Mark Heide
01-20-2003, 01:26 AM
Left home on Wednesday the 15th. Road conditions were good.
I arrived at the Holiday Inn Express located on Casino Center Drive at about 8:30 p.m. The room rate was $39.95 a night which I had reserved via the Horseshoe poker room, since they were fully booked for the tournament. The Gold Strike and Horseshoe casinos are only a few miles away down the road and you can see all the neon from miles away.
Now, it's time for some poker action. I played two satellites--one $65 Omaha 8B and a $120 No-Limit Hold'em. The only hands I won in the Omaha satellite were while the blinds were still small. After a couple of rounds with the larger blinds I lost the rest of my chips.
My results were much better with the $120 No-Limit Hold'em satellite. You get $400 in chips with the blinds starting at $25 and $10 with the limits increasing in 20 minute intervals. During the first round I was dealt AA and limp in early position for $25. I wasn't going to raise, because the blinds were too small and I wanted a chance to win a big pot. The player on immediate left makes it $125 to go, everyone folds, and I move in the rest of my chips. My opponent thinks for a little while, and calls. He's got QQ and I knock him out and double up. You can't blame him for calling, because when you already have more than 25% of your stack in the pot, and a complete stranger moves in, you gotta call. He probably thought I had AK and that's what I wanted him to think.
The blinds are now $50 and $25. An early position player moves in with $250. I'm in the big blind. Everyone folds to me, I look at my cards, and would you believe I've got AA again! I call, and we turn over our cards. My opponent had AK and I knocked him out. I felt real good about this knock out. It was a 2+2 revenge play. This is the same guy that knocked out David Sklansky when I was sitting at his table playing the $1500 Omaha 8B tournament last year at the WSOP!
I then proceeded to knock out two other players with KK. My opponents had AT and AJ and the flop came down with A-K-3.
Eventually, there are two of us left with the blinds at $200 and $100. We played a few hands between us. I moved in on every hand I played preflop, since I had the least amount of chips and I didn't want to get called. My opponent was playing very well and I knew that if he called my all in raise he would be risking his advantage. He had $2600 in chips and I had $1400. I decided to ask him if he wanted to make a deal. He was a tough player and did not make any mistakes. He offered me $350 and I accepted. I thought the amount was fair due to chip counts and I really didn't want to take the chance of losing. My opponent said that he had played the final table at the WSOP in 1994, his name was John (don't know his last name, but maybe someone can post it).
It was getting late, so I decided to signup and pay for tomorrows $500 Omaha 8B tournament to avoid the line tomorrow. I went to the cashier and said, "I'd like to buy a tournament chip for tomorrows tournament." The cashier woman said," That will be $700." Then I said,"$700?" and we both started laughing.
The poker action at the Gold Strike featured a lot of Pot-Limit Omaha and Omaha 8B. They even had a $75 - $150 Limit Omaha 8B in the main room. At the poker room near the escalators they had limit Omaha 8B and Hold'em with limits starting at $3 - $6 to $10 - $20. The Horseshoe had low limit poker games set up on the casino floor in addition to the mid-limit games in their poker room. They had a game for every budget.
The next day I woke up with a terrible toothache. Took a few Advils and headed over to the Gold Strike for the tournament. I started with $800 in tournament chips, for the first two levels I could not win a hand and was down to $450 in chips. During the third level I ended up getting quartered and was down to $350. Then I finally scooped a pot with a pair of aces and was up to $650. During the fourth level I was down to $200 in chips with the blinds at $100 and $50. I raised UTG with AsKs4d8c, and six of us were in to see the flop. I ended up with the second best hand and was finished.
With the toothache I had I was not in the mood for any more poker, since it does require concentration to play, so I decided to play the casino games for the rest of the day.
I went over to the Horseshoe and played Craps. They had 20 times odds, so I decided to use my Craps system. It worked very well. I cashed out with a $275 profit.
After playing Craps, I went over to the Gold Strike and ate dinner at the buffet with the comp that I received earlier. For dinner I had four New York Strip Steaks, two chicken breast filets, one baked potato, a baked dinner roll, and topped it off with a slice of Oreo cream chocolate cake.
I played my Craps system again at the Gold Strike. They had 20 times odds just like the Horseshoe. But, this time I ran into one of those statistical anomalies, and lost $400. It looks like I'll have to refine my system further for next time to avoid that situation.
It was after midnight and I decided to try to win a big jackpot on a slot machine. I played the quarter Wheel of Fortune progressive. The jackpot was over a million. After putting my second twenty dollar bill in the machine I hit a jackpot. Two Wheel of Fortune symbols with a triple bar lined up for a jackpot of 1500 quarters. If I had lined up three of those symbols I would have been a millionaire!
After winning the jackpot, I headed back to the hotel. It was now Friday morning, so I turned on the Weather Channel and they forecast snow for the whole state of Illinois for Saturday, so I decided to check out and hit the road.
Good Luck
Mark
I arrived at the Holiday Inn Express located on Casino Center Drive at about 8:30 p.m. The room rate was $39.95 a night which I had reserved via the Horseshoe poker room, since they were fully booked for the tournament. The Gold Strike and Horseshoe casinos are only a few miles away down the road and you can see all the neon from miles away.
Now, it's time for some poker action. I played two satellites--one $65 Omaha 8B and a $120 No-Limit Hold'em. The only hands I won in the Omaha satellite were while the blinds were still small. After a couple of rounds with the larger blinds I lost the rest of my chips.
My results were much better with the $120 No-Limit Hold'em satellite. You get $400 in chips with the blinds starting at $25 and $10 with the limits increasing in 20 minute intervals. During the first round I was dealt AA and limp in early position for $25. I wasn't going to raise, because the blinds were too small and I wanted a chance to win a big pot. The player on immediate left makes it $125 to go, everyone folds, and I move in the rest of my chips. My opponent thinks for a little while, and calls. He's got QQ and I knock him out and double up. You can't blame him for calling, because when you already have more than 25% of your stack in the pot, and a complete stranger moves in, you gotta call. He probably thought I had AK and that's what I wanted him to think.
The blinds are now $50 and $25. An early position player moves in with $250. I'm in the big blind. Everyone folds to me, I look at my cards, and would you believe I've got AA again! I call, and we turn over our cards. My opponent had AK and I knocked him out. I felt real good about this knock out. It was a 2+2 revenge play. This is the same guy that knocked out David Sklansky when I was sitting at his table playing the $1500 Omaha 8B tournament last year at the WSOP!
I then proceeded to knock out two other players with KK. My opponents had AT and AJ and the flop came down with A-K-3.
Eventually, there are two of us left with the blinds at $200 and $100. We played a few hands between us. I moved in on every hand I played preflop, since I had the least amount of chips and I didn't want to get called. My opponent was playing very well and I knew that if he called my all in raise he would be risking his advantage. He had $2600 in chips and I had $1400. I decided to ask him if he wanted to make a deal. He was a tough player and did not make any mistakes. He offered me $350 and I accepted. I thought the amount was fair due to chip counts and I really didn't want to take the chance of losing. My opponent said that he had played the final table at the WSOP in 1994, his name was John (don't know his last name, but maybe someone can post it).
It was getting late, so I decided to signup and pay for tomorrows $500 Omaha 8B tournament to avoid the line tomorrow. I went to the cashier and said, "I'd like to buy a tournament chip for tomorrows tournament." The cashier woman said," That will be $700." Then I said,"$700?" and we both started laughing.
The poker action at the Gold Strike featured a lot of Pot-Limit Omaha and Omaha 8B. They even had a $75 - $150 Limit Omaha 8B in the main room. At the poker room near the escalators they had limit Omaha 8B and Hold'em with limits starting at $3 - $6 to $10 - $20. The Horseshoe had low limit poker games set up on the casino floor in addition to the mid-limit games in their poker room. They had a game for every budget.
The next day I woke up with a terrible toothache. Took a few Advils and headed over to the Gold Strike for the tournament. I started with $800 in tournament chips, for the first two levels I could not win a hand and was down to $450 in chips. During the third level I ended up getting quartered and was down to $350. Then I finally scooped a pot with a pair of aces and was up to $650. During the fourth level I was down to $200 in chips with the blinds at $100 and $50. I raised UTG with AsKs4d8c, and six of us were in to see the flop. I ended up with the second best hand and was finished.
With the toothache I had I was not in the mood for any more poker, since it does require concentration to play, so I decided to play the casino games for the rest of the day.
I went over to the Horseshoe and played Craps. They had 20 times odds, so I decided to use my Craps system. It worked very well. I cashed out with a $275 profit.
After playing Craps, I went over to the Gold Strike and ate dinner at the buffet with the comp that I received earlier. For dinner I had four New York Strip Steaks, two chicken breast filets, one baked potato, a baked dinner roll, and topped it off with a slice of Oreo cream chocolate cake.
I played my Craps system again at the Gold Strike. They had 20 times odds just like the Horseshoe. But, this time I ran into one of those statistical anomalies, and lost $400. It looks like I'll have to refine my system further for next time to avoid that situation.
It was after midnight and I decided to try to win a big jackpot on a slot machine. I played the quarter Wheel of Fortune progressive. The jackpot was over a million. After putting my second twenty dollar bill in the machine I hit a jackpot. Two Wheel of Fortune symbols with a triple bar lined up for a jackpot of 1500 quarters. If I had lined up three of those symbols I would have been a millionaire!
After winning the jackpot, I headed back to the hotel. It was now Friday morning, so I turned on the Weather Channel and they forecast snow for the whole state of Illinois for Saturday, so I decided to check out and hit the road.
Good Luck
Mark