Wednesday Oct 20th: Flynn slept late (a Vegas thing), and didn’t make it to the Bellagio until 1pm ish. This is about the time of day the place starts to amp up. Flynn bought a ton of chips cause he is a baller now, and sat down to wait at a table next to Bobby’s Legends Room. Greg Mueller, Johnny Chan, and Eli Elezra were there, along with some other pros that Flynn probably didn’t recognize due to masks and sheer ignorance. He didn’t go barging in to ask for pictures ~ mostly because they have those big floor guys guarding the doors.
Seated almost immediately at 2/5 at a table, Flynn settled in for the day. The chair he had was good. While he realizes that the term ‘seat selection’ means what position you have on the other players/types, he is now coining ‘chair selection’ to mean literally the logistics of where at the table and in the room one is sitting. Can’t tell you the number of times Flynn has moved from one chair to another, not because of a bad run of cards or player positions, but because every-single-person walking by would bump his chair or his back was to a rail where spectaors could see his cards/business, or he was in the ‘5’ seat with no room & more care has to be taken when looking at one’s cards.
On to the game, which had nothing exciting to report. The opponents were standard 2/5 fare – no one heavily intoxicated, obnoxious, or uber aggressive or splashy. Flynn had a big pot pushed his way in the first orbit, lost all the hefty profit & then lost most of his starting stack over the next few hours. However, he feels his play was good. He made some big folds which may or may not have been correct, and missed some big draws. Meh. That is the nature of poker. About the 8 / 9 hour mark, Flynn had eeked back a small profit and decided to call it a night at the next big blind.
Of course, this never works out. Why do playable cards ALWAYS come just when one is about to cash out? Don’t even remember what they were, but something something top pair, call call raise , blah blah, big laydown by Flynn and the small profit was gone. Daymnit. No way he is leaving this table without a win. So, put the empty rack back down, and start the grind all over again. The best thing about being on vacation in Vegas is not really having any deadlines, so if Flynn had to stay another 8 hours he could. Not that he wanted to, but he could.
It took about 90 minutes of sheer patience to reaquire his profit and it was downright dirty. Flynn had position on the pre-flop raiser. Opponent had been there for a few hours, so Flynn knew his range quite well, so when the pre-flop raise was slightly more than the usual raise at the table, Flynn just couldn’t resist calling with (wait for it): 7h 5d off suit. Flop was 3h 7d 8d, rainbow. Flynn has middle pair, and some hope-and-prayer runouts. Opponent bets pot, which solidified Flynn’s range-guessing: a big pair or AK. Never to be deterred, and hoping it’s AK, Flynn calls. The turn is a 4h. Opponent bets a stack on the turn. There will be no flush for Flynn, but there are gutshot, 3-ofakind, or 2-pair draws. 8 outs OR he could be good with a pair of 7’s , right, maybe? Obviously Flynn insta-calls-after about a 2 minute tank (had to count those outs). The river is a gorgeous, beautiful, sweet 7. Without a doubt Flynn is good (discounting 88 or 56 in villain’s hand, which there was NO way Flynn’s read would be that off). You guessed it: villian shoves on what looks like a safe board for him, Flynn insta-calls for real this time, shows 1st even though he didn’t have to (no slow-rolling ever for Flynn) and is clearly the winner.
Villian is one unhappy camper. He won’t let go of his cards. He gives the ‘if looks could kill’ stare. He tells Flynn he had a very good hand. Flynn acknowledges this: “your kings were good until the river, sir, we admit it was lucky”. He flashes a face card – likely a king, picks up his remaining chips (he had Flynn covered) and stomps off. The rest of the table scold Flynn for hitting a two – outter and repeatedly told Flynn how lucky he was. Yep, a dirty bird. Not one iota of guilt feelings there though. Big blind came around, Flynn was not forced to play any more good hands, so he took his profit and went to bed.
Celeb sighting: Brad Owen was playing in the upper-high roller area and was kind enough to allow a photo. He was very nice, and frankly, one of the reasons Flynn has moved from 1/3 to 2/5. Thanks, Brad! Your videos are awesome (the narrative is funny-spot-on), keep up the good work.
Fin
Flynn
I was tempted to ask Brad about how his buddy OJ was, but hey – I might be a dick sometimes, but not that big of a dick to someone I don’t know.