poker in St Louis

In case anyone's still playing attention:

I had the evening to kill, and after the big storm came through, I took a taxi over to the President Casino. After having to sign up for a card, paying a $2 cover fee, going downstairs to find the poker room, and having to go back upstairs for chips, I was finally ready to play. Then the floor manager lets me know that all they're spreading is $4-$8 limit hold'em.

Blink

Well, I didn't come all this way to NOT play poker, so I put my name on the no-limit list, and sat down. The action was great, as there were many callers to the flop, but any pressure post-flop caused most everyone to fold. I took down about 3 pots, and was +$36. So far, a good night.

After about an hour, the floor boss had managed to find enough people to start the no-limit game, so I moved over. The very first hand had 3 all-ins, with two people making a set of 8s on the flop which gave the 3rd 4 to a flush. The 4 to a flush guy had the other two covered, and spiked the 8 of diamonds to take down a monster pot. He had to have pulled in at least $300 on that hand.

Blink

My first hand at the no-limit table was 9s9c with the button. Several people called the big blind, and I pushed for $8, catching 4 callers. Amazing. The flop came 9TK rainbow, and I bet out for $30, causing everyone to fold, except for the gentleman to my immediate left. I immediately become nervous about a straight. The turn comes A, with no flush possible. My opponent checks.

This is the point where I believe I made a mistake. I didn't put him on a made straight on the flop. I had already raised, so why wouldn't he re-raise? If he didn't re-raise on the flop, checking on the river with a made straight doesn't make sense either. So, at that point, I should have known he was still on the draw, and I should have raised.

Instead, I checked, and the turn came the dreaded J. He checked, and i knew the only way he'd call a bet from me was if he had a Q. I checked, and turned over my set. He turned over a remarkably pretty pair of Queens. He scooped the pot, saying he shouldn't have made the call, as he put me on something like AK, and having made a pair of Kings on the flop. I advised him that if he really wanted to learn that lesson he should push all the chips he just got back over to me. Needless to say, he declined

So at this point I'm back around $100. To be specific, I'm at $94. A few hands come around, and I find myself with ATc with the big blind. I raise pre-flop, and catch a couple of callers. The flop comes 9 high, so I bet $20, and get a call. The turn brings a T, and I'm feeling pretty good. I've got TPTK, and my opponent didn't reraise me. He takes about a Metric Eternity thinking about what he wants to do. I start getting more and more nervous. I'm sure he's got at least 2 pair, and is trying to decide whether I've made a set or not. He calls, and I feel the beat like a punch to the stomach.

Instead he turns over K9, to have second best pair, and I only have 5 cards to dodge to double through him. the As hits, and I've just turned $94 into about $200. I tip and then run off with my winnings, as it's rapidly approaching 11, and I need to get to bed.

-$100 (buyin)
+$196 (cashed out)
-----
+$96

Not that bad for 2 or so hours of work.

Vegas Day 4&5

Day 4

Sorry I didn't post yesterday. I wound up running straight over to the tables after the conference let out and trying not to continue my pattern of winning one day and losing the next.

That pattern is currently unbroken.

I dropped my first buy in on a stupid semi-bluff with a pair of jacks. I had one caller who had made a straight on the turn. My second buy in was dropped when I felt I had pot odds to make my Flush. I had A7h and had raised 7 pre-flop and got several callers. The flop contained low cards, two of which were hearts. I pushed for 15, and had 2 callers, and then a guy put me all in. I figured it up that I had 9 outs for hearts, and 1.5 outs for a runner-runner 7 high straight. Multiply that by 4 (2 times the number of cards yet to come), and I figured I was at about 40% give or take. Since the pot was so big, I was getting about 2:1 on my money. I went ahead and called, but didn't make my flush.

-200

Total: -190

After that I tagged along with a guy from work. First he was playing Roulette, so I sat down with $40. I played numbers once (-10), then black twice (+20), then red (+10), so I had am currently +20 on roulette. Then I dropped a quarter into a slot machine. The stupid machine was difficult to use, so I used my tried and true method of handling stubborn electronics: I started mashing every button. Apparently that's a good tactic, as I got it to spit out a ticket worth $10.15. Apparently 10 years of computer support has finally gotten me somewhere.

Then we wandered around sight-seeing. The casinos are really just about all the exact same place. Someone asked me what I thought of Vegas. My answer is that I'd really pretty much rather drive to Tunica. The games are going to be exactly the same, the people seem nicer, and you don't have to walk 10 miles a day to get anywhere.

Day 5

I slept in till about noon, as we didn't get in till after 2 the previous morning. I once again wandered over to the Venetion Poker Room. I managed to find a tight table, and spent about 2 hours making turning $100 into $116. I cashed out, and went to grab some lunch/dinner around 3:00. Then I went back to another table, and watch my $100 turn into $78.

-100
+16
+78
----
-6

-190
-6
----
-196

With the $78, I bought into a $65 NLHE tournamet which I heard had 32 entries. There was a single $40 rebuy, which I made after having my pockets 3s outraced by an AQ. However, I managed to hold out till the money. 6th place bubbled, leaving the 5 paying spots looking at the top prize, which I calculate to be around $1300. 5th place was a short stack who pushed all in with AQo or so, and was called by the guy to my right who had 23o. The flop came 456, and we were down to 4. It looked to me like the gentleman two to my right began pushing the table around, raising 3 times in two orbits (8 hands). I caught A2h in my big blind, and I resolved to push all in if he raised. He did, and I did.

I think my real mistake here was resolving to do something before the situation arose. I thought he'd push, and I thought I should go all in, but I needed to take 30 seconds to look at him, at my hand, at our stacks, etc... before deciding what to do.

Anyway, he promptly calls, and shows AA. That's big trouble, but not impossible. Pre-flop I'm at about 11%. However, the flop was beautiful. There were two hearts, and no pairs or the last ace. Now I'm looking at 37% to win. But once again my final heart fails to come through, and I'm knocked out in 4th, which paid $392

-40
+392
----
+352

-196
+352
----
+156

So, I'm walking away from this poker trip +156. It was looking bad in the late game, but I pulled out to a pretty good lead at the end. And since I'm getting on a plane at 9:00 tomorrow, and it's after 1:00 now, I won't be playing any more poker for a little while.

Vegas Day 3

I've got a little more time today than yesterday, so this should be a better post.

The night before last (when I lost 300), we went to the old downtown and saw the Fremont Experience. Basically it's a A/V display on the ceiling of the street. It's probably a mile long, and about 40 to 60 feet across. The music was the best of the 80s, so I put in my headphones for the audio. The video was pretty standard "we've got a cool screen" fare. That is, flying birds, flying planes, flying jets, flying spaceships, etc... Not the most spectacular thing I've ever seen.

Then I watched as a couple of the other guys played roulette. Definitely not the game for me. I should have grabbed a copy of the payout sheet to see where the best bets were. The only way it could be worth it is if you abuse the free drinks.

Now, on to last night (Thursday).

The conference wound up finishing a little after 5, and there was going to be a party from 7 to 10. However, neither the free drinks nor the talking excited me, so I skipped out and went back to the Venetian for Poker.

The only hand I remember clearly was A8o on the button. I raised, and the flop came Axx. I bet every street, and got called down by one person. I could just about see the AT in her hand. However, she showed A6, and my 8 played.

Total for the night:

-100 (buy in)
+159 (cash out)
----
+59

Total for the trip:

-49
+59
----
+10

Vegas day 2

Quick update for yesterday, as I've been busy:

1. Played 2/5 NLHE at the Bellagio - bought in for $200, lost it all.

2. Went back to the Venetion to find my confidence - bought in for $100, lost it all.

total for Wed: -300

total for the trip: -49

It seems a lot worse when I look at it that way.

Vegas Day 1

Day 1 in Vegas:

I worked half a day, and then went to the airport. Apparently Southwestern runs direct flights from Little Rock to Vegas just about daily. Of course the company paid for it, which is a great way to get here. I think the price was about $400 for a round trip, so a fairly doable rate. The plane was at about 75-85% capacity.

In total the flight took around 3 hours, but I made up 2 of it in time zones, so I left at 3:45 CST and got here at about 5:00 PST. I checked in, dropped off my bags, and then headed to the strip.

That is to say, I started walking toward the biggest buildings around. I got turned around, and more or less just followed the crowds. Getting to the strip was fine, but getting back was a problem. More on that later.

I walked up and down the strip, just checking out the casinos. There were several I'd never heard of. At around 7:00 I wound up at the Venetian, as it seemed nice, and I rememberd hearing the poker was fairly soft.

I asked about games, and it looks like all they were doing was Hold'Em. I put myself on a request list for Omaha, and got in a 1/2 NLHE game. The table had 5 occupants, and 3 people sitting out. They walked me over, and I caught the big blind while waiting on my buy in. The dealer kindly loaned me $100 in chips. My hand was K7, and it was called around to me. I checked through, and the flop came K high. I bet out, and took down the pot for about $5. I eventually remembered that you should tip the dealer, and about 3 hands later did so. I think that was the only time I tipped without getting any callers.

After that, I played fairly ABC poker while waiting for some cards. I took a couple of pots, and more or less kept my $5 up. The table was terribly loose passive, with 3 or more (of the 6 present) people to a flop quite regularly. Then everyone would check around and show their middle pairs to take down the pot. I don't know if they did this to beat the rake (there had to be $10 before the dealers took anything), but once I recognized it, I started playing harder. Sure enough, I started pulling down small pots.

I think the table picked up on it, or I just found some bad spots, because I started getting reraised postflop, and wound up down to about $75. I thought my table image was fairly loose aggressive at this point, so I tightened up and waited for some cards.

Boy did I catch some. I had a T8 or so, and the flop came TTx, and I eventually got all my money in by the end with 1 caller. He turned over a weaker Tx, but we chopped thanks to the board. The house really cleaned up on that one, as I took down less money than I put in.

Then I caught 22, and the flop came xx2, with an ace, and I got called all in, making deuces full, and more than doubled up to $200 or so. I eventually did a similar thing with 55, and pulled down about another $100 with that one.

My first day total:

-100 (buyin)
+358 (cash out)
----
+258 for the trip

Then I tried to get home. I got hopelessly turned around and lost, wandered through some less than great looking places, got back on the strip, hailed a taxi and got back to my hotel for $7.

+251 for the trip.

Game night

Warhammer: Saturday night was a game night at the Daily Planet. I showed up with the same list I took to the Hombre, and played two games.

My first game was against Mark Burr, and his Dwarves. I've always found Dwarves to be a fairly good matchup for my Elves, as their low mobility means they have trouble reacting to my dancing. Basically here, I was able to isolate a few units, hit them with multiple units, and avoid getting stuck in. Of course, the fact that Mark's Anvil killed itself first turn might have had something to do with it.

My second game was against Tom Dixon's High Elves. This is a fairly standard Cavalry heavy list. I parked all my magic far, far away from his Ring of Corin, and put a trap on one of his units of Cavalry. That went well, killing his big mage. However, things started to go south for me with that unit, as several things bounced off of it. In addition, I pulled a real bone-headed move, and ran my Treeman out in front of both of his bolt throwers. He dropped 11 wounds on it that turn, killing it outright. The game turned out to be a draw, with mistakes on both of our parts. I have classically had problems dealing with the super-fast Cavalry, but lately I've found them to be less obnoxious. Had I dropped my free forest, and run my Treeman in it for protection against the bolt throwers, I could see this as having gone a different way.

Game of Thrones

Board Games: Ed hosted a Game of Thrones board game night. The players were 4 gamers (Bryan, Gideon, Ed and myself), and 1 relative non-gamer (Sarah). Sarah was not overwhelmed the game, having control of 3 or 4 cities at the end of the game (the victory condition). Ed and I were tied at 4 (or was it 5) for the win, but his having greater control of supplies won the tie. Had I spent more time in my order selection there was a chance I could have won. But that's just bitter grapes.

All in all the game was quite fun. Strategic, without suffering from analysis paralysis. The simultaneous laying of orders means that you're not bored while waiting for people to decide what to do. I also somewhat enjoyed the completely non-random battle system, but it also led to a highly defensive game, as you know that your +1 attack will probably not defeat his +2 defense, unless you've got the characters and support to win.