Son Peter's first casino poker

Poker buddy Bill was booked on the bus with me, but had family obligations and at the last minute called and told me that he could not come. So my son Peter pretended to be Bill and went in his place.

It was a fine father/son sharing of story and banter. We had poor seats in the bus, in the back where all the bumping and rolling is exaggerated, had it seemed hotter than usual, but we managed seats together on a full bus and had a good visit.

I played 2-4 all day. In the morning I played at the same table with Peter and even sat next to him for a while and that was good. Pete has played a lot in free on line games but I guess this was his first time in the casino. In spite of a lot of our talk, he started a bit too loose and did not get lucky so his bankroll went down, but soon he seemed to get it pretty well. He ended the day $28 down in poker and got $25 back in free keno.

Keno gave me $5 but I put it in a Haywire machine while Peter was in the bathroom and lost it. It is the only slot I've played in all my trips. Losing it was all Peter's fault. I told him he will have to plan his bathroom trips with more concern for others.

We went to the buffet at one o'clock and had no trouble. Lines were short. It tasted very good. I even had a pierogi. And it was good to have time to talk about hands. We were seated immediately back at a 2-4 but at different tables and although the opportunity came for table change, Peter was content playing by himself. He played all afternoon.

My afternoon was tough. All day I was not on my top game and made mistakes, some very stupid mistakes. I had a run of bad cards, and I was down over $100 when it changed to a run of great cards. I had pocket queens and the flop came 2-2-X. I decided to raise it, hoping to see a free card, but it was a bad decision. I pushed two guys out and was left head to head with one of the most conservative players on the board. The fact that she called me meant she had the third deuce. The turn changed any plans to fold, it was a queen. She called my turn and river bet in spite of having trip deuces and I won with the full house.

After a few more wins, where good cards developed I realized that I was getting a lot of respect, and that sometimes people would fold on the river.

So I bluffed. In fact, I took that information on my own tells that Bill had given me, the fact that sometimes I set chips up to bet too early, and I set up to bet the river, moved my hand toward the bet as my opponent hesitated, and then bet. He folded. My next bluff just a few hands later came against two players. They folded. In about the space of seven hands I took four of them with bold lies on the river. In one hand I had A-2 and actually bet ahead of my hesitating opponent, apologized, and found that when I then made the actual bet, he folded.

On my fifth try I was called on the river. I did not have to show my busted straight, but the guy had only a pair of aces. So that was the end of the bluffing cycle. It had returned my losses; I ended up ahead $34 for the day.

The ride home was a bit uncomfortable. Peter and I are large men, so when we sit side by side, we are not completely side by side. But we had a movie, "Shall We Dance." and although I had seen it, I enjoyed it again. After this hot bus ride, a night swim in the lake was wonderful! The water was warm enough to be comfortable, but if I stretched my feet down as far as possible I encountered a wonderful coolness. The moon was full, Venus burned brightly and just over the trees to the North was the big dipper. One boat quietly slipped across the other side with young people talking of school and laughing. I remembered swimming at night with my buddies at Lime Lake when I was in 8th grade. There won't be too many more days for such comfortable swimming.