I sit down and don't really recognize anybody, mainly because I don't frequent the Bellagio poker room enough (hoping to change that). I do know Jimmy "Gobboboy" Fricke who I played w/ last time. I'm assuming he's a reg in this game now. Anyway I buy in for $5k and play for a little bit before Alex Rodriguez of NY Yankees fame sits in the game. Immediately $ signs flash in my eyes. ARod happens to be the highest paid baseball player w/ a contract worth $275mil over 10 years. He already made $250mil in his previous 10 year contract. Now having that much money probably allows him to spend some of it any way he chooses and I was hoping he chose to share some of it on my poker table.
After an hour of play my wife comes over and says she's up $1k from the $2-$5 nl game she played and is quitting. I tell her to sit down and learn from the best, so she grabs a seat behind Gobboboy. No seriously, she sits down behind me and asks how I'm doing. I tell her I'm even and she rolls her eyes giving me the "I made $1k in a smaller game and you can't make a penny in this game" look. I tell her just give me an hour because baseball's richest player just sat down. He sat down w/ $2k which was kinda disappointing to see considering how rich he was.
If I had to assign stats to ARod's play, it would be about 40/4/0 w/ an agg level of about 5. He was limping in a lot of pots but betting and raising postflop quite frequently. Finally we play this pot...he open limps ep, young kid raises to $120 right behind (I think isolation play immediately), 2 guys call to me in the bb where I hold AJo and elect to call (3betting was strongly considered because everybody except the preflop raiser probably had less than premium hands, w/ the preflop raiser having a wider range than normal trying to iso ARod...but the main consideration was that I wanted to play a pot w/ ARod and 3betting would've probably blown him off his hand). ARod calls and the flop comes down AQJr and it gets checked to the preflop raiser that bets $260, the button calls, and now I have a decision to make. The preflop raiser and the button had about $5k as well so I didn't want to checkraise and face a 3bet so I elected to call and ARod called to close the action. In hindsight checkraising was probably a little better based on the preflop raiser's flop bet of $260 into a $600 pot which is likely indicative of a mediocre hand like KQ or AT. The turn comes an ace and it gets checked around. I could've led the turn but figured the case ace or a full house was out there that would bet so I could put in a check raise. Anyway getting checked around the turn isn't bad either because a ten or king could roll off the river where somebody makes a 2nd best hand as well, plus I might get paid off by the case ace or a Qx hand at the river. The river is a 3 so I lead out for $1200 into the $1600 pot hoping to get paid off by 1 person at least. ARod tanks for awhile and finally says "call" and the other guys get out of the way. I roll over AJ and he flips over A8s. Being the target in the game, others console him and tell him he had to call (not really, but to his credit it's a tough spot for him).
Anyway he played a couple of more laps and quit. I feel good I won $1600 from him for a couple of reasons. He's uber rich and more importantly, I lost $400 betting on the Yankees to make it to the World Series so a little redemption there. Also he's dating Cameron Diaz so I'm not feeling sorry for him. Anyway I ended up winning $2500 so I was able to give my wife the "yeah, who's talking now bitch" look...but w/o the bitch part really.
*Fantasy Football Update*
In 3dime my team is 4-3 and 2nd in total pts so I'm in 4th place in overall standings. Top 4 out of 14 make the playoffs so I'm doing well there. My te has been a problem all year w/ Celek so I picked up Marcedes Lewis and Jacob Tamme (Indy te starting now that DC is out for the year). Also getting Vick back at qb in a week will be a boost.
In 1dime my team has reeled off 5 wins in a row to stand at 5-2 and in 4th place. This league also has the top 4 making the playoffs. I really think I did a good job building the team....as it stands I have at qbs : Flacco, Fitzpatrick; rbs: AP, Torain, BJax, Woodhead, PT; wrs: Fitzgerald, Britt (unfortunately had him on my bench last week when he went off for 50pts), Welker, Crabtree, Murphy, Breaston; te: ZMiller. It's a 12 team league w/ a bunch of young online poker players so maybe I can teach them a thing or two about fantasy football.
In nickel, I stand at 4-3 and in 2nd place mostly because my team has the 2nd highest total pts for the season. I've got some injury concerns w/ Collie and Floyd hurt but I think my team should make the playoffs. The core of my team (w/ pts ranking up to date) is Peyton Manning (4th), Gore (1st), Roddy White (1st), Z Miller (2nd) so I like my team going forward.
Overall I'm pretty satisfied w/ my teams so far at the midway point of the fantasy season.
, 10
, 7
(one pair, sevens).
