OCALA-GAINSVILLE JAI-ALAI POKER ROOM

 

Trip report Ocala poker

I drove the hour or so from our Crystal River winter home here in Florida to the Ocala-Gainsville Jai-Alai poker room.

I got there a bit after noon and played until a bit after six.

I've been there other years, but not one a Wednesday.

It was the strangest poker game I've ever joined and pointed out to me again that poke really depends on opponents.

I started with seat on a table of all regulars, good players who knew one another.

This is not where I want to play. Gradually for the first half of my playing I got drained. I did not get cards often and when I did, my opponents folded to even tiny bets. It was a 1-2 table and once the entire table folded to my $3 bet.

When I did win, the pots were very small.

One fellow to my right lost three pots holding pocket Aces, and one holding pocket kings and one queens.

He was not happy either.

He played them well. Just luck.

I was happy not to be that fellow, but I still was losing.

Normally, I would have gone home, but slowly I bought in up to $500, with $300 gone. I was just hoping for perhaps half that back.

Then the old boy locals left and were replaced by other folks, some who played a bit aggressive in small ways, but few who went all-in.

It became more of a flop game.

I like flop games.

With 5 cards I can better tell what I want to do.

I had tightened, but this second group did not seem to notice. They did not fold when I bet.

And my luck changed.

One fellow to my left liked to start out preflop with a $10 bet even if he did not have cards justifying the raise. So in certain situations, I started to raise his bet to $20. Sometimes that meant I got him head to head. If I got a lot of callers, he might even fold.

There were some $5 straddle players. I play straddle hands tighter than normal hands, and if I have cards that I am going to play, I raise the straddle because I figure I'm now playing three blind hands.

In limit poker the pattern was for the guy who straddled to bet again regardless of his hand. But I did not see that here. So, I raised high cards or good pairs, but not suited connectors where if I connect, I want callers.

There was also a high hand bonus of $200 awarded every 20 minutes for the highest hand in the room, Aces full or better.

This only required $10 in the pot. Since the second half of my play there was just one 9 person table in the room, the odds were very good any high hand would hold.

I don't know what to do with trips. I tend to want to play for the high hand, but it depends on the board.

I got 2-2-2-2 on the river and it held up for $200.

I held three fives with pockets and did not really know what to do. I checked the turn and my opponent, a young kid, bet a bit into me.

I worried about higher trips.

I did not catch the river, but I checked and the kid went all-in. Now I really put him on higher trips, but I pushed. He had just pocket jacks, not even two pair.

It was a good pot, as good as the high hand. I still don't know what I should have done. Clearly, I looked weak to him. That is what taking a free card in hopes of the high hand award can do, disguise the hand.

The kid was good about it. It wasn't perhaps a bad bet. Had I held a pair I would have folded.

Once in the blind I held Q-7.

The flop showed a Q.

The loose better guy who had not bet preflop pushed in his $10.

I called.

On the river I caught the 7. The loose guy had a better queen. Boy was he mad.

I fell into a string of good cards and won hand after hand. It was the exact antithesis of my earlier play where everything went to mierda.

Finally, I just had too much money in front of me and I was tired, so I cashed out for a profit of $446.

I wish I could say the afternoon taught me how to play, but I can't. I do think very tight play is a good thing, but then there is the old guy next to me and the whole table of regulars folding to my $3 bet.

BOOM POT

At the change of dealers it is customary to deal a "boom pot".  Everyone puts up $10 and from the same deck two hands are flopped. Then betting starts.  A player can win either or both hands.  High hand may also be awarded.  I never won anything on any of them, but they are interesting.  Players don't have to play these hands, but all usually do.

THE ROOM

What I like best is that the tables are small, and I can see the cards easily from end seats. I did manage to get my favorite seat 5 eventually, but I never felt disadvantaged as I do at Rivers where sometimes I have to have cards read to me.

The dealers are all fine and friendly.

Only I wear a mask. It keeps me safer from flu, Covid, colds and it helps my poker by disguising my tells; however, it does make it harder for me to get into conversation.

Still, I found the crowd engaging and talking about things of real interest, even Vegas. The old guys were not talking health or all sports.

Often the talk was local talk about places to eat or visit. Great stuff for this snow bird.

The odds for high hand are very appealing.

I bring my own seltzer drink, but they do serve water and coffee and were around often for such a small group.

For horse players there is an area with televisions for betting just outside the poker room, and they do serve food.

I can't eat and play poker without disaster.

I did not want to drive home in the last hour of rush hour, but I do know the roads and I did fine. I may try to find a way to avoid the Interstate. I think I can if I drive down into Ocala.

Tonight I have a very different game. Five sons play with me at a zoom table. It is a grand way to get together for banter. They are a grand group of men. Two in Chicago, one Albany, one Boston, one Denver.

RIVERS SCHENECTADY ONCE AGAIN

 NOVEMBER

I've been waiting for a rainy day to go up to Rivers Schenectady and play poker. But this Autumn on Burden Lake there are no rainy days.

So, finally, yesterday I woke up fully rested and ready.

I had a fifteen minute wait for a new table and used it to win $14 at 9/6 JOB on the full pay machines.

Then I grabbed my favorite number 5 seat which allows me to see the cards more clearly and waited for the table to fill and start.

In general, the NL poker was very dull. I got drained, came back a bit, and left down $25.

My highest pocket pair was jacks which got folded early.

I won on both 5-5 and 6-6, catching trips. 5-5 was the better win with a fellow raising me with just two pair.

I had A-K twice and won once by bluffing on the river after the flop. I had played so tight that I expected no one would call me after a preflop button raise.

The funniest hand was when I held A-10 of diamonds and nothing came, but there was no more betting.  On the river the board had 8-8-9-9 and my Ace was a winner against two other small pair. 

I flopped a straight flush draw in diamonds, but it did not come.  I won with a straight or flush; I can't remember. 

Most of my high cards came with low kickers and, with one exception,  there were no straights, flushes or full houses let alone a high hand. (Rivers pays $300 per hour for the high hand in the room.)

I did get to try out a couple of home made card protectors, basically flat rocks with things glued on top. I did not like the one with driftwood. I thought I had sealed it well, but one time it lost a tiny piece of wood, and so I went to the other.

That one had the silver back, showing a fisherman, of a long gone ten dollar pocket watch from the old Watchman's store in Laughlin.

I liked this one because it was long enough with the fisherman glued to one end and I could put 2 or 3 chips on the other end of the rock in preparation, so there would be no finger fumbling when betting.

The company was as I generally find it. Mostly old men and a few old women. Mostly taciturn.

Most played tight. One fellow was a bit aggressive, and he won often. He seemed to have cards when he was called. I was never head to head with him.

I do miss the old limit games of Vegas that drew folks from all around the world with stories and jokes, but I rarely find that in Vegas anymore. And the old El Cortez game was grand with Jackie wobbling down each afternoon to splash the pot with his poor play and Action Jackson and an assortment of other regular characters as well as dealers with interesting comments, especially Karen who could talk about cooking bluegills. That is the game I miss the most.

Well, I'll soon be in Florida with a raucous home game and a game at Ocala with more banter and chatter. No word yet about when they move closer to the Ocala airport. That will change the game.

Anyway, I played a few hours and the table dwindled, so they combined us with another table at which I had to sit in the Number 2 seat. I did not like that. Also, I was tiring and did not have the energy to learn an entirely new set of opponents, so I went to the video poker down $25 on NL.

I got my $100 up to $140 which was amazing since I never had quads. It was all full houses and trips and grinding with two pair.

Then it dwindled down again and I quit an retrieved my buy in.

So I came home down $11 for the day. My NL poker score dropped to plus $298 since I started playing a year ago.

I did not eat. I just wasn't hungry. So I missed Riccitello's again. 

 I did remember to bring my insulated cup for coffee, but then I forgot it everywhere and had to go back for it.

I drove out into rush hour (not at all what I liked to do) and with a phone that lacked a charge, so I had to find my way home without electronics except the NPR reports on candidates in the news.

I managed.

I was home before dark.

Next trip I may try to get there early as from 10 to 12 they have great rewards for high hands, some as much as $1,000, and you don't need to be the high hand of the room.  I used to think there were no rewards offered until the high hand in the room at noon.

RIVERS CASINO

 See this on the new Rivers blog

TRIP TO RIVERS FOR LIVE POKER AND VP (deweyatrivers.blogspot.com)

OCALA JAI ALAI POKER

I played three hours of poker at Ocala Jai Lai today and lost $70.  

Players were fine, but cards were sorry.  At one point a dealer looked at me and asked, "Don't you ever win a hand?"

They had a new game once every change of dealer.  Grand slam.  

Players ante $10 and are dealt cards.  Then there are two flops and some betting.

Betting on the turn

Betting on the river.

The best hand in each 5 card board wins half the money.

The pots can be big and the winnings substantial. 

I won a hand one time, but the pot was rather low.

I held a 5 another time

It flopped 2-2-5 and the very old woman to my left bet out.

She only bet when she had something.

I folded.

The river was a 5.  She had deuces full of fives.  I would have had fives full of deuces.  Decent pot too.

Another time I had A-K.  I bet $10 preflop. Nothing. Folks bet and I folded but runner runner I would have won with a straight.

Otherwise, the folded hands did not develop.  

I bought in for my $130 and then twice added $100.  I was crawling back to even when the game ended for the tournament.

I went into Ocala and had an Outlaw Ribeye at the Long Horn.  Great food. 

Then home.  

I liked going home with not I-75.  Finally got my routes down and my trips there are over.  

Next year a new location.

ANOTHER TRIP TO TAMPA DOWNS SILKS POKER ROOM

 I went up to the Silks Poker Room at Tampa Downs and lost my $130 buy-in, and then won it back, and then just got too tired, and the players dropped to just four. Too few.

So, I drove back with the grand profit of $9, but the memory of some very exciting hands.
It was the hardest game I have played since Vegas. Rarely any poor players. Even had a young dealer from Tampa Hard rock who liked $10 straddles. I hate playing against dealers.
These players did some crazy and intricate things. I mostly just played tight and let them bet into me.

A new woman showed up who was just beginning. I felt sorry for her. She bet her pocket aces into my trip deuces and even called my fairly high bet on the river when I hit a full house. I was hoping for the other deuce and a high hand award. Still, that was a good hand for me.
I had pocket Queens six times and lost every time with them. The worst was when a fellow played 8-2, caught 8 on the flop and called my bets until on the river he caught a 2. He bet when I checked, but I had to call as he so often bluffed with nothing.
Then one fellow just called my small bets and when I checked the river, he went all-in. He had flopped a wheel straight. I did not call him.
Most of the time I spent folding unplayable hands.
This was hard because so often someone would straddle. At the Silks a player can straddle in any position except the big blind.
And someone else can double the straddle, so there were hands where I would have had to pay $10 to see the flop.
And my big blind saw very few $2 flops.
Too tough a game for me, really.
Still, I had fun.
I did not bet the horses, but I did see them out the window.
I was too tired to just go watch them run when I left playing poker.
I'm just too tired a good deal these days.
.

I'm hoping Schenectady Rivers near our Nothern home has senior citizen rooms at low prices as they did other years. Then I can take a nap between poker games. I also am interested in staying at Casino Royale next Vegas trip where the Venetian is close to my room so I can play and nap and play again refreshed.

Here in Florida I so love the extended Suncoast highway 589 which takes away most of the traffic. Driving home is grand because once on the Suncoast, the traffic gradually thins to almost nothing, and sometimes I could not see another car in front or behind me.

I won't play the Silks again this year, and next year there is to be a new poker room near the airport. The Ocala Gainsville Jai-alai Poker room should be moved into it by October.

TAMPA DOWNS SILKS POKER

 I took a solo road trip to Tampa Downs and their Silks Poker room.  

I rarely drive far these days, but I'll go there again. This new extension of the major highway, the Suncoast highway, makes the driving much easier by eliminating traffic and takes at least fifteen minutes off the trip. 

There is no need to go to the dreaded 19 with all sorts of darting traffic and those orange barrels and sometimes bumper to bumper waits for the light.  Just a couple of easy turns and there I am on an almost deserted highway that is perfect for my current driving skills.

One new technology is the toll technology.  No booths.  Once in a while they put a buck on the Sunpass and show a sign.  

It was raining in spots, lightly, and then just as I got on the Suncoast a huge deluge fell and I could not see.  I learned that on this car, no matter how many times one plays with the light adjustments on the left stick-out control, the windshield wipers just won't go on.

That adjustment in on the right.  I was luckily still on the road when I found it.

I also learned that the small white crescent on the gas meter does show me how much gas I have left.  I find it hard to see and read.  I don't understand why they abandoned a simple gas meter, round and with a large arrow that moved between E and F.  

I'm still uncertain what I do to turn off the cruise control by accident.  Only that suddenly it just won't hold the cruise number.  

But I managed.

I was a bit late for the first poker tables, so I had to wait until the second 1-2 NL opened.  They first opened a 1-3 before they opened the 1-2,  and so the seven people on my list dwindled down to four.  However, I managed to get my seat 5 across from the dealer.  I can see so much better there.

Next trip I will bring a book of poetry.

There were three rather poor players when I started, but when I quit at about 3PM, those players had lost and been replaced by good players.  Still, there were no manics going "all in" for no reason preflop.  We always got to see the flop and all=in bets were very few and generally not for much money.

I also think that some of the limit players have moved to no limit, and the poorer collect at the 1-2.  

I had AA about six times.  That was amazing.  I won all but one of those hands. One time I had trip Aces and my opponent had trip queens.   I did not win any high hand awards, or hit a royal flush in spades that just needed a queen.  That Royal would have paid $600 as a bonus.

I folded one hand with trip 5's.  I would have won it.  Just read the fellow wrong.  That was my biggest mistake.  Also, I have to stop watching my cards and use my time to watch my opponents.  With only the one eye I get nervous that I've misread cards and my memory is not great either. However, my new cheap reading glasses really help with making everything clear, so I need to get disciplined.  

I bought in for $100, pushed it up to almost $300, and then stayed a bit too long and lost most of the profit.  I ended $71 ahead on the poker.  

My buddy Bill gave me some horse tips for the race, but I only hit once.  So I lost $15 on horses, but that included having a great time losing one race when my horse was in the lead up until the last bit of the stretch.  I bet trifectas and one win would have been a nice chunk of cash, but luck was not with me.

I had one O'doul's.  $5 plus tip.  Water was $2.50 plus tip although it was a very large bottle.  Food and beverage cannot be brought in.    

The fellows were very friendly and easy, bantering with each other a bit if they were regulars.  

I would go there again.

It is nice to have the live horses there too, so if the poker game is uncomfortable, I could just go outside and watch them.

 

OCALA GAINSVILLE POKER ROOM

 

From our Meadowcrest winter home in Crystal River, Florida, I drove an hour or so to the Ocala Gainsborough poker room and booked a night in Ocala at the Ocala Cove Motel so I could play poker for a couple of days.

Elizabeth was hosting a zoomed authentic movement meditation weekend. Had I stayed home, I'd have had to be very, very quiet for the entire weekend. I can be quiet for an hour or so. Then I have to sing or bang cooking pans or both.

So this was a perfect time for a poker road trip.

THE MOTEL

THE ROOM

I marvel how much I am beginning to crave a more upscale room.

There was nothing wrong with this room.

Plenty of room. I did not have that cramped feeling I have in some motels.

The wall in the bathroom shows some damage, perhaps at the base. Otherwise, well kept.

Fine AC. It did blow on me at my desk, but I just turned it off and back on later.

A nice stuffed chair just under a reading lamp.

There are no pans or dishes or silverware, but there is a nice little kitchen sink that makes cleanup easy.

I always bring my own dishes. Silverware, ceramics.

I know kitchen stuff gets stolen by some guests, and is not worth retrieving, but there are ways to both service the customer and protect the motel. In one motel in Biloxi, at the front office, I could get a box of pans and silverware and dish soap just by leaving a deposit.

That seemed smart.

Even if they just collected up plates and cups and pans from a thrift store, it would be fine. I was in Biloxi a week; I had brought nothing with me.

The wall flower art prints here in Ocala were pleasant, if boring. Not all the walls were decorated. Motel art being what it usually is, I'm not certain having bare walls is a bad thing. Most bare walls beat the aesthetics of motel wall hangings.

The paint was clean and seemed fine.

The television worked great and it had my favorite no commercial TCM although I did not watch much TV.

My neighbor had his on at 4 AM.

I could not be so inconsiderate.

Wonderful desk, unusually long and with good looking electrical hookups. Really two desks, one pulling out from under the other and perfect for my computer with room to eat as well.

Plenty of electrical options in the room. Generally cheap rooms have few electrical options. Not here.

However, remember to see that the desk electrical outlets are plugged in the wall. I did not remember until my computer went blank.

Comfortable bed. I am just not fussy about beds. This one seemed fine. I did not fall asleep early. I guess the excitement of the day kept me awake. I woke up at 5:30AM, but none of that was the bed. It was just me.

But still a part of me wants an upgrade.

Decadence stalks me.

This room at $87 was $60 cheaper than the next level room I could find in the area.

So, I figure that is $60 saved for gambling.

And I am comfortable.

Still......

I remember when I first started gambling and I'd get those $15 on sale and run down rooms, like at Las Vegas Club downtown in August, and board discussion friends would ask how I could manage to stay in them. I told them that I had camped all my life, and so hot running water and an actual bed and no tent to put up seemed a luxury, especially at below campground prices.

With my sons we had camped in an old canvas tent that had a damaged zipper, so to go to the bathroom at night, we undid about half a dozen clothes pins, and then we had to put them back just so, or someone was going to get wet feet if it rained.

We were quite the laughing stock of the campground, until a huge storm came, picked up the lighter popup tents and rolled them through the forest.

Canvas doesn't move as easily as nylon.

I remember hiking 6 miles into the White Mountains of New Hampshire with my son's class, pitching a tent, sleeping to the quiet of creek, catching little trout, brining them in the salt and plastic milk carton I'd brought, building a smoker from the stream rocks and having smoked trout.

It felt grand.

I remember in my own teen years, sleeping with no tent in a mummy sack on gravel at Arrowhead Camp Ground in Delevan NY. No padding.

And now?

I'm annoyed if they don't put real glasses out.

Truly I am an old man.

Oh, at Ocala Cove Motel they put out no glasses or cups, even cheap plastic ones.

That does seem odd.

Perhaps if I had asked.

I generally travel with my ceramics, so I sipped my tea from a large Chinese cup decorated with a fine large blue carp.

There is no coffee pot at Ocala, and I did not bring my folding hot pot and coffee cup filter. I thought tea and NA beer and coconut seltzer would be fine. And it was. Sam Adams “Just the Haze” this trip.

I'm fussy about coffee now too. I don't much like any motel room coffee pots or coffee blends. Schenectady Rivers has good coffee, but not in the room. They make it at the bar. Great blend.

I prefer to bring and make my own.

On the way up from home I bought a cup of small coffee at K gas station. The styrofoam top of the cup was so fagile, that it bent down when I topped the cup and ripped, and I had hot coffee all down the front of me while driving.

I'll not do that again.

I'll use my travel mug. I had it. Too lazy to grab it.

As a bedtime snack and for breakfast I had a huge assortment. I brought no-salt potato chips, apples, hard boiled eggs, chorizo, cheese, crackers, rice cakes and settled on peanut butter in these crunchy diet friendly rice cake pop bits. Very good.

I went off diet on Sunday. I always liked the Iron Skillet, just a diner up near I-75 from the casino, but it has gone downhill and I did not get a good meal. They were out of half their steaks, out of onion rings, out of meatloaf (which I wanted) I should have walked out.

I had chicken fried steak.

I won't have that again, nor will the Iron Skillet have my business.

It was an easy ride from the Casino to the motel. I did not have to go on the 70 MPH route I-75 but took a parallel route that in parts went through wonderful horse fields. Ocala is known for its horses.

It also went directly to the Motel.

It is one of those motels where you park right outside your door and there are NO STAIRS.

In the room is a microwave and a full refrigerator which worked to keep things cold.

Every thing was clean, but there were some issues.

Getting on the internet was a puzzle I could not solve. The fellow from the office came and he had some trouble, but finally it loaded, so I just left it loaded for the over night. Even so, it kept disconnecting and reconnecting.

This fellow is not always in the office. When he is here, he is very helpful.

Late at night, I would have been on my own.

So, that is a downside. Managers are not there 24/7.

I was wondering what I would do if my key did not work and I was rolling in from a poker game late at night or early in the morning.

I also did not like the signage. I missed it in the daytime and it was unlit after dark.

I arrived at 2:30 for a 3 o'clock check in, but he told me that I would have to wait as they were still cleaning.

I had read that sometimes they overbooked. So, I asked him if I had time to go for a meal. He said I had been assigned a room in the back, but I asked for one in the front because I thought I might be coming in late at night.

Finally, he told me to come with him. He checked room 4 in the front and it had been cleaned. So, he booked me.

One strange thing is that when I had come into the parking lot, I parked right in front of room 4 which was to be my room. That and the day's poker does make me question randomness. But then, “Anything that can happen, will happen, given enough time.”

2 minutes from the Ocala Cove motel I went to a Longhorn Steak house and had a grand meal. There was a bit of wait, but I loved this cut called Outlaw Rib Eye which is not an eye at all, but a rib.

LEGENDARY STEAKS COMBOS | Menu | Longhorn Steakhouse

I paid a bit more and had some really tasty brussel spouts as my side. The bread was very good. And the small salad was also good with good gobs of blue cheese.

In the supermarket the other day a woman turned to me and showed me a piece of steak for sale.

“They want me to pay $25 for this,” she said.

Steak is so expensive that restaurants seem to compete with the grocery store.

The grocery store piece was smaller than the cut at Longhorn, which could not have been more tasty, and the Longhorn steak was cooked medium rare, and REALLY was medium rare.

My water glass never got empty. The service was just great.

I took some of the meal back home.

This motel is in a busy section of Ocala highway, but the road traffic did not bother me. Perhaps it is quieter in the back, but I wanted to not be in the back based on a comment I read that a woman felt a bit alone there when coming in at night.

THE POKER

As the casinos phase out limit and low stakes games, I have to play 1-2 NL. Here in Ocala the buy-in is $60 to $300. It attracts a wild mix of players.

They used to have a 1-1 NL game. Gone.

In ten months they will move to a new location, near the Ocala airport.

On Saturday the poker room was open early, but on Sunday not until 11:30AM.

My first playing was Saturday morning. I got there at about 9:30 AM and the table was full of old guys, regulars, who played tight and conservative. Then came in some loose players who just got slowly fleeced.

I just got lucky.

I caught a straight flush in hearts and later quad 3's. Both paid high hand bonuses of $200 each, and I could put that money in my pocket rather than risk it in play. For the 3's I had a caller who would call $50, twice. I had 3-6 of spades in the big blind. I did not know that the award would be only $100 if I only could play one card in my hand. I just got lucky. The river was a 5 and that was worth $100. It was hard to know how to play the hand, and hard to know how I might have played if I had known that a river card over 6 would cost me $100. But this kid next to me was just the kind who was not going to fold.

I think now that I should have put him all-in. He might have called.

I bet $50 twice, and he called. It turned out this time he had a full house.

My quad 3's were only worth money if no one had a bigger hand for the next three quarters of an hour. So, it was wiser perhaps to get the money from my opponent.

Yet the odds of someone beating these quads when there was just one table competing were very small.

Earlier I caught the heart straight flush on the turn. I had flopped a straight playing a one gapper. I have been reading about one gappers on this site.

How to Play Suited Gappers in Cash Games - Upswing Poker

I think mine was 5-7.

I did over bet the river a bit against two old regulars, and so they gave it up. However, I was thinking one might have an Ace or King high flush and call, or even a queen, thinking I was trying to push them out.

It was so odd that most of my biggest pays were on hands that I would not play if they had not been blinds.

Small cards.

I never got a decent pocket pair above 9 all the time I played.

And my A-high card hands were generally folded after the flop unless a preflop raise on the button got me a free card.

So that morning I bought in for $120 and cashed out a bit shy of $700.

Then I went to check in and eat.

I got back around 5:30 PM and had to wait for a game.

They started a new game.

My old limit poker self loved to be starting a new game because there would be loose players who just bet until their money was gone. However, I did not like playing this new NL game because every third hand someone went all-in preflop.

That is bingo, not poker.

I mean who goes all-in on the flop with a pocket pair of Deuces? That player caught trips on the turn.

But seriously, all-in on a pocket pair of deuces?

And he had already established a table image of being very lose, so he had two callers and should have suspected he would have callers.

That same player was pretty annoyed when he went all in holding 2-5 that had flopped deuces full of fives only to find I had 2-6 from the big blind and it was also a full house.

I did not like the constant all-in bets preflop.

I like to be able to be a bit in charge of the pots and to see the flop before I bet much.

So, I quit and headed back to the motel.

I had bought in for $100 and cashed out for $198. Fine.

Sunday poker was not as lucky.

Poker did not start until 11:30, so it was a long wait in the room and I was still there an hour early.

I took a walk by a horse.

Lost $160 and quit at 3 PM.

Missed two high hand draws. Three people hit at the table, but one cancelled the other and one had a low kicker. Aces full.

I liked the game.

NIGHT DRIVING

I made my after dark drive on that Saturday night.

I did not like it.

My AC was not pumping out cool air.

I did not like that.

I could not open any windows but one with my driver's side buttons.

I did not like that.

The next morning I studied the manual a bit. I got it to work. Now if I can just remember how to do it. I can't read the dials, so I have to know what to do.

I had not brought glasses to lessen the glare of night lights.

I did not like that.

I DID like getting in my room and writing a bit, and then having a fine sleeping time, even if it was a bit short. (Aren't they always?)

DRIVING HOME

I-75 was not too bad. However I did ride along fro a while tucked in between two big trucks.

On route 200 I always seemed to have a tail gater. I was following a car at a few car lengths, but those behind me did not always give me the same spacial courtesy.

However, I was happy not to be driving in the dark.

I arrived home twenty minutes before Elizabeth wrapped up the meditation dancing. So, I walked the loop here and opened another can of Sam Adams, Just the Haze.

I unpacked, we told out mutual stories, Elizabeth tried my left over Longhorn steak, and we watched old sessions of Monk, one that featured Willie Nelson.

My final gambling score for the weekend was plus $650 give or take a few dollars.

Next year the Ocala poker room is moving to some place near the Ocala airport. It will be only an hour drive, saving 20 minutes. It will be easy to just drive up and back in a day.

So, thanks for reading this long report.

It was a very good trip except for night driving and that Iron Skillet meal.

************************

Joe from the Travel To Vegas Board left this response:

Thanks for the report, @Dewey089 ! It really took me back as 30 or so years ago, that place was a favorite haunt back when it was Ocala Jai Alai! I was a student at UF, and at the time, was really enthralled with the sport of Jai Alai. Yeah, as your picture shows, it is really out in the middle of nowhere (Orange Lake, FL), about halfway between Ocala and Gainesville. It was only a 20 minute drive for me. At the time, it was literally in the middle of a cow pasture. You could hear the mooing from the parking lot!

They had a short season for live Jai Alai -- maybe 2 months, but in the off-season they would let amateurs onto the court (cancha) to play. During the second semester of my sophomore year, I'd be down there once or twice a week. I wasn't very good, but really enjoyed playing. That is, until one night when the pelota took a wicked bounce and shattered my thumb!

I have driven by it once or twice since, as it lies along one of the routes we take driving to Tampa, but I haven't set foot in it since the mid-90's. It's sad to hear that it will be gone soon.

It's funny that you mentioned the Iron Skillet at the Perto station. I had the "pleasure" of dining there once. I was with my sister, and we were heading back to Gainesville from Ocala. She was hungry, and although I had already eaten, I figured I could go for some dessert. I ordered the cherry cobbler. Now, I have had good cobbler and bad cobbler before, but this one took the cake, so to speak, as the most disgusting cobbler of all time.

It had a gelatinous texture, and tasted like cardboard. After one bite, I sent it back. The conversation with the waitress went something like this:
Me: "This cobbler is horrible."
Her: "Yeah, all of the customers have been saying that."
Me (thinking: why the heck didn't you mention this when I ordered??): "I'm going to have to send it back."
Her: "Would you like something else instead?"
Me: "What do you have?"
Her: "We also have blueberry cobbler."
Me: "Is it better than the cherry cobbler?"
Her: "Not really. It's about the same."
Me (): "No, thank you."

To this day, it is still a running joke in the family. "Where do you want to eat?" "How about the Petro?!"