Wall Street Poker

I was a tad bit anxious about playing the Wall Street Game. After all, I had never met most of the people. I wasn't sure about protocol as far as bringing food/drinks, if 7 o'clock meant 6:45 or 7:30, if I was wandering onto a LAG pushfest like the Salami was on occasion, or a relaxed home game with a little direction.

I should have been prepared for an extension of my monthly Neighborhood game, minus all the drinking.

I came in to WSP palace about 15 minutes early. As I was checking in with the doorman, Jamie walked in from the street and introduced himself.
I shook his hand and felt a little sheepish about being early.

Jamie took it in stride and showed me up to his place. I gladly helped clean up a bit, then got the chips ready for the tournament as he stocked his cache of cokes, cups and plates.

Other players started strolling in, among them Dawn, Mary, and Jordan.

All in all we had 11 for the tourney. I felt pretty good early, taking a decent pot form Jordan, then played some smallish pairs vs Mary, and she shooed me away like a little nat.

I tried to get a little too creative with the deluge of bad through mediocre cards I was getting and managed to flush away most of my chips on stupid moves with draws or bluffs.

I believe I was the 3rd player out, so I sparked up the laptop and logged into FT. I signed into a 11+1 SNG, and only when it started did I realize it was PLOhi.
I stayed out of the way for the first 10-15 hands and found myself with nearly my starting stack and 4 people out already. I decided to start mixing it up a bit, and we got down to 4 fairly quickly.

We sat on the bubble for what seemed like forever. The WSP tourney came to an end and they started up the cash game (.50/1) $100 max. I paid for my chips and asked for my seat to be saved so I could finish the SNG.
Jamie and the rest of the crew were OK with that, but then another cash player showed up and I offered her my seat.

I cant say I regret it either. I ended up getting 2nd on 2 redonkulous suckouts in PLOhi. I had a 3:1 chiplead, but could not finish the drill.

So I had to wait for a seat to open in the cash game. I didn't mind at all, I got to eat some food and get a good feel for the players at the table, something I didn't get to do before the tournament.

I got to see how most of the table was playing, and got a good read on the betting structure etc.

Earlier on in the evening I overheard a conversation between 2 of the players concerning another of the cash players. They were commenting on a certain players ability to lose with mediocre hands and paying them off.

Watching the table, it didn't take terribly long to hit my target.

I was dealt KQs in the BB, there were 2 limpers and my target in the CO raised to $10. I called and the limpers dropped. The flop came QJx rainbow and I check raised. She obliged by pushing (~40). I went ahead with my read and had her outkicked. I take her at her word since she never showed, but I was off to a good start.

I took 2 more sizeable pots from her in similar scenarios, and built a decent table image, showing down winners, and betting at the pots I was in.

I had a pretty decent run of cards and had 2 more memorable hands. I called a min raise in the SB with J9 and was called by the BB. I flopped the straight (KQT) and the original bettor put out a feeler bet. It was a scary board, and I didn't want the nut straight coming along cheap. I needed to find out if he had something, so I made a pot sized raise. This really got him thinking, and he attempted to stare me down. Behind my sunglasses I couldn't decide what to do, I tried to act strong, hoping to get a rase from something like AK, KT or KJ. You know, throwing out the whole 'strong is weak' vibe, In the end he broke his stare and smiled, said "you're good" and gave up the pot.

Towards midnight everyone was getting ready to leave, so we played one last hand. I was dealt AK UTG, and made a smallish raise. I really tried to play off the 'its the last hand' vibe and got calls from most of the table. the flop came AAJ with 2 spades, and I had to bet to isolate the draws. Unfortunately no one looked me up and I took the last hand of the night.

I certainly felt better standing up form the cash game than I did the tournament. I covered the tourney entry, dinner, the cab and still had over 120 bucks profit.

After the game I was obliged to help clean up a little and left with a nice little adrenaline rush.

I really like the homegame atmosphere and would absolutely prefer playing at the WSP over an illegal club ala SALAMI. I'd like to thank Jamie again for treating me as a guest and as a regular at the same time and I look forward to the next time I'm in NYC and can play WSP again.



I'm writing this on the lazyboy, in a drug induced stupor after getting my wisdom teeth removed yesterday, so I'm sorry if I forgot some details, names or links.