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.
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
ANOTHER FOXWOODS ADVENTURE
After two tries Robin and I finally made it for a trip together to Foxwoods for poker. The bus was pretty full, but Robin met it early in Albany and saved us good seats. There was no movie on the way down; it was great to have a long talk with Robin about all sorts of topics, especially things in the news. Robin always has read something of interest so the time went very quickly. For example, he told me all about an ancient tomb that had been found with crypt spots for an entire family with the same names as Jesus and his family. Then I told him about the turtle who had virgin birth, but he had already read that article. And so it went. We bet on our bus tickets as poker hands. Robin caught trip sevens and won my dollar.
We split an American Casino Guide $25 matchplay and lost it all on the craps table. First roll 4, then 7 and we were off to play poker.
In the poker room we were very crafty. It looked like they would start a new $4 - $8 game soon. A dealer looked like he was just waiting for a new game to start. So we bought chips, choose the best seats, sat down and talked to dealers.
One of the dealers was Shirley. She told us a great story about getting a Foxwoods award for “most spirited” and of the prizes she had won and the newspaper article coming soon. She also felt great because it meant she was doing a good job.
Soon they announced the new game. We had picked the right table. We were able to play right alongside one another all day.
We planned to have the free dinner buffet just before leaving. If we had left in the middle of the day, we might not get seated again, so we put the poker first and our hunger second. A few amarettos served me well. Shirley told us that some afternoons people wait a couple hours for a seat. In the morning it is open and easy.
To make it even better I found a bathroom that is very close to that section of tables, so usually I could make the run and miss just one hand.
I also think the morning players were easier. As the day progressed, the players seemed to get better and harder to beat. We had only one loose player at the table. He was wearing a red sweatshirt and he bet or called everything. But he was lucky, stealing many pots and winning others, often on the river. He did not make money, but he played a lot longer than we thought he would. I took a couple of pots from him, but I did not have very good cards most of the day. I played poorly too at the beginning, and I had bet all out the last of my $200 buy-in by the time a flopped wheel paid me a good bit back. By the time I left I was $21 up. My best hand was a flopped full house, jacks full of aces. Old Red bet into me so I did very well on that hand.
Add that to $10 in Keno minus $12 on the craps and a dollar on the bus ticket bet, and I ended up $18 for the day.
Robin was up a little too. He made nothing on the keno. He was well paid on his 4 eight's and again when he caught an ace on the river for aces full of jacks. But I guess he had some tough folds too. He had fun. He wants to go again.
Every time I go the trips get better. Thanks to Izzy I paid only $14 for this trip. Next time it will be free. I bought a voucher with my points from years ago and the voucher will pay for my bus next time. Also I found out that we earn points each time we book a trip at Yankee Trails. I did not know that. It just keeps getting better.
And now I know those things I like best on the Foxwoods buffet. The barbecue area was open this time. Good chili.
Anyone interested?
Click here Yankee trails
I’ll go anytime, but it sure is nice to have a friend to sit with on the bus. My neighbor is going sometime in late March. I’m ready to go again next week.
The movie on our way back was a cheesy football movie called Invincible.
Invincible Movie Synopsis: Inspired by the true story of Vince Papale, a down-on-his-luck teacher and part-time bartender lives every fan's fantasy of moving from the stands to the field when he makes it onto his hometown's professional football team during an open tryout.
Well, you know what “inspired” means. Barely close to the truth.
The sound was too low and we missed a lot of the dialogue. I don’t think I have ever heard anything on any film about football that was this quiet. It seemed every actor was a low talker.
These guys were from South Philly, but most of them talked like they were in the library. There were many night shots, many times when Vince gets some inspirational talk from his Dad (black lunch box on the steps kind of guy) or the hot blond who is hot for him. I guess south Philly is not like most inner cities. No one was on these streets. No gangs. No drugs. No kids hanging out. No boom boxes. Deserted streets. The noise came when all the locals met at the tavern ( sort of like Cheers on steroids) or at a place where they played rough football in the mud.
Of course the football game and bar scenes were noisy.
Well, it did pass the time, and this guy Vince Papale seems like a nice kid. But he’s no Dean Martin.
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Nick the Greek, Einstein and me
When Nicholas Andreaa Dandolos (Nick the Greek) started off to play his day of poker he would often toss a roulette bet on red or black and interpret his roulette win or loss as a predictor of how much luck he could expect in his day.
There is no way I would do that. I can’t seem to get my teeth around that 5.6% vigorish on an American roulette wheel.
But I was thinking about Nick when I took my Foxwoods $25 matchplay to the craps tables soon after arriving at Foxwoods yesterday.
Robin and I had split a matchplay on our last trip and lost in just two rolls: 10 - 7 out and we had gone on to lose at poker too.
Losing on just two craps rolls is a real downer. It hardly gives you time to anticipate outcomes, to experience that breath taking moment when the dice arc gracefully through the quiet air to clatter and roll into that randomness that will determine your wealth or poverty.
I love craps, but since I discovered how to get an edge at low limit poker, my frugal nature makes it harder to risk real money at a craps table when I could be playing Hold Em. In craps there is always a mathematical advantage for the house. Whenever I am in Vegas, I play a little on really low limit tables, $3 or under, with 10 X the odds.
However, I always play matchplays.
Matchplays are the hot fudge sundaes of frugality. For one bet the gambler has one huge edge over the casino and the revenge is sweet.
So there I was with my quarter chip and my little piece of paper which if the randomness flowed my way would also be worth a quarter.
The old guy rolling to the right of me was on a fine roll. He had worked his way to making his point of 8 after hitting number after number even before I placed my bet. Now I wondered how it could go. In craps a guy like that is called a “hot roller” and often will attract a crowd. The belief is that he has luck and everyone wants to get a part of it. In Vegas there already would have been a crowd yelling and hooting and clapping and supplications for numbers:
“Come on........”
But this was Connecticut at ten in the morning. No hooting. Just a little tension as the shooter set and aimed.
“Point 8”
Ahh....now I can begin to sweat.
$25 on one roll is a big bet for me, and now I had Nick the Greek telling me this would also be my luck prediction bet for the day. In the realm of subjective superstition many things were hanging on this roll.
In one sense I had already been lucky with this matchplay. My gambling buddy Louisiana Mudgriff Dan heard I was going to Foxwoods and immediately mailed me some Casino Player coupons. Dan is like that. You tell him anything and when you check the mail, there will be a present. I asked him once about a CAT bus route and got a thick Transit guide, asked again about Tunica and in came a Mississippi guide. Lately we have been talking about alligators, so I approach my mailbox very gingerly each day.
Dan and our Florida buddy, Lucky Pete, are coupon lovers who collect Silverstrikes but don’t use matchplays. Gamblers dream of such friends. If any of us have to pay full price for anything in Vegas, we feel as if we have failed. But to Pete and Dan matchplays are just junkmail that take up buffet 2-4-1 coupon space the wallet.
“Six,......easy”
This fellow liked the six. He wasn’t making the famous V- six dice set and his throws were no where near controlled, but six easy came often. When you are hoping for eight, six is frustrating. Six and eight are sister numbers; when the wrong one falls you use another of those “Come on” supplications and think that her sister must not be too far behind.
The shooter also loved throwing two sixes together. When they come, you just sigh. What a useless waste of suspenseful anticipation! They are unless you bet them. And if you bet them often, your gameplan is useless. Now here they were over and over again to frustrate my expectations.
“So where the hell is the damn eight?” I asked myself, trying not to think about seven.
And then the old guy hit it.
$50 in winnings in my pocket. What a fine way to start the day!
If Nick was right, this was to be a very good one.
The truth was that this entire trip had already been very lucky. When I had gone with my free voucher to book this bus trip, they told me it was sold out and that the waiting list for cancellations was long. In fact, all the seats for the week were sold and it was next Tuesday before I could get a reservation and then I got the last seat. This Yankee Trails sale was at a tipping point and very popular. $16 bus fare that includes a Bonus of $20 of free keno, and a free $16 buffet is a frugal player’s delight.
And this was the week I really wanted to go. Elizabeth is away nursing a sick friend, so I have been trying to play poker like I was in Vegas rather than in this place where even in March 2 feet of snow can come like a seven after the spring point is established.
On Monday, Greg bought me lunch (we play on line for lunch) Afterwards we played some head to head nickel no limit and he fleeced me $60 before I gained the edge and came back with $7 profit. After his wife Annie fed me supper, Greg urged just 10 more minutes of play and in those few hands got a $9 edge on me. Greg has learned well from casinos how to feed people and then take their money.
Wednesday, Bill, Slink and I planned Turning Stone. Friday the union sponsors a free buffet get together at Saratoga Harness. Saturday Slink holds his first spring Hold Em tournament. I could not let Yankee Trails spoil a perfectly good week of wagering.
I got up and met the bus at 7 AM with no ticket. Sure enough, there was one empty seat. And it was a fine, comfortable seat, too, right next to a tiny, very old Chinese woman with the most delightfully well aged face whose smiling face spoke a pleasant song of Chinese to her with her nearby friends. Greg has to travel hours on a plane to get to Kunming to have this other culture experience. I was having it for free.
When we arrived at Foxwoods, my luck was still with me because, as Jean Scott always says, “the smarter I get, the luckier I am.”
Every senior citizen in the greater Northeast had descended on Foxwoods at the same time and each one had free keno vouchers and some business with the Player’s Club. People in walkers are slow in lines.
Remembering that old Disneyland open gate strategy, I skipped ahead a couple casino areas and found another Rewards counter, validated Mudgriff’s matchplay, and won my craps luck prediction money before many had shuffled their walked a yard. On the way back the old folks were still waiting in an even longer Wampum Rewards line, but the Keno line had thinned to nothing.
Ahhhh.....I felt like such a winner. Money and a short line. This had to mean something.
I could not get a seat at 4-8 poker table and played a while at 2-4. Holding two spades I lost a king high space flush to the ace high. Then I caught a couple small pots. The young folks around me were talkative, very happy, funny, and friendly. I liked their banter. But the one to my left was a lover of the blind straddle. His buddies warned me that my big blinds would suffer a threat almost every time to this idiocy. I took him once when his blind straddle encouraged him to play an 8-3 offsuit and to rebet after the flop. And then I got really lucky; they called me for my 4-8 seat.
I shouted to the floor person to lock it up , but by the time I got my chips to the table, some line cutter had already tried to take my seat. He had not been called. He had just jumped in and put his card down to go buy chips. A Mohegan Sun card at that. It is so frantic in the poker room that the floor people cannot manage very well and don’t have time to listen, but this time one did and so once again by being assertive I lucked into the last seat, and my favorite, right across from the dealer, and on a brand new table. Starting a new table means starting with people who are new to the game that day and starting even. No one knows how anyone plays.
My luck was running very good indeed.
It got better. There was one young fellow who overbet constantly. He did not overbet by raising or reraising. No one reraised much at all. He bet out on nothing, stayed in with nothing much and called easily. If I had cards, I just let him bet in to me. Once in the lead he would not relent, even on the river, even after many of my check raises should have taught him better. Once I my pocket nines develop into the second biggest full house. I lead each betting round from the button on this one. and I was getting calls until after the turn. He stayed for the river and bet into me. I raised and he folded in disgust.
The table was very frustrated with me. I kept winning. They were sure that I was bluffing, but they did not have the goods to call me often and when they did, since I was not ever bluffing, I beat them. It was a good thing to happen at the beginning of the play because it gave me a loose table image. Had it happened after I had played like a rock for two hours, I would never have gotten so many callers. It was a fine long streak of good flops followed by win after win, and they were tired of it.
Once I acted after the big blind and raised pocket jacks. The woman to the left of me called as did a couple others, and then a fellow just two players to the right reraised. There are so few reraises in this game that it was notable. I called. And the woman to the left of me now capped the bet!!!
I was totally confused. A called. Then a third raise? These were good players. What was happening?
A jack made me trips on the flop. But it came with a king. If the raisers and reraisers had pocket kings, I was beat. I bet. They called. On the turn the board developed so that a straight and a flush were possible. I was confused. I checked my trips figuring anyone who called with that board would have me beat. I checked. They checked and each of them turned over pocket aces. What a fine hand to win! And what an oddity. The strangest thing was that not more than 6 hands before two players similarly each held pocket aces.
But my win did not make me more popular at the table. I had been beat when I raised preflop, and by the end there were so many ways for me to be beat that my trips holding up seemed to be a miracle against odds.
Soon after I had 8-2 in the big blind and 2-2-5 flopped. I checked and that maniac guy bet holding two jacks. A couple others called and I slow played by checking. An 8 came on the turn. I now had a full house. I checked, maniac bet and I still slow played and called. On the river came another 8. I now had the nut fullhouse 8’s full of 5’s. Of course I checked. Maniac bet his jacks, one older tight player after him called.
I raised. Well, you never heard such groaning. How lucky I was to keep “catching” these cards. And a “check raise” no less. Maniac and the old guy folded and I collected, but I did not show my 8-2. More grumbling. Speculation on my hand. Some suspicion that I might have bluffed.
Later I had a pair of kings and a straight draw after the turn. I bet. The lovely young black woman to my left called me, and as she did she softly said to me, “Don’t hurt me!” That was the most sensual moment of the day. But of course, I caught the straight, bet and beat her two pair, and the table hated me even more.
And then as fast as it started it ended. I hardly played a hand for the next hour or so. I was very quiet. I sat back and ordered a strawberry milkshake wishing that I could still sip Johnny Walker Black and that I wasn’t old with arthritic fingers and alcohol-precluding meds, but young enough to ask the Black girl with the tender voice to come with me to supper.
My mind drifted.
I had to be reminded to fold.
New players trickled in. It probably was time to go, but I just let the cards shuffle, fall, enjoyed the randomness, the downside of excitement. Nick had been right. The luck had held. When I left to collect my $5 in keno winnings from the free tickets and to eat the free buffet, I counted $429 in profit. Not a bad day of poker.
I still had time after the buffet. I walked in some new section and there was another reminder of Nick the Greek, a Sic Bo table. They called the game Chuck-a-Luck in his day and the three dice were then in a cage. Now they rested in a little plastic globe which vibrated after a player hit a button to start the game. The game was crowded with Asians and felt very friendly and fun. People smiled when it was their turn to hit the button, rejoiced when they won, and even smiled ironically when they lost. How could it happen to lose so often? How could they change their bets only to see the old numbers pay? What was this all about? The table is very colorful with fine green dragons and lots of red. The dice rattle, the board lights up the winners. It is a delightful diversion with a house edge on Small and Big bets that is lower than the slots and half the edge of roulette, 2.78%; however, the rest of the bets are killers, many much higher than keno. At Turning Stone my old college buddy Mike and I used to play it with $5 matchplays when the craps and BJ tables were full. If I did not think about the house edge (in the teens on most bets) I could enjoy the game.
And this made me think of Nick the Greek again. And of Einstein. Nick used to introduce Einstein around Vegas as "Little Al from Princeton - controls a lot of the action around Jersey." One day Nick noticed the famous thinker fascinated with a Chuck-a-Luck game and watching the three dice. intently. Nick got nervous. He did not want his famous friend to get caught in this sucker game. So he went up to Einstein and said something.
But it turned out that Einstein’s quick mind had easily done the mathematics and was simply fascinated that people who actually wager on a game with such impossible odds. I wonder what he would think today when people will wait in line to play 6/5 Double Bonus poker.
Nick estimated that he won and then lost 500,000,000. He died broke. I have my $429 in my pocket, but I also just got lucky again and against the odds, with fifteen on the waiting list ahead of me on Monday, I just booked another $16 bus ride to Foxwoods on Thursday. And I have a $10 matchplay for this trip.
So we’ll see.
There is no way I would do that. I can’t seem to get my teeth around that 5.6% vigorish on an American roulette wheel.
But I was thinking about Nick when I took my Foxwoods $25 matchplay to the craps tables soon after arriving at Foxwoods yesterday.
Robin and I had split a matchplay on our last trip and lost in just two rolls: 10 - 7 out and we had gone on to lose at poker too.
Losing on just two craps rolls is a real downer. It hardly gives you time to anticipate outcomes, to experience that breath taking moment when the dice arc gracefully through the quiet air to clatter and roll into that randomness that will determine your wealth or poverty.
I love craps, but since I discovered how to get an edge at low limit poker, my frugal nature makes it harder to risk real money at a craps table when I could be playing Hold Em. In craps there is always a mathematical advantage for the house. Whenever I am in Vegas, I play a little on really low limit tables, $3 or under, with 10 X the odds.
However, I always play matchplays.
Matchplays are the hot fudge sundaes of frugality. For one bet the gambler has one huge edge over the casino and the revenge is sweet.
So there I was with my quarter chip and my little piece of paper which if the randomness flowed my way would also be worth a quarter.
The old guy rolling to the right of me was on a fine roll. He had worked his way to making his point of 8 after hitting number after number even before I placed my bet. Now I wondered how it could go. In craps a guy like that is called a “hot roller” and often will attract a crowd. The belief is that he has luck and everyone wants to get a part of it. In Vegas there already would have been a crowd yelling and hooting and clapping and supplications for numbers:
“Come on........”
But this was Connecticut at ten in the morning. No hooting. Just a little tension as the shooter set and aimed.
“Point 8”
Ahh....now I can begin to sweat.
$25 on one roll is a big bet for me, and now I had Nick the Greek telling me this would also be my luck prediction bet for the day. In the realm of subjective superstition many things were hanging on this roll.
In one sense I had already been lucky with this matchplay. My gambling buddy Louisiana Mudgriff Dan heard I was going to Foxwoods and immediately mailed me some Casino Player coupons. Dan is like that. You tell him anything and when you check the mail, there will be a present. I asked him once about a CAT bus route and got a thick Transit guide, asked again about Tunica and in came a Mississippi guide. Lately we have been talking about alligators, so I approach my mailbox very gingerly each day.
Dan and our Florida buddy, Lucky Pete, are coupon lovers who collect Silverstrikes but don’t use matchplays. Gamblers dream of such friends. If any of us have to pay full price for anything in Vegas, we feel as if we have failed. But to Pete and Dan matchplays are just junkmail that take up buffet 2-4-1 coupon space the wallet.
“Six,......easy”
This fellow liked the six. He wasn’t making the famous V- six dice set and his throws were no where near controlled, but six easy came often. When you are hoping for eight, six is frustrating. Six and eight are sister numbers; when the wrong one falls you use another of those “Come on” supplications and think that her sister must not be too far behind.
The shooter also loved throwing two sixes together. When they come, you just sigh. What a useless waste of suspenseful anticipation! They are unless you bet them. And if you bet them often, your gameplan is useless. Now here they were over and over again to frustrate my expectations.
“So where the hell is the damn eight?” I asked myself, trying not to think about seven.
And then the old guy hit it.
$50 in winnings in my pocket. What a fine way to start the day!
If Nick was right, this was to be a very good one.
The truth was that this entire trip had already been very lucky. When I had gone with my free voucher to book this bus trip, they told me it was sold out and that the waiting list for cancellations was long. In fact, all the seats for the week were sold and it was next Tuesday before I could get a reservation and then I got the last seat. This Yankee Trails sale was at a tipping point and very popular. $16 bus fare that includes a Bonus of $20 of free keno, and a free $16 buffet is a frugal player’s delight.
And this was the week I really wanted to go. Elizabeth is away nursing a sick friend, so I have been trying to play poker like I was in Vegas rather than in this place where even in March 2 feet of snow can come like a seven after the spring point is established.
On Monday, Greg bought me lunch (we play on line for lunch) Afterwards we played some head to head nickel no limit and he fleeced me $60 before I gained the edge and came back with $7 profit. After his wife Annie fed me supper, Greg urged just 10 more minutes of play and in those few hands got a $9 edge on me. Greg has learned well from casinos how to feed people and then take their money.
Wednesday, Bill, Slink and I planned Turning Stone. Friday the union sponsors a free buffet get together at Saratoga Harness. Saturday Slink holds his first spring Hold Em tournament. I could not let Yankee Trails spoil a perfectly good week of wagering.
I got up and met the bus at 7 AM with no ticket. Sure enough, there was one empty seat. And it was a fine, comfortable seat, too, right next to a tiny, very old Chinese woman with the most delightfully well aged face whose smiling face spoke a pleasant song of Chinese to her with her nearby friends. Greg has to travel hours on a plane to get to Kunming to have this other culture experience. I was having it for free.
When we arrived at Foxwoods, my luck was still with me because, as Jean Scott always says, “the smarter I get, the luckier I am.”
Every senior citizen in the greater Northeast had descended on Foxwoods at the same time and each one had free keno vouchers and some business with the Player’s Club. People in walkers are slow in lines.
Remembering that old Disneyland open gate strategy, I skipped ahead a couple casino areas and found another Rewards counter, validated Mudgriff’s matchplay, and won my craps luck prediction money before many had shuffled their walked a yard. On the way back the old folks were still waiting in an even longer Wampum Rewards line, but the Keno line had thinned to nothing.
Ahhhh.....I felt like such a winner. Money and a short line. This had to mean something.
I could not get a seat at 4-8 poker table and played a while at 2-4. Holding two spades I lost a king high space flush to the ace high. Then I caught a couple small pots. The young folks around me were talkative, very happy, funny, and friendly. I liked their banter. But the one to my left was a lover of the blind straddle. His buddies warned me that my big blinds would suffer a threat almost every time to this idiocy. I took him once when his blind straddle encouraged him to play an 8-3 offsuit and to rebet after the flop. And then I got really lucky; they called me for my 4-8 seat.
I shouted to the floor person to lock it up , but by the time I got my chips to the table, some line cutter had already tried to take my seat. He had not been called. He had just jumped in and put his card down to go buy chips. A Mohegan Sun card at that. It is so frantic in the poker room that the floor people cannot manage very well and don’t have time to listen, but this time one did and so once again by being assertive I lucked into the last seat, and my favorite, right across from the dealer, and on a brand new table. Starting a new table means starting with people who are new to the game that day and starting even. No one knows how anyone plays.
My luck was running very good indeed.
It got better. There was one young fellow who overbet constantly. He did not overbet by raising or reraising. No one reraised much at all. He bet out on nothing, stayed in with nothing much and called easily. If I had cards, I just let him bet in to me. Once in the lead he would not relent, even on the river, even after many of my check raises should have taught him better. Once I my pocket nines develop into the second biggest full house. I lead each betting round from the button on this one. and I was getting calls until after the turn. He stayed for the river and bet into me. I raised and he folded in disgust.
The table was very frustrated with me. I kept winning. They were sure that I was bluffing, but they did not have the goods to call me often and when they did, since I was not ever bluffing, I beat them. It was a good thing to happen at the beginning of the play because it gave me a loose table image. Had it happened after I had played like a rock for two hours, I would never have gotten so many callers. It was a fine long streak of good flops followed by win after win, and they were tired of it.
Once I acted after the big blind and raised pocket jacks. The woman to the left of me called as did a couple others, and then a fellow just two players to the right reraised. There are so few reraises in this game that it was notable. I called. And the woman to the left of me now capped the bet!!!
I was totally confused. A called. Then a third raise? These were good players. What was happening?
A jack made me trips on the flop. But it came with a king. If the raisers and reraisers had pocket kings, I was beat. I bet. They called. On the turn the board developed so that a straight and a flush were possible. I was confused. I checked my trips figuring anyone who called with that board would have me beat. I checked. They checked and each of them turned over pocket aces. What a fine hand to win! And what an oddity. The strangest thing was that not more than 6 hands before two players similarly each held pocket aces.
But my win did not make me more popular at the table. I had been beat when I raised preflop, and by the end there were so many ways for me to be beat that my trips holding up seemed to be a miracle against odds.
Soon after I had 8-2 in the big blind and 2-2-5 flopped. I checked and that maniac guy bet holding two jacks. A couple others called and I slow played by checking. An 8 came on the turn. I now had a full house. I checked, maniac bet and I still slow played and called. On the river came another 8. I now had the nut fullhouse 8’s full of 5’s. Of course I checked. Maniac bet his jacks, one older tight player after him called.
I raised. Well, you never heard such groaning. How lucky I was to keep “catching” these cards. And a “check raise” no less. Maniac and the old guy folded and I collected, but I did not show my 8-2. More grumbling. Speculation on my hand. Some suspicion that I might have bluffed.
Later I had a pair of kings and a straight draw after the turn. I bet. The lovely young black woman to my left called me, and as she did she softly said to me, “Don’t hurt me!” That was the most sensual moment of the day. But of course, I caught the straight, bet and beat her two pair, and the table hated me even more.
And then as fast as it started it ended. I hardly played a hand for the next hour or so. I was very quiet. I sat back and ordered a strawberry milkshake wishing that I could still sip Johnny Walker Black and that I wasn’t old with arthritic fingers and alcohol-precluding meds, but young enough to ask the Black girl with the tender voice to come with me to supper.
My mind drifted.
I had to be reminded to fold.
New players trickled in. It probably was time to go, but I just let the cards shuffle, fall, enjoyed the randomness, the downside of excitement. Nick had been right. The luck had held. When I left to collect my $5 in keno winnings from the free tickets and to eat the free buffet, I counted $429 in profit. Not a bad day of poker.
I still had time after the buffet. I walked in some new section and there was another reminder of Nick the Greek, a Sic Bo table. They called the game Chuck-a-Luck in his day and the three dice were then in a cage. Now they rested in a little plastic globe which vibrated after a player hit a button to start the game. The game was crowded with Asians and felt very friendly and fun. People smiled when it was their turn to hit the button, rejoiced when they won, and even smiled ironically when they lost. How could it happen to lose so often? How could they change their bets only to see the old numbers pay? What was this all about? The table is very colorful with fine green dragons and lots of red. The dice rattle, the board lights up the winners. It is a delightful diversion with a house edge on Small and Big bets that is lower than the slots and half the edge of roulette, 2.78%; however, the rest of the bets are killers, many much higher than keno. At Turning Stone my old college buddy Mike and I used to play it with $5 matchplays when the craps and BJ tables were full. If I did not think about the house edge (in the teens on most bets) I could enjoy the game.
And this made me think of Nick the Greek again. And of Einstein. Nick used to introduce Einstein around Vegas as "Little Al from Princeton - controls a lot of the action around Jersey." One day Nick noticed the famous thinker fascinated with a Chuck-a-Luck game and watching the three dice. intently. Nick got nervous. He did not want his famous friend to get caught in this sucker game. So he went up to Einstein and said something.
But it turned out that Einstein’s quick mind had easily done the mathematics and was simply fascinated that people who actually wager on a game with such impossible odds. I wonder what he would think today when people will wait in line to play 6/5 Double Bonus poker.
Nick estimated that he won and then lost 500,000,000. He died broke. I have my $429 in my pocket, but I also just got lucky again and against the odds, with fifteen on the waiting list ahead of me on Monday, I just booked another $16 bus ride to Foxwoods on Thursday. And I have a $10 matchplay for this trip.
So we’ll see.
Friday, February 9, 2007
conversations with Mike
Fantastic starters, Mike. Too bad on the aces. It is so much fun to read your reports. No one else in my group writes much of anything. It is interesting how much our interests have evolved in the same direction starting with craps and continuing into Hold em.
I have never had a similar casino experience of putting someone all in in a no capped situation. That must have been a thrill. And you must have been worried because you could be beaten. The guy should not have seen even one reraise with just trips.
This pattern of how the starting hands fall, is always fascinating to me. I laugh more in this game than my fellow players. To know that randomness is always a factor in life and to face that with good humor is the best thing I have learned from this game. Too many people playing outside of Vegas let that randomness get them grumpy. When other people win against the odds, the predictable players get surly. They act personally offended. Sometimes they even walk away from the table.
It gets so bad that some continue to whine even when they are winning. I am a bit of a kidder, so I am apt to tell them that "Winners can't be whiners." I might even to confidently say in a serious tone that the rule is in the official Hold Em rules book.
I forgot to put one good story in the blog. I can't remember the exact details, but there was a fellow playing with a World Poker Tour cap who raised on a heart flush draw because he had the ace of hearts and was in position to get a free card if he raised. He did not catch the heart he needed for the nut flush, but he won the pot with a small pair. It was so clear that he had raised with a poor hand that he felt he needed to explain it. "I misread my cards," he explained. I laughed. No one else did.
So I said, "Hey, that was a good bet. You can't really wear that WSOP hat and tell us you misread."
"Well, I guess you are right," he admitted.
I know I should have kept that information to myself, but I so loved seeing him make the perfect play, completely fool us, and then attempt to convince us that it was all a mistake so we would not put see him as a skilled player. He was saying to the table that he was a klutz while really being in charge.
Well, I'll be going up again next week and we will see how it goes. As for $4-$8 choice. There is no $3 -$6 at Foxwoods. The $2 -$4 is always no foldem holdem and no one pays any attention to how tight I am, so I can't make the occasional bluff or semibluff because there is always someone to call to the river.
This kind of play would be impossible at 2-4 but it happened at 4-8. After playing tight for a long while at Foxwoods I got a pair of tens, but acting first after the BB.. When I raised, all but one person folded. This is at a table where most people pay $4 to see the flop, so the pot was close to $40. Head to head I had a much better chance with a pair of tens. The turn and river both were bigger than tens, so I checked to the end as did my opponent. I won. And I got to show the pair of tens, so that the next time I raised with aces, I might get callers.
On a $2 -$4 table this would never happen. They would not track my play. They would not remember my tens on my next raise in early position. And I could not raise for free cards ever.
I don't really know if I should be moving up another notch to $5 - $10. I suspect that there will be better players there and not so many calling stations, so the pots will be about the same size, but it will cost more to see cards. I also know that in higher levels of play would be more trickier players. There was virtually no reraising at our level. I like that. I want the only reraises to be mine.
At the Majestic Star in Gary Indianna the $3 -$6 was the only offering except no limit. I watched my son play no- limit and it was at a table where players talked openly about cards and expectations so I got a real sense of how hard this game was and also how fast it went. My son told me that much of the talk was meant to disquise what they really had or how they really thought so the levels just keep coming.
But the limit game was just like a $2 - $4 game with a few good players who were frustrated. One maniac loose player will either amass great wealth or get drained over an afternoon, but five of them will tend to move the chips between themselves and drain the rest of us unless we just get the best cards everytime, the best being cards that can hold up against runner runner straights or flushes.
In contrast, at Foxwoods they select hands and they fold hands. We had one maniac at the $4 - $8 table who actually won a pot when two sevens came on the turn and river. He had played and come out betting to the river with 2-7 offsuit. And it was no fluke. He played almost every hand, bet often and called almost everything, paying us nicely if we had cards. For a time he collected chips, but then he started to get drained. He groaned often as if fate was against him. Strange!
Michael Everson wrote:
Hi, Dewey. Nice report. Below is a synopsis of my time at Riverside Casino
last Saturday night. I esp. found your report interesting for the lack of
starting hands you got. I've had those nights, but Saturday, here's what I
got for starting hands:
During a five-hour session, I was dealt a pair of tens once, a pair of nines
once, a pair of jacks once, a pair of queens once, and a pair of aces FIVE
TIMES. Of these, I eventually won with every hand EXCEPT the aces, where out
of five hands, I won two of them. Interestingly enough, with the non-ace
pairs I won either unimproved or by picking up another pair. With the aces,
I won one hand unimproved, one hand picking up a pair of eights on the flop,
and the other three I lost when other people had either pocket jacks or
pocket queens to my aces and they were able to trip up; the other hand, in
spite of my heavy betting, one guy made a straight on the river that I would
have beat him unimproved with if he hadn't caught the last card. Stuff
happens.
Other notable hands: I get dealt eight-deuce suited; a crap hand, but I'm
the big blind so I decide to see the flop. The flop comes eight-eight-deuce.
The kid next to me who pays to see ALL flops, has the fourth eight in his
hand, so he starts betting and raising like mad--he bets and raises until
it's only the two of us left in the pot, and the rule is that if it's
heads-up, there is no capping on the bet, so he raises and I re-raise until
all his chips are in the middle. I show him my full house and he just about
dies. He can't pair the other card in his hand so I win.
I get dealt a reasonable hand, have a four of hearts in my hand, and there
are three hearts on the board at the turn. The river card is a heart as
well, so now I have a flush, with only a four of hearts as my high heart.
It's my turn to bet first and I notice that everyone is starting to count
out chips, so I fold a flush. Three guys stay in and bet their asses off.
Two have flushes and the third guy has quad three's to take the pot.
Sometimes it's just better to observe...
I am dealt a pair of eights and am the first to play--I bet and the table
calls--no raises. As the game progresses, the board pairs jacks and the
action is still light with people being fairly tentative. The third jack
falls on the river and a kid who has been tentative starts the bet, everyone
folds to me, and I raise. I figure the kid for a pair and since I have a
pair of eights, I feel the odds are in my favor that my pair is higher given
the fact that he hasn't been betting. He re-raises me, so I call, and he
turns over a pair of sevens. He just about when into shock when I turned
over my eights.
Like you, I was actually was quite a bit down at the beginning--about $130
in the first hour and a half. Some old guy next to me in three consequtive
hands got a pair of tens, a pair of tens, and a pair of queens. After about
five more hands, I got a pair of aces and he got a pair of queens and
managed to get a third, beating me. It was just really wild. At about 9:30
pm when I thought it would be a good time to leave, my cards started to
improve dramatically.
Lessons learned:
It's true. These guys who see every flop will win an occasional flush or
straight on the river, but in the long run, they end up hemmoraging to
death. It happened with every guy at the table who never saw a flop he
didn't want to play;
Hands like ace-six are just awful hands to play. Even guys who would catch
two pair were ALWAYS outkicked. You simply can't underestimate the value of
better kickers.
I have to learn when to fold hands that have started with monster pairs.
Maybe learn to read players better. When is it that you realize it's time to
fold pocket aces?
I liked your comments about $4-$8. I was wondering if it's a substantially
different game, but you seem to indicate that it has its share of cash
machines. Maybe I'll consider playing that after some more time at the
$3-$6 table.
Mike
I have never had a similar casino experience of putting someone all in in a no capped situation. That must have been a thrill. And you must have been worried because you could be beaten. The guy should not have seen even one reraise with just trips.
This pattern of how the starting hands fall, is always fascinating to me. I laugh more in this game than my fellow players. To know that randomness is always a factor in life and to face that with good humor is the best thing I have learned from this game. Too many people playing outside of Vegas let that randomness get them grumpy. When other people win against the odds, the predictable players get surly. They act personally offended. Sometimes they even walk away from the table.
It gets so bad that some continue to whine even when they are winning. I am a bit of a kidder, so I am apt to tell them that "Winners can't be whiners." I might even to confidently say in a serious tone that the rule is in the official Hold Em rules book.
I forgot to put one good story in the blog. I can't remember the exact details, but there was a fellow playing with a World Poker Tour cap who raised on a heart flush draw because he had the ace of hearts and was in position to get a free card if he raised. He did not catch the heart he needed for the nut flush, but he won the pot with a small pair. It was so clear that he had raised with a poor hand that he felt he needed to explain it. "I misread my cards," he explained. I laughed. No one else did.
So I said, "Hey, that was a good bet. You can't really wear that WSOP hat and tell us you misread."
"Well, I guess you are right," he admitted.
I know I should have kept that information to myself, but I so loved seeing him make the perfect play, completely fool us, and then attempt to convince us that it was all a mistake so we would not put see him as a skilled player. He was saying to the table that he was a klutz while really being in charge.
Well, I'll be going up again next week and we will see how it goes. As for $4-$8 choice. There is no $3 -$6 at Foxwoods. The $2 -$4 is always no foldem holdem and no one pays any attention to how tight I am, so I can't make the occasional bluff or semibluff because there is always someone to call to the river.
This kind of play would be impossible at 2-4 but it happened at 4-8. After playing tight for a long while at Foxwoods I got a pair of tens, but acting first after the BB.. When I raised, all but one person folded. This is at a table where most people pay $4 to see the flop, so the pot was close to $40. Head to head I had a much better chance with a pair of tens. The turn and river both were bigger than tens, so I checked to the end as did my opponent. I won. And I got to show the pair of tens, so that the next time I raised with aces, I might get callers.
On a $2 -$4 table this would never happen. They would not track my play. They would not remember my tens on my next raise in early position. And I could not raise for free cards ever.
I don't really know if I should be moving up another notch to $5 - $10. I suspect that there will be better players there and not so many calling stations, so the pots will be about the same size, but it will cost more to see cards. I also know that in higher levels of play would be more trickier players. There was virtually no reraising at our level. I like that. I want the only reraises to be mine.
At the Majestic Star in Gary Indianna the $3 -$6 was the only offering except no limit. I watched my son play no- limit and it was at a table where players talked openly about cards and expectations so I got a real sense of how hard this game was and also how fast it went. My son told me that much of the talk was meant to disquise what they really had or how they really thought so the levels just keep coming.
But the limit game was just like a $2 - $4 game with a few good players who were frustrated. One maniac loose player will either amass great wealth or get drained over an afternoon, but five of them will tend to move the chips between themselves and drain the rest of us unless we just get the best cards everytime, the best being cards that can hold up against runner runner straights or flushes.
In contrast, at Foxwoods they select hands and they fold hands. We had one maniac at the $4 - $8 table who actually won a pot when two sevens came on the turn and river. He had played and come out betting to the river with 2-7 offsuit. And it was no fluke. He played almost every hand, bet often and called almost everything, paying us nicely if we had cards. For a time he collected chips, but then he started to get drained. He groaned often as if fate was against him. Strange!
Michael Everson
Hi, Dewey. Nice report. Below is a synopsis of my time at Riverside Casino
last Saturday night. I esp. found your report interesting for the lack of
starting hands you got. I've had those nights, but Saturday, here's what I
got for starting hands:
During a five-hour session, I was dealt a pair of tens once, a pair of nines
once, a pair of jacks once, a pair of queens once, and a pair of aces FIVE
TIMES. Of these, I eventually won with every hand EXCEPT the aces, where out
of five hands, I won two of them. Interestingly enough, with the non-ace
pairs I won either unimproved or by picking up another pair. With the aces,
I won one hand unimproved, one hand picking up a pair of eights on the flop,
and the other three I lost when other people had either pocket jacks or
pocket queens to my aces and they were able to trip up; the other hand, in
spite of my heavy betting, one guy made a straight on the river that I would
have beat him unimproved with if he hadn't caught the last card. Stuff
happens.
Other notable hands: I get dealt eight-deuce suited; a crap hand, but I'm
the big blind so I decide to see the flop. The flop comes eight-eight-deuce.
The kid next to me who pays to see ALL flops, has the fourth eight in his
hand, so he starts betting and raising like mad--he bets and raises until
it's only the two of us left in the pot, and the rule is that if it's
heads-up, there is no capping on the bet, so he raises and I re-raise until
all his chips are in the middle. I show him my full house and he just about
dies. He can't pair the other card in his hand so I win.
I get dealt a reasonable hand, have a four of hearts in my hand, and there
are three hearts on the board at the turn. The river card is a heart as
well, so now I have a flush, with only a four of hearts as my high heart.
It's my turn to bet first and I notice that everyone is starting to count
out chips, so I fold a flush. Three guys stay in and bet their asses off.
Two have flushes and the third guy has quad three's to take the pot.
Sometimes it's just better to observe...
I am dealt a pair of eights and am the first to play--I bet and the table
calls--no raises. As the game progresses, the board pairs jacks and the
action is still light with people being fairly tentative. The third jack
falls on the river and a kid who has been tentative starts the bet, everyone
folds to me, and I raise. I figure the kid for a pair and since I have a
pair of eights, I feel the odds are in my favor that my pair is higher given
the fact that he hasn't been betting. He re-raises me, so I call, and he
turns over a pair of sevens. He just about when into shock when I turned
over my eights.
Like you, I was actually was quite a bit down at the beginning--about $130
in the first hour and a half. Some old guy next to me in three consequtive
hands got a pair of tens, a pair of tens, and a pair of queens. After about
five more hands, I got a pair of aces and he got a pair of queens and
managed to get a third, beating me. It was just really wild. At about 9:30
pm when I thought it would be a good time to leave, my cards started to
improve dramatically.
Lessons learned:
It's true. These guys who see every flop will win an occasional flush or
straight on the river, but in the long run, they end up hemmoraging to
death. It happened with every guy at the table who never saw a flop he
didn't want to play;
Hands like ace-six are just awful hands to play. Even guys who would catch
two pair were ALWAYS outkicked. You simply can't underestimate the value of
better kickers.
I have to learn when to fold hands that have started with monster pairs.
Maybe learn to read players better. When is it that you realize it's time to
fold pocket aces?
I liked your comments about $4-$8. I was wondering if it's a substantially
different game, but you seem to indicate that it has its share of cash
machines. Maybe I'll consider playing that after some more time at the
$3-$6 table.
Mike
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