mblax10
09-07-2004, 12:42 PM
Thought I'd use my first post at this forum to share my first trip to Potawtomi Casino in Milwaukee.
With labor day plans to be driving through Milwaukee, I decided to leave a day early and stop and play poker. After reading on this forum and others about the poker room there I was prepared for the worst.
I left early Thursday morning, arriving around 11:30. I quickly found a parking spot in the garage, which is the worst designed parking garage I have ever seen.
I wander around downstairs finally finding the elevators upstairs to what another poster aptly called 'bingo heaven.' Found my way to the room where there was no list yet for 5-10 with a kill, and one player was just leaving. I was prepared to wait for hours, but to my surprise was seated immediatley.
The game was very soft and very loose. 4-7 players saw every flop, and when players actually folded pre-flop you'd hear somebody say "I should've played my 8 2 that hand." There was only 1 or 2 players besides me who would raise pre-flop.
The first couple orbits were pretty uneventfull for me, looked at a couple hands that didn't connect. The first big pot I played, I raised with Kings in EP. 2 cold callers and the BB follows in. The board came A Q Q, BB checks, I bet and both cold callers stay in. I'm ready to give up on the hand when a miracle King hits the turn. I check and call, 3 of us see the blank river. I check the river, reading the turn better for a queen, but both players check as well and both show an ace. I take in a decent pot, but left a couple bets on the table.
I do have to say the dealers their did not impress me as a whole. There were many times dealers accidently flipped over cards. One instance cost me a huge pot. I was dealt the ace of hearts, and than the dealer threw the 3 of hearts to me face up by accident. Flop was all hearts. Turn and river were blanks, and the nice guy to my left, who was a huge fish had queen x of hearts. I stayed till the river, and folded my ace of hearts face up, saying as politley as possible "I wish you hadn't flipped over that 3 of hearts."
The rest of the day was pretty easy. I hit a rush of hands and my 2 stacks of red $5 chips had become 4 stacks within 2 hours, Than I went card dead. I was getting ready to call it a day as it was now almost 4:00 and I had 5 more hours to drive.
At this point I had a very tight aggressive image, if anybody else at the table was paying attention. I hadn't danced around much, just played straight up and showed down a lot of good hands. One decent player to my right at one point told me I was dangerous after I had thrown out a raise. This made me chuckle, esepecially when somebody across the table pointed out that the player calling me dangerous had just raised with 93 suited pre-flop.
The final big hand I played I raised AK diamonds in mp on a kill pot and got 3 callers. Flop was a T 8 4, 1 diamond. I bet and got 2 callers. Turn was Q diamonds and the killer in front of me bet. I felt that he was weak but decided to just call and see what happens, the other player folded. We see the river heads up, a miracle 7 of diamonds, I thought stuff like this only happened at pokerstars. He thinks hard, head down looking at his chips, not happy at all and bets. I think for my usual couple seconds and fire out a raise, to which he quickly folds. I'm pretty confident he was making a play at the turn, but who knows he may have made one heck of a read. Either way I waited for my BB to come, walked to the cage and cashed out up $217 for 4 hours of play.
I debated all weekend whether to stop on the way back or not. I was going to be driving through Labor Day afternoon and figured I would be waiting forever for a table.
Sunday night I went to a casino near where I was staying and won over $200 playing craps with my buddies. Now I was up over $400 for the weekend and had to stop and play poker Monday night.
I arrived back at the Potawatomi on Labor Day around 1:30. The room was packed, the list for 2-4 was about a mile and a half long. I signed up for 5-10 & 10-20. I was about 20th on the list for 5-10, and 4th for 10-20. I was told I couldn't get a pager unless I was in the players club. For some reason I decided to just wait in the room and sign up for the players club the next time I came through.
The 5-10 list moved very fast, and I was seated after only 40 minutes. My table was playing tighter today. And I sat back trying to get a handle on all the players. After about 2 orbits, my seat opened at 10-20, but I chickened out and decided to stay put. I didn't see many hands for the first couple hours, which is probably good, because their were some sick beats going on.
In one, about 4 or 5 players saw the unraised flop of Q Q 5. 3 players capped the flop. The turn was a J, and went 4 bets between one of the better players at the table, and a guy I called captain suckout. River was a J, and the better player just glared at the dealer and checked. Captain suckout bet. And the other player immediatley folded his pocket 5's face up. Suckout said "I bet" and the other player snapped back at him, "I know, I folded. You hit runner runner for a bigger full house." Captain suckout showed his KQ.
About 3 hands later I get AJ vs. a family pot. The flop came K Q T, 2 diamonds. I check and call. 5 or 6 are still in. Turn brought the third diamond, and a guy I called the 'flush master,' cause he only seemed to play any 2 suited cards, won with his Jx suited. I called the turn for some reason, and folded the river face up. And the player who earlier had his pocket 5's sucked out, looks at me and says "Dosen't it suck when you flop a made hand?"
I won a couple big pots at the right time, and was hovering around breaking even through the dinner hours. Than I looked up and noticed that the good players from earlier had left, and now I had pretty good control over the table. I started to play very aggressive, raising at will and dancing a lot. I was winning pots, but I was also getting tired and sloppy. Everytime I was getting ready to leave I'd win another big pot. I was also enjoying my conversation with the players to my left and right.
To my left was a middle aged father of 2 who was a very nice guy. On my right, was a young guy who played on UB. He was a solid player, and got the better of me a couple times. I paid him back by raising him 3 straight times he limped into the pot. We had been friendly, and he jokingly let me know he didn't like me raising him.
I finally decided it was getting late, and I would take off when the BB came back to me. My second to last hand, the player to my right raised UTG, and everybody within the greater Milwaukee area, except for me cold called his bet. We both had a chuckle over this. He kept pushing with his pocket 10's that somehow held up with 2 overcards on board. I whispered to him this is how you get people away, raising UTG does nothing. And I announce to the table that it's my last hand and I'm straddiling. 1 player in MP calls, my buddy in the BB calls, and I raise with my Q8 suited. BB laughs and says I knew you were going to do that. Flop is all rags, BB checks and I fire out a bet. MP calls and BB folds. The turn pairs my 8, and I quickly bet. MP thinks hard and calls. I bet in the dark, luckily another low card hits the river. MP thinks hard again and folds I show my 8, say I hate to hit and run, but I'm falling asleep and wish the table good luck.
I leave the table that's as soft as its been all day, and that I am definitley in control of, but I am starting to get very tired and hungry and have an hour and a half drive home ahead of me. I cash out up $157 for about 7 hours of play. Not bad considering I was down over $100 just a couple hours ago.
In conclusion, I was very pleasantly surprised by the Potawatomi. My B & M experience had been limited to the Chip-In Casino in Escanaba, MI, and my experience at Potawatomi blows that place away. I can't wait to make the hour and a half trip back to Milwaukee, and if this is such a poor card room, I really can't wait to travel to the high quality card rooms around the country.
With labor day plans to be driving through Milwaukee, I decided to leave a day early and stop and play poker. After reading on this forum and others about the poker room there I was prepared for the worst.
I left early Thursday morning, arriving around 11:30. I quickly found a parking spot in the garage, which is the worst designed parking garage I have ever seen.
I wander around downstairs finally finding the elevators upstairs to what another poster aptly called 'bingo heaven.' Found my way to the room where there was no list yet for 5-10 with a kill, and one player was just leaving. I was prepared to wait for hours, but to my surprise was seated immediatley.
The game was very soft and very loose. 4-7 players saw every flop, and when players actually folded pre-flop you'd hear somebody say "I should've played my 8 2 that hand." There was only 1 or 2 players besides me who would raise pre-flop.
The first couple orbits were pretty uneventfull for me, looked at a couple hands that didn't connect. The first big pot I played, I raised with Kings in EP. 2 cold callers and the BB follows in. The board came A Q Q, BB checks, I bet and both cold callers stay in. I'm ready to give up on the hand when a miracle King hits the turn. I check and call, 3 of us see the blank river. I check the river, reading the turn better for a queen, but both players check as well and both show an ace. I take in a decent pot, but left a couple bets on the table.
I do have to say the dealers their did not impress me as a whole. There were many times dealers accidently flipped over cards. One instance cost me a huge pot. I was dealt the ace of hearts, and than the dealer threw the 3 of hearts to me face up by accident. Flop was all hearts. Turn and river were blanks, and the nice guy to my left, who was a huge fish had queen x of hearts. I stayed till the river, and folded my ace of hearts face up, saying as politley as possible "I wish you hadn't flipped over that 3 of hearts."
The rest of the day was pretty easy. I hit a rush of hands and my 2 stacks of red $5 chips had become 4 stacks within 2 hours, Than I went card dead. I was getting ready to call it a day as it was now almost 4:00 and I had 5 more hours to drive.
At this point I had a very tight aggressive image, if anybody else at the table was paying attention. I hadn't danced around much, just played straight up and showed down a lot of good hands. One decent player to my right at one point told me I was dangerous after I had thrown out a raise. This made me chuckle, esepecially when somebody across the table pointed out that the player calling me dangerous had just raised with 93 suited pre-flop.
The final big hand I played I raised AK diamonds in mp on a kill pot and got 3 callers. Flop was a T 8 4, 1 diamond. I bet and got 2 callers. Turn was Q diamonds and the killer in front of me bet. I felt that he was weak but decided to just call and see what happens, the other player folded. We see the river heads up, a miracle 7 of diamonds, I thought stuff like this only happened at pokerstars. He thinks hard, head down looking at his chips, not happy at all and bets. I think for my usual couple seconds and fire out a raise, to which he quickly folds. I'm pretty confident he was making a play at the turn, but who knows he may have made one heck of a read. Either way I waited for my BB to come, walked to the cage and cashed out up $217 for 4 hours of play.
I debated all weekend whether to stop on the way back or not. I was going to be driving through Labor Day afternoon and figured I would be waiting forever for a table.
Sunday night I went to a casino near where I was staying and won over $200 playing craps with my buddies. Now I was up over $400 for the weekend and had to stop and play poker Monday night.
I arrived back at the Potawatomi on Labor Day around 1:30. The room was packed, the list for 2-4 was about a mile and a half long. I signed up for 5-10 & 10-20. I was about 20th on the list for 5-10, and 4th for 10-20. I was told I couldn't get a pager unless I was in the players club. For some reason I decided to just wait in the room and sign up for the players club the next time I came through.
The 5-10 list moved very fast, and I was seated after only 40 minutes. My table was playing tighter today. And I sat back trying to get a handle on all the players. After about 2 orbits, my seat opened at 10-20, but I chickened out and decided to stay put. I didn't see many hands for the first couple hours, which is probably good, because their were some sick beats going on.
In one, about 4 or 5 players saw the unraised flop of Q Q 5. 3 players capped the flop. The turn was a J, and went 4 bets between one of the better players at the table, and a guy I called captain suckout. River was a J, and the better player just glared at the dealer and checked. Captain suckout bet. And the other player immediatley folded his pocket 5's face up. Suckout said "I bet" and the other player snapped back at him, "I know, I folded. You hit runner runner for a bigger full house." Captain suckout showed his KQ.
About 3 hands later I get AJ vs. a family pot. The flop came K Q T, 2 diamonds. I check and call. 5 or 6 are still in. Turn brought the third diamond, and a guy I called the 'flush master,' cause he only seemed to play any 2 suited cards, won with his Jx suited. I called the turn for some reason, and folded the river face up. And the player who earlier had his pocket 5's sucked out, looks at me and says "Dosen't it suck when you flop a made hand?"
I won a couple big pots at the right time, and was hovering around breaking even through the dinner hours. Than I looked up and noticed that the good players from earlier had left, and now I had pretty good control over the table. I started to play very aggressive, raising at will and dancing a lot. I was winning pots, but I was also getting tired and sloppy. Everytime I was getting ready to leave I'd win another big pot. I was also enjoying my conversation with the players to my left and right.
To my left was a middle aged father of 2 who was a very nice guy. On my right, was a young guy who played on UB. He was a solid player, and got the better of me a couple times. I paid him back by raising him 3 straight times he limped into the pot. We had been friendly, and he jokingly let me know he didn't like me raising him.
I finally decided it was getting late, and I would take off when the BB came back to me. My second to last hand, the player to my right raised UTG, and everybody within the greater Milwaukee area, except for me cold called his bet. We both had a chuckle over this. He kept pushing with his pocket 10's that somehow held up with 2 overcards on board. I whispered to him this is how you get people away, raising UTG does nothing. And I announce to the table that it's my last hand and I'm straddiling. 1 player in MP calls, my buddy in the BB calls, and I raise with my Q8 suited. BB laughs and says I knew you were going to do that. Flop is all rags, BB checks and I fire out a bet. MP calls and BB folds. The turn pairs my 8, and I quickly bet. MP thinks hard and calls. I bet in the dark, luckily another low card hits the river. MP thinks hard again and folds I show my 8, say I hate to hit and run, but I'm falling asleep and wish the table good luck.
I leave the table that's as soft as its been all day, and that I am definitley in control of, but I am starting to get very tired and hungry and have an hour and a half drive home ahead of me. I cash out up $157 for about 7 hours of play. Not bad considering I was down over $100 just a couple hours ago.
In conclusion, I was very pleasantly surprised by the Potawatomi. My B & M experience had been limited to the Chip-In Casino in Escanaba, MI, and my experience at Potawatomi blows that place away. I can't wait to make the hour and a half trip back to Milwaukee, and if this is such a poor card room, I really can't wait to travel to the high quality card rooms around the country.