The loosest 10/20 game ever

[A conversation with Pauly about collusion and being accused of cheating brings this session to mind...]

About 6 or 7 months ago, when I was still quite awful at cash NL games [I know, suprising but true, I was an ATM machine at those games for a couple months until something clicked], I was having [my usual, at this point] bad day at the baby NL game and Jason, one of the regular younger 10/20 players that I get along with suggested that I come play at this insane 10/20 game that was going on. There was a guy in town from Texas with his brother and his friend and they were getting drunk and raising and reraising almost every pot and putting the rest of the table on tilt. Sounded good to me, so I moved over.

I sat down, and sure enough this guy, Nick, was drinking like there was no tomorrow, as was his buddy, and both he and his brother had a huge stack of red chips in front of them. And sure enough, they were reraising and raising every pot like crazy maniacs. However, what everyone at the table except Jason, this guy David (who we called Argyle, due to his nappy sweater vest), and me didn't notice was that if Nick and brother didn't notice was that if they didn't hit the flop, or a monster draw, they were out of there after the flop. Most of the time, when Nick went to the river, he was showing top 10 hands, unless he'd hit some crazy 2 pair or whatnot on the flop, and got paid off with raises and reraises on every street all the way to the river.

So while Nick and brother were driving people crazy and causing them to bust out right and left, Jason, David and I were just taking advantage of their loosening up the table and we, too, eventually had stacks of red chips in front of us. Me, being me, I also immediately made friends with Nick and we were bantering back and forth all night - All night! The 10/20 games normally break up around 3 or 4 am on a Saturday night, and we were never less than 8 handed because of all the "easy money" that was thought to be had from Nick. So not only was I making my losses back at this game, I was laughing my butt off as well.

It got to the point where when I was ready to enter the pot, I had to look at my hand and go 'Is this a $20 hand, because I know if I come in, Nick's going to raise this.' And all night, I'd come into the pot and say, "OK, I've got a $20 hand, Nick!" and sure enough, he'd raise and I'd call. This had been going on all night and we were the loudest table in the room (also unusual for a 10/20 table), so the floor was constantly dropping by the table and checking us out.

Funniest point of the evening: Schuyler (pronounced Skyler), the floor guy was hanging out, and Nick says to me, "Oh boy, we're going to get kicked out now..." And I say to Schuyler, "Hey, Schuyler - are we getting in trouble?"

Schuyler replies, deadpan, "No, as far as I know, we still allow you to have FUN in the casino."

Anyway, eventually at 7 or 8 in the morning, this gawdawful $5/$10 player wearing a bright red I hat, decides to take an open seat and sit down short stacked, commenting to Nick that he's here just to take Nick's money. Nick tells him, "Bring it on, Big Red, I have this whole rack of greens to give away!" E immediately gets indignant, and says, "Why are you calling me Big Red?" We don't point out to him, as he's already drunk, that he's wearing a red hat.

In about 45 minutes, we've busted his stack and he says as he leaves, "Y'all just stay there! I've got $1000 in my room and I'm going to get it and be right back!". We're overjoyed with this.

He comes back an hour later or so, still drunk, with $500 instead of $1000, but hey, that's $500 more we can get. It's about 10 am on Sunday, and we're still at it with Nick telling me if I come in he's going to just raise me, and I say fine, I've got a $20 hand, etc.

At this point, I've moved down to sit to the right of Nick, and my poor luck is that E is now sitting to my right, and he's talking my ear off, and I just don't LIKE him, and his money is coming to me anyway, so there's no point in me being any level above polite to him, so I don't, and he gets a little more annoyed.

So, they sit there playing and little e, as we're now calling him, has gotten Nick to drink shots of tequila, and they're both seriously drunk, though Nick holds his drunk much better. The raising and the reraising is still going on, but little e has gotten a little more belligerent, and I notice Michael the floor guy has decided to take a post right behind me to watch little e and Nick and the whole table. Nick starts making some smart-ass comment to Michael and both Jason and I are very quick to say, "Shhhhh. You can tease and rib any other floor guy, but not Michael - you will get yourself kicked out." So, I wasn't too displeased to see him keeping an eye on little e, as I'm actually starting to get rather uncomfortable with his level of drunken belligerence.

I was right to be worried. I'm sitting on the button with a $20 hand, and little e comes in for $10. I jokingly say to Nick, "You're so going to raise me if I come in, right?" and he says, "Don't I always?" and I laugh and put $10 in, and sure enough he raises, just like he has been doing all night.

At this point, little e absolutely flips out and says, "That is TOTALLY UNETHICAL to talk about your hands!! I can't believe you're disrespecting the game like that!" To say that I was flabbergasted would be an understatement. He continues, "I mean, I only lost $6 [wrong game, son], and I'm not mad about that, I'm just so mad that you're being unethical!"

Is he kidding me? Has he not been paying attention one whit all night? Is he really that drunk? I mean, sure, we've taken another $350 from him and he's on another short stack, but is he serious??

Yes, yes he is. Over the course of the next 45 minutes he not only goes up to talk to Michael, the floor guy, who saw and heard EVERYTHING, he goes up to Schuyler, and then talks to the poker room manger, who already got the low down from Michael, and gets soothed and set straight. But that's not enough, he has to bring it up every 5 minutes, and even after talking to the poker room manger, has to go up to every other floor guy that hasn't heard the story yet.

I just can't take it. The floor people won't do anything about his yammering, and I'm getting asked by a couple friends to join the tournament that's going to start in 40 minutes or so, which at this point sounds much more palatable than even taking a drunk guy's money. I just can't take his yammering anymore, so I get up, get a comp for the deli from the floor, and go eat lunch for a half hour. Yeesh. Not exactly the kind of way you expect to end a 20 hour poker bender, eh?

[of course, I didn't end it there, I played in the tournament, since I not only made my NL losses back, but made a pretty big killing at the 10/20 game, and was getting offered a pretty good save odd from a friend of mine who ended up placing 1st in the tourney, so it wasn't all bad. Plus, little e ended up busting out about an hour later, which warmed the cockles of my heart]