit, a hand that dominates Ace-8, even if it is suited. I flopped a flush-draw, but the flush didn’t hit. However, the straight did runner-runner, and I said,”See you, Ray!!!”
He left the table without saying word before taking a seat at a 1-3 No-limit Hold’em game. He is a gentlemen even if he is my nemesis. I do enjoy the banter. If he didn’t insult me, I’d wonder if he was pissed off at me or had contracted some dreaded disease. I wouldn’t wish a flesh eating bacteria of the bunghole on anybody in real life. Now, in a book that’s a different story. Incidentally, The Trained Ghost Gimmick has a character named Raymond Ray who goes by the name Ray Ray.
Soon after Sinister Ray left the table, we had a break. I went up to Sincere Smiling Ray, and I described how I eliminated Sinister Smiling Ray. Sinister Ray caught us talking about it, but he wasn’t smiling. Sincere Ray confided with me that Sinister Ray told him I made an inferior play in his elimination. He might have a valid point. As usual for I was eliminated in 10th place that afternoon when I took my jack-10 up against pocket 9’s, and couldn’t hit my over-cards. So I went home and returned for the 7pm $80 tournament. Both Rays came to play as well. In his usual fashion, Sinister Ray walked by my table and knocked my chips over after I tripled up with pocket Kings. Sinister Poker Player Ray made an early departure short of the money. We were down to the final table of 9 players. I was in seat 8 and Sincere Smiling Ray was in seat 3. The tournament would pay 6 spots. Ray was nursing a small stack, and he needed to survive multiple all-ins. Ray always smiles unless he goes all-in. Then his face become devoid of all affect like a wooden board.
There were no bad players that I could identify at the table. That means I was the sucker. I was sitting there a few spots out of the money, and Ray was nursing a smaller stack. He was sitting there between my ten tournament losing streak, and my chance to make the money. Every time he survived an all-in, his stiff as a board face would come to life in an effusive, sincere smile, and he would say, “I know y’all were rooting for me. Thank you.”
Nervous laughter would follow, and I won’t describe the thoughts that circled around my head in that moment of consternation. I craved the opportunity to eliminate yet another Ray in one day. I had am emphatic desire to have a double-Ray elimination day. However, that’s not the title of my article today, because I could never get a hand to match his all-in attempts. I did make the money. Will, the attorney, who plays regularly in the tournaments. Knocked me out in 4th place. He raised from the button and I was in the small blind with K-J off-suit. The blinds were 8,000-8,000-4,000. I had 38,000 or so. With it costing 20,000 per round to play, the price of poker was too steep to be patiently await big hands so I made my move and pushed all-in. Will showed Ace-King. That’s where it ended. I didn’t share any dead attorney jokes with Will. Interestingly, I play an attorney in Trained Ghost Gimmick. Furthermore, Sincere Smiling Ray did outlast me, but I made a little money.
Then I ran into Master-Baiter Floyd the next day. The sneaky baiter got me. We were ten handed with 5 players per table. I had King-Queen off-suit on the button with the blinds 1,200-1,200-600.
I raised it to 4,000. Floyd made a show of thinking about his next move before moving all-in. He was just setting the hook, so he could reel me in after setting the hook. Floyd shoved all-in. I called, and he showed pocket Queens. I couldn’t improve, so I drove home There’s a line in my ghost book where the main character has to explain to a ghost that there’s no crying in poker, but there was crying all the way home in the Rav4 hybrid as I contemplated master-baiting Floyd setting the hook and reeling in Shane and myself.