It was early July and I had scheduled a short 10 day visit to Greece. I was staying with a friend of mine from Atlanta, who has a house in Piraeus, the main port outside Athens. We had decided to split the rental car and visit some obscure locations in search of possible retirement property.
So you ask me, "how is that poker related?" Well, I certainly wasn't going to visit Greece without at least one visit to the Loutraki casino. That visit happened on my second full day. My friend and I had been running around Athens taking care of outstanding matters that have been neglected for years while we have been living our lives in the US. The Greek bureaucracy is ah.... very bureaucratic! In my friend's case, he needed to ensure that he was fully vested in his engineering pension from all the years he worked as an engineer in Greece. Of course, he had to get a "stop work" certificate from the prefecture where he has his house and business, although he hasn't run a business for over 15 years in Greece. My friend asks the girl at the appropriate office at the prefecture, what this certificate was about; why he had to get this "stop work" certificate since he had never obtained a "start work" certificate? She, of course, in her nonchalant Greek way says, "Why do you ask these questions? Do you want to complicate matters or do you want a certificate so you can finish your business before we close?" Again, just follow the advice and directions of the bureaucrats and you'll get what you need!
That evening, I convinced my friend to drive the 1.5 hours to Loutraki so that I could finally see the new poker room and try my luck and skills against the locals. After taking care of the formalities that you encounter in any European casino (you need to register as a member), I found my way to the poker room and inquired about an open seat at the 1-2 table. What? There is no 1-2 table? OK, then I'll put my name on the list for the 2-5 table (euros). I didn't really want to play 2-5, especially in euros, but if that was the smallest stakes available, so be it. I received one of those blinking/vibrating devices and was told that they would call me when a seat opened up. They did offer to text me on my cell phone, but since I was using my US based iphone, I decided to forego any roaming rates etc.
After some play at the roulette table (only one zero....no double 00), the device went off, and I quickly cashed in and moved to the 7 seat in a 10 seat table. Let the poker playing begin!
Observing the first several hands, I quickly realized that the players at my table were aggressive and not scared to gamble their chips with mediocre hands. Once, it went all the way to the river with a Q and J showing on the board. The 8 seat called an 80 euro bet with Ace high from a 25 year old aggressive kid who had J4. Yikes! I will have to refrain from bluffing and play the good hands agressively.
I also remember how I enjoyed the table talk. I had never played poker in Greece, and since I speak Greek fluently, it was a treat to hear poker speak in your native language. It was also funny using poker related expressions and words and questioning whether they understood what you meant. In one instance, I was UTG, and I asked the lady dealer if I could straddle. Of course, she wasn't used to hearing it with an American accent, so another guy at the table repeated my request but pronounced the word "straddle" with a strong rolling "r". The dealer quickly understood and says to me, "Mister, we have everything that you have in America, so if you want to straddle or do something similar, go ahead." She said that in a tone of "please don't insult me by thinking that I'm not the world's best poker dealer." A couple of hands later when I had the button, I wanted to mess with her, so I announced that I would be placing a Mississippi straddle. There was complete confusion and silence around the table until someone came to her rescue and told me that they only had a regular straddle at this casino, and that anything else was prohibited by law. It's typical for a Greek to invoke the illegality of something, so I just smirked and continued playing.
It was almost 3 hours into the session when the following hand occurred. My stack was at around 450 euros (started at 300) and I was the big blind with Ad3c. Middle position had made it 20 euros and with 2 other callers, it was easy enough to see the flop with only 15 euros more. The flop comes 3d7dQh. I check and with the pot at 80 euros, the original raiser puts out a bet of 50 euros. The other two players fold and I decided to gamble and represent the nut flush if another diamond came on the turn. The turn is the Ah. With my two pair, I decide to slow play and I check. The other player bets another 50 euros. Again I act like I'm deliberating, but finally make the call. There is now 280 euros in the pot and I have appx. 330 euros in my stack. The river is the 3s. I am sure that I have the best hand, but I want to represent that I totally missed my flush and was trying to steal the pot. I knew that if I took a long time with my decision, the other player would know that I was up to something, so without further hesitation, I announce that I'm all in. The other player could not figure out what I could possibly have and how I could have a better hand than his. I put him on a strong Q...possibly even AQ. After some thought, he calls my all in and when I turned over my full house (I think I even said: "καραβακι" "small boat"), the whole table was shocked! The expression on the other player's face was unforgettable! He looked down at the board, looked up at me, looked down at the board again and finally looked up and with a quizzical look, he started nodding and accepted the fact that he had just lost 450 euros against an A3.
A little time after this hand, I was the BB and I look down to see two Kings. The UTG kid with 100 euros in his stack had limped in and 4 other followed, so I raised to 20 euros and got called by the UTG kid and two others. The flop was A75 rainbow, and I bet 15 euros. The UTG kid goes all in for 83 euros. The guy next to him (appx. 400 euros behind), who had sat down at the table about half an hour earlier, and whom I had pegged as a good player, flat calls the all in. The other player folded and when it came to me, I decided that my KK were beat, so I folded them face up. Pandemonium erupted from the dealer who thought I had just exposed my cards in an active hand until another guy at the table calmed her down saying that it didn't matter since it was an all in and a call and no other players involved. Just as expected, the caller showed the A8 for top pair against UTG's 99. The A held and there was no other K that would have given me a set. However, the comments from the other players were amazing. How could you fold KK? That was a terrible fold! Even if you think that someone had an A, you could still win if another K came on the board. For 80 euros more?...of course I would call! Ha..Ha..Ha
The night was passing along quietly and with my stack constantly building up, at around 2am, my friend appears and asks me to quit so we can drive the 1-hour back to the house. I was up to 1000 euros, and I explained to him that this is one of the weakest tables that I have ever played on and I could make a lot more. He insisted, so I cashed out with a nice 700 euro profit. I ended up giving him 200 euros as a present for his hospitality and freerolled the rest of my vacation with the other 500 euros.
