WOO! I am a fish!

Sunday, February 26th

I head over to the Grand Sunday morning to checkin and get my room with internet access (turns out the Veranda only has it in the lobby so I could have stayed at Sam's Town for $18 a night instead and driven to the lobby to use it. But whatever). I head over to the poker room around 2:30 PM and get seated in a new 4/8 starting up. The lineup is pretty good for this game with mostly tight passives who can be pushed off the flop, and loose chasers who write their hand on their forehead. I manage to get pocket A's for the first time ALL weekend in this game, and then proceed to hit them 3 times and a few A/big and other nice hands including a few sets to run up a nice +140 in 4 hours. The quote of the day at this table had to be from one of the "Any 2 will do" crew who after buying in for the 5th time said "It's only money. I own my own company. I will jsut fire a few more people if I don't win soon".

Early dinner on a nice buffet comp and a quick nap before heading back up to the poker room around 9 PM. The highest I have ever played at a casino is 3/6 before this trip and I had the expectation that 4/8 was tighter from the few times I had watched it. My experiences from earlier this weekend had confirmed that. So when I sat at the 4/8 on Sunday night and saw 8 to the flop and 5 to the river I was in shock. I managed to play a tight game and not tilt over the suckouts and ran my $200 buyin up to almost 400 before giving back about 80 waiting for a hand, When this hand comes around... QJ of hearts in the small blind. Limped to me with 7 players in the pot so I complete. Flop is K, 10, 3 2 hearts. I figure if I get lucky I can check raise the whole table and if it checks around it isn't the worst sin ever. So I check. 3 to my left bets, 5 callers, 1 fold to the button who raises. I decide a 3 bet here will kill the action and just call. The rest call. 7 of us see the turn. Ace of spades (to go with the K of spades on the flop) giving me the nut straight. Surely ONE of these 7 people will bet.. so I check from the small blind position Raise and reraise back to me. 1 person folds and I once again decide for the overcalls and 5 of us see the river for 2 bets each. River is nothing, and I decide checking around with the nuts is bad. So I go ahead and lead out. Apparently I underestimated my table image as everyone folded but 1 caller He had A10 for 2 pair. The other people ALL said they had 2 pair as well. (Yeah Yeah they ALWAYS HAD the nuts)... $180 pot pushed my way. I toss the dealer a redbird and color up.

A few hands later. Action Jackson who has blown through 2 racks trying to bluff into 9 callers every hand live straddles. Jumping Joe raises it. Jumping Joe has not been able to sit in his seat for more than 1 orbit at a time, has smoked 50 cig's while I have been at the table, and is so jittery he looks like he had 50 cups of coffee as well. I look down to see AK of clubs and make it 12 to go. Only the 3 of us to the flop. Flop couldn't BE any better for me... A10x 2 10x of clubs. Top pair and nut flush draw... yeah I will bet this. Action Jackson checks, Jumping Joe leads out and I raise folding out Action Jackson and it is heads up to the turn as Jumping Joe calls. Turn is the K. Jumping Joe leads out again and top 2 pair with the nut flush draw is so crappy I decide to raise it. he 3 bets, I 4 bet and he caps. (even though technically it was not a cap as we were headsup so could have gone on forever. But I didn't HAVE the nuts so I was fine with not bringing it up). River is the beautiful 7 of clubs. He bets out and I raise. At this point he informs me I am a flush chasing river rat who should never touch a poker table again, and that he has the straight and I am ahorrible person for getting the flush (he used SLIGHTY different words). I have to show first (and he waits for me to do so) showing top 2 pair and the rivered flush atwhich point he mucks his hand in disgust and tells me he had me until then. At which time the whole table rolls their eyes and says nice hand.

I top the dealer 2 redbirds and thank her for an amazing run that helped the bankroll immensely. Cashed out up 383 in 6 hours of play.

I head back downstairs where I saw some table gables I thought were interesting. 4 card Poker, and Flop Poker. So I sit at 4 card poker and give it a shot. They deal you 5 cards and you make your best 4 card hand out of it... then the dealer gets 6 cards to make her best 4 card hand and best hand wins, some bonus action on a jackpot bet pays nicely on big hands and 4 of a kind is a HUGE payout. I sat for 45 mins getting not much and finally hitting a straight to get back to even and stood up. I saw a seat at flop poker and decided to give it a try. Flop Poker each player puts up a "Post" bet (which is the table minimum), an Ante and an optional bet after seeing your 3 cards. You are dealt 3 cards, dealer is dealt 3 cards and turns them up in the middle for the flop. You make the best 5 card hand out of your 3 and 2 of hers and are then paid if you have Jacks or better. The best hand at the table wins the Flop bet's. I am doing fine not winning or losing (which is good for a table game) and find myself up $10 so I decide one mroe hand. Well I get dealt 886 and consider folding, but say WTF maybe I can hit 2 pair or better. Flop is 86x for the Full Boat. Well it turns out a full house pays 30 to 1 and I rake in a $180 profit from the hand and go cash out. Sleep and off to New Orleans tomorrow.