Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Tampa

We woke up to rain Sunday and so I scurried off to Tampa Hard Rock. I lost again. Mostly because I played some video poker. I lost $17, but I did not buy the overpriced buffet, so it was not a very costly trip.
Some convenience store on the way had a $4 chicken special, and by then I had remembered that the buffet was costly on Sundays, so I had it. It turned out to be four huge wings, fried. These were complete wings, all three parts. There was hot sauce. I ate outside next to my car. No tip. It was a pretty inexpensive meal.
I had bad times and good times at the casino. I tried the Omaha and lost again, and again a woman at my table hit a royal flush and was paid $800 as a bonus on top of winning the hand.
When I went to the 2-4, I was at a table with some crabs. The Italian guy got mad because I raised preflop when I was on the button and he the small blind. A kid got mad because his card hit my hand and flopped over. I changed tables and the tone was so different. The dealer asked me who stole my red hat, and when I was puzzled, he said that gnomes always have red hats. So I told him about being the poker gnome


And there was plenty of friendly banter. I won at this table, betting good cards and getting paid by bad players. Some of the calls I could not understand. And my trick of raising on the button with connectors paid off. I raised with 6-7 and nothing much came, but after a lot of checking, my six actually won. So a good player noticed I had done the, commented on it, and was set up then to follow me when I had raised on A-Q right to the river and my queens full hand. He was annoyed, but not mad. He did not make it personal as had happened at the other table
The funniest hand was just after I moved to the 2-4 from the Omaha. I had red $5 chips and had them in my hand. I held A-Q and nothing matched, but I decided to call the turn bet, only by mistake I threw in two red chips. Lots of callers. I'm thinking I am a jerk. On the river a five comes and now I have the wheel straight. Great error. It caught another $15.

At the last table I helped quite a few by talking about the 60 cent an hour comps and asking how long they were good. It turns out that they are good for 13 months after you earn them, so they should be used. One old fellow never even checked to see what he had, so he went and checked and came back. $50. I think the wife and I are going to dinner tonight.

I left early as the game began winding down. I am more careful now to remember that once the players are all good and the table is short handed, it is time to go home.

I saw deer on the ride home again, but none seem to need to cross the street. Which is a good thing!

I stopped for my can of Peace green tea. Just a buck. Few calories. And it is very refreshing to break up the ride home.

Friday, February 3, 2012

Tampa Loss

I played from about 1:30PM until just after 11 PM and did not do well.  I lost $84, putting my score for play in Florida, for the first time, in the negative.
Earlier in the day I played tough players and generally tight pots.
Later in the evening I played loose and poor players but did not get cards.

The tables were fun.  There seemed a lot of guys from Georgia talking constantly and I listened to their stories.  One had at the suggestion of an airport employee exited out of a door that set off an alarm.  He ended being detained and was at first subject to a 10,000 fine.  He described the conversation as ridiculous.  In the end he paid a fine of $125 and still felt he had done nothing wrong.  The oddest thing was that no one checked his carryon bag which was full of tools that would probably look suspicious. 

Tampa started a new high hand system of bonus awards that is the most ridiculous promotion I have ever seen.  Quads get $100 and straight flushes get $250, but each one can only be hit once and then it goes away, so by the end of my play there was very little left in the high hand awards bonus offerings.  At midnight it would all be reset.  Unclaimed money would roll over until the next day, so that after a few days some awards might add up to a good chunk of money. This would more often affect the seven hand stud and omaha awards which were kept in separate accounts.  The problem was that no one would know if an award was active or not.  One screen showed the awards and only briefly.  The dealers did not know.  There are times on a 2-4 game when play is altered by what is offered.  While I was there, I saw a woman with trip kings, bet out against a weak opponent on the turn and never see the river.  The pot was small.  She might have waited one card.  At that time the king quad bonus was still alive, but she would have no way to know of that.  They will go quickly because a bonus can be claimed if you havve just one of the four cards and your kicker is high and plays as one of the best five.

I ate another good buffet in the middle of the day.  No lines.  Good food.  I forgot to ask at the pokerroom for a comp slip based on my points.  I'll so that next time.  I think I will easily have a free buffet next visit.

The drive how was easy as always.  No cars.  I just needed to keep an eye on a few deer, some trapped between the road and a fence which was probably intended to discourage them.