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.