Random thoughts about my interests which include (in no particular order) poker, finance & investing, politics, football and whatever else I happen to see that piques my interest

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

I guess I'm just not very good


Or very lucky this trip. On the gambling front that is. On the blogger front I have been very lucky as I have met and spent time with Lightning36 and Lucki Duck (not to mention Ms Lucki Duck) who have all been terrific. But more on that later.


It's been a frustrating last few days at the poker tables for me, not to mention at every other table when you come right down to it. I was hoping to keep blogging everyday so that I can keep up to date on things but everytime I hit the room for any downtime I'm so tired I start to fall asleep in front of the keyboard. We are staying very busy and really the room in a hotel for me is where I lay my head and keep my water cold. Anyway when I left off I said that it got better for APQ and boy howdy did it ever.


The next day Lightning and I both played poker again. I had some bad luck as people kept making hands against me, especially flushes, but I also have to take the blame on one beat as I didn't bet high enough on the turn to push the guy out. Of course the way he was chasing, he probably calls my all in bet that I should have made anyway and then I am even broker. I had not gotten great cards in my first day at the tables which may have kept me out of some bad situations but I was able to bluff a bit more than I usually do. I have gotten more aggressive as of late when I enter pots to make sure I am telling a consistent story and be able to take down hands I don't hit. It is mostly working with a couple of bad exceptions (I truly screwed up one hand 2 nights ago when I was tired and it was late) and again I bet sized poorly but think I still take the hand down if I remain consistent.


Anway the cards rewarded me this day preflop. Early on I get KK in mid position. I raise 5x the big blind and of course 4 people call. I noticed at Ballys poker room that people routinely call good raises with just about any suited connector type hand. Flop is nothing, no help to me but with 2 hearts. I bet 25 which knocks out maybe one player. Turn is a black card, queen maybe. Now there is about $130 in the pot. I have about $160 in front of me. I should have pushed in and made this guy put all his chips in the pot but instead I only bet $65 which gave him just the right odds to call as everyone else folded. Heart on the river sinks me. He checks but I don't bet so I don't give him any more money as he shows AJ of hearts. Now he had most of his stack in the pot so he called my second raise for most of his chips on a draw but its still my fault for not pushing harder on the turn.


I get JJ and get whacked by another flush, this time I pushed hard on the flop by going all in. The same flushing donk called with a K-10 after he made a pair of tens with a flush draw and of course hit. This time I didn't give him odds but that was the way it went that day. Later I hit a broadway straight with Q-10 but of course three clubs were on the board and not one but 2 people had club flushes. I gave up poker for the day when my next all in preflop with KK gets sunk by some guy hitting two pair with 63.


I went to the 3 card poker table where the All Poker Queen was busy adding to her kingdom (queendom?). She had already hit 3 of a kind and a straight flush by then but had given some back in her attempt to annex Ballyville. Maybe it would be my time. Nope. But I did get to see the Queen in all her glory. The dealers changed right when I got there and Dewayne started dealing. The queen said to me, "Dewayne already dealt me a straight flush today". About 4 hands later he did it again. I was surprised Ballys security wasn't called to the table to escort her from the room after that one. She had this stack of black and green chips for over $1000 in front of her by then. She fed me some chips to keep me playing while she tried to add more to her queendom. We went on for a while, her keeping about even but feeding me some more chips. We decided to cash out when I finally hit something which was the 6 card bonus. I was playing a hand with 77J hoping to at least win the hand. I knew i would get a few bucks from the Pairs Plus bonus. The dealer flips over his hand and unfortunately beats me with JJ. But amazingly we made a full boat with our hands together and that was a nice $125 payout for the neophyte, my first decent one of the trip. We cashed out not long after that with APQ grabbing a little over a grand from the cage and me taking about $150.


More later, till then stay lucky you nuts.

2 comments:

Josie said...

You may not be very good, but Hubba Hubba! I saw your photo on Ducky's site.

Congrats to the wife - Awesome to hit like that when you're on vacay. Free trip!

lightning36 said...

Your post does not even begin to accurately describe the butt rapings you took while we were at the same table. And I think we both know that the hand where you mentioned bet sizing was going to end badly regardless since that guy was going to chase no matter what.

The frustrating thing about Bally's -- as you can certainly attest -- is that the same play that makes the game so appealing makes the beats so horrible when the donks get lucky. Instead of losing all those chips you should have had a huge stack.

It was great hanging out with you in Las Vegas. The night when we were putting down the drinks and joking and talking shit with those other fun guys (while the other end of the table was silent) was classic.

Word Verification (I kid you not): boymess