FOXWOODS TRIP REPORT (TR)
These Foxwoods games would benefit my poker playing even if I never won money there. There is something about them that gives me more insight into my playing low level limit poker than I ever got in Vegas or on line.
This trip I ran into an unusual table with the poorest players I have encountered so far. They bet second best cards, were impossible to push out, and even sometimes ignored their own strengths. One player refused to bet or raise when he had the nut hand. He said he did not want to be “greedy.” He would raise pre flop on strong hands and bet fine if he had nothing that had much chance of winning, but if he had a hand that could not be beat, he would check it. It was sort of good Hold Em strategy in reverse.
Another fellow was playing for the first time. He would call to the river on a busted straight. He would fold when no bet was required. Once he raised and I reraised on my pocket kings to push those behind me out. It worked too. there were very few reraises pre flop so when one happened, the trash players folded. Well, when it got back around to this fellow, he had no idea what to do. It probably was his first encounter with a pre flop reraise.
The table tried to restrain him from folding so many of his hands for free, but he kept doing it. I advised him to just push his cards forward and give the table time to remind him that he need not fold, but he liked to toss them into the center. Once “new guy” bet against “generous guy” who caught trip kings with Ace kicker on the river. Generous guy just checked. New guy did not even have a pair.
As a result. it was more like playing 2-4 in Vegas and for the first time I really gained insight into what frustrates me about this kind of a game. All I can ever do in such a game is play good cards.
One woman at the table amassed most of the chips. She must have been ahead six hundred dollars over the time I played with her. She was a good player who caught cards and the others always paid her. Generous guy paid her right through the river when he held a pair or more, even after he should have noticed that in three hours she had never bet on the river unless she could beat top pair.
“Rich lady” seemed to reproduce the ace of diamonds for the flush whenever she needed it. Near the end of the afternoon, she asked to see the folded cards of a strange old Greek fellow after she had won the pot and he had folded. He ignored everyone so much that the table had assumed he could not speak English.
They soon learned that they were wrong.
After an hour and a half of complete silence, the old Greek lost his temper when “rich lady” asked to see his cards, ranting about “just take the money,” asking her if it wasn’t enough that she was “castrating” all the men at the table, and he kept up the ranting for three more hands, until I got tired of listening to it, and finally asked for the floor to speak to him. Then he shut up again for the rest of the afternoon.
His ranting cost him some money.
In one hand he held K-10 to another player’s K-9, but the second guy missed it that there was a pair on board, and a higher kicker. When he turned in his cards, I quickly pointed and told him to take them back. He was confused, but he did it; my comment cost Greek guy half the pot. I was motivated in part to punish the ranter.
The fellow who took back the split pot was generally a good player. He was embarrassed he had missed it and thanked me. He was a funny guy, made a few goo jokes, watched a couple hands after a lunch break with the absent button stuck to his forehead. He told me he plays every day and generally takes home $200.
When I first joined the table, I had sat down at the table to find 2-2 in my big blind and flopped a set. While I was still setting up my chips and looking distracted, I check-raised trip deuces on the flop. It scared no one; someone caught a gut shot on the river to beat me. A very aggressive loser asked to see my folded cards. I suppose I was new and he wanted to see why a new guy would check raise. At this casino the dealer just takes the cards and touches them to others to muck them. At Turning Stone cards that are asked to be shown are kept in play and will take a pot if they are winners, even though they have been previously mucked. (That happened to son Keith at an Indiana casino when a player had folded a full house.) Bill is very interested in this rule because he wants people to show cards in turn and that custom is not encouraged by dealers who want to get the hand over, get tipped, and deal again.
I hated “loose yahoo” as he raised often pre flop and was two seats behind me. I wanted him to my right, but could not manage it. I was considering a table change when he got frustrated with a bad river card and left in a huff. I about $80 at that point and soon caught up and inched ahead.
I just stayed up about $100 most of the afternoon. My pots were just enough to allow me to keep up with the blinds and poor flops. I surrendered many more big blinds than in other games as there were more pre flop raises although once “loose yahoo” left, raises were less often. I actually saw one player raise late pre flop on suited connectors and I realized that this was a good play because no one was going anywhere until after the flop and half would not remember that raise, or if they did, people would misinterpret it. However, I can see it would have been a better play last week. If on the flop the ace came rather than his two cards or suits, he could represent it wish a bet, and after such a raise, get people to fold.
These are great insights. Perhaps I get more of them here because so many people show cards each hand, win or lose.
My greatest insight in this week’s game was to see how much more limited I am if players did not fold hands that they believed to be second best or would not allow themselves to be pushed out of pots by one raise. Many of these folks called when every guess they had told them that they were beaten, so to win here I had to play only the best hands. I did not often get cards. I went up to about $100 and then just stayed even.
After lunch I just tightened up to playing almost nothing. I was just too tired. I was hoping to just save my $100 profit. I lost A-A and K-K , surrendered blinds, lost discipline and called my own second best hand. It was nearing time to leave with less than $40 profit when I played 8-9 offsuit. That is a poor choice of cards to play. I have been working on never playing it. Every once in a while to crack my tight table image I might play such a hand, but it was just damned foolishness here as no few would pay any attention to me and when you bluff, you need everyone to pay attention. So I was a little disgusted with myself until the flop came 8-8-6. I was early to act and because of two hearts on the board, the presence of players who call regardless, and to see if the other eight was out there, I bet right out. No eight. On the turn came another heart, I checked, someone bet, and I figured I was dead. I called on the chance of a full house. On the river came the fourth 8 and the fellow with the king high flush stayed right with me, calling my check raise. (Another fellow with the ace high flush had folded). I was very lucky to have caught.
That hand of quad aces was the last hand I played. I saw my free cards, and just before my big blind I left a little early for supper, figuring the day was not going to get any better than four eight's, and it would be sweet to have that as a final memory until I go again. The economic “utility” decision. Besides I was tired. I had not slept well the night before and had not napped well on the bus. I was ahead $102, pretty much the value of that one hand. Five hours of poker; one hand to show for my effort.
My Keno paid nothing. Two out of eight visits those free keno bets have paid nothing. Each time I have 20 one dollar chances. Never have they paid back the $20 face value of the ticket. I can’t imagine playing keno with my own cash. You might as well flush your money down the toilet and wait to see if it backs up and floods some bills across the floor. The only advantage I can see keno players have is that it is probably the only place where an adult can play with a crayon. Oh, they can get free candy bars. All they have to do is invest two dollars in a vending machine instead of a keno ticket. They pick a candy bar. The change they get is equivalent to what they would have won playing keno, so the candy bar is free. Keno is supposed to be a relaxed way to gamble away an afternoon, but with a 25% vigorish, I’d find it mentally exhausting just trying to keep my imaginative subjective reality from being influenced by mathematical fact.
On the other hand, on the bus to Foxwoods they played the movie “Dreamer” about a little girl who takes a horse with a broken leg and manages to take it (an 80-1 shot) to win the Breeder’s Cup. It said it was “inspired by a true story.”
After the no keno win, I caught $50 with one $25 bet on the craps table using an American Casino Guide matchplay. Here again is proof of the value of the frugal rule that you always assert yourself toward promotions. I call it the “Lucky Pete” rule after my Florida gambling buddy who is King of the coupon. On the coupon it states clearly that these coupons are one per person per promotion. The idea is you buy one book, and play once in the year. They check your players card to validate your coupon and give you the matchplay. At the beginning of my visits, I had three such coupons. I had purchased two 2007 books in readiness for last December’s Birthday Bash and then I won a third book by posting a report on their American Casino Guide website. Robin and I split one once and we lost. I have won on the other two and on two others for a total craps win over the 8 trips of $170.
Matchplay gambling is just like keno gambling only the player and casino switch roles. Here it is the casino flushing away money on the chance that the “lucky” players will stick around to gamble “the house’s money” after a win so the casino will be able to grind back what they have flushed away.
Sorry, Foxwoods. Each time I put my profits in my pocket, go home, and look for the next coupon.
My winning score for the day was $152. Over eight trips now to Foxwoods my winnings total $1696. Seven were winning sessions. After one session I lost $7. Three of the trips did not required payment for the bus ticket. I used my points for free vouchers.( $48 value). I have a $26 voucher for my next trip also. All Trips included a $16 free buffet. So that is $124 in total food comps.
Not a bad score for a hobby.
I took another nice walk around the casino. I watched the Sic Bo action for a while. Again it was mostly Asians. There is a stereotype that all Asians are good at mathematics. If that is true, then the rest must be expected to play Sic Bo. I love this game. It is so colorful and those delightful little dice hopping like Mexican jumping beans are delightful. I wish I had one in my house. I’d be happy to play it all day if I could take the side of the casino.
I found some interesting sculptures I had missed before. One I Iiked very much. It features an Native American woman who died in 1994. In the sculpture she carries a young lamb across a little wooden bridge. She is behind two sheep and behind her is her sheep dog.
I also read about a 114 year old woman who when she recently died was the oldest woman in the world. She was only 100 when Foxwoods opened and had often gone to Foxwoods. the article did not give her total winnings. Foxwoods had often had a party for her on her birthdays.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/30/ny...rssnyt&emc=rss
I also found a large balcony on the second floor that let me walk outside and see miles of forests. It was a fine spring day and I regretted that the good weather had come just as I had booked the trip. I do wish I could pick to go without scheduling. And I wish the ride was shorter.
Here at the lake the ice is melting and an area has cleared in front of the house. I will be able cast off my dock if the water level recedes so the dock is no longer under water; I could do it now with boots. Flocks of mergansers visit us and play in the open water every day.
Enjoy spring. Be lucky. And if you can’t be lucky, be smart.
dew
Thursday, March 29, 2007
Thursday, March 15, 2007
Losing Trip with Robin
Robin and I went up on the bus on Thursday. It was a good day, but not a lucrative one for either of us. It was more crowded and the crowd was less than interesting. New arthritis meds precluded my drinking any more Johnny Walker scotch and I found their capuchino and virgin bloody marys to be less than exciting.
Seating was tight on the 4-8 so we we played some 2-4 while we waited. Unlike the Vegas 2-4 games, this one did not seem to attract people who just liked to bet. It was a real game and not Not Fold Em Hold Em, but the pots were small and the pace too slow for me. I am getting used to playing now at tables where no one needs to be reminded that it is their turn. I took the first pot with an A-J of hearts that developed into the nut hand flush. Only Robin stayed with me after the turn. I checked him on the river as we are not going to try to kill each other if we come out head to head. It just increases the rake.
When a seat opened up on a 4-8 table, I went first and Robin followed later after many requests to the floor boss. It is not a bad system there of seating people, but they are so rushed you can get dropped easily off a list.
I made money immediately and built up a profit of $160 and then it ground out over the next few hours. I left down $7 for the day, and for the first time I got zero on my keno bets so I could not break even.
No perky young girls this time. Next to me was one old grump of a woman who complained bitterly if I played less than the best hands. It let me establish a table image that I was loose, especially when I won on an A-4. And I could afford to be loose because there were so few raises before the flop and so few semibluffs afterward, that often it paid to see it. I drew great attention to my playing of a suited 5-9 of clubs when after checking to the river, my pair of nines lost to a pair of tens. I never showed when I won to others who folded or when I folded on the river.
When I A-4 flopped to give me two pair, I just bet and was called by aces with higher kickers. Of course, to a certain kind of poker player I am never supposed to do that. If they have ace-king they expect to win on kicker alone. So the old bitchy bitty complained. She was one of the most uptight, bitchy, unhappy people I have played with lately. and she had her set of rules. People always bet her because, they didn’t, “even know how to play.”
“Any two hands can win.” I told her.
Next to her was her husband and he was gentle enough. She bitched to him and not directly to any of us. Decades ago, when he was a young man of my age, he may have been a good poker player. He played well sometimes. And sometimes he played really stupidly. He had trouble folding. He knew he could not call, but rather than fold good cards that went to nothing, he would hold them up in front of him and stare at them for a while waiting for the spots to change or for the haze in his mind to get in focus and see a winning hand.
The old bitch was never critical of his play, but it was never as good as hers or up to her standards. Both of them shared the expectation of being blessed. They were good people who played a sensible game, so when randomness did not reward their perceived odds, they took it personally, and they became sadly annoyed. Poker, like life, was at base unfair. And when the poker was fair, the poker players were not.
Watching the old guys cards gave me a good bit of information over time about the way he played. His wife would watch and comment. Toward the end she started commenting before he folded and I was just going to incur her wrath by asking the dealer to limit the play of his hand to just one mind when they packed up and left.
I was glad. I better like playing with joking young people like the perky Jill from last week. I would much rather celebrate where I once have been than be faced with a picture of where I am going.
And I was glad because their leaving let Robin and I sit together and so we could chatter.
Or I could chatter and he could listen.
That is the way it works with me often to the frustration of my playing mates. On the prednizone, well, the effect of the drug was to demand of Robin more listening.
The rest were just quiet people. A couple more women came who could not play well at all. The rest of the table were men who played pretty well but were quiet and not engaging and just complained that they were not getting cards. Few characters. Just average dull folks.
One yahoo came and sat to my right for a few hands. He always raised before the flop, whatever he had. I had ace, queen of spades, called, he raised. His raise went all around the table because he always raised and I reraised. He then capped the bet, a stupid play from his position unless he held a large pair and hoped to force out draws. I did not like that bet because I wanted draws to stay, especially someone with kJ of spades. but they all called the recap too because they knew he was a mindless raiser so there were actually just calling one raiser, me, with twice as much money.
The pot was huge, but nothing connected, and I folded rather than call a nonyahoo bet and raise on the turn. In the end there were four clubs. The yahoo had nothing. He did not win. I was sorry to have been unlucky in that opportunity. The yahoo wandered off.
Still it was fun. There were some interesting hands. It wasn’t a bad day, just a dull day with a draining bankroll.
I am not sure if the new meds, especially Prednizone, helped or hindered my play. I usually play on a few scotches, but this was like playing on two pots of expresso. I was a bit too loose, could not seem to get a sense of the table until it was time to leave and never got enough decent cards to sustain my early image of a loose, “any two cards can win” kind of a guy. I don’t play that image well much anyway. It is only good for a little while after I establish so it only works if I get good cards all in a row. It keeps the callers. I had pocket kings a couple times and pocket aces at least once. I won. I raised my pocket queens, caught trip on the flop. Then the flopped jack paired on the turn. I was hoping someone had three of them, but only Robin called my full house. The rest folded on the river.
No other memorable pots.
I over bet a couple times. One the table took me to ask for. I raised a guy on the turn who had a straight because my pair or 5’s had just caught trips. but it was a straight where he held 4-6. It was the nut hand, but he did not know it so he did not reraise. He did bet on the river. I thought he had two pair. I really think I played that well, but the rest did not and I talked up the fact that I had just missed seeing the straight ( which was true) because I got so excited when my fives caught.
But I stayed a bit too long on other hands and for no good reason.
The buffet was fine. Nice beer battered cod again and corned beef for St. Patrick’s Day so that was a treat because I decided not to cook one this year. Elizabeth is eating less beef. I don’t need too much cured meat in my diet. Robin and I had a good visit there and most of the day.
The bus was fine. No movie on the way out, but we voted batman on the way back. It was a mistake. The bus driver was annoying in a way I can’t express. His jokes were dumb. He was wimpish. He talked too much. Or was that me?
So I ended down $7 and zero in free keno. Also, compared to last week, I lost $40 in free Johnny Walker Black. I think that there should be some compensation for that. Perhaps when Hilary comes up with a new universal health care we can get her to include rebates for missed free alcohol when health forces us to go dry. She could get with Al D’Matto who has taken up the task of making poker legal again.(click for details)
What a joint bill that would be?
Okay, time to have breakfast and get outside in this new spring weather.
Be well. Stay lucky. Have patience and deal the cards.
Seating was tight on the 4-8 so we we played some 2-4 while we waited. Unlike the Vegas 2-4 games, this one did not seem to attract people who just liked to bet. It was a real game and not Not Fold Em Hold Em, but the pots were small and the pace too slow for me. I am getting used to playing now at tables where no one needs to be reminded that it is their turn. I took the first pot with an A-J of hearts that developed into the nut hand flush. Only Robin stayed with me after the turn. I checked him on the river as we are not going to try to kill each other if we come out head to head. It just increases the rake.
When a seat opened up on a 4-8 table, I went first and Robin followed later after many requests to the floor boss. It is not a bad system there of seating people, but they are so rushed you can get dropped easily off a list.
I made money immediately and built up a profit of $160 and then it ground out over the next few hours. I left down $7 for the day, and for the first time I got zero on my keno bets so I could not break even.
No perky young girls this time. Next to me was one old grump of a woman who complained bitterly if I played less than the best hands. It let me establish a table image that I was loose, especially when I won on an A-4. And I could afford to be loose because there were so few raises before the flop and so few semibluffs afterward, that often it paid to see it. I drew great attention to my playing of a suited 5-9 of clubs when after checking to the river, my pair of nines lost to a pair of tens. I never showed when I won to others who folded or when I folded on the river.
When I A-4 flopped to give me two pair, I just bet and was called by aces with higher kickers. Of course, to a certain kind of poker player I am never supposed to do that. If they have ace-king they expect to win on kicker alone. So the old bitchy bitty complained. She was one of the most uptight, bitchy, unhappy people I have played with lately. and she had her set of rules. People always bet her because, they didn’t, “even know how to play.”
“Any two hands can win.” I told her.
Next to her was her husband and he was gentle enough. She bitched to him and not directly to any of us. Decades ago, when he was a young man of my age, he may have been a good poker player. He played well sometimes. And sometimes he played really stupidly. He had trouble folding. He knew he could not call, but rather than fold good cards that went to nothing, he would hold them up in front of him and stare at them for a while waiting for the spots to change or for the haze in his mind to get in focus and see a winning hand.
The old bitch was never critical of his play, but it was never as good as hers or up to her standards. Both of them shared the expectation of being blessed. They were good people who played a sensible game, so when randomness did not reward their perceived odds, they took it personally, and they became sadly annoyed. Poker, like life, was at base unfair. And when the poker was fair, the poker players were not.
Watching the old guys cards gave me a good bit of information over time about the way he played. His wife would watch and comment. Toward the end she started commenting before he folded and I was just going to incur her wrath by asking the dealer to limit the play of his hand to just one mind when they packed up and left.
I was glad. I better like playing with joking young people like the perky Jill from last week. I would much rather celebrate where I once have been than be faced with a picture of where I am going.
And I was glad because their leaving let Robin and I sit together and so we could chatter.
Or I could chatter and he could listen.
That is the way it works with me often to the frustration of my playing mates. On the prednizone, well, the effect of the drug was to demand of Robin more listening.
The rest were just quiet people. A couple more women came who could not play well at all. The rest of the table were men who played pretty well but were quiet and not engaging and just complained that they were not getting cards. Few characters. Just average dull folks.
One yahoo came and sat to my right for a few hands. He always raised before the flop, whatever he had. I had ace, queen of spades, called, he raised. His raise went all around the table because he always raised and I reraised. He then capped the bet, a stupid play from his position unless he held a large pair and hoped to force out draws. I did not like that bet because I wanted draws to stay, especially someone with kJ of spades. but they all called the recap too because they knew he was a mindless raiser so there were actually just calling one raiser, me, with twice as much money.
The pot was huge, but nothing connected, and I folded rather than call a nonyahoo bet and raise on the turn. In the end there were four clubs. The yahoo had nothing. He did not win. I was sorry to have been unlucky in that opportunity. The yahoo wandered off.
Still it was fun. There were some interesting hands. It wasn’t a bad day, just a dull day with a draining bankroll.
I am not sure if the new meds, especially Prednizone, helped or hindered my play. I usually play on a few scotches, but this was like playing on two pots of expresso. I was a bit too loose, could not seem to get a sense of the table until it was time to leave and never got enough decent cards to sustain my early image of a loose, “any two cards can win” kind of a guy. I don’t play that image well much anyway. It is only good for a little while after I establish so it only works if I get good cards all in a row. It keeps the callers. I had pocket kings a couple times and pocket aces at least once. I won. I raised my pocket queens, caught trip on the flop. Then the flopped jack paired on the turn. I was hoping someone had three of them, but only Robin called my full house. The rest folded on the river.
No other memorable pots.
I over bet a couple times. One the table took me to ask for. I raised a guy on the turn who had a straight because my pair or 5’s had just caught trips. but it was a straight where he held 4-6. It was the nut hand, but he did not know it so he did not reraise. He did bet on the river. I thought he had two pair. I really think I played that well, but the rest did not and I talked up the fact that I had just missed seeing the straight ( which was true) because I got so excited when my fives caught.
But I stayed a bit too long on other hands and for no good reason.
The buffet was fine. Nice beer battered cod again and corned beef for St. Patrick’s Day so that was a treat because I decided not to cook one this year. Elizabeth is eating less beef. I don’t need too much cured meat in my diet. Robin and I had a good visit there and most of the day.
The bus was fine. No movie on the way out, but we voted batman on the way back. It was a mistake. The bus driver was annoying in a way I can’t express. His jokes were dumb. He was wimpish. He talked too much. Or was that me?
So I ended down $7 and zero in free keno. Also, compared to last week, I lost $40 in free Johnny Walker Black. I think that there should be some compensation for that. Perhaps when Hilary comes up with a new universal health care we can get her to include rebates for missed free alcohol when health forces us to go dry. She could get with Al D’Matto who has taken up the task of making poker legal again.(click for details)
What a joint bill that would be?
Okay, time to have breakfast and get outside in this new spring weather.
Be well. Stay lucky. Have patience and deal the cards.
Thursday, March 8, 2007
Trip with Asian mom and son
FOXWOODS TRIP REPORT
These Foxwoods games would benefit my poker playing even if I never won money there. There is something about them that gives me more insight into my playing low level limit poker than I ever got in Vegas or on line.
This trip I ran into an unusual table with the poorest players I have encountered so far. They bet second best cards, were impossible to push out, and even sometimes ignored their own strengths. One player refused to bet or raise when he had the nut hand. He said he did not want to be �greedy.� He would raise pre flop on strong hands and bet fine if he had nothing that had much chance of winning, but if he had a hand that could not be beat, he would check it. It was sort of good Hold Em strategy in reverse.
Another fellow was playing for the first time. He would call to the river on a busted straight. He would fold when no bet was required. Once he raised and I reraised on my pocket kings to push those behind me out. It worked too. There were very few reraises pre flop so when one happened, the trash players folded. Well, when it got back around to this fellow, he had no idea what to do. It probably was his first encounter with a pre flop reraise.
The table tried to restrain him from folding so many hands for free, but he kept doing it. I advised him to just push his cards forward and give the table time to remind him that he need not fold, but he liked to toss them in to the center. Once �new guy� bet against �generous guy� who caught trip kings with Ace kicker on the river. �Generous guy� just checked. �New guy� did not have a pair, but it did not cost him as much as it should.
As a result. it was more like playing 2-4 in Vegas and for the first time I really gained insight into what frustrates me about this kind of a game. All I can ever do in this game is play good cards.
One woman at the table amassed most of the chips. She must have been ahead six hundred dollars over the time I was at the table with her. She was a good player who caught cards and the others always paid her. �Generous Guy� paid her right through the river when he held a pair or more, even after he should have noticed that in three hours she had never bet on the river unless she could beat top pair.
�Rich lady� seemed to reproduce the ace of diamonds for the flush whenever she needed it. Near the end of the afternoon, she asked to see the folded cards of a strange old Greek fellow after she had won the pot and he had folded. He ignored everyone so much that the table had assumed he could not speak English.
They soon learned that they were wrong.
After an hour and a half of complete silence, the old Greek lost his temper when �Rich Lady� asked to see his cards, ranting with lines like, �just take the money,� asking her if it wasn�t enough that she was �castrating� all the men at the table He kept up the ranting for three more hands, until I got tired of listening to it, and finally asked for the floor to speak to him. Then he shut up again for the rest of the afternoon.
His ranting cost him some money.
In one hand he held K-10 to another player�s K-9, but the second guy missed it that there was a pair on board, and a higher kicker. When he turned in his cards, I quickly pointed and told him to take them back. He was confused, but he did it; my comment cost Greek guy half the pot. I was motivated in part to punish the ranter.
The fellow who took back the split pot was generally a good player. He was embarrassed he had missed it and thanked me. He was a funny guy, made a few good jokes, waited for the big blind to come around after his lunch break with the �Absent button� stuck like a third eye in the middle of his forehead. He told me he plays every day and generally takes home $200.
When I first joined the table, I had sat down at the table to find 2-2 in my big blind and flopped a set. While I was still setting up my chips and looking distracted, I check-raised trip deuces on the flop. It scared no one, but someone caught a gut shot on the river to beat me. I folded without showing. A very aggressive loser asked to see my folded cards. I suppose I was new and he wanted to see why a new guy would check raise. At this casino the dealer just takes the cards and touches them to others to muck them. At Turning Stone, cards that are asked to be shown are kept in play and will take a pot if they are winners, even though they have been previously mucked. (That happened to son Keith at an Indiana casino when a player had stupidly folded a winning full house. there the cards reentered play and took the money Keith would have won had he kept his mouth shut, or had I asked to see the cards.) Bill is very interested in this rule because he wants people to show cards in turn and that custom is not encouraged by dealers who want to get the hand over, get tipped, and deal again. So he got the info at turning Stone. It is probably a good question to ask at any casino where you play, along with the details on high hand and bad beat awards.
I hated �Loose Yahoo guy� as he raised often pre flop and was two seats behind me. I wanted him to my right, but could not manage it. I was considering a table change when he got frustrated with a bad river card and left in a huff. I about $80 at that point and soon caught up and inched ahead.
I just stayed up about $100 most of the afternoon. My pots were just enough to allow me to keep up with the blinds and poor flops. I surrendered many more big blinds than in other games as there were more pre flop raises although once �loose yahoo� left, raises were less often. I actually saw one player raise late pre flop on suited connectors and I realized that this was a good play because no one was going anywhere until after the flop and half would not remember that raise, or if they did, people would misinterpret it. However, I can see it would have been a better play last week. If on the flop the ace came rather than his two cards or suits, he could represent it wish a bet, and after such a raise, get people to fold.
These are great insights. Perhaps I get more of them here because so many people show cards each hand, win or lose.
My greatest insight in this week�s game was to see how much more limited I am if players did not fold hands that they believed to be second best or would not allow themselves to be pushed out of pots by one raise. Many of these folks called when every guess they had told them that they were beaten, so to win here I had to play only the best hands. I did not often get cards. I went up to about $100 and then just stayed even.
After lunch I just tightened up to playing almost nothing. I was just too tired. I was hoping to just save my $100 profit. I lost A-A and K-K , surrendered blinds, lost discipline and called my own second best hand. It was nearing time to leave with less than $40 profit when I played 8-9 offsuit. That is a poor choice of cards to play. I have been working on never playing it. Every once in a while to crack my tight table image I might play such a hand, but it was just damned foolishness here as no few would pay any attention to me and when you bluff, you need everyone to pay attention. So I was a little disgusted with myself until the flop came 8-8-6. I was early to act and because of two hearts on the board, the presence of players who call regardless, and to see if the other eight was out there, I bet right out. No eight. On the turn came another heart, I checked, someone bet, and I figured I was dead. I called on the chance of a full house. On the river came the fourth 8 and the fellow with the king high flush stayed right with me, calling my check raise. (Another fellow with the ace high flush had folded). I was very lucky to have caught.
That hand of quad aces was the last hand I played. I saw my free cards, and just before my big blind I left a little early for supper, figuring the day was not going to get any better than four eight's, and it would be sweet to have that as a final memory until I go again. The economic �utility� decision. Besides I was tired. I had not slept well the night before and had not napped well on the bus. I was ahead $102, pretty much the value of that one hand. Five hours of poker; one hand to show for my effort.
My Keno paid nothing. Two out of eight visits those free keno bets have paid nothing. Each time I have 20 one dollar chances. Never have they paid back the $20 face value of the ticket. I can�t imagine playing keno with my own cash. You might as well flush your money down the toilet and wait to see if it backs up and floods some bills across the floor. The only advantage I can see keno players have is that it is probably the only place where an adult can play with a crayon. Oh, they can get free candy bars. All they have to do is invest two dollars in a vending machine instead of a keno ticket. They pick a candy bar. The change they get is equivalent to what they would have won playing keno, so the candy bar is free. Keno is supposed to be a relaxed way to gamble away an afternoon, but with a 25% vigorish, I�d find it mentally exhausting just trying to keep my imaginative subjective reality from being influenced by mathematical fact.
On the other hand, on the bus to Foxwoods they played the movie �Dreamer� about a little girl who takes a horse with a broken leg and manages to take it (an 80-1 shot) to win the Breeder�s Cup. It said it was �inspired by a true story.�
After the no keno win, I caught $50 with one $25 bet on the craps table using an American Casino Guide matchplay. Here again is proof of the value of the frugal rule that you always assert yourself toward promotions. I call it the �Lucky Pete� rule after my Florida gambling buddy who is King of the coupon. On the coupon it states clearly that these coupons are one per person per promotion. The idea is you buy one book, and play once in the year. They check your players card to validate your coupon and give you the matchplay. At the beginning of my visits, I had three such coupons. I had purchased two 2007 books in readiness for last December�s Birthday Bash and then I won a third book by posting a report on their American Casino Guide website. Robin and I split one once and we lost. I have won on the other two and on two others for a total craps win over the 8 trips of $170.
Matchplay gambling is just like keno gambling only the player and casino switch roles. Here it is the casino flushing away money on the chance that the �lucky� players will stick around to gamble �the house�s money� after a win so the casino will be able to grind back what they have flushed away.
Sorry, Foxwoods. Each time I put my profits in my pocket, go home, and look for the next coupon.
My winning score for the day was $152. Over eight trips now to Foxwoods my winnings total $1696. Seven were winning sessions. After one session I lost $7. Three of the trips did not required payment for the bus ticket. I used my points for free vouchers.( $48 value). I have a $26 voucher for my next trip also. All Trips included a $16 free buffet. So that is $124 in total food comps.
Not a bad score for a hobby.
I took another nice walk around the casino. I watched the Sic Bo action for a while. Again it was mostly Asians. There is a stereotype that all Asians are good at mathematics. If that is true, then the rest must be expected to play Sic Bo. I love this game. It is so colorful and those delightful little dice hopping like Mexican jumping beans are delightful. I wish I had one in my house. I�d be happy to play it all day if I could take the side of the casino.
I found some interesting sculptures I had missed before. One I Iiked very much. It features an Native American woman who died in 1994. In the sculpture she carries a young lamb across a little wooden bridge. She is behind two sheep and behind her is her sheep dog.
I read about a 114 year old woman who when she recently died was the oldest woman in the world. She was only 100 when Foxwoods opened and had often gone to Foxwoods. the article did not give her total winnings. Foxwoods had often had a party for her on her birthdays.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/30/nyregion/30old.html?ex=1327813200&en=bc855be542399f87&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
I also found a large balcony on the second floor that let me walk outside and see miles of forests. It was a fine spring day and I regretted that the good weather had come just as I had booked the trip. I do wish I could pick to go without scheduling. And I wish the ride was shorter.
Here at the lake the ice is melting and an area has cleared in front of the house. I will be able cast off my dock if the water level recedes so the dock is no longer under water; I could do it now with boots. Flocks of mergansers visit us and play in the open water every day.
Enjoy spring. Be lucky. And if you can�t be lucky, be smart.
dew
These Foxwoods games would benefit my poker playing even if I never won money there. There is something about them that gives me more insight into my playing low level limit poker than I ever got in Vegas or on line.
This trip I ran into an unusual table with the poorest players I have encountered so far. They bet second best cards, were impossible to push out, and even sometimes ignored their own strengths. One player refused to bet or raise when he had the nut hand. He said he did not want to be �greedy.� He would raise pre flop on strong hands and bet fine if he had nothing that had much chance of winning, but if he had a hand that could not be beat, he would check it. It was sort of good Hold Em strategy in reverse.
Another fellow was playing for the first time. He would call to the river on a busted straight. He would fold when no bet was required. Once he raised and I reraised on my pocket kings to push those behind me out. It worked too. There were very few reraises pre flop so when one happened, the trash players folded. Well, when it got back around to this fellow, he had no idea what to do. It probably was his first encounter with a pre flop reraise.
The table tried to restrain him from folding so many hands for free, but he kept doing it. I advised him to just push his cards forward and give the table time to remind him that he need not fold, but he liked to toss them in to the center. Once �new guy� bet against �generous guy� who caught trip kings with Ace kicker on the river. �Generous guy� just checked. �New guy� did not have a pair, but it did not cost him as much as it should.
As a result. it was more like playing 2-4 in Vegas and for the first time I really gained insight into what frustrates me about this kind of a game. All I can ever do in this game is play good cards.
One woman at the table amassed most of the chips. She must have been ahead six hundred dollars over the time I was at the table with her. She was a good player who caught cards and the others always paid her. �Generous Guy� paid her right through the river when he held a pair or more, even after he should have noticed that in three hours she had never bet on the river unless she could beat top pair.
�Rich lady� seemed to reproduce the ace of diamonds for the flush whenever she needed it. Near the end of the afternoon, she asked to see the folded cards of a strange old Greek fellow after she had won the pot and he had folded. He ignored everyone so much that the table had assumed he could not speak English.
They soon learned that they were wrong.
After an hour and a half of complete silence, the old Greek lost his temper when �Rich Lady� asked to see his cards, ranting with lines like, �just take the money,� asking her if it wasn�t enough that she was �castrating� all the men at the table He kept up the ranting for three more hands, until I got tired of listening to it, and finally asked for the floor to speak to him. Then he shut up again for the rest of the afternoon.
His ranting cost him some money.
In one hand he held K-10 to another player�s K-9, but the second guy missed it that there was a pair on board, and a higher kicker. When he turned in his cards, I quickly pointed and told him to take them back. He was confused, but he did it; my comment cost Greek guy half the pot. I was motivated in part to punish the ranter.
The fellow who took back the split pot was generally a good player. He was embarrassed he had missed it and thanked me. He was a funny guy, made a few good jokes, waited for the big blind to come around after his lunch break with the �Absent button� stuck like a third eye in the middle of his forehead. He told me he plays every day and generally takes home $200.
When I first joined the table, I had sat down at the table to find 2-2 in my big blind and flopped a set. While I was still setting up my chips and looking distracted, I check-raised trip deuces on the flop. It scared no one, but someone caught a gut shot on the river to beat me. I folded without showing. A very aggressive loser asked to see my folded cards. I suppose I was new and he wanted to see why a new guy would check raise. At this casino the dealer just takes the cards and touches them to others to muck them. At Turning Stone, cards that are asked to be shown are kept in play and will take a pot if they are winners, even though they have been previously mucked. (That happened to son Keith at an Indiana casino when a player had stupidly folded a winning full house. there the cards reentered play and took the money Keith would have won had he kept his mouth shut, or had I asked to see the cards.) Bill is very interested in this rule because he wants people to show cards in turn and that custom is not encouraged by dealers who want to get the hand over, get tipped, and deal again. So he got the info at turning Stone. It is probably a good question to ask at any casino where you play, along with the details on high hand and bad beat awards.
I hated �Loose Yahoo guy� as he raised often pre flop and was two seats behind me. I wanted him to my right, but could not manage it. I was considering a table change when he got frustrated with a bad river card and left in a huff. I about $80 at that point and soon caught up and inched ahead.
I just stayed up about $100 most of the afternoon. My pots were just enough to allow me to keep up with the blinds and poor flops. I surrendered many more big blinds than in other games as there were more pre flop raises although once �loose yahoo� left, raises were less often. I actually saw one player raise late pre flop on suited connectors and I realized that this was a good play because no one was going anywhere until after the flop and half would not remember that raise, or if they did, people would misinterpret it. However, I can see it would have been a better play last week. If on the flop the ace came rather than his two cards or suits, he could represent it wish a bet, and after such a raise, get people to fold.
These are great insights. Perhaps I get more of them here because so many people show cards each hand, win or lose.
My greatest insight in this week�s game was to see how much more limited I am if players did not fold hands that they believed to be second best or would not allow themselves to be pushed out of pots by one raise. Many of these folks called when every guess they had told them that they were beaten, so to win here I had to play only the best hands. I did not often get cards. I went up to about $100 and then just stayed even.
After lunch I just tightened up to playing almost nothing. I was just too tired. I was hoping to just save my $100 profit. I lost A-A and K-K , surrendered blinds, lost discipline and called my own second best hand. It was nearing time to leave with less than $40 profit when I played 8-9 offsuit. That is a poor choice of cards to play. I have been working on never playing it. Every once in a while to crack my tight table image I might play such a hand, but it was just damned foolishness here as no few would pay any attention to me and when you bluff, you need everyone to pay attention. So I was a little disgusted with myself until the flop came 8-8-6. I was early to act and because of two hearts on the board, the presence of players who call regardless, and to see if the other eight was out there, I bet right out. No eight. On the turn came another heart, I checked, someone bet, and I figured I was dead. I called on the chance of a full house. On the river came the fourth 8 and the fellow with the king high flush stayed right with me, calling my check raise. (Another fellow with the ace high flush had folded). I was very lucky to have caught.
That hand of quad aces was the last hand I played. I saw my free cards, and just before my big blind I left a little early for supper, figuring the day was not going to get any better than four eight's, and it would be sweet to have that as a final memory until I go again. The economic �utility� decision. Besides I was tired. I had not slept well the night before and had not napped well on the bus. I was ahead $102, pretty much the value of that one hand. Five hours of poker; one hand to show for my effort.
My Keno paid nothing. Two out of eight visits those free keno bets have paid nothing. Each time I have 20 one dollar chances. Never have they paid back the $20 face value of the ticket. I can�t imagine playing keno with my own cash. You might as well flush your money down the toilet and wait to see if it backs up and floods some bills across the floor. The only advantage I can see keno players have is that it is probably the only place where an adult can play with a crayon. Oh, they can get free candy bars. All they have to do is invest two dollars in a vending machine instead of a keno ticket. They pick a candy bar. The change they get is equivalent to what they would have won playing keno, so the candy bar is free. Keno is supposed to be a relaxed way to gamble away an afternoon, but with a 25% vigorish, I�d find it mentally exhausting just trying to keep my imaginative subjective reality from being influenced by mathematical fact.
On the other hand, on the bus to Foxwoods they played the movie �Dreamer� about a little girl who takes a horse with a broken leg and manages to take it (an 80-1 shot) to win the Breeder�s Cup. It said it was �inspired by a true story.�
After the no keno win, I caught $50 with one $25 bet on the craps table using an American Casino Guide matchplay. Here again is proof of the value of the frugal rule that you always assert yourself toward promotions. I call it the �Lucky Pete� rule after my Florida gambling buddy who is King of the coupon. On the coupon it states clearly that these coupons are one per person per promotion. The idea is you buy one book, and play once in the year. They check your players card to validate your coupon and give you the matchplay. At the beginning of my visits, I had three such coupons. I had purchased two 2007 books in readiness for last December�s Birthday Bash and then I won a third book by posting a report on their American Casino Guide website. Robin and I split one once and we lost. I have won on the other two and on two others for a total craps win over the 8 trips of $170.
Matchplay gambling is just like keno gambling only the player and casino switch roles. Here it is the casino flushing away money on the chance that the �lucky� players will stick around to gamble �the house�s money� after a win so the casino will be able to grind back what they have flushed away.
Sorry, Foxwoods. Each time I put my profits in my pocket, go home, and look for the next coupon.
My winning score for the day was $152. Over eight trips now to Foxwoods my winnings total $1696. Seven were winning sessions. After one session I lost $7. Three of the trips did not required payment for the bus ticket. I used my points for free vouchers.( $48 value). I have a $26 voucher for my next trip also. All Trips included a $16 free buffet. So that is $124 in total food comps.
Not a bad score for a hobby.
I took another nice walk around the casino. I watched the Sic Bo action for a while. Again it was mostly Asians. There is a stereotype that all Asians are good at mathematics. If that is true, then the rest must be expected to play Sic Bo. I love this game. It is so colorful and those delightful little dice hopping like Mexican jumping beans are delightful. I wish I had one in my house. I�d be happy to play it all day if I could take the side of the casino.
I found some interesting sculptures I had missed before. One I Iiked very much. It features an Native American woman who died in 1994. In the sculpture she carries a young lamb across a little wooden bridge. She is behind two sheep and behind her is her sheep dog.
I read about a 114 year old woman who when she recently died was the oldest woman in the world. She was only 100 when Foxwoods opened and had often gone to Foxwoods. the article did not give her total winnings. Foxwoods had often had a party for her on her birthdays.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/30/nyregion/30old.html?ex=1327813200&en=bc855be542399f87&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
I also found a large balcony on the second floor that let me walk outside and see miles of forests. It was a fine spring day and I regretted that the good weather had come just as I had booked the trip. I do wish I could pick to go without scheduling. And I wish the ride was shorter.
Here at the lake the ice is melting and an area has cleared in front of the house. I will be able cast off my dock if the water level recedes so the dock is no longer under water; I could do it now with boots. Flocks of mergansers visit us and play in the open water every day.
Enjoy spring. Be lucky. And if you can�t be lucky, be smart.
dew
Foxwoods poker and free Johnny Walker
Another good trip to Foxwoods. No companions this trip except Jean Scott on tape talking about gambling comps. I bought the tape for $1 when I heard her speak in Vegas and had not yet listened.
The bus was fairly full again, and most of the people had boarded in Latham. I picked a skinny woman who sat a bit sideways thinking that I would not be too crowded. Well, it seemed that she and her companion across the isle had planned on having two seats to themselves unless a fellow like me came along. The companion moved over and I caught the two seats for myself. Lucky already.
I was not lucky in movies. The comedy was so silly I can’t remember it. Still it made the time go. I did not sleep. I wanted to. I had not slept well the night before. I was awake at 3:30 and restless until 4:45 when I got up and made breakfast.
It had been cold in the car and cold waiting for old folks to board the bus. It was an easy enough ride, but I would have preferred a good companion.
In the poker room I did not start in a brand new a new game as I had in times before. I joined players who had been playing all morning; some had been there since the night before. It was a nice mix. A young couple and a friendly fellow about their age bantered at my end of the table. All three were fairly good players, but they gave total information on how they played, kidding about others playing trash, showing cards most of the time. In between, they teased and flirted and joked. Jill was perky and bold; her easy going husband let her be herself. Her long black hair and low cut sweater made her easy on the eyes. She teased with other players, including Ray at the the other end who was in his seventies. “If only I was ten years older” she said. She made us smile.
A heavy Irish kid named Tom sat next to me. He liked having a seat near Jill. They had all played there before together and were easy with each other. They bantered with some of it mildly sexual. Jill was quick and sharp and cute. She knew what she held and where the game was. Tom was the guy you want to drink beers with in the bar.
I started with a straight on the flop, but when I raised to preclude flush draws, all five other bets folded. It was odd to me, but I liked winning my first hand. The second hand I also caught a straight and lost to a straight flush. Now I wondered if I was actually there and awake or had overslept my alarm and missed the trip only to dream hands.
My second best status continued. I lost on straight after straight to flushes or higher straight. I did not overbet any of them, but lost just the same. In one that particularly hurt, I bet the best straight possible, a ten-jack, hoping that others had a straight just to the ten. And then a third diamond came on the river. I would have made good money on that hand as any smaller straights would have called my final bet or perhaps raised. I was down all morning and by noon had lost my $200 buy in and added another $100 to keep playing.
Still I liked the table. There were few preflop raises and reraises. Players were pretty predictable. Jill did like to raise too often to have her on my left, but not enough that anyone waited for her and reraised. She was very lucky and accumulated a huge stack of chips. She was good, but she put too much value on low pairs.
There was one heavily accented Slavic fellow who was fairly new tot he game and played trash. He won quite a bit and took quite a bit of kidding, especially when the win was 7-2. But he lost too and accumulated just enough chips to stay in the game. He was not aggressive enough to steal hands. I never saw him actually caught stealing. But he was in most hands and he stopped players from overbetting small hands because they did not know what he might have. The rest were solid conservative players. But I was one of three tight players there.
I started to get hands. I had to let other people bet in to me because I had tightened up for so long after my losses that were I to come out firing both guns I’d have scared them off. Most would bet if they detected weakness. Against one of the best players at the table I bet my pocket aces. I was raised on the turn. My third ace came on the river. My opponent checked his three eight's and called my bet. He had read me well. I’d have done well to take more time betting that river and look as weak as possible.
In an hour I was about even. Tom, the young fellow next to me was drinking Johnny Walker Black and so I joined him and relaxed into the banter. I had been relatively quiet for me. I could tell the young folks were not sure of me. There had been little lull in the banter, and I was an old guy after all. But I found an opening and started a successful tease which went very well. Our end of the table was definitely having too much fun.
Players were easy to read. The scotch relaxed me. I seemed to know when to fold my pocket queens and when to take them to the river for a win.
More than any other time my habit of never showing cards worked very well for me. I was a mystery. They never saw what I had. Old Ray complained to the fellow next to him that he wanted to see but did not want to pay. One hand he did pay. I had the goods. I never bluffed once. I raised once n the button, hoping for a free turn card if my straight draw did not come, but the Slavic guy did not remember to wait for me, and bet on the next time into me. As I won more and more hands I could feel my opponents begin to wonder if I was stealing. And that was good. In this game it was not unusual for a raise on the river to force a fold. Not knowing whether I was bluffing would encourage a call. And I think I did get a few that way.
The scotch took over; I relaxed. Time mellowed, and I had a good time. And the cards came. Lots of junk to fold for free and good flops with the good cards. No more second best hands. Randomness smiled on me.
People started to drop out. Old Ray was down to his last chips. I raised my pocket nines. “No one can beat you,” he said as he called my raise. I suspected he had some good cards. The flop was 9-10-10, a full house. Ray bet and I called. His last chips came on the river. I raised. The other opponent folded. Old Ray had two eight's.
Johnny Walker Tom ran out of chips. His drinking had not helped his game. He had gone a little on a quiet defeatist tilt. He was openly disgusted as he called weak hands.
I was ready to eat and would have left, but I got caught and posted my big blind just as the table changed players. So I stayed to play a final round. A yahoo guy joined the table raising and talking loud about loosening the table up and also came three other new players. That meant I needed to be off. I held A-5 and Yahoo raised. It flopped A-5. I checked to let Yahoo bet on my left, let everyone call, and then raised. Some stayed until until the river and then I was head to head with a smaller two pair. Thanks Yahoo for building that pot. Two hands later Yahoo raised and another new fellow reraised and I was gone.
I was up $382. I checked my keno results. Another $15 in winnings. At the Rewards center I picked up my voucher for a free ride next week. Maybe Robin will go along. I had a fine free meal at the buffet and walked down to see the sample displays advertising the Pequot museum and listen to the story of the Pequot massacre.
I stopped at the bar to see what the price of Johnny Walker on the rocks would have been had I paid for it. $10.
So almost $400 in winnings, $40 in free scotch, $16 free buffet and a totally free bus ride. Not bad even if the movies were dumb.
There is no jockeying for seats on the way home so I sat comfortably and watched Robin Williams in an RV travel the West with his family in slapstick style.
I was home by 9. No free offers for rooms in the mail, but my free American Casino Guide came. Money and coupons in the same day. A good day gambling.
The bus was fairly full again, and most of the people had boarded in Latham. I picked a skinny woman who sat a bit sideways thinking that I would not be too crowded. Well, it seemed that she and her companion across the isle had planned on having two seats to themselves unless a fellow like me came along. The companion moved over and I caught the two seats for myself. Lucky already.
I was not lucky in movies. The comedy was so silly I can’t remember it. Still it made the time go. I did not sleep. I wanted to. I had not slept well the night before. I was awake at 3:30 and restless until 4:45 when I got up and made breakfast.
It had been cold in the car and cold waiting for old folks to board the bus. It was an easy enough ride, but I would have preferred a good companion.
In the poker room I did not start in a brand new a new game as I had in times before. I joined players who had been playing all morning; some had been there since the night before. It was a nice mix. A young couple and a friendly fellow about their age bantered at my end of the table. All three were fairly good players, but they gave total information on how they played, kidding about others playing trash, showing cards most of the time. In between, they teased and flirted and joked. Jill was perky and bold; her easy going husband let her be herself. Her long black hair and low cut sweater made her easy on the eyes. She teased with other players, including Ray at the the other end who was in his seventies. “If only I was ten years older” she said. She made us smile.
A heavy Irish kid named Tom sat next to me. He liked having a seat near Jill. They had all played there before together and were easy with each other. They bantered with some of it mildly sexual. Jill was quick and sharp and cute. She knew what she held and where the game was. Tom was the guy you want to drink beers with in the bar.
I started with a straight on the flop, but when I raised to preclude flush draws, all five other bets folded. It was odd to me, but I liked winning my first hand. The second hand I also caught a straight and lost to a straight flush. Now I wondered if I was actually there and awake or had overslept my alarm and missed the trip only to dream hands.
My second best status continued. I lost on straight after straight to flushes or higher straight. I did not overbet any of them, but lost just the same. In one that particularly hurt, I bet the best straight possible, a ten-jack, hoping that others had a straight just to the ten. And then a third diamond came on the river. I would have made good money on that hand as any smaller straights would have called my final bet or perhaps raised. I was down all morning and by noon had lost my $200 buy in and added another $100 to keep playing.
Still I liked the table. There were few preflop raises and reraises. Players were pretty predictable. Jill did like to raise too often to have her on my left, but not enough that anyone waited for her and reraised. She was very lucky and accumulated a huge stack of chips. She was good, but she put too much value on low pairs.
There was one heavily accented Slavic fellow who was fairly new tot he game and played trash. He won quite a bit and took quite a bit of kidding, especially when the win was 7-2. But he lost too and accumulated just enough chips to stay in the game. He was not aggressive enough to steal hands. I never saw him actually caught stealing. But he was in most hands and he stopped players from overbetting small hands because they did not know what he might have. The rest were solid conservative players. But I was one of three tight players there.
I started to get hands. I had to let other people bet in to me because I had tightened up for so long after my losses that were I to come out firing both guns I’d have scared them off. Most would bet if they detected weakness. Against one of the best players at the table I bet my pocket aces. I was raised on the turn. My third ace came on the river. My opponent checked his three eight's and called my bet. He had read me well. I’d have done well to take more time betting that river and look as weak as possible.
In an hour I was about even. Tom, the young fellow next to me was drinking Johnny Walker Black and so I joined him and relaxed into the banter. I had been relatively quiet for me. I could tell the young folks were not sure of me. There had been little lull in the banter, and I was an old guy after all. But I found an opening and started a successful tease which went very well. Our end of the table was definitely having too much fun.
Players were easy to read. The scotch relaxed me. I seemed to know when to fold my pocket queens and when to take them to the river for a win.
More than any other time my habit of never showing cards worked very well for me. I was a mystery. They never saw what I had. Old Ray complained to the fellow next to him that he wanted to see but did not want to pay. One hand he did pay. I had the goods. I never bluffed once. I raised once n the button, hoping for a free turn card if my straight draw did not come, but the Slavic guy did not remember to wait for me, and bet on the next time into me. As I won more and more hands I could feel my opponents begin to wonder if I was stealing. And that was good. In this game it was not unusual for a raise on the river to force a fold. Not knowing whether I was bluffing would encourage a call. And I think I did get a few that way.
The scotch took over; I relaxed. Time mellowed, and I had a good time. And the cards came. Lots of junk to fold for free and good flops with the good cards. No more second best hands. Randomness smiled on me.
People started to drop out. Old Ray was down to his last chips. I raised my pocket nines. “No one can beat you,” he said as he called my raise. I suspected he had some good cards. The flop was 9-10-10, a full house. Ray bet and I called. His last chips came on the river. I raised. The other opponent folded. Old Ray had two eight's.
Johnny Walker Tom ran out of chips. His drinking had not helped his game. He had gone a little on a quiet defeatist tilt. He was openly disgusted as he called weak hands.
I was ready to eat and would have left, but I got caught and posted my big blind just as the table changed players. So I stayed to play a final round. A yahoo guy joined the table raising and talking loud about loosening the table up and also came three other new players. That meant I needed to be off. I held A-5 and Yahoo raised. It flopped A-5. I checked to let Yahoo bet on my left, let everyone call, and then raised. Some stayed until until the river and then I was head to head with a smaller two pair. Thanks Yahoo for building that pot. Two hands later Yahoo raised and another new fellow reraised and I was gone.
I was up $382. I checked my keno results. Another $15 in winnings. At the Rewards center I picked up my voucher for a free ride next week. Maybe Robin will go along. I had a fine free meal at the buffet and walked down to see the sample displays advertising the Pequot museum and listen to the story of the Pequot massacre.
I stopped at the bar to see what the price of Johnny Walker on the rocks would have been had I paid for it. $10.
So almost $400 in winnings, $40 in free scotch, $16 free buffet and a totally free bus ride. Not bad even if the movies were dumb.
There is no jockeying for seats on the way home so I sat comfortably and watched Robin Williams in an RV travel the West with his family in slapstick style.
I was home by 9. No free offers for rooms in the mail, but my free American Casino Guide came. Money and coupons in the same day. A good day gambling.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)