Hollywood Casino Part Deux

Played another short session today. Three hours.

Had my choice of two tables when I sat down. Went with two women. I know, I know. I am a stereotyping bastard. Well, the other table had a bunch of regulars. I did not notice one regular at the chick table.

I sat down and immediately noticed that the lady next to me had very little knowledge of the game. Her hand motions while in a hand can only be described at erratically tentative. Almost as if every action was a question, only performed so swiftly in order to avoid embarrassment. If she was wrong she would just play it off like she was doing something else. When she rivered two pair on a four way checked down board, I heard her give a little squeal. She put in a $5 bet with great self satisfaction. The other lady was a total rock. She was playing next to her husband. He was weak tight. Two other dudes were just as bad. I had picked the correct table.

The one truly talented player at the table raised it to $11 in early position. Four callers to me in the cutoff. I have AcQc. I call of course. If I were in the blinds and it was off suit, I probably fold. I really do not like AQ. The big blind comes along and we see a flop of KcTc3c. Gin!!!! The original raiser makes it $35. Folds to new girl. She says "oh well" and goes in for a total of $60. I put out a stack of $100. Big blind folds and original raiser folds. He flashes JhJC. I win. She never showed Would have liked to see. I love playing with new players. It is like time traveling back to when I first started playing. I have long since come to grips that I too once played and behaved that way.

Over all it was a good day. I flopped two pair three times and won. I turned a nut straight. I flopped a set. Everything just seemed to work today. Nice.

Overall myself and many regulars at the Missouri casinos are in agreement. The new casino has generated great games. Just like last week. There were eight "fish" and two "sharks". For lack of better terminology. I am no shark but I ain't no guppy. Usually the ration is reversed at the other casino's. Hope it lasts.

Hollywood Casino

A new casino opened up last Friday. Its name is Hollywood Casino and it is located on the second turn of Kansas Speedway. It is also twenty five minutes door to door from my house. This is significant for me in that all other poker rooms in KC take me about an hour door to door. That extra half hour is a big deterrent. I may have more poker in my future.

The advertising campaign leading up to its opening billed Hollywood as Kansas City's first true Vegas like gaming experience. They sort of got there. It obvious it is not riverboat like the Missouri casinos. The ceilings vault. There is no smelly river. Everything is state of the art. Slots, table games are all shinny and new. They biggest non Vegas amenity is the alcohol. It is most definitely not free. No big deal, as I rarely drink and play poker.

The poker room is nicely and conservatively adorned. Just like the rest of the casino. There is not much flash, neon or flashing lights. Other than the slots that is. I walked up to the podium to put my name on the 1/3 nl game. I had to wait a while as the men in suits still seemed to be learning the ropes. The list was ten long and I put my name on it. They took my cell number so I could be texted when my seat was available. This I really liked. The other rooms do not do that. In fact I have never been to a Vegas room that does that, though I am sure it exists.

I wander off and lose $75 playing table games. I get my text 30 minutes later and go get my seat. The tables are nice and the chairs swivel and are comfy. The only issue is they shoehorned 12 tables into a space for 10. Hard to get around and no matter where you sit you are getting bumped by other players.

The play was way soft. A lot of players must have come in from the Kansas side that do not usually make it over to Missouri. I saw a lot of the regulars but only two were at my table. Usually the ratio is reversed. I get in cheap with 57d. Flop is 3s6d8d. Two of us call smallish bets to the river where I hit my straight. It checks to me and I get two players to pay me $40. I hit two sets in two hours. End up a buy in. Lots of calling down with top pair this day. Nice.

Over all a nice experience. It will be interesting to see how it all shakes out. I have the Bravo Poker Live app for my phone. Lets me see how many games are going on in all three poker rooms. Yesterday, Hollywood had 9. Ameristar 3 and Harrahs 3. The average used to be nine between Ameristar and Harrahs. So Hollywood must be drawing from the west.

Vegas

Spent the Superbowl weekend in Las Vegas. Only played two short sessions of poker. Up a couple hundred. I decided to stay with the group this time. They played a lot of Pai Gow. So I played a lot of Pai Gow. I was up on that too. I hit a straight flush on the bonus for $250. I won every session. I only threw craps once. I borrowed $5 from my buddy and ran it up to $400. The down was my sports bets. I made seven $100 sports bets and lost everyone. Oh well. Great time. Saw Motley Crue. Was not my first choice but the group was going. It was a great concert. I forgot how many of their songs I know. I recommend it.

The only had one semi strange incident at the poker table, I was at the Golden Nugget playing 1/2 nl. Eventually there was a button straddle. Now in Kansas City where I play most of my poker wherever the straddle is, action begins with the hand immediately to the left of the straddler. At the Golden Nugget, they only allowed,as far as I could tell, button straddles. Furthermore, the action always started with the under the gun player and continued normally until it reached the button straddle and then skipped him. Then the blinds would act and then action reverted back to the button.

Is this normal in Vegas? Is this normal anywhere else? I had never seen it and I am intrigued.

MT

Sets

I have been on a bit of a dry spell when it comes to flopping sets recently. I had kept a running total in my mind and I had over 40 pocket pairs with out getting the set. Last time I went to the boat with Prasad, I told him this at while at dinner. He came by later and I had flopped a set with 66 but lost on the board of 763. One of the blinds had 45 and I could not catch up. Lost the minimum when a 5 came on the turn and I slowed down.

Last Thursday. Not sets. Barely any pairs.
The drought continued.

Just Tuesday I play again. I sit a t a 3/6 table to pass the time. Play three hands before my 1/2 seat opens up. Sit at seat seven and immediately realize that my $214 buy in was not nearly enough. Apparently the game had been going on all night. There were stacks of $1000, $1500, $800, $700 and a few more in the $500 range. I brought a pee shooter to a tank battle. The only other stack near mine was just under $200 but he doubled up as I was sitting down. I almost got up and went back to 3/6 and just see flops. Ameristar allows players to buy in for up to %75 of the largest stack. I could have bought in for $1,125.00. I just did not have the scratch. I only brought the one buy in. They are always starting new tables in the morning. This is the first one I have seen go all night.

I get KK in middle position. Drunk utg guy puts out two chips with a sloppy gesture. He realizes one is red and tries to take it back. Another player says it has to stand and the dealer affirms this. They tell him not to worry, someone will raise it. I oblige and bump it to $15. I get three callers including drunk guy. The door card is the Ks. Bingo. It is starting to rain. The nest two cards are the queen and jack of spades. Poorly textured flop to say the least. Drunky checks. I decide to check to see what the other guys will do. It get checked around. The turn is a red 9. Not getting better. Drunky bets out $25. I resign myself to call it down unless the board pairs or the case king shows up. It is now heads up. A red 4 hit the river. Drunky makes the same bet. I sigh and call. He says all he has is a pair of queens. I table my set and win. Woot. The best part was drunk guy saying he was trying to be cute with his opening bet. I guess he was angle shooting with AQos. Too funny.

I get pocket queens and slow play them some time later. I flop another set and get some more of drunkys chips.

Drought busted.

Funny annoying moment of the session. Drunk guy and seat 10 get into a pot together. There is some betting and it gets to the river. Drunk guy says you have a pair you win. Seat ten states he has second pair and drunk dude puts his hand over the muck, waiting to see the winner. Ten waits for him to show. They get in a debate. Drunk guy telling him to just show his hand. The dealer steps in and explains to drunky that he made the last bet so action is to him. Show your hand and fold. Drunky kept saying the same thing to seat 10. To his credit seat 10 would not relent. This went on for over a minute. I told drunky to just show his cards or fold. As did the rest of the table. Finally the dealer told him to decide or he would call the floor. He mucked.

I get what the drunk player was doing. I have done it myself. Hold my cards out with my missed drawing hand. Most of the time they flip it and I fold. If they decline I act immediately. No biggie. One time recently I missed my flush and checked down the river with an older man seated right next to me. I tell him if he has a pair he wins and hold my hand out to muck. He decides to play the asshole card and nearly yells at me "then show your hand or fucking fold". I had not had any dealings with him until now. I was taken aback by this outburst. I show my missed draw and tell him thanks for the rules lesson dick. He mutters something about the rules again. I said yeah I fucking know, but up until now it had been a friendly game. All he had to say is show me yours. He apologized later.

Squirrel

I bought some bird seed to fill my "squirrel proof" bird feeder. I also bought a suet cake to put in my suet cake holding bird feeder. Here they are.





Nice of the squirrel to pose eh?

Anyway, what was intended to be a mission to feed the birds and attract some color to my back deck has turned into a battle between myself and the tree rats. They honed in on the suet cake almost immediately. They made short work of it. I tried to thwart their onslaught by storming out the door. Throwing rocks. I even used my sons Nerf gun. I hit one in the ass. Alas undeterred by my defenses, the varmits won.


Tree rats 1

Morning Thunder 0

They then set there sites on the seed feeder. I purchased this style because it specifically touted itself as "squirrel proof". I used it all last year and no squirrel issues. This year different story. The squirrels have been dining on seed until today. I had the feeder a little higher in the tree yesterday. Its former location was near a branch that might as well of been a dinning room chair. The squirrels just sat on that branch and spent their sweet time digging out the seed. You can see they have eaten about two to three inches worth of seed in one day.

Last evening I moved the feeder to the chair. It hangs a little lower, but the tree rats cannot get to the seed. Now I have never seen more than two squirrels at, or around the feeder. Since the seed is no longer easily acquired, they seem to have brought in the whole brain trust. I looked out the door this morning and there were six tree rats on the deck, feeder or tree. There was one charged with getting at the seed. The others were watching intently. Chirping him on. The best minds in the squirrel race seem to be stumped.

Tree rats 1

Morning Thunder 1

It must have been a good year for nuts in the neighborhood. There are way more squirrels than the previous five years we have lived here. We used to have a few owls living in the woods behind us. They seem to have moved on or died. Hence the explosion in the population I suppose. A hawk has moved in now. It came screaming by my window a few months back no doubt after a meal. I am hoping my little bird feeder ends up feeding a bird of prey. Serves them right. Don't steal from the little pretty birds, their scary big brother might be watching.

The Grump

Played at Ameristar yesterday. I only get to play short stints during the week. You know, family obligations and everything.

The game is 1/2. It is full of regulars. I am slowly becoming one of semi regulars. They have seen me enough and recognize me though they do not know my name yet. It is a grind, but that is okay. I like seeing flops.

I am chipping down on this day. I make my gut shot straight and lose to a full house. Down to $130 of my original buy in. I am in late position when I get The Grump It is the 2h4h. I limp for the $2. The button immediately makes it $10. There are three callers so I put in the extra $8. I tell myself I am crazy for playing this hand only because a certain blogger extolls its virtues on a semi regular basis. I see lots of flops but not a many rivers with the mighty 24. The flop comes out 7d 2d 4c. Bingo. Checks to the button who bets $15. Folds around and I call. Heads up. The 4d falls on the turn. Super bingo!!!!. This card is the best card I could hope for. It gives me the third nuts and completes the flush draw. I decide to bet at it. I have played with the button before. He will call here with the nut flush draw or with any two pair. I bet $35. He calls quickly. The river is the 9d. I decide to check, having put him on the flush draw. Usually the regular jump on weakness and will make a stab here. He checks though and tables Qd7h. I guess he put me on the flush draw and was looking for the 7. I missed a bet. He would have called a little something with the Qd.

I am back on the 24 wagon.

MT

Praad and Me

Prasad and I went up to the Ameristar Friday night. P got off to a rough start. Dropped a buy in early. I chipped down early. Got QQ on my fifth hand of the night. I was in the big blind. It limped by everyone. I raise to $18. Only the small blind calls. He is the youngest guy at the table. The flop was ace high. I bet weak at it. My mistake. He check calls. The turn is a 9. He checks, I check. The river the 9 of hearts. Completes the flush draw and pairs the board. He deliberately counts out $40 and puts it in. It felt like a steal. It looked like a steal. If it were an older player I would fold easily. He was young and it felt like a move. I decide to fold only because it was early and I did not know how he played. I flashed 78 off suit for third pair. He put me on a big pair or AK and when I checked the turn he made the right move. Well done.

I play for a bit and have $$130 in front. I limp in late position with 78os. It is nearly a family pot. Flop is 456 two clubs. Gin!!!! I bet out $7. The button makes is $25. The big blind flats. I push all in for $120 more. The button deliberates and tanks for a while. I am pretty sure he has A2. He finally calls. The big blind shrugs and says he is priced in. He calls. The turn is the 8 of spades and the river is the Q of diamonds. I flip the winner and have both of them barely covered. I more than triple up and am happy happy. The button had 62 of hearts The big blind flopped two pair.

Dealer mishap of the week. I was not involved in the hand. Action is after the flop. Player makes it $30. The button moves all in for $37 more. He announces all in for $37 more. The dealer was talking to someone else and says to the original raiser $37 total. He puts out $7 more for the call. The button objects and she realizes her mistake and fixes it. She looks at me and says something like I just repeat what I hear. No no no!!! That is not your job. Your job is to pay attention and call the action correctly. You clearly are not listening Please do not half ass it. Frustrating.

Funny hand of the night. I was not in it. Utg limps. Next player makes it $15. Button calls. The player next to me calls The big blind calls. Utg moves in for $65 more. The original raiser quickly stacks his chips and moves in. This is done with the confidence that comes only from having aces. The player next to me folds flashing AKs. He knew he was crushed. The button folds The big blind tanks. He has about $65 in front of him. He finally mutters something about being pried in and calls. The original raiser proudly flips over his AA. The flop is Kd Kc 7h. The guy next to me is kicking himself. I told him it was still the right play. The turn in the 4d. The river is the Qd. Utg groans and mucks. Never found out what he had. The big blind peers at the board and after some time flips over wait for it, wait for it, T5 of diamonds. He went runner runner flush with crap to beat him. It was awful. The slow roll. The horrible beat. The AA guy was livid. It was funny listening to T5 justify the call. When there is $400 in there he had to call. In actuality the most he could win was $240 or so minus the rake. Probably not even that much with the utg guy only having $70 or so to start the hand.

Prasad rallied and was up over $400.

It was a good night.