I headed to Ballys, arriving about 11:45 and got a seat at the 1-2 no limit hold-em game. Things started off well enough, but after two hours or so my $100 buy-in had slowly melted down to about $50.
But things looked better when I looked down and found A-J of clubs staring back at me. I raised the $2 blind up to $7 and got 3 callers. The pot was about $30 when the flop came 2-5-7 of different suits. I bet $10 and got only 1 caller. The turn card was another 7 and both of us checked. The river card was a 4. Even though I just had Ace I, I decided to make a play for the pot and shoved my remaining $40 in the pot, expecting my opponent to fold.
Nope.
The guy called and showed a K-2, giving him a pair of deuces and taking the pot. How can he call a $40 bet with a pair of 2s? AAAARGH.
So I left Ballys and came back to the apartment by 3 p.m. Helen was designing some Christmas cards, so I decided to head over to Red Rock for a couple of hours to try to recover my loss at Ballys.
Got seated right away in a 1-2 game. I was seated in the 1 seat, right to the left of the dealer and did OK early, winning a couple of pots and getting up about $30. Then a few of the players left and a lanky guy in his 50s took the #4 seat, directly across the table from me. He looked familiar and I identified him quickly when I saw the huge World Series Ring on his right hand.
I was squaring off against Orel Hershiser, the Dodgers ace who was nicknamed "The Bulldog" by Hall of Fame manager Tommy Lasorda. Since retiring in 2000 Hershiser has played a lot of poker and is announcing Dodgers games following the retirement of Vin Scully. Orel and his wife Dana have a home here in Sumerlin and another place is Pasadena where they live during the MLB season. But now they are here and play quite often at the Red Rock.
Orel usually plays $2-5 no limit, but there was no seat at the table, so he was in the $1-2 game. So for about an hour, we talked Dodgers and poker, while not really squaring off against each other. He's an aggressive player and, frankly, I'm glad I didn't get very strong hands that I would have to play against him. He did go all in for $200 on one hand and lost it, but was very polite and simply bought another $200 worth of chips.
He is very popular figure in the poker room and treats people with respect. He tips, actually over tips, the dealer when he wins and is really a pleasure to play poker with. Nice guy, win or lose.
After an hour or so, a seat opened at the 2-5 table and Orel moved over there. His seat was taken by his wife, Dana, a strong player in her own right. I played against her for about 30 minutes before I left with a profit of only $12.
Went home and made us turkey, cheese and lettuce wraps for dinner. Then it was a little TV and relaxing.
And so our adventure continues...
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