This past weekend felt like it was one long day, not 3 and ½ days. I left work at 11 a.m. on Friday, because I was making a trip to Biloxi, Mississippi to see my cousin, and to play some poker down there. Before I start this long rant, I'm going to tell you about my trip to the Westerville Armory on Thursday night.
Well, I heard about this charity casino that is held at the Westerville Armory every weekend. I figured I'd be doing myself a disservice if I didn't check it out, so Thursday after work I went to see what it was about.
It doesn't have a casino feel at all, but it's an organized limit poker game, and you can't find too many of those not on the internet. There is a rake taken out for charity, which is what allows this game to take place. Without that, it would be illegal in Ohio. It was a good experience, and a good payday too.
I ended up making $140 in 2 hours! That's unreal for a 3-6 game. The players there are not good at all, but I did catch a few hands that allowed me to maximize my profit. Ironically, the only hand I'm going to share is one that I lost. I feel like I played it as well as possible, and hands like these make me think that I'm close to becoming a very, very good player.
Ok, a player in 1st position raises to $6, and I call in late position with AK. I thought about putting in a reraise here to see where I was at, but with 6 people in the pdidn't really didn't think it would accomplish anything. The flop comes down A Q 9, and the raiser checks. I bet $3, and the raiser check raises to $6. Now I'm thinking he either has AQ or a set of Q's or 9's. Given his apparent skill level (or lack thereof, who knows), these are all hands that he could have raised in early position with. So I call his raise with every intention of folding if I don't improve on the turn. Well...the turn comes King, which gives me top 2 pair. While this could have filled a straight draw, I'm still pegging him on AQ or a set. If he has AQ, I have him dominated, and if he has a set, I'm screwed. So I check and call it down, and he shows AA. I didn't really expect that hand, but I was very proud of myself for the fact that I was going to correctly lay down my top pair top kicker hand until I improved on the turn. I've talked to a few people, and they said there is no way I could have lost less on that hand. I was just surprised how well I read him, and that if the king doesn't come, I lose hardly anything.
Back to the trip to Biloxi. It was supposed to take 14 hours to get there, so that would have put us there at 2 a.m. Saturday morning. Well, as soon as we roll in to Kentucky, we get stuck in a traffic jam that lasts 3 HOURS! It was unbearable!
We finally get to Biloxi about 5 in the morning, and get 1 ½ hours of sleep. So Saturday my cousin gives us the tour of the town, and then we go to the casino to play some $4-$8. We sit down, and I don't win a hand for an hour and a half! I was catching cold cards, but playing with discipline. About 3 hours in, after floating around $150 for awhile, my flush loses to a full house when some RETARD fills up on the river. He was calling any bet with any 2 cards the whole day, and sucked out on me for a $150 pot. Needless to say, I was furious, and I played bad the rest of the session. I ended down $130. It sucked pretty bad.
That night we went out to dinner with my cousin and checked out a few of the casinos we hadn't been to, and then called it a night. We planned on waking up early and heading to the casino to play some more poker.
Well we got to the casino about 11:15 a.m. and sat down for some more $4-$8. I started off losing, but by the time we left at 3:30 p.m., I was up about $75. I hit a few sets, and played pretty well, so I wasn't feeling too bad about yesterday. We stopped at 3:30 to head to the barbeque at my cousin's house.
My cousin makes some good barbeque! He has his own sauce, and it's pretty good. So we ate and chilled out there for a couple hours, and then packed our stuff up. The plan was to head to the casino and play until about midnight, and then head back to Ohio. We got to the casino and started playing about 7, and I lasted until about 9. I didn't play my best, and I was getting sucked out on like crazy. Some guy calls a raise to $8 before the flop with 4 6, calls a $4 bet on the flop, and hits and his INSIDE straight draw on the turn to take a huge pot away from me when I had TPTK. Now I know people like that are what allow people like me to make money playing poker, but damn...it's frustrating when things like that happen to you. I lost $150 in that 2 hour session, to put my down $200 for the weekend. Not as successful as I had planned.
Well we got back to Marion at 11:30 in the morning on Monday, and I slept all day. Nothing to report on for that day.
Yesterday I lost $40 more playing online. I lost $25 when my top 2 pair lost to an inside straight draw, and $25 more when my Ace high flush lost to a straight flush. I ended up getting $10 of it back, so that's how we arrived at $40. Things haven't really been going my way the past couple of days, but I'm going to fight through it and turn it around. Despite the recent losses, I really feel like I'm coming close to playing some amazing poker, and I think I can break through soon and really start to make some money. Let's hope so, this losing stuff is overrated. It sucks.
Well that's all for now...hopefully some good news on the poker front soon...I'll try my best. Here are a few pics from the trip. Enjoy!
Troy and I
The front of the Beau Rivage
Troy, Pounds and I
" If you encounter difficulty, don't change your decision to go, change your direction to get there."
