Thursday, August 14, 2003

Glenn and I drove into Las Vegas at about 6pm local time, Monday, August 11, 2003.

I started feeling better in Texas, felt pretty great by the time we hit New Mexico, had a little relapse during a rainstorm in Albuquerque, then felt pretty good the rest of the way. I am now on the road to a full recovery!

Here is my little trip report:

We played for quite a few hours on Wednesday in St. Louis at the Ameristar. The games were super-soft, just like before, when we visited last Thanksgiving. I started at 3/6, but they got an interest list for a 6/12 game quickly. I asked one of the dealers, who remembered me from my visit last year, how the 6/12 game played. He said that a player like myself should make a killing. So we switched to the 6/12 game as soon as it opened. I made about $25/hr, so a little over 2 bb's per hour. It was very good.

I was pretty sick until we reached Texas or New Mexico, so we decided to skip Tunica this time, even though the games are so good and juicy. We had to stop quite a bit, and I lived on pain pills and Tylenol PM. Needless to say, Glenn did all the driving, lol. Then the humidity went to nil and I started feeling better. Albuquerque was experiencing a rain shower, but I took a nap as soon as we checked in, and felt okay by 9pm. Their rain is short and sweet, then back to almost no humidity. We stayed near Sandia. They have no hotel, so several local hotels give a "poker" rate.

We played for about 4 hours. Poker is the very best in NM. The rake is maxed at $3.00 and NO bad beat jackpot. Not only that, but they don't deal with quarters and/or half dollars, so they only take dollars for the rake, which they do NOT take out until the pot reaches $10, then $20, etc. It is awesome. Even novice players can win there.

We played 4/8 with a half kill the entire night. We started a new game, and I urged the dealer to deal us short handed immediately. I am getting best at SH games, so I wanted to play at 5. We only got in a couple of hands before the game filled, but at least I got to play some SH. They have about 20 tables, all of which were brimming. They spread everything from 1-5 stud to Stud HL, Omaha high, O8 and even mixed games. They spread limit up to whatever interest there is. Saturday night it was 20/40 with a half kill. They also spread a pot limit mixed game, which looked super juicy, but Omaha High was being played every half hour, and I am not up on my straight O high game right now. Minimum buy-in was $300, but there must not have been a max, cuz some guys had about 10k in front of them. Blinds were 10/20, which I thought was ridiculous. There was one big fish, a couple of guys who thought they were better than they were, and a couple of sharks stomping the table. I loved it.

Sandia is one of the best poker rooms I have ever played in. I love it there. It was our 2nd visit, and both were big wins. The players are so unbelievably bad, they make the St. Louis players look like WCP.

Pots were huge and often 8-10 handed on the flop. There was always a showdown, every hand. Men tried to bluff out like 6 people at one time!!! It was hilarious. I was bluffed off of a couple of pots, but mostly took them to the cleaners. I cleared over $40/hr. in that game, so over 4 bb's per hour, even including the half kill. Glenn cleared about $20/hr. We loved it, we hated leaving, but we had to drive the rest of the way to Vegas in the morning.

I will most likely recover for a few days (yes, I already feel a billion times better), then drive back to Arizona for househunting, leaving the dogs in my Mom's care.

I already have the daily tourneys scoped out here. I joined the NLHE tourney Monday night at Orleans. I got crippled not long after the rebuy period ended by someone who thought it was in his best interest to play 62o in early position vs. my A5o in the BB. He stayed in through bet after bet until he made a gutshot straight on the river. Then he told the table that he was a "math major" in college, and obviously needed to go back to school, since he "left" me with $10 in chips and didn't get my bounty. I wanted to tell him that he needed to go back to school to learn how to play with the odds, not against them, lol. Anyone with a math degree should know not to play 62o in EP and call several big, 3x bb bets. Doh!

Tuesday they had the only weekly Stud tourney at the Orleans. I got pretty far, but another guy decided to play 3 random cards because he claimed he was "desperate" and needed to double up. He went all-in on sixth with a straight draw, which got there. I was crippled, and out not long after. My Mom says he is a dealer in town, so that kind of explains that, lol.

Tonight Sahara is having their NLHE tourney. I love Sahara. Basically, it is the only place in Vegas I can say that I really like to play. They said they have been regularly getting 6, 7 tables for their Wednesday night $60+20 (1) rebuy NLHE tourney. When we left Vegas in March, they only had two or three tables for that tourney, and 3 were never filled. 26 people was the max I ever played at Sahara. So poker has really taken a jump here, too.

Wish me luck!