EXCALIBURI want to learn to play no limit, and I want to play more on the strip. I liked the Poker Pro machines at Excalibur. They are a perfect place for me to continue learning no limit and moving up in my play. There has been a number of arguments back and forth on machine dealt poker, but for me there is no question that it is a better game and I expect it will catch on. It certainly is a great way to begin to manage the complexities of no limit after playing primarily limit for years.
Here are the advantages”
1.First it is a low stakes table. Small fifty cent and dollar blinds and a max buy in of a hundred. If too many maniacs dominate then this is a bad place to play, but my experience is that the better players and those who like large pots go to the larger staked games.
2. The ease of putting a few hundred on a card and then replenishing the small losses so as to stay at the hundred max is a great advantage. I did not have to ask a dealer to sell me ten nor did I draw attention to the fact that I was replenishing to keep my stack as high as possible.
3.I did not have to visually count chips of other players or the pot. That math was in front of me in numbers and I could quietly consider it.
4.No tip. That means an extra dollar or two every winning pot.
5.Faster hands. Not as much chance of getting bored and playing something other than the best hands.
6.No out of turn betting, no false folding, no betting in the dark, no tricks.
7.No dealer jumping in to every conversation.
8.No virus infested chips or cards exchanging hands around the table. This game avoids the spread of disease. Swine flu, avian flu, any colds are less of a risk.
9. Setting the auto muck, auto chop, and auto no straddle sure saves me a lot of time. When it is time to chop, it just happens. Since I am never going to show my cards, the auto muck also saves me any problems. Asked what I had, I can say anything I want. I can't be peer pressured to show the cards.
I have a small Indian carved fish that works great on those screens, even better than the edge of a player's card. This sure beats my arthritic fingers trying to move chips. No chips on the floor to search for.
I played the 1-2 game and lost a good bit of money there, much of it on this hand.
I have played for an hour without betting.
I bet on a hand and everyone folds.
Two hands later I slow play trip fours when the turn gives up the third club.
I am on the button and all check to me.
I bet $100 to represent that I have caught the flush and push out other trips or drawing flush players. No one showed any flush strength so I put everyone on no flush at least yet.
One player raises me all in, another $150 so I know that he has slow played the nut flush.
I think about it and give it a shot. I call.
He says, “I got you” and shows his ace jack clubs thinking I did honestly represent. I show my fours. But the river gives no presents so I thank folks and head home.
I'd play it the same way again, but I want the numbers to be smaller.
Around the fifty cent dollar game, the cost would have been a great deal less. No one would be so stacked as to be able to trap me for as much.
My brother-in-law tells me I made lots of mistakes on this hand, including not betting my trips immediately. No limit is different than limit.
My all in calls on the 50/ dollar game were generally when someone bet in to me. My ace-king caught ace-king on the flop and a fellow with ace-queen put me all in. My pocket kings in spite of being bet preflop and bet when a king flopped were put all by a fellow with king-jack who lost three times in all in hands to me. He was truly terrible. After this one, he left. These are the games I would prefer to play.
Added to the fun of poker was a promo event called strip poker. They brought in a stripper at the time of the tournament and every time a certain number was eliminated, she took off a piece of clothing. She was great. She ended with bikini top and pants but the dance along the way was very entertaining. I had a better view than the tournament guys.
The hourly comps were not posted very efficiently. The fellow remembered me and gave me enough to almost cover the buffet, but nothing had showed in the computer by the second day. Don't count on eating the same day you play for comps.
I played with a Canadian who had played in the Montreal casino. This is a delightful three hour ride from my house up through the Adirondack Mountains and I have a buddy to visit along the way who might be talked into coming along. It seems they have the same machines with a four dollar rake in a nonsmoking environment. So that is my next local destination. It will be especially nice in the summertime. Rooms are not very cheap in Montreal, but on my last visit I found a bare bones place that seemed reasonable if I can remember where it was.
I played with one local who is there every day. He was very good and gathered $600 at the one hundred max game. I was never in a hand with him long. We talked and he recommended a book. He was friendly although he was the guy to beat at the table.
EL CORTEZI love this place, but I did not play there my entire stay downtown.
My first session left me $9 ahead.
It went like this.
I was in a great mood, especially after a few Myers rum and lime cocktails.
I put a dollar on 9-6 offsuit just to please son Peter who enjoys that terrible hand, and then decided to call a $3 raise because everyone was in the hand. It flopped a full house, sixes full of nines, and a good player with pocket aces bet after I checked. Just calling him seemed to reveal some of my strength, so I bet out ahead of him after the turn, but he raised me. I reraised. Nothing helped him on the river, but he still called my $6 bet and then grumbled that I'd called his preflop raise with 9-6 offsuit.
He was right to grumble.
It was not negative toward me, just the frustration of getting caught in one of these low limit plays that never should have been made. I looked like a loose idiot when I gushed over how it was my favorite hand and I always win with it.
“I believe you” the old fellow said and I knew that he was wishing he would be there for more of my foolish play and certain that next time he would certainly take me.
With that as a really fine table image, I was sorry to see the table change to all good players, some aggressive, and force me to change tables.
I could have used that favorite hand myth later when I had pocket aces and nines or sixes flopped and strengthen my push out bet with just one little reminding comment, like “ Wow, this always amazes me.”
I had played a bit loose against Q and another loose young player who liked to bluff back at Q, and I think I might have solidified a table image as a loose player when I stayed with both Q and the kid to win a hand with A-K although I caught no pair.
But I was at the other table by the time I tightened up and I don't think that my reputation followed me.
I never was down more than about $8, and once I was up about $40. Then it got so that I would not get paid for good cards even well played. My six dollars on the river pushed out guys with hands. The players were shy if I bet. Those behind me watched for clues that I would come in for the dollar to decide whether to play or no.
It was time to go.
I had played at this new table too few hands and I was seen as a rock, and a rock they did not personally know.
I finished out waiting for 2 AM and the end of the bad beat for that day. One fish left and others wandered too. A new bad beat would stay, but they knew they might not be around for the next 2 AM game.
As well as Tom, the older Asian fellow who is predictable, a fellow with a Scandinavian accent played. Ben I think. He is loose and calls too much. He is a bit like Bruce at our home games.
Missing was the infamous Action Jackson. Jackson had gotten into some trouble a while back and been banned for a while, but the dealers thought he would be back today and had made peace and promises. There was no lack of laughter about Action. He is a legendary character well remembered and if I don't see him in my play today, I'll have to come up later in the week to have a game with him at least once.
The next day I did play one 17 hour session with only breaks for the bathroom and one break to take Action Jackson to supper. He has been down on his luck and is not the character at the table that he once was. But we had a good visit and he seemed pleased to be treated.
Many of the other players I have come to know over the years were there and I was up and down, but I ended well with $161 profit. I had a daily high hand of four aces for maybe ten minutes before a straight flush kicked me out.
The rum was good as always as were Karen and Albert and everyone, really. It is like coming home again to play there.
GOLDEN NUGGETUnfortunately for some reason I thought I wanted to play other places and I chose the Nugget. I won't again.
I cannot ever win at the Nugget. I don't think I'll play there again. I even managed to avoid killpot games this time and still I lost. No memorable hands. Most of them would be of bad hands. In the beginning I had pocket aces and ace-king often. Some of these paid and others cost me money.
I do like that the Nugget will reduce the rake. We had to play with short tables and I am tired of doing that. But if we asked the rake was reduced. The problem is that soon there would be seven and then six or five again and we had to ask again. Nothing is automatic. I asked every time, but it was work.
Normal rake is 4 and 1
Six person rake is 2 and 1
Five person rake is 1 and 1
This is a great improvement over Tunica games. Some Harrah's like Bally's in Vegas have 5 and 1 rake and will not reduce.
CANNERY EASTHere was a poker room that was often short players. There was no hesitation on rake reduction. Asking was a requirement but there was no whining from the floor, no hemming and hawing, no waiting. This fellow made fair and fast rake reduction and that kept me in the game during the slow periods.
The redistributed bonus rake is $2 however, so that made the hands expensive anyway even if that money was to go back to the players.
One night there was a tall girl named Selina who was not pretty but did have a very graceful shape and a friendly good humored way that kept us entertained. The rest of the players were just locals with not much to say. They were friendly enough, but not in the Vegas party mood I sometimes enjoy.
One day there was a young Black fellow who was a very aggressive player. He left and when he came back I motioned to the seat to my right. He continued betting aggressively, but often now had me raising him immediately and getting the play down to just the two of us. Since he raised often with very little strength, this was good strategy. In this session I also tended to catch inside straights that developed from my high cards. It was wild. For a while I dominated the table and folks folded when I bet. Luckily I did not get caught bluffing much. It was a good run until this fellow left. He was easy going and just chuckled at my “ridiculous” play and outstanding “luck.” This was some of the best position I had all week.
O'SHEA'SI should not have been playing. I was very overtired, at the end of my trip, with my mind on driving to Denver, and I payed more attention to the passing people on the strip than the game.
Unlike the usual limp in and call stations, the table was full of the most arrogant, young no limit want-a-bees trying to make this simple spread limit game their personal drama show.
I won a hand with pocket eights.
Then I got them again and raised in middle position.
I put my reraiser on a straight by the turn so when the river gave me a full house, I did not pay enough attention. I reraised a couple times before I woke up to the fact that the one opponent left was not just overbetting a weak hand, but had something.
Actually, he woke me up. He must have thought I was a total idiot because with his higher full house based on pocket kings, he offered to go all in with me, a rather stupid thing to do most of the time on a limit table.
I declined.
That frustrated him.
I was glad.
I put him on quads and immediately called his bet. When he beat me, he sneered out, “You lose!!” which I though more ridiculous than my terrible play. I left.
What I don't know is what to do if someone offers me that all in option when I have the quads. If I agree, can they back out? It is a limit game. I think that in all cases I'll just play the limit patterns although it might mean a long betting session. For one thing, the fellow offering this at a limit game want the thrill of the no limit bet. Why not frustrate them for no reason. It might put them off their game.
It seems safer than having the fellow figure out what I have and then back out of the all in bet. I think that I may say to him,
“Look, I may indeed follow you down to the end of your bankroll, but I prefer the limit rules because they give me a chance to rethink my bets each time. Perhaps there is something I have missed.”
And then when I show the nut, he can be even more tilted.
Well, that is all good fantasy.
The truth is I played like an idiot and it cost me an extra fifteen dollars I might have saved.
IMPERIAL PALACEThe draw here is that they put $2 on your Harrah's card which can be used anywhere. The last Harrah's poker comp I collected from the Horseshoe outside Chicago I used for the Paula Deen buffet in Tunica. This is of great benefit.
The drawback is that the place has to be the most crowded poker area I have ever seen. I was tucked back into the back after telling a surly fat kid that yes, he would have to get out of his chair for me to get to my seat.
I was the only preflop raiser and that made me immediately unpopular. Unfortunately it did me no good. I lost when my pocket queens were beat by pocket aces twice and then my pocket kings were also beat. It was an expensive night.
There was a very beautiful, long legged blond across the table who with lips like Angelou Jolee and I did enjoy watching her various expressions after I folded hands.
LAUGHLIN EDGEWATER POKERI had a host and rooms at the Edgewater. The poker game there is a 2-4-6 game that I like very much. The poker next door is a 1-6 spread game with a full kill and I also like it. Both games have only a single $2 blind and rake just $3 for the house and $2 for an assortment of bonus or bad beat hands. You have to get those clear before you start. Hardest to manage were the aces cracked at the Colorado Belle. At certain times certain aces paid a hundred or even two hundred but a certain amount of money needed to be in the pot. Not knowing what that was could be trouble.
And don't expect to get any help from the dealers.
Those at the Edgewater suggested we might ask the dealer to spread the pot so it could be counted. But the Colorado dealers were not so helpful. One dealer, Phil, really got testy about collusion issues one night when I was a bit under the pints of microbrew and perhaps a bit too forthright about this stupid pot rule.
One fellow at the table had lost his $100 when he bet just $2 post flop and everyone folded. It depressed him. He gave no hint when he bet $2 and I suggested that he might have asked how much was in the pot, but Phil jumped all over me. Technically he was right, but his attitude rubbed me the wrong way and before we were done, I had made him pretty mad because I turned to the person along side me and said this was a stupid rule.
I think that when I talk to another player between hands it is none of the dealer's business. But Phil figured he had to counter argue.
I can get intense in presenting arguments to folks who are more interested in emotional loyalty than any real exploration of the facts. I don't ever insult. I simply present the counter argument strongly. So while Phil needed to take a break to cool off, I was not in danger of being sent home.
I find that it often happens that the dealer expects to be the expert on everything. He is so used to explaining and enforcing rules that he gets the idea he also knows the answers in any discussion and will butt in to conversations with an attitude that shuts down conversation just because folks don't want to rile him.
He is the expert on sports, the expert on video poker, the expert of craps odds. Or so he thinks. Often he does not have a clue outside his limited little poker table world.
That was what was happening here. I understood and was ready to follow the rule, but mentioning to my neighbor that it was not a rule in many casinos around the country, and that I thought it a stupid rule, elicited such dealer ire.
I find that one advantage to Poker Pro machines. There is more freedom of speech around the table as well as much less to question or argue about in the game.
Maybe the Colorado Belle will try some of these machines. Certainly, if they think the machines will give them more money for less expense, Phil's loyalty won't help him keep his job. Casinos understand that they have only bottom line numbers, no friends.
The next night I caught the black aces. I had four tight opponents. I waited until the turn and then I took a long time and counted the chips myself. I counted twelve.
No single chip had been raked in the dealer slide.
That is always what they tell you to look for.
I counted three times and I got twelve each time. I bet my four chips hoping for one caller. Two players folded and one more called me and he won the hand of twenty chips. The dealer then counted the chips and there were exactly twenty.
I asked her if she would have counted the pot had I asked her to during the hand and she answered,
“We have decided not to answer that question.”
Well, I thought, then I have decided not to tip the $5 I would usually tip on a $100 bonus. If the dealer is my enemy, then I am not adding more to the tip than the minimum for each dealt winning pot of any substance.
Perhaps old Phil had broadcast the precious night's discussion. I don't know.
At the Edgewater the dealer there kept drawing players who did not know the game well enough to tip at all. Two nights I took it upon myself to bring those newbies up to the courtesy of the game, always first saying that I was not telling them what to do, merely telling them the custom. Each player was fine about it. One asked me to remind him each time, and so when he won I said, "don't forget your dealer," and he was grateful as was the dealer.
So there is it.
Most of us, dealers and players alike, know that the casinos are not our friends, but our opponents. We band together as much as we can and when the dealer does have to enforce a rule, it is done gently and often with a bit of apology that this is the house rule, and they are bound by it. The good dealers do that.
I like those dealers.
The arrogant dealers can earn their minimum wages and keep their attitude.
I did not say to dealer Phil that this casino that he so boldly defended would without hesitation replace him with a dealing machine if that would give them more money. I did say that the casino was not my friend and I believe that. There may be friendly and generous casino employees, but there is no casino whose goal is to be my friend.
I liked playing in Laughlin, but most of the time I was playing with locals who knew one another and probably divided up guys like me. At the Belle I played for a while against a fellow they called Cowboy who divided me from my money in a skillful limit game strategy almost ten years ago. I remembered him well. I told him and thanked him for the lesson. I was happy to see him at the table again and feel I had a much better chance at winning. He was a nice fellow. At the table too was his brother.
It is better for me to seek out players who don't know much about what they are doing in the game.
The games at the Edgewater were often full of those players, but then as the weaker players disbanded in would come a half dozen guys who all knew each other, perhaps with over buttons, and the game would change. I tried to escape then and live to play another day.
One weak player left with a good bit of my money and that of others as well. He was 84 and he knew poker, but did not know beyond his home games. He was aggressive. He acted two seats after me and for a bit I could reraise his almost automatic raises and trap the rest of the table into facing my good cards. But then he started to reraise me too and that defeated the trapping plan. He was very lucky taking pots on the river. Players called him with very little since he might bet a pair to the river and then they lost to him when he caught another pair. He was a sweet old guy, one of those I taught to tip the dealer. He made mistake after mistake in betting and never knew how much was called for. He got very lucky or he would not have been at the table with us very long.
I think I am too frantic to play and so I just play whatever game is dealt and try to adjust my play to the players rather than pick the tables I want. I need to concentrate more on table selection and be content not to play at all at certain times. Bill and I did leave the Edgewater and head to the Belle one time when the table changed dramatically.
TROPICANA EXPRESS LAUGHLINAn interesting promo at the Tropicana got at least some players in at seven thirty in the morning. The casino splashed the pot with chits and the player who won the most of those every hour got $50 from the house. I did that once and it was a good bit of fun. It did not loosen up the players much, but it did let me pretend to loosen up when I played odd cards one time and showed. Then I got paid on my good cards. That was a good morning.
The players however, were very good and tough to beat. They all knew one another. There was one fellow who was very tight. He got annoyed when I pushed him off one hand without a hand worthy of a raise. It was a button raise to put money in the pot for a flush draw. These were good players so such bets confused them and I have found that such bets often win big even when the flush or straight comes as they stay confused and expect a pocket pair.
One player carried a little Goofy and a little Donald Duck. He was a bit easier to beat. He once called a push out river bet I made when all I had was ace high. I never did understand that.
I liked these players but I always felt that they were more comfortable with each other but a bit distant from me. Not unfriendly, just talking as if I were invisible.
High hand awards seemed a bit on the low side. Just $25 for quads with two in the hand. They do have twenty four hours of aces cracked and a wheel to go with that promo that has mostly smaller pays, but does have a $500 possibility. Guys were under betting their aces in order to get a chance to spin. I think that is silly. The idea is that you can continue to bet them and the spin will take the edge off the loss when they are cracked. Every other dollar amount on the wheel was just twenty dollars. However, I like playing with guys who underbet their pocket aces. It might be different if every cracked ace was a hundred dollars as it was sometimes at the Belle. No bad beat at all here. They still rake $2 so I am not certain where that goes. Perhaps that was why they could afford a couple hours of no rake games. I have feeling they are not the most popular poker room on the river.
I think the comp was $1.25 an hour. I earned enough for a free buffet which I used one morning before we left. I'd play there again.
The manager of the poker room also sponsors his own promotion on his own money. He drops a little coin in the pot and the winner can exchange it for a gift. One woman received a bamboo plant. It was a friendly gesture.
One player, Alex, comes for a week every month and said he gets free room offers in the mail although he only plays the live poker. Perhaps the comps on the card generate mailings. Perhaps next time I can get some free rooms for poker play too.
That was what I hoped for at the River Palms, but they discontinued the policy. Bill and I ended up not playing there at all during our stay. We went up to play and there were just four people playing with tournament chips and they were dealers waiting for players to return from supper.
We saw the comedy and there was not many more when we came back to check up again. I can't imagine what they were thinking when they gutted the comps there. The place is so far from anything that it is a handicap to stay there and the rooms have been reported as unclean at times with few towels.
It was delightful to be so centrally located at the Belle and Edgewater and I would not go back again to the River Palms now if they did have free rooms for poker play. I'd use my host Janelle if my play allowed me that option.
Here is one of my write ups from my days at the poker table:
Saturday poker was lots of fun. At the 2-6 table there were some loose aggressive players. I did not get many cards and folded most hands, but I'd have gotten paid as some of the river showdowns after aggressive betting were weak hands. They managed to win money, however, and I did not. Over a few hours I lost $5.
Some of that may be due to the fact that I got wired and talkative.
Mohave, a favorite Vegas board posting friend, was at the table and I was so excited to see him that I talked too much I expect and that may not have been good for my table image and it may have given the opponents too much information. I may also have been too lose. Mohave was disciplined and a rock. I stayed away from hands with him.
Also, I did not like the young aggressives. One was rather full of himself. The girl was good looking but had a bite of an attitude that diminished her appeal as well.
Usually I enjoy all sorts. Not this time.
I did like this really good older player with a European accent. He was probably the best at the table. He was soft spoken and kind. He told me how I had misplayed my pocket black aces by raising them in the usual fashion. There was a hundred dollar pot for busted aces and I eliminated players who would have gone to the river and beat me. I usually do not adjust my play for bonus awards, but I agree in this case it would have been the right play, especially later when the bonus went to $200 for cracked black aces. I did not get them an a chance to play better again this night.
I did get them at the Edgewater 2-4-6 game a couple hours later. I don't know if they had a cracked aces bonus, because my aces were good to the river and people paid me. The very next hand I got them again and the flop came ace-ace-rag. I had teased the woman next to me and I kept the tease up, basically claiming I had pocket aces again. Perhaps that helped me get called to the river here as well. The bonus for this quad ace hand was $25 and the pot was enough, a rare pot for four aces.
This 2-4 table was the poker players dream, full of loose poor players who paid well for good cards. I could not bet anyone off anything there, especially one older woman who would bet third high pair on the river where the bet was six.
Next to me was a pretty Asian woman with a rose. She was a terrible player, but good looking and a pleasant personality. She was a little drunk.
I did very well here and then two women left and our table was combined with four players who were regulars with over buttons and an entirely different style. I lost money to them. Twice I lost with pocket queens to pocket kings. One hand I held A-Q and two queens flopped so I just stayed quiet and weakly called. The better was a fellow who had not played a hand and I expected he had another queen. On the river he and I were the only players left and I bet the six as first to act hoping I had put him on just the trips. He only had a pair of tens and so he folded.
I soon left because I knew that I would lose to these players unless I managed very good cards and was lucky. I wanted to keep some of my winnings.
