Long Time, No See

Well, it's been a month since the last posting, and a lot has happened. Went to see Hairspray in New York over the holidays in a fun gathering of family, then went out to the S T L to see Karen with high hopes of maybe meeting Nelly and/or Chingy. Alas, it was not meant to be and I ended up hanging out with Rockettes and was dubious of a really good time.

Another girl's boyfriend was there, Dave, and he liked to play cards too, so we decided on our down time (i.e. they were at their show) we would search St. Louis for their casinos. First up was Harrah's, and I have to say I was dissappointed. It was basically a smaller Foxwoods and the whole "casino inside a shopping mall" vibe was ever present. You walk in and there's 2 entrances, with a players club booth right in the middle. We tried to get in and were instructed to go to the booth, because every player needs a card for admission. While waiting on line we read the pamphlet about Missouri gaming commissions, and found that you can only buy in for $500 every 2 hours. Since everyone needs a card it just tracks how much you're in for and will not give you chips until the window is up. What I found interesting was that they were running a 5/10 NL game in the poker room and people had mountains of chips, clearly more than $500 so people must be bringing chips home with them.

As for the casino itself, I found it to be very small and a TON of slots with not many table games to speak of. The poker room was also very small and had maybe 12 tables. I guess I'm spoiled. Anyway, we only had a little bit of time to play and make it back (the casino was 9.3 miles away from our room, almost too good to be true) so we put our names on 3/6, yeah i'm a pussy, and waited to be called. It took a while and I met another guy on the rail who had told us about the Ameristar Casino that was much nicer that had Bad Beat Jackpots and High Hand Jackpots, they also had more tables. I put in a quick 45 minute session and lost $3.

The next day, the girls had 2 shows, so we decided to make it an all day affair at the Ameristar, which was 1.4 miles futhur than Harrah's. Now, I didn't think it would be nicer off the bat, because it sounded like a casino from the makers of a generic form of soda from Costco. But sure enough it was nicer, albeit just like the atmosphere of Foxwoods too, but overall, nicer. I played 3/6 there for about 6 hours and ended up making $145. *Memorable hand* This backwoods-ish guy with a trucker hat and stringy hair and possibly 8 teeth sat down and was your stereotypical raise every hand guy. He won a fair amount of pots as people at this limit do, but I called his preflop raise with 72o in the BB, and he as 2 to my right. Flop came T72 rainbow and I checked, the guy next to me checked and raiser fired $3. I called and the player to the left called. Turn came a J and I fired out $6, got raised, and 3 bet by the original raiser, I capped it and everyone called. River came a 4, I bet out $6 got raised, got called, I 3 bet it and they both called. I showed my 2 pair and the original raiser showed me KJs and the middle player had AJc. Nice $154 pot.

Flew home on the 1st and spent some days relaxing with Karen. Hall's season then had their freeroll, and they were nice enough to wait for me to come home before they had it. Top 10 people played and Top 3 paid out. I honestly don't remember any key hands except that Maltese almost got eliminated and the river card doubled him up and he went on to be chip leader about 4 hands later. I was severe short stacked (nothing new, and more on this later), and for some reason, 5 handed the 2 big stacks of Erod and someone else decided to get into it on a hand with Casey joining them. Casey took out both players, and somehow, I found my way into the money. I was eliminated soon after and took $50 for not much work really. Casey ended up winning the prize, with Maltese after him. Congrats to both.

There were a few weeks off from Eddie's game which just started last week again. He upped the buy-in to $30 and the chips from 2300 to 3000. He also just has one game a night now instead of 2. Last week, I finished on the bubble, and at Ditty's game I finished on the bubble again. Last night at Eddie's out of 20 i was the 6th person out. Here's how a key hand went down:

Blinds 25/50, I limped in with 78h. 4 others did too including Eddie, right to my left. BB raises it another 100, and everyone calls. With 600 in the pot the flop comes T96 with 2 clubs. What a flop! BB checks, middle position bets 100 and I raise to 650. Eddie smooth calls and everyone else folds. Turn comes a 4s and I bet 750 and Eddie calls. River comes the dreaded 2c and I check and Eddie bets 700 into a pot of 3400. It was a damn good value bet and a hell of a suck out when Eddie flipped over 57c. I felt terrible after this hand, and it seemed to be representative of the way cards have been going for me lately. I always have a good attitude going in, and then something happens and it's over.

Now, looking back, the turn bet was too weak by me, i bet a little less than 1/3 of the pot, and without knowing it, Eddie picked up 6 extra outs on the turn with an open ended straight draw. So, as much as I hate going all in during the first level, I guess I had to do it on the turn to shut out all the draws. This was my mistake and it cost me everything. I was able to double up with 6's when the BB called me with K 10. But after that I got anted to death and went all in with A10s and got 2 callers. Flop came 46Q and one guy bet 500, the other folded, he flipped over 35o, wow I was ahead! Turn came a 5...doh...river came a 7...doh doh! And again, another night of poor play. I went home and indulged in another terrible episode of Alias and impossible to get away from, yet addicting MTV reality shows, then cried myself to sleep*

* not really true