TURNING STONE - MARCH 10

I started great. Third hand I raised my pocket jacks, was reraised 2 guys to my right, capped to push out the fishers, was unsuccessful, and yet took down a huge pot when my jacks held up all by themselves. But after that things went sour. At one point I was down $40.
Still it was a great table. I got in when it opened. Some people did not know how to play the game at all and had not been told that rather than play each hand, they should fold 80% of the time or that their K-9 should not call on the river with the hope of winning with K high.
The fellow explained his call,
"I had to try."
Most were just loose. None were aggressive. It is the loose, aggressive players that kill me. Put me on a table where when I raise preflop, everyone calls and groans but no one gets mad and reraises, and then I am happy.
So I was up and down. I started raising on pocket pairs when I was on the button. I like unusual button raises as they set up in everyone's mind that I have high cards, so they call my bets on low cards. I raised a pair of sevens, was reraised by a player two seats to my right, so I capped, hoping that it would push out some people. They called the capped preflop bet and I flopped a set. I checked and called. On the turn came the fourth seven. I checked and raised my one opponent, then bet the river and he raised two more all in.
All agreed that my quads were very nice.
At the peak of the play I was up almost $150.
The poor players went broke and were replaced by good players so that for a while I was thinking of leaving and taking a walk, but then they left to play a tournament and poorer ones took their seats. The problem was that the table did not fill up completely. Finally, after I learned they had opened a new table when we had only five players, I quit, broke up the game, and was immediately given a seat at one of the other tables. Even the dealer was annoyed that they would start another new table when an existing table was not full.
But I did not do well. Players were experienced and better than calling stations, some raised, and I just did not get cards.
I remember two hands.
My 9-10 flopped 9-K straight and I bet and bet and no two others hung on. The river was an Ace, so I bet, and capped, and sure enough two other guys had stayed with tens that had been no good until the river.
So we split up all that money 3 ways.
My last hand I had A-X and with an inside straight draw and a fairly small pot, I decided I could force out my one, weak seeming opponent, so I bet but he called.
I caught the 4 for the wheel and was feeling lucky until he raised me and showed his 6-7. The four had made him a better inside straight. He had called my semi bluff on the turn with a small pot and one opponent when he had but an inside straight draw. Time to go home.
Final score --up $117. Not bad. Certainly it paid my expenses for the day and gave me a little profit to lose to Greg tomorrow at his home game.
Now when I leave a poker table to go home, I generally have one destination in mind. I should have gone the path through the computer that I knew best, but I decided that I could stop on my way out the door I always enter. Except that all the remodeling had me disoriented, and I did not have a GPS to find that door.
I got lost.
Passing three waterfalls and one fountain, twice, did not help my condition.
But finally I filled the last pot of the evening.
I was ready to exit and I just walked out the nearest door although that meant walking around a good bit of the casino outside.
The outside look of that new tower is ugly. It is hard to tell where the parking garage ends and the hotel rooms begin except that you know the hotel rooms must be in the tower which looks more like an office building than a casino. I suppose the architecture is supposed to be modern, but I think it only hints at something barely approaching the aesthetic. I hate that signature TS in the corner. I think it is fine thing if the car garage blends well with the rest of the structure, but I'd like the entire affect to be beautiful. This structure pretty much says "car garage."
Why is it that we can't put some art into our parking garages but must make these structures that are equivalent to cement dumpsters? No wonder there are so many murders in the detective shows in these places. They seem as dreary as death.
This new structure is so unlike the original little building with a fine circle and Turning Stone in big lights. It just seems to shout, "Just put up something and take their money!"

However, walking to the parking lot is very pleasant. You stroll down tree lined, winding walkways. The lighting is like the lighting in a park, only the trees are done in tiny lights too, almost like Christmas, only these lights are the most calming shade of blue. I liked it. There was more art in the random patterns of lights as they were arranged over the branches than in the entire tower monstrosity.
The drive home is tiring. Prairie Home tapes help but it is a long way to go with no conversation.
Come along with me next time.