aces_dad
09-19-2005, 04:47 PM
This is my first live trip report and first hand post, and since I spend most of my time at 2+2 here at ML wanted to share it with you guys. The poker content is below so skip to that if you're not interested in the fluffy stuff regarding my first live poker experience at a B&M casino.
A group of about 14 of us arranged to have a casino bus/limo pick us up at a friends house about 1hr from the casino and drive us there. The occasion was a buddy's b-day and the limo cost $20 a head for the ride there and back with 4hrs at the casino, so we used the occasion to get our drink on during the ride there. After a few drinks and a pleasent ride (about 3 rum&cokes for me), we decided to go to the bar for a drink and our smoker friends wanted to lite up. Spirit Mountain only serves drinks in the bar area so you can't drink when you're playing, so you have to go the bar to drink. After one beer I was anxious to play some cards so about 4 of us guys left our wives and remaining friends to head to the poker room.
The casino was spreading 2 tables of 2-4 and 3-6, but the line for 3-6 was already 8 deep so we signed up to wait for 2-4. I went to the cashier and bought one rack of high society (and by high society I mean, $100 in white $1 chips) since I didn't see anybody else with more than that at the 2-4 tables. I was second on the wait list and my first buddy got seated pretty quickly, so I watched his table while I waited the 15min to get seated myself.
I had read often that low-limit B&M play is like very-low limit internet play but I've never played lower than .5/1 at Party and I've never seen such loose-passive play before. I played for about 2.5-3hrs and didn't see a single hand less than 5 to the flop and not once did it even get folded to MP much less LP. No need to worry about blind steal / defense at this table, it was just not a factor.
Eventually two of my friends were seated directly to my left, and I had talked to the younger guy directly to my right. We were the only people who really ever folded preflop, and I heard us referred to as the 'tight side' of the table. This perception didn't matter too much though since they still called our PFR's.
There was an ADD-type villian directly across from me who basically raised everything PF, but then became loose-passive post-flop. Two of my favorite moves by this villian involved folding to a $1 all-in bet on the river in a $32 pot because "I think you got it" to the player who bet it, and after losing with his pocket J's on a 3 overcard board, saying "I can't even win with J's at THIS TABLE". I think this implied we had something to do with his approx $200 losses in 3 hrs at a 2-4 table. I'm actually not sure why he looked at his cards as it was PFR, flop c/c, turn c/c, river c/c with any 2 ...
The first time I tried to 'make a move' involved flopping a ragged 2 pair in the BB, and I checked hoping to C/R the agressive villian on the flop (him specifically but anybody in general for value). C/R for protection was impossible as every hand went to showdown at this table. This move whiffed as all 7 people let it check through. This was my first orbit in the session and I hadn't yet realized the villian went passive postflop. I just bet the turn and river and won a mid size pot, realizing I lost flop bets which would have been called in at least 5 places.
Anyway, on to the hand in question. I'm just typing by hand so forgive any typos, I'll preview and attempt to correct them.
Spirit Mountain B&M (Salem Oregon) 2-4, 10 handed.
Preflop: Hero is button with A /images/graemlins/heart.gifK /images/graemlins/spade.gif.
UTG calls, UTG+1 calls, UTG+2 calls, MP1 (ADD villian) raises, MP2 calls, MP3 folds, CO folds, <font color="red"> hero raises,</font>SB folds, BB folds, UTG calls, UTG+1 calls, UTG+2 calls, MP1 calls.
Flop: (19.5 SB) 6 handed
K /images/graemlins/diamond.gif, K /images/graemlins/club.gif, 5 /images/graemlins/heart.gif.
UTG checks, UTG+1 checks, UTG+2 checks, MP1 checks, MP2 checks, <font color="red"> hero bets,</font> UTG folds, UTG+1 calls, UTG+2 calls, MP1 calls, MP2 calls.
It was going to get checked through so I felt I had to bet my top trips here. Still got plenty of callers.
Turn: (12 BB) 5 handed
2 /images/graemlins/diamond.gif
UTG+1 checks, UTG+2 checks, MP1 checks, MP2 checks, <font color="red"> hero bets,</font> UTG+1 calls, UTG+2 folds, MP1 folds, MP2 calls.
Was going to get checked through again so this seems standard.
River (15BB) 3 handed
A /images/graemlins/spade.gif
UTG+1 bets, MP2 folds, <font color="red"> hero raises,</font> UTG+1 3bets, <font color="red"> hero? </font>
When heads up at this casino there is no cap on the betting, and I had UTG+1 covered. If he's willing to keep raising, how many bets do I make this? This was the first time I'd seen this villian re-raise, though I had seen him play too many hands and going too far with them, just like everyone else at the table. I hadn't seen him go crazy with bad holdings but also hadn't seen him showdown too many winners yet either ... so how many bets do I make this? After some responses I'll let you know what I was thinking here.
Results to follow. After this hand I played for another 1.5 hrs or so, during which my wife came up and told me she'd just spent $20 at the slots and if this was okay. For those of you not married this is sort of a retorical question so I told her of course it was okay and asked how much more she wanted to gamble. Then she got excited and showed me the $160 payout slip from the slot machine she'd 'spent' $20 on, and now I was happy I'd answered nicely. /images/graemlins/wink.gif We now had about 30 more min before we were set to leave so we decided to go back to the bar and have one more drink before the limo came.
The ride home was more 'friendly' than the ride there with loud music and dancing. Two of my buddies had played war against the house, with one winning and one losing. They should have just brought a deck and played against each other for money.
Anyway kind of a long trip report but first one and wanted to share the B&M experience with those who've never been.
Edited flop to read top trips not top set.
A group of about 14 of us arranged to have a casino bus/limo pick us up at a friends house about 1hr from the casino and drive us there. The occasion was a buddy's b-day and the limo cost $20 a head for the ride there and back with 4hrs at the casino, so we used the occasion to get our drink on during the ride there. After a few drinks and a pleasent ride (about 3 rum&cokes for me), we decided to go to the bar for a drink and our smoker friends wanted to lite up. Spirit Mountain only serves drinks in the bar area so you can't drink when you're playing, so you have to go the bar to drink. After one beer I was anxious to play some cards so about 4 of us guys left our wives and remaining friends to head to the poker room.
The casino was spreading 2 tables of 2-4 and 3-6, but the line for 3-6 was already 8 deep so we signed up to wait for 2-4. I went to the cashier and bought one rack of high society (and by high society I mean, $100 in white $1 chips) since I didn't see anybody else with more than that at the 2-4 tables. I was second on the wait list and my first buddy got seated pretty quickly, so I watched his table while I waited the 15min to get seated myself.
I had read often that low-limit B&M play is like very-low limit internet play but I've never played lower than .5/1 at Party and I've never seen such loose-passive play before. I played for about 2.5-3hrs and didn't see a single hand less than 5 to the flop and not once did it even get folded to MP much less LP. No need to worry about blind steal / defense at this table, it was just not a factor.
Eventually two of my friends were seated directly to my left, and I had talked to the younger guy directly to my right. We were the only people who really ever folded preflop, and I heard us referred to as the 'tight side' of the table. This perception didn't matter too much though since they still called our PFR's.
There was an ADD-type villian directly across from me who basically raised everything PF, but then became loose-passive post-flop. Two of my favorite moves by this villian involved folding to a $1 all-in bet on the river in a $32 pot because "I think you got it" to the player who bet it, and after losing with his pocket J's on a 3 overcard board, saying "I can't even win with J's at THIS TABLE". I think this implied we had something to do with his approx $200 losses in 3 hrs at a 2-4 table. I'm actually not sure why he looked at his cards as it was PFR, flop c/c, turn c/c, river c/c with any 2 ...
The first time I tried to 'make a move' involved flopping a ragged 2 pair in the BB, and I checked hoping to C/R the agressive villian on the flop (him specifically but anybody in general for value). C/R for protection was impossible as every hand went to showdown at this table. This move whiffed as all 7 people let it check through. This was my first orbit in the session and I hadn't yet realized the villian went passive postflop. I just bet the turn and river and won a mid size pot, realizing I lost flop bets which would have been called in at least 5 places.
Anyway, on to the hand in question. I'm just typing by hand so forgive any typos, I'll preview and attempt to correct them.
Spirit Mountain B&M (Salem Oregon) 2-4, 10 handed.
Preflop: Hero is button with A /images/graemlins/heart.gifK /images/graemlins/spade.gif.
UTG calls, UTG+1 calls, UTG+2 calls, MP1 (ADD villian) raises, MP2 calls, MP3 folds, CO folds, <font color="red"> hero raises,</font>SB folds, BB folds, UTG calls, UTG+1 calls, UTG+2 calls, MP1 calls.
Flop: (19.5 SB) 6 handed
K /images/graemlins/diamond.gif, K /images/graemlins/club.gif, 5 /images/graemlins/heart.gif.
UTG checks, UTG+1 checks, UTG+2 checks, MP1 checks, MP2 checks, <font color="red"> hero bets,</font> UTG folds, UTG+1 calls, UTG+2 calls, MP1 calls, MP2 calls.
It was going to get checked through so I felt I had to bet my top trips here. Still got plenty of callers.
Turn: (12 BB) 5 handed
2 /images/graemlins/diamond.gif
UTG+1 checks, UTG+2 checks, MP1 checks, MP2 checks, <font color="red"> hero bets,</font> UTG+1 calls, UTG+2 folds, MP1 folds, MP2 calls.
Was going to get checked through again so this seems standard.
River (15BB) 3 handed
A /images/graemlins/spade.gif
UTG+1 bets, MP2 folds, <font color="red"> hero raises,</font> UTG+1 3bets, <font color="red"> hero? </font>
When heads up at this casino there is no cap on the betting, and I had UTG+1 covered. If he's willing to keep raising, how many bets do I make this? This was the first time I'd seen this villian re-raise, though I had seen him play too many hands and going too far with them, just like everyone else at the table. I hadn't seen him go crazy with bad holdings but also hadn't seen him showdown too many winners yet either ... so how many bets do I make this? After some responses I'll let you know what I was thinking here.
Results to follow. After this hand I played for another 1.5 hrs or so, during which my wife came up and told me she'd just spent $20 at the slots and if this was okay. For those of you not married this is sort of a retorical question so I told her of course it was okay and asked how much more she wanted to gamble. Then she got excited and showed me the $160 payout slip from the slot machine she'd 'spent' $20 on, and now I was happy I'd answered nicely. /images/graemlins/wink.gif We now had about 30 more min before we were set to leave so we decided to go back to the bar and have one more drink before the limo came.
The ride home was more 'friendly' than the ride there with loud music and dancing. Two of my buddies had played war against the house, with one winning and one losing. They should have just brought a deck and played against each other for money.
Anyway kind of a long trip report but first one and wanted to share the B&M experience with those who've never been.
Edited flop to read top trips not top set.