TR SNIPPET LIVE POKER

My limit poker game was not too bad this trip.  Playing in Vegas almost every day for 26 days always tightens and polishes my game.  It reminds me of spending a month immersed in Spanish in Costa Rica.  By the end of trip I am fluent in Spanish in a way I can’t quite manage to keep for the rest of the year at home. And by the time I left Vegas for home, I was much more fluent in low limit poker. But like the Spanish, over time, that will erode.

At the top of my game, winning is then determined by table selection, a key element in limit poker. In NL players can adjust their play to match their opponents.  In limit there is less wiggle room. I need to select opponents who are not whole levels better than I am and still avoid tables full of fish and especially avoid tables full of maniacs. 

I also need to know when to leave.

I need to leave games more often.  I need to leave when I know I’m outclassed, when there is not a fish or two at the table, when there are not passive callers playing third best. 

I generally play tight, so I also need to leave when I’ve doubled my chip stack and know that I will no longer get paid for good cards because my opponents are now shy of me.  In NL this it the time to toss in a few bluffs, but bluffing in limit is rarely a good strategy.

In the past I have preferred the Flamingo room for 2-4.  It is so often full of passive calling tourists that the rake is overcome.   However, since last year they have eliminated their long list of high hand awards, the cracked Aces, the freeroll offers and adopted one mega bad beat jackpot.  And when I arrived in Vegas, the almost mythical bad beat could only be hit only if quad jacks were beaten. 

If it hits in any CET property, it is a good bit of money, and folks are always talking about it, but it doesn’t hit, and I could go a lifetime and never see a piece of it. 

Locals have the option of not coming when the hand that needs to be beaten is high but waiting for those times when it gets down so low that it is due to be hit.

In contrast, I joined a 2-6 spread limit game at Sam’s Town one morning at 3 AM and in a half hour at a table of 5 players, three had Aces cracked for $100 each.

Another day on the first hand dealt to a new table one fellow had his Aces cracked by a straight flush, so both got paid by the house.

Cracked Aces gives a tight player insurance in a limit game.  If you get pockets, you really can't lose money.

It also makes playing against pocket Aces much less expensive.  High hands also create more loose play.  In places like the Golden Nugget 2-4 limit, folks are more likely to play small pairs and small suited cards and even suited one gap wonders. 

These differences then really amount to a deal breaker with Flamingo even if CET had not tightened room offers for poker players and added resort fees to make good deals, bad deals.

So I moved around a bit in Vegas this trip, trying other venues.

I also played four poker rooms I would not often choose just to play against good players and sense the game and how I might do. 

PALMS

I wanted to see an old buddy Kevin, a local  who plays every day and often at the difficult Palms.  When I got there, he was on the phone call in list, so I knew he was coming.  I decided to  play for  a while. 

These are tough players, and they know each other, so the game is tough. I did not do well, but  I was  there long enough to say hello to Kevin. 
And by luck I hit high hand of the hour and quad jacks for $75 in bonus money, so even with my less than skillful and competitive play, I left $10 ahead.

I heard later from another old El Cortez regular, Bob Reynolds that the Palms is a tough room and has some issues he did not outline,  but he advised me to stay clear of it.

However, my own experience was just that the players were all very good and new each other's playing patterns.

We were talking about how that affects the poker at my local NL game here at home just yesterday.  Since we play roughly the same fellows every week, we know how they play and what they are likely to do or not do.  Sometimes they can switch up a consistent pattern and fool us, but for the most part we have a good sense of the parameters of their play.
And it is the same when joining a locals dominated game in Vegas.
I remember well a fellow at the Laughlin Tropicana spread limit game a few years ago folding A-Q preflop when the bet was raised.  He showed it to me.  He knew the raiser only raised on Aces and A-K.  So he knew that he was beat. 
Other than being a group with plenty of information I lacke, they were helpful and friendly.  One even reminded me to turn over my hand when he suspected I might have an Ace high flush and could qualify for the high hand award of the hour.  I had it, turned it, and so was awarded $25.  He also explained all the bonus rules to me.

Another old fellow was very grumpy and complained all the time, but I just made one comment to him, and he laughed and included me in his ranting. It was part of his character to be a grumpy ranter.  I enjoyed him as well.

Sometimes when I join one of these everyday locals games, I am treated as invisible in conversation and sometimes even resented.  I never quite understand that because welcoming a new guy should add easy money to the game. 

Here are more specific experiences: 

BINIONS

I finally played this difficult 2-4 game because I hoped it was a way to book Four Queens rooms on a Binions poker rate and I was attracted by $2  an hour comps.  It was incredibly difficult.  No passive callers here.  Preflop raises were common.  I saw raising on top pair with an Ace.  Almost everyone did that here.  I better like a game without preflop raises.  I play best after the flop.

My funniest hand was when I had 6-9 of clubs on the button and in a very rare show of passive limping, everyone was in the pot.  I was prepared to call just for fun, but the fellow acting directly in front of me raised and that was enough to have me fold, because in this game there might be preflop reraises and I did not want to call them with 6-9 suited. 

Without that one raise, I liked playing these junk cards because with everyone limping at this table, I expected high cards pretty evenly distributed around already, so 6-9 suited might not be a bad gamble in last position.  Perhaps all high cards would cancel each other out. 

This was not a bad analysis.  The flop came 6-6-9 and that full house would have held up all the way.  Three other players were in the pot on the river.  It think a straight took the pot.  Very funny fold on my part.

I’d have gathered in that pot, picked up those chips, and walked out ahead.  Instead, I walked out down a good bit.

I was going to use this game to get the poker rate at the Four Queens for rooms.  I won’t. I went directly back to the Golden Nugget and I could see the difference.  I could check raise there and expect a fellow who had shown strength with his flush to bet into my full house on the river and call my check raise as well.  Although there might be some whining.
Two guys were particularly sarcastic about the play.  They were jerks.  Once on the turn I did a semibluff to try to steal the pot.  I had outs for straights and a high flush.  My semibluff was called and I caught the winning king high flush. 
Boy did they bitch about me chasing.
Of course, I said nothing.  It is important not to educate idiots.

And one guy was particularly obnoxious about almost everything and would have been obnoxious had I explained my play. 
For example, in talking about the practice of asking for “a bit of help” when holding a high hand but not seeing enough in the pot to qualify for a bonus award, I explained the use of the “How much is in the pot?” question as well as the obligation to return an opponent’s money were s/he to help out with getting ten dollars in the pot just to be kind. 

Well, ranting idiot thought that was ridiculous.  He was going to want half the winnings and not just his own bets back.  His being a jerk about it was annoying, but it also revealed he had not played much casino poker when high hand bonus awards were involved.  Some places frown on any such communication, but in others the dealers actually advise players to give a hint they need help. 

Some guys, if they don’t already know, you can’t tell them. 
This was one.
He was the loudest fellow at the table, especially as he lost all his chips.  I suppose I should have regretted he did not buy in again, but actually I was relieved to get his sarcastic whining mouth out of the game and gone.

 SAM’S TOWN

Another tough game I tried was the 2-6 spread limit at Sam’s Town with a full kill making it sometimes a 4-12 game.  I tried it right after the cheap morning tournament when it was a table of  regular locals looking for tournament drop outs like me to fleece. 

For an hour cracked Aces paid $100, and I decided to play for just that hour.  I did okay and left ahead, but I was just lucky. 

For example, a fellow raised preflop and I called on the button with K-J and  the flop came K-X-X rainbow, low and unmatched.   In a Flamingo game I would call the bet after the flop, but in this game, I have to assume a pre flop raise and post flop bet means my opponent holds AA, KK, or AK and they all beat me. 

However, in this case I play stupid and I call both the flop and the turn.  The river is a Jack, so my two pair beat the A-K my opponent held. 
Very lucky.  I had two outs and no pot odds to call.

The game was softer at other times of the day.  Cracked Aces were offered on some days.  They rake 3-2 so there were lots of unusual kinds of promotions.  For example, one day any player who caught 3 spade flushes within certain hours would get $400.   And locals who played 125 hours a month receive $599 dollars in cash. 

Special Daily Promotions

• Sunday-Wednesday: Three Flushes = $400! Hit 3 flushes of the same designated suit and win $400!
• Thursdays: Amazing Aces! - Cracked Aces are $100. Flop quad Aces and receive $1,000!
• Fridays: Full House Fridays - Top 3 full house pay $150, $100 and $50. (two sessions)
• Saturdays: W.H.I.P. It Good! (Worst Hands in Poker) Win a pot with the 5 worst hands in poker and win $25 and a Sam's Town "Donkey Xing" T-shirt.

Cracked Aces worked for me with just 12 minutes left in the promotion one day.  The board looked so impossible that I bet $6 on the river, figuring to get just a small profit from my one opponent, maybe.  She raised me with some odd low card straight caught on the river, and broke my pair of Aces. I had played a few hours and was $34 ahead.  The bonus was $100.  When the Aces bonus was over I left.

I liked the 2-6 Sam’s Town game and perhaps that will be my new substitute for strip games like Flamingo.  There did not seem to be any maniacs the days I played.  I never was in a 4-12 dollar hand in all my sessions of play, but I would welcome those higher stakes if I had good cards.  I can't play NL in Vegas because I don't have the bankroll and the worst poker is played with "scared money."  But a game where there is an occasional raise in the stakes would be great fun. 

Most games at Sam's Town were locals dominated and they do tend to talk mostly to themselves, but it was not the truly rude provincialism, that almost small town cliquishness I experienced years ago at a 3-6 at Sam’s where I felt totally invisible, ignored in any conversation and resented like an intruder at a home game.

However, once in an early morning session two young guys were talking to my right and guy one bet to try and push me out.  I had a blind hand, a Queen with a 3 kicker.  Queen was on the board, but I sure did not feel strong.  Still, sometime told me to call this guy.  Sometimes we can just feel a push bluff.  He bet right to the river and then checked.  I checked.  He had a lower pair.  I won.

As the next hand was being dealt, he turned to the fellow next to him and said, "He calls a raise with a Q-3" as if I was invisible.  He does not say it to me.  And yet he knows that I can hear him.  That is just so rude.

I don't explain that I call because I am tired of being pushed off every $2 blind by his almost automatic button raise, or that I stay because it feels right, or that I need to call this with Q-3 just to send the message that his future raises may not earn my respect so that even if I lose this one hand, I perhaps win others where he lets me limp in with my blind. 
I also don't call him out on talking about me in front of me, but this is the sort of local's clique behavior I hate and I should have said something to indicate that his rudeness was offensive.

ORLEANS

I tried the Orleans room again, but there I experienced maniac preflop capping.  One fellow helped cap a pot preflop when he held 8-9 offsuit.  I have seen him in games there other times.  He is not a bad player.  He got lucky and won, so he had to show, but it all made me suspicious.  Then I came back one early morning and saw a whole table full of regular players who had huge stacks of chips in front of them, having won all night.  I suspect to accumulate that many chips in 2-4,  preflopped capping was involved as well. 

It is not often there is collusion in a 2-4 limit game. But if it is there, it will involve preflop capping when one in the team has really good cards. 
I’m not saying it happens there. 
But I’ll stay away from that card room in case my suspicions are right. 
I would anyway. 
At best, habitual preflop capping in limit games turns the game of poker into a game of bingo.

THINKING AHEAD TO NEXT TRIP

So I am thinking that staying downtown and playing the tourists at the Golden Nugget, especially when the high hand bonuses are doubled,  and staying out at Sam’s Town and playing the 2-6 spread, when it is not too local regular dominated, will be my next trip goal.  I'll abandon Flamingo for the most part unless I happen to hit Vegas when the bad beat includes a low quad.

EL CORTEZ

I like this little spread limit game even though all the colorful characters like Action Jackson have been 86'd or have died and so the game is less of a wild poker party and more a gathering of gumpy old serious men.

I played my first day in town right across from Jackie Gaughn who missed accurately readhing his cards even more often than last year, and splashed the pot for everyone with a real hand.

Other players were a mix. 
The key is to go later in the afternoon, perhaps while Jackie is at supper and get on the second table.  The regulars are gathered on the first table.  Once they opened the second table, they made a call for players and the twenty dollar buy in attracted two fellows from Georgia who had no clue about live poker and called the most terrible of hands doing their own splashing.

GOLDEN NUGGET

I played at the Nugget with two of my poker buddies from home.  I had my Aces cracked twice on the river by a king coming.  Ezzy took me once when the river made three kings for him.  This experience is a good argument for playing where there is a cracked Aces bonus.

 

I played too long after a good stretch of cards.  I actually had pocket aces and pocket kings back to back twice and won all but one of those hands.  I doubled up my sixty dollars and should have left, but I stayed, partly for the four hour food coupon.  That was a mistake.  Something I can’t quite identify happens when I play after building my chip stack and I need to leave the games more easily when I am ahead.  Logic says I am playing well and so I should stay, but it never works that I can stay and build a huge chips stack as I see some others do.

For a while loose goose sat directly to my right, but during that time, I never got cards to reraise him and narrow the field of callers.

On other days the players were harder and one day there was a good aggressive player who dominated the table.  I hoped to take advantage of him because he sat directly to my right, but I did not have an opportunity as my cards were only very rarely good enough to reraise his raise and push others out.

My last session there was after I had slept during the day until 5:30PM.  I walked over at about 7:30PM and decided I would play the four hours and so get a comp for the next day’s breakfast at what is now my favorite buffet.

My play was very tight.  I bought in for $60 and then again for $40 more and got very few cards to play.  Just before I was going to leave, I held A-8 on the small blind.  There was a raise and I was going to toss it, but the whole table was in this pot.  So I called.

On the flop 8 was the high card.  I checked and called someone’s $2 bet, probably a club draw.  On the turn came another 8.  I bet and was called by almost everyone.  No club on the river and I bet again.  Two called me.  That was one nice pot.

Then the loose aggressive guy who had been luckily gathering in lots of pots, bet on a flop with 9 -9-X when I had a 9.  I let everyone call the $2.  On the turn I checked to see loose guy bet, and I check raised. 
He called that and called when I bet on the river after the case nine showed. 

Well, a good pot.  No high hand.

I left the game with $4 in profit.  So the food comp for the next morning breakfast was more than the poker earnings.  When I play until after midnight, at least there is no debate on the date of the voucher.  That seems to be emerging as an issue.

One day I got the $10 food voucher and asked them to date it for the next day. They did, and I went to a good Sunday brunch and just paid $10.  I was happy, and so I played again rather than head over to Binions as had been my plan.  I did not do well and after about six hours of play asked for another meal ticket, but asked it be dated the next day explaining that the one I got late last night I had used in the morning.  Well, I asked the wrong brush.
His name might be John, but I don’t want to trash the wrong guy.  I’ll call him Rude Brush. He is a tall fellow, hardly smiling, very officious and full of his power, one of those people who try to interpret policies  to put the player in the wrong.

I had been faced with his rigidity the day before, when a woman and I broke a table of five, so we might draw for four empty seats at another.  He was not going to let me draw. 

“We are only doing this because you said you were leaving,”  Rude brush said, I suppose to punish me for being the one to suggest we draw for seats.

One player said, “Go ahead and draw,” so I did.  I got the Deuce and was lowest anyway.  I suspect that whatever I drew Rude Brush was not letting me take a seat.  

Usually the brush assures the lowest that he will be on the list to keep him around.  I got no such assurance, got nothing in any way friendly from this brush. He just walked away.

Literally, before I could pick up my chips, more seats opened at the other table, and I just took one.  When another brush I know and like came around, I told him I had come from the broken table and assumed I was first on the list, so I wanted him to know I had found a seat. 

“Thanks a lot for letting me know, Dewey,”  he said.

So this day the rude brush refused to post date the meal comp and tried to talk me out of getting the $10 voucher after six hours of play. 
I politely explained that I did not need to visit the buffet twice in the same day  and could use the bump in date.

“I can’t do that anymore.  If you have already had one today there is no sense in getting another at all.” 

“I’ll just grab a snack,”  I said, and with no further word he wrote it out and gruffly set it face down in front of me as if he had bumped the date but did not want others to see.  When I looked, it was dated for that same day.  No accommodation.

I quietly walked away.

Then later, after shift change, when Rude Brush was allowed to go home and over regulate his children,  I came back and said to the new and friendly brush on duty that I had not been able to use my voucher to eat yet that day and could they change the date so I could have breakfast before playing tomorrow. 

No argument, that fellow just changed the date.

The promotion works to keep me in the poker rooms sometimes longer than I think I should be playing, so it seems to me it pays the casino to offer it.  It also attracts me there in the first place on days when I can use it to eat.  At Binions I could get $2 an hour to use when I want, so that is the more customer friendly promotion. At most places comps are put on a card and can be used a year later.

At Sam’s Town, just a few minutes away on the HDX I used my normal casino card.  The brush there told me I could use those points in even over at the Orleans and Gold Coast just as I can other points earned on the B Connected card.

A dealer told me that the top manager of the poker room is adamant about keeping the old style method of comping where the staff gives out personal food comps rather than a clocked system.   Well, that is a great system if the brushes work to make a nice relationship, but if they become comp Nazi's like the soup Nazi in Seinfeld, it would be better to just have a swiped impersonal system.  I also learned that they are going to add paperwork and begin to collect player’s club card numbers to tighten the comp policy. 

I think the Nugget ought to get with the times and go electronically like every other poker room in America. 

However, I like the Golden Nugget room and I’m working not to let this one customer unfriendly worker spoil the feeling generated there by all the other brushes and friendly dealers.

FLAMINGO

I love the dealers at the Flamingo and we have a good time bantering back and forth.  I am sorry to see all the changes and to be letting it go as my main play.  It is the most tourist rich game I know.

Once this time I held a seven in fairly early position and the flop came 77X.  I checked and the check went right around.  The turn was the case 7.  I checked again and it went right around.  The river was a 4.  I bet, and one young girl raised me with her 4 created full house.  I reraised, and so did she until she was all in.  Tough break for her, but she should have called no more than my one reraise. 

Earlier I had taken a pot from her when she flopped two spades but I held the Ace and a fourth spade came on the board. 

I imagine I am not her favorite newly met stranger in Vegas.

At the Flamingo again after the comedy show at Bally’s I was at a fine table for making money and left for a newly opening table full of tight regulars.  At the first table I took a hand from my Costa Rican opponent and said , “Pura vida.” I had just 8-10 of clubs and flopped the flush.  Against another fellow who had the nut flush before the river I caught an Ace for a full house and managed to raise him and get called.  I left this session even.

One night there were folks from all over and one pleasantly verbose young drunk from England.  They had a balloon hat and whoever took a pot wore the hat unless they took two pots they they could ask the dealer to wear it.  It was a fine party table.  However, unlike most such tables, the alcohol, the banter, the hat distraction did not affect the good game played by the players.  I played about an hour and never won a single pot.  I had terrible cards.  So I never had my photo taken with the hat.

But there were the obnoxious ones as well.  Wild Bill stopped going after two nights included the same loud mouth full of himself guy.  He was the director of a preschool program and in his own mind, he was God’s gift to education.  On and on he rattled about just how fine he was.

At the table was a more obnoxious guy who was a bit drunk and who lost with poor and overly aggressive play.  As he left he had something obscene to say to the school fellow and basically challenged the guy to a fight.  Well,  old role model for children went right after him and confronted him somewhere out in the casino.  I thought there would be a fight.  I let my favorite dealer Steve know and he let the brush know.

Nothing happened.  It was interesting that at that same table was a young fellow who did not look the roll but worked as a bouncer at a club in Vegas and he just quietly followed these yahoos out and would have broken up the fight had it started.  I only know that because I had a fine conversation with him an hour or so after that and asked him what he did and how he liked Vegas and what training he had to be a bouncer, so it came out in a a quiet way that only I heard.

Another obnoxious whiner lost a hand holding 4-8.  He was complaining on and on and on.  I guess the river caught for him.  A kid next to him said quietly, “I had to fold pocket Aces.”

“Well, pocket Aces…. That is no big thing…… but I had 4-8.”

I’d had plenty.  I looked at the kid and referring to the whiner said, “In his narcissistic world, 4-8 are important cards and busted Aces are not.”

I though whiner guy had missed it, but later he said something about narcissistic worlds, but he had lost the initiative for complaint and he knew it. 

Soon after I asked for a table change and told Dave the guy was driving me nuts.   Dave took care of me as soon as he could.  Dealers are nice to me there.  I hate leaving the place.

 

LUXOR

I was too tired to be playing no limit at the Luxor, but there I was.  It was a tough game.  I had Q-9 and on the turn I had the nut straight.  I should have pushed all it.  I made a value bet.  On the river came another Q and my opponent had a higher flush with his Ace King.  He went all it.  I called.  Luckily he had less money than I did so I could still play and I did pretty well, losing just $7.

Well, sort of losing $7.  I held A-4 suited and the flop came with a 4.  I was in early position and had not bet out much, so I took a risk that I could steal the pot with a $10 bet. Only my hometown poker buddy Bill stayed.

We checked the turn.  Bill was thinking we did not play against one another when we were head’s up.  I was thinking I had changed that agreement because it added too much craziness to the game.  On the river came the 4 and I bet $20 and Bill called and lost. 

“That was pretty mean,” I said.  And Bill looked at me just short of slamming the door. 

 

Later I forced $20 back on him because he would have bet the turn in a normal game without slack for buddies.  At first he was reluctant, but I insisted. 

So perhaps poker buddy Slink’s idea that he doesn’t like playing at the same table with the rest of us has merit, especially in no limit. 

It is odd however, because every week at our local no limit game we show each other no mercy and take each other’s money.  In limit poker it rarely would amount to anything much anyway.  Probably we do not bluff each other much.  But my vote is to just play poker when we are poker opponents, even in Vegas.  I can’t imagine playing each other in baseball and not getting the ball to first in time to put the hitter out.

I like playing at the same table with poker buddies because we have a mutual experience that we can share later, and we can learn about each other and our tells.  This trip Bills says that he can always tell when I am about to raise, so I need to watch my set up behaviors.  It may be what keeps me from really winning much money in the long run at live poker in spite of being a decent player.

 

SAMS TOWN TOURNAMENT

Sam’s Town has a tournament for $23 total, no rebuys, no add ons, just $23 period.  It is limit poker for about an hour,  and then the no limit starts.

My first game included three significant hands:

Hand One – In the limit portion of the game.  There is a fellow to my right who has not said a word to anyone else at the table.  He just works his crossword puzzle and once in a while tosses cards or chips.  To my left are a couple fellows from NY City and they fill me in on the casino in Henderson and we talk about Foxwoods and the Silks in Tampa.  I get K-10 and the flop is Q-J.  I call crossword puzzle guy’s initial bet. The Ace on the turn gives me my straight, so I bet the rest of my chips as the bets are high now.  Actually I am All-in.  He calls and I double up with enough to be comfortable in the limit portion.

Hand Two I hold A-J hearts.  One of the NY city guys goes all in and I call.  He beats me but I still have chips.

Hand Three I hold A-A on the button and even winning the limp bets would build my stack to comfortable again.  I push All-in and the last guy behind me to bet calls me.  We show. 

He has Q-8 diamonds.  By the turn there are three other diamonds but my Ace can win on the river. 

Only the river is not a diamond.

I am very happy this is not a $100 tournament. 

And I know why I want to play at Sam’s Town cash on the right days to get the Aces Cracked bonus.

Another day, my last tournament,  I get eliminated with good cards and second best hands even before the no limit game starts.

 

SAM’S TOWN

Many agree that the poker rooms at Sam’s Town can be cliquish and unfriendly to the tourist at some times. There is a local attitude in Vegas that is anti-tourist.  Even some of my family there have that character deficiency.  It is not that a tourist will be insulted;  it is that he will be ignored, made to feel invisible.  I stopped playing at Sam’s Town after I was in a 3-6 game where the other fellows at the table all knew one another and talked about certain topics, but if I said something, my comments were ignored. 

Of course, as always happens in such cases, these guys were dead dog boring as well.

Limit poker is as much a social pleasure as a money game.  I like the banter, the stories, the shared opinion and information, even the rants if they include me as an audience.

So, it took me a while to try the 2-6 spread game.  I love spread games as long as there are not maniacs capping preflop.  I like this one a lot even though the full kill nature of the game gets the stakes up high for my low rolling mentality.

I found the table a mix of locals and tourists.  There was just a bit of that off tourist attitude in one or two people, but dominating the table was the easily engaged friendliness of both locals and tourists and a good healthy banter as well. 

The best player was a local who was very, very tight.  I knew I could not beat him, but once I called to river to see if he might be taking advantage of his tightness to buy a pot.  He kept to himself, but when I got back from the buffet, folks asked how my supper had gone and I explained the American Casino guide coupon that had made it free.  He was interested then and ended up taking my email for information on coupons and the discussion boards on line. 

Another particularly friendly player staying at the RV park. He was an older fellow and I liked him quite a bit.  He talked about his RV and how it was to move about and play in many places.  He liked Avi in Laughlin and was familiar with the 2-6 game which is popular in Laughlin.  He was loose aggressive so he lost pots that he raised.

I first played this game at 2 AM when I woke up feeling refreshed and went to see if there were any players.  There were five.  Two were much better than I am, two were a little better, and one was the fish, calling everything, losing chips, and passed around.  I made $98 there. 

I was up $60 the next day when I go a bit loose myself and did not get lucky. The money goes away quickly then. Twelve minutes before the Aces Cracked promotion expired that day, I got Aces. I make one little bet to get the $10 in the pot and checked as did my one opponent left after the turn.  The whole board looked so sad that I gave up the idea of getting the cracked Aces and thought I’d bet in the hope that a small pair would call me.  My opponent raised, having caught an inside straight with weird small cards, and I got my Aces cracked bonus of $100.  Nice.  I left soon afterward.  This is such a great bonus in a limit game because it is great insurance for playing those pocket Aces.  It does change the game somewhat.  We can expect that a huge preflop raise indicates the player does not have pocket Aces.  And the slowplayed pair had fooled me at least once into thinking I might be top pair after the river.  It is usually best in limit to check the river with just one pair anyway.  Here it is even a smarter thing to do.

That being said, I raised my A-K and then got zip.  We had both checked the river and I was last to act so I tossed in the $6 it should take to push my opponent off his small pair.  Nope.  He called.  But the good news is that he called with A-J.    Later, I realized that he always called when he had anything at all.  Once in a hand, he could not fold. 

I was up to a profit of $60 and then was reckless and it was $34 plus the bonus money.   And I did all that without a single flush or trips all night.

I played my son’s favorite 9/6 and won a pot that was not bet.  I caught the river nut straight and was called.   I made a bid deal about it, saying it was my favorite hand.  One old local looked at me like I was a little nuts. 

Then I could not resist it suited on the button and I hit the straight again.  I talked up the "favorite hand" myth until the entire table was talking about Dole Brunson and his 10/2, and then I knew I would not play that hand again, but if 9/6/6 came on the flop and I had anything of any value, I would raise with great gusto and a fine chuckle and see if the myth bought the pot.

Otherwise my play was pretty good.  I’m getting better at laying down hands.  I layed down a big blind 2-6 diamond flush with three diamonds dropping by the turn.  What seemed a very confident bet from an otherwise quiet fellow made me give it up. Perhaps he bought the pot, but I think it was the right move.  Perhaps he made a semi-bluff bet with a bare Ace and then too I was in danger.

I layed down my pocket jacks when four hearts came on the turn although one was a heart and the Ace was on the board.  There was a raise.  The raiser had the king.

I was good too at tossing low kickered Aces.  However, once I was in a hand with A-4 with the Ace paired and then came a straight draw.  I lost it to a fellow with A-5 and the same missed draw because his 5 played.

On the day before I was to fly home I took the bus and spent time again at Sam’s Town.  I played the spread limit game right after the tournament for the hour that Cracked Aces were offered and I found some of that provincial attitude.  At one point a new tourist player joined the play and I said, “Cracked Aces for an hour”.  Well he was quick to correct me, checking his watch and telling me it was only for 42 minutes, and his whole tone said he resented me getting involved in sharing the bonus information. 

However, in other conversations I was included.  And one player as he talked about baseball and Marilyn Monroe did something no one else does.  He talked mostly to the man I knew who sat to my left, but he shifted his eyes to include me in his audience by making eye contact with me.
This fellow is a regular, a very good player named Eddie, a Black man with an interesting salt and pepper beard. 
I appreciated his including me. 
However, I don’t like to be at a table with him. He plays very well and builds huge stacks.  I can't beat him.

In the morning tournaments I have met many friendly tourists and locals.  For $23 I suppose folks are just out to have a good time and not prove their poker wizardry or meet their daily buddies.  I always try to play that tournament.

I met two guys in one from NY city who had also played at the Silks in Florida.  They agreed that the Tampa Hard Rock was too hard a room.  I told them about Ocala where every half hour on Saturdays the high hand in the room gets $500.

However, they had played at Sunset and Green Valley Ranch and found those games had locals in such tourist resentful cliques as well.  So, I skipped those rooms.

They also told me that the Henderson Fortune Club game was a very player friendly local game and I gave that a try.  

HENDERSON FORTUNE CLUB

The guys from NY city said that even in the tournament the high hands were awarded at the Fortune Club, and that they also had a special tournament chop where each player got his buy-in back but the game continued.  It was called “bust the pot.” 

CLUB FORTUNE

I had been wanting to see this casino and Henderson and how the bus accessed the area.  The HDX stops at Racetrack and Boulder and the casino is just a short walk from there. 

There were very few people in the room and all were friendly. They did not engage me much, and I was a bit tired and just listened, but I did not feel any exclusion. 

I also did not play very well nor did I play lucky.  I was eliminated early and there would be two hours before I could get in the fifty cent cash game.  I decided not to wait.

If I had not been behind in bankroll, I might have played the video poker.  I found some full pay tables on those older OPTIMUM machines that were so popular years back.  9/6 JOB was there as was 10/6 Double Double Bonus.  9/7 was the best Double Bonus.  I was down bankroll and wanted to just gamble in places where I might get room offers.

Well, I made money at my local game again yesterday and I have to believe that playing in Vegas for 26 days has changed and improved my game even if I can't always put my finger on exactly what I do differently.

The book Blink suggests that sometimes we subconsciously build up an ability to make an accurate snap decision, our brains working in a way we can't identify or describe.  I think that is what happens in poker for me when I play so many days in a row in so many different venues.  It must be like that too for the locals who play everyday.