Zithal and DrTyore Casino Niagara Trip Report
So, here's my day...
Left K/w at about 9:30 in the morning... a MickyD's breakfast later, and we're on the 401. We get into Niagara at about 11:30 a.m., and both of us are on the same table about 10 minutes after getting to the casino.
I got card dead real fast, and stayed that way for four hours. I had very few decent hands... QQ (UTG) and AJs in late position - I raised with both. the QQ had one caller ($17 raise) and the board came 10-J-A. Great fold by me to the dominatig A-7 that called (sigh). My KQ loses to Q-9, my J-10 loses to J-9, and my J-Q loses to J-9 as well. As you can see, I apparantly suck at poker. I won one pot the entire day - my A-10 vs. Q-J when I sucked out on an ace on the river. So, i got to sit at a table and donate for 3.5 hours and lost $195 bad day.....
I had one hand that I played badly, slowplaying my BB 10-5 on a flop of 10-10-9 allowing one other guy (ZITHAL) to catch up with his JQ to his his straight (sigh)... so I suck at casino poker (NL at least)
Poker sucked - alcohol and strippers was great!
Zithal's trip report to come later...
Left K/w at about 9:30 in the morning... a MickyD's breakfast later, and we're on the 401. We get into Niagara at about 11:30 a.m., and both of us are on the same table about 10 minutes after getting to the casino.
I got card dead real fast, and stayed that way for four hours. I had very few decent hands... QQ (UTG) and AJs in late position - I raised with both. the QQ had one caller ($17 raise) and the board came 10-J-A. Great fold by me to the dominatig A-7 that called (sigh). My KQ loses to Q-9, my J-10 loses to J-9, and my J-Q loses to J-9 as well. As you can see, I apparantly suck at poker. I won one pot the entire day - my A-10 vs. Q-J when I sucked out on an ace on the river. So, i got to sit at a table and donate for 3.5 hours and lost $195 bad day.....
I had one hand that I played badly, slowplaying my BB 10-5 on a flop of 10-10-9 allowing one other guy (ZITHAL) to catch up with his JQ to his his straight (sigh)... so I suck at casino poker (NL at least)Poker sucked - alcohol and strippers was great!
Zithal's trip report to come later...
Comments
Yeh, and like Mike says............ Get to the good stuff I missed!
"DrTyore" and myself decided to make a Sunday trip up to Niagra for some man-fun. The day started off when I picked Mark up at 9:30 and we hit the 401 for the trip.
A day of man-fun... (ok. I'm going to stop using that phrase)... isn't complete without bad food, so I started the day off with a quick stop to McD's for a morning McGriddle and an OJ to wash things down. There wasn't a lot of traffic on the roads, so we made it in to the Niagra before noon. Mark called ahead and got our names on the waiting list (which was good as it filled up a bunch by the time we got there)
We parked the car at Fallsview and wandered over to the poker room. The digitized board is a MUCH needed change to the casino. Not only does it show a list of what's running, but also starts interest finders for other games.
When we got in, there were three 5/5NL games started and interest in a 2/5 LHE game with a couple of names on other lists. The nice thing about the interest finder is that you can see if a table's filling up with a game you like then jump on the list. This must really cut down on the hastle that the brush goes through. (Now they just need something like this at Niagra, though, to be fair, Niagra only runs 1/2NL and 2/4LHE)
Just before we headed out, I insisted we stop by the Wheel of Fortune slots and pay tribute to the WoF Gods. Mark put in 5 and I threw in 10. After a few minutes, Mark cashed out, up $8 and I hit a high point of being up $2 before losing the balance. The sacrifice was made and we wandered over to the shuttle to head to Niagra.
Four shuttles later (two for employees, and one other going on break), we made it to Niagra, confirmed our call in and within a minute they formed a new 1/2 table that both Mark and I were on. I sat in my preferred 8 seat, (good view of everyone and the table, not too crowded) the table filled up quickly and we began. Here's my end of day read on everyone so that you'll know whom I'm talking about
1 seat - "Mark" - Ultra Donkey. Super tight, pure-donator.
2 seat - "Mr ABC" - regular guy, nothing special. Pure ABC tatics.
3 seat - "Dude" - Solid player, good agression, good reads. Early on he folded cowboys face up after flopping a set to a VERY scary river. I'm glad he did this as this told me a ton about the guy.
4 seat - "Phil" - So named, cause Mark called him Phil Ivey, caused he looks him. Didn't play like him. ULTRA aggressive. Never failed to make a continuation bet. Always checked raised when a scare card dropped. Could NOT turn it off. EVER. Once Mark busted I think only me and seat 6 were on to him.
5 seat - "Donator" - Bad teeth, bad player, and draws on anything to the river which is pure money in NL.
6 seat - "Mr Avoid" - Great player, but talked too much giving up too much of his game. Very solid player. Had a great read on people.
7 seat - "Internet" - ABC internet player. Spoke too much, giving up too much of his game. Was card dead for the first 5 rotations. He was showing me his folds, so he wasn't lying.
8 seat - "Me" - I'm a fish.
9 seat - "Joe" - Joe gets AQ twice and QQ once in the first five hands. Decent player, with loose starting requirements and draws Ax to the river hoping to hit top pair. Limp = any two suited, raise = quality hand.
10 seat = "Old guy" - Passive player, played solid hands, put won't protect hands. Fairly weak-tight.
$100 in chips on the table... and we're off!! Pre-flop betting... $7 raise is pretty much a limp in, $12 is the standard table raise (usually flat called by 3-4 people), $17 is where it's at to isolate.
Early on, I play a few pots and get down $30. Was going to reload to stay at $100, but hit a couple good hands and never dropped below $100 again.
I pick up A8d in late postition and limp in for $7 (after three other call the bet). Flop comes two diamond and the internal random generate says to bet. I bet $6, giving everyone odds and only two people call. The turn is my beautiful diamond and I check to try and set up a river pay off. Everyone checks, the river is a blank and I bet $15, no-callers. Damn.
One roation later I pick up Q7c in late and limp along for $2 with most of the rest of the table. Flop is Q7x, checked to me and I bet out $6 getting three callers. The turn is a Queen and I check, trying to look scared of the turn (like the last hand) and bet at the river to which no one calls. *sigh*
The lesson I learned is that people who stay in either have something or are drawing and, if they're drawing it's best to bet out on the turn to get more money on the flop. I vow to do this the next time I turn a monster.
With a little more cash I make a few speculative plays, I start building chips. The amusing part of the first hour was that I brought my stack up to just over $200 without showing down a single hand.
My first "real" hand is AKd in late position which I raise to $12. "Old guy" calls and the board comes Q high, one diamond. Old guy bets a small amount into the pot, and I'm not quite getting the right odds if he's got a pair, but I call anyway, cause I'm a donkey. The turn is a King, and he bets $10 to which I check-raise to $30. He thinks and thinks. (ie. He's got the Q and hated seeing the K), and calls. He checks a semi-scary river and I check behind to take the pot against his QTo. Old guy doesn't like me drawing out on him.
Early on I made some pre-flops folds which I wasn't sure was right or not. Twice in middle position, I folded mid-pocket pairs (99 and TT) when the action in front of me was "player 1 raise to $12, player 2 call" Was folding this weak? I'm ok odds, (esp. implied), but calling off 1/15 of my stack, with about half the table left behind be, knowing that I'd need to hit a set to continue didn't seem right. I think I'd need a deeper stack to make this call here. Thoughts?
Anyway, Mark's getting low and I'm in late position with QJo, three limpers to me, so I limp and Mark checks in the BB. The flop comes TT9, and it's checked to me. The interal random generator says to check my draw. (plus I don't want to get checked-raised from a slow played T) It's checked around and the turn is a sweet looking K. Mark pushses all-in for his last $24, everyone else folds and I, sadly for Mark, have to make the call. Mark misses his 10 outs and I bust him. In truth, Mark can't win that hand. Unless he pushes the flop, he's going to get callers which will give me odds to draw. It's also likely that his push for $24 is called by one or two people, which will still compells me to call. Of course, had he bet $10 on the flop, everyone one else would have called, so his only mistake was preventing more cash from entering my stack.
Mark leaves the table and I pull a complete beginner move, following by complete idiot playing on my part. In mid position I pick up QQ and make it $17 to go. Joe, who busted out a few hands earlier and bought in by putting 5 twenties on the table, of which I bought one for some chips, calls, everyone else folds.
Now, when he called the $17 I saw him put in the rest of his chips (which was $17), but completely missed the 4 20's that was still on the table, so I thought he was all-in. I asked if it was heads up, which was confimed and flipped my QQ's face up as the board was dealt.. KQ8. Joe says, "I've still got money." only then realizing what I just did. At that point I almost threw away the hand, (because you can't show you cards.... in tournaments), but luckily it was a cash game and my hand wasn't dead.
So, here's my Class A, Super number 1 awesome move of the night. Knowing that he knows I have a set, I throw out a $5 chip to get him out of the pot. He immediately calls. I'M AN IDIOT!!! I just gave him the correct odds to call with a VARIETY of hands. The turn is a Jack and now I'm beat with AT or 9T. I cry a little inside and do the only thing I can do; kill his odds if he's still on a draw. I bet $50 into the pot and he goes into the tank. He shows me JT for the flopped up and down straight draw, but luckily even he knows he's not getting the right odds to make this call and lays down the hand.
I got off VERY lucky on that one and the table share a laugh at my expense. Honestly, I deserved to lose that one and my mistake probably cost me a lot of his, as he would have called any of my bets to the river. (which also may have saved me too) The look from Old Man now confirms that he thinks I'm the biggest loser at the table.
Nothing much happens until I pick up TT on the cutoff. I raise to $15 and Old man calls, everyone else it out. The flop is an ugly KQ5, and I decided to make a continuation bet of $20. Old man goes into the tank and calls in a way that says to me, "I got this dork right where I want him. I'm soooo getting paid off this hand." Of course, I think that he'll think that holding a King, but I know I'm beat at this point and I'm done with this pot....
...until the turn comes a T, creating a scary board by giving me trips. He could have KK or QQ, but I can't see AJ because of his call. So, I pick up a stack of reds and bet $50 into the pot. (I think this may have been a little low, if he has a Jack) and Old man goes into the tank and I read, "Crap. I have a great hand, but I think this dork is ahead of me." After a minute, and playing with a stack of reds, he finally makes the call.
The river is a brick and he checks, I think I'm still ahead, but play it safe and check behind. I show my TT and he says, "You got me again." and shows AA. A very nice $200 pot comes my way and the only think I can think is how badly Old Man played his Aces. At no time pre or post flop did he try and protect his hand. Old man has a serious dislike for me now.
Mark moves over to Seat 9 as Joe busts out, and as I'm stacking my chips, the VERY next hand I pick up JJ. So, I make it $12 to go and get called in three spots. (Including Old Man who wants his money back)
The flop comes 234 rainbow and it's checked to me, so I bet out $17. Old man folds and Dude, the player who I think is pretty solid and the only one that has more chips than I do, thinks, then makes it $50 to go. Ack!! I just won a big pot and am now being check raised with a good hand on a scary board. I think for a while and just kill myself over this decision. The only hands I can beat here that he'd play that way are a slightly smaller pair, or a semi-buff to a straight draw (which seems unlikely for him). I think I'm beat, plus I'm risking killing my stack that's currently 2.5 times the size of the max buy-in on a lowly pair of Jacks. That last thought really sticks so, after much thought, I finally muck the hand after showing Mark, and get ready for the internal torture as everyone else folds around knowing I'm never going to see those cards.
To which I'm wrong. As Dudes collects the pot, Dude throw his QQ on the table and it's the only time I jump for joy or show any real emotion. I was actually flying high after this hand, knowing that I made a nice laydown. Had he not shown, I would have been in a much worse frame of mind. His showing, was definately a mistake.
The run of amazing luck continued a few hands later when I got to see a flop for the low, low price of $7 with 88. The turn comes K8x, two clubs and I dance a little dance. I bet out $16 and "donator" calls. He's either on a flush draw or Ace high draw. Please no, club I think...
.. to which I see a 8 on the turn! I just turned motherf**kin' quads. Holy crap. I want the rest of Donators cash. Why is there only one other person in the pot?!?
Learning my lesson from my first few trips around the table, I choose not to slowplay the monster and bet out $20 which "Donator" hesitantly calls, leaving him with $50 behind. Now I say, "Please club! Make the river a club or an Ace!!!"
...which doesn't happen, so I bet out $25 and he mucks immediately. I feel complelled to show the table my nice hand, which I don't normally do.
Shortly after, Mark busts when his QJ hits a J9x flop, only to have his opp. have J9 for the two pair. Mark turns a club draw, but the billion outs he's been missing all day, don't fail to miss this time and he's out and he lets me play longer while he goes to watch sports on the big screen while drowning his sorrow in Tequila. Mark was card dead all day which is not a pleasant thing to have happen. I know he's analized his play to death to look for leaks, but I stand by my assertion that the three hours of hands is not enough to deduce anything meaningful from. It just wasn't his day and, I think, more often that not, Mark going's to walk out a winner. (It's just an expensive path to get there.)
On an aside... please note, however, that I ended up for the day, after donating to the Wheel of Fortune Gods, while Mark lost big after taking from them. Just a coincidence?? I think not...
"compuease" Jeff showed up just before Mark busted and headed to the 2/4 LHE tables, and my luck finally subsided and I've hovered around the $290-260 range for about 45 minutes with a poor run of cards.
Which carries us to the last hand of the day. "Phil" had been continuously check-raising scary flops and "Mr Aviod" kept calling him on it, raking in pot after pot, causing "Phil" to rebuy more than once. For example, on a Board of QQ9Q, Phil check raises MrAviod who INSTANTLY calls. MrAviod's pair of two's hold up. It was good that "Phil" was agressive, but to make it effective, you need to be able to turn it off sometimes, or be agressive on board you hit. The one time I saw him play somewhat passively was when he actually hit big. It was a huge leak and I just knew that I was going to be the one that paid him off.
In our last hand, Phil raises to $7, Donator, and Mr Aviod calls. I have QQ and make it $25 to go, (which, in hindsight, was likely too low for the players involved with the hand) Phil calls and Donator goes all-in for another $6, Mr Aviod gets out of the way, somehow the only player paying attention to the fact that I must have a VERY strong hand to make this play. The rest of us call the extra $6. The flop comes J high and Phil pushes his last $41 into the pot. There's no way I'm not ahead here and make the call. Phil turns over KJ, and an ugly King hits the turn. I don't redraw and lose a hefty pot. Old man says, "hurts, doesn't it?" and I think to myself, "Yep. But if you put your money into the pot when your ahead." Old man seemed happy at my own little suckout, but I don't think he'd really understand the difference between his and mine.
Losing this juicy pot, all-in and covering the two biggest donators at the table, I recognize I'm on a but of tilt, but nothing bad and decide to call it a day and head over to Mark. I end the day up $95, which would have been up about $300 had the Queens held. Still it was a good day.
Jeff decided to continue with his table (after losing to a one out-er on the river.. ouch) and Mark and I decide to head over to my friends house to make plans for the evening. It, once again, took forever to get the shuttle back and was just past 6 by the time we got to Paul's place. While we decided on what to eat, we played around on his XBox360 (which was a bonus he got from work), and "Dead Rising" is one of the coolest games I've ever played. Zombies in a mall. Everything and anything can be used for a weapon. This game is going to push systems. (Though, after seeing a 360 on a HD and non-HD TV, you really have to get HD. The text on the non-HD was actually hard to read in places.)
So, we played games for a bit, then the plan was to head to the Merchant Ale house for dinner, but they had a cover charge for a band, so I had to leave good beer behind and we headed to a place called Duff's. We got a corinary pizza (which had a wonderful thin crust) and a load of wings. There was a lot of dead animals on the table. We ate everything but three wings and our stomaches were not happy.
We picked up Paul's friend Steve (a ripper regular) and headed back to Paul's place for a beer and some Fight Night/Table Tennis action before the evening festivities.
We got into the Downer just after 11 (after being unable to contact Jeff, which was sad) and lucked out 10 minutes in with a booth up close. The place was packed and, based on earlier vists, they didn't plan for it. There were times I looked around and the only girls were the ones on the stage. Still it was a fun night and the lack of staffing definately helped to keep it on the cheap side. One of the nice things about the Downer is that it's very female friendly and quite often when the guys lay down on stage with a bill in their mouth, there's one or two gals in the mix too. (one even had a really cool pair of glow-in-the-black-light panties on.)
I lucked into one dance (I must have looked like the biggest sucker in the room) and it was underwhelming. The dance was all business with no real small talk. I never had the chance to tell her that I was a .com millionaire who was just killing time after blowing a few thousand at the casino. (Hey. If THEY can be called Candy Summer and claim being Two-time pole dancing champion of the world, I can be a dot COM millionaire... or a someone that lost one nut in an unforunate hunting accident like Paul wanted to tell people)
It was nothing special and was the only dance I was offered, so I can't complain too much. Paul found a regular and ended up on the "walk of shame" (to the ATM)
We stuck around for a while, (with the lack of women available for dancing driving my compatriates nutso), and we headed out of the bar with far more money than we should have.
We then headed back to Pauls and ended the night with turns at Fight Night and Ping Pong (which I hated until I learned the secret of play from a VERY drunk Steve) and then headed to bed by 5am.
Woke up. Headed home. Anayized play. Dropped Mark off. It was a FUN 24 hours and I'm glad I had Mark along for the company. Can't wait to do it again!!
So, for most of the session that he played, he complained that he was getting really bad cards, which either means a) I'm really getting bad cards, or b) I'm a very tight player and am hoping to disguise my tightness by complaining about the cards I'm getting.
"Internet" was a little of both, but he liked to show me his cards, so he was getting a pretty nasty run. (Aside: He played like three pots in the two hours he was there and still finished ahead.)
Anyway, at one point he leans over says, "I'm not surprised I haven't been getting any pocket pairs since the odds are 1 in 200 to get one." So, I say, you, like the odds of getting AA is about 1 in 200.
He's says, "Yep. And guess what the odds of getting pocket twos are?"
Me: "1 in 200"
He: "Yeah, that was a trick question that got me once."
Me: "OK, but the odds that you'll get any pocket pair is, like 1 in 17"
Him: "No, it's 1 on 200"
Me: "That's the odds of getting getting a single pocket pair."
Him: "Right. What do you think the odds of getting pocket tens are? 1 in 200"
Me: "I know"
Him: "So the odds of getting any pocket pair is 1 in 200"
At that point, I tried to explain that, yes, that was about the odds of getting a single pocket pair, but the 1 in 17 number was the odds of getting ANY pocket pair. I knew he had no clue when he finally said, "I see what you're trying to say", then returned to playing poker.
I love poeple. Why don't I have more of their money?
stp
Great report and loved the side bar with internet.