08-15-2002, 02:26 AM
Spent about 35 hours or so over a 3 day trip 8/9 through 8/12 playing poker at Mirage and Horseshoe, all 10-20 limit Hold'em. (except lower when waiting for a seat). My observations....
1. Mirage was my first time playing there. Nice room very good dealers(John, a tall silver haired gentleman being my favorite), VERY good games. Had an 8 hour session first night and saw at least 20 cappucinos, at least half non-nuts. Had to strap on some gills for this trip,(I usually play about 18% or so-this trip closer to 25%). My favorite sights came from a 60-something woman who seemed to be a regular who constantly scowled as she played who seemed tighter than a drum who had a lovely habit of checking and then grabbing two 4-chip handfuls which she would immediately throw into the pot after ther opponent bet, and only with two pair or better. Saved me at least twice when I would have bet top pair, but instead checked and folded,(she had trips and a flopped straight, heh heh heh.), and also made me alot of money when i was going to fold to a flop bet on my gutshot, but another astute player at the table checked his overpair after seeing the double chips in her hand. I get there on the turn, bump her and rebump(over called first bump, heh heh heh) she never fills and pays off like a slot machine. About 10 hands later she raises from UTG, very aggressive players raises, I fold 1010,(saw reraise coming), gets capped, flop caps, turn bet, river pairs board, bet, call, and AA goes down to QJo. She then proceeds to rip the cards in half. Very impressive. My second session, there's a guy playing with sunglasses on who's a regular I guess that was really bad, doing things like calling my early position raise with KJs from 2 positions behind me, then crying when i outkick him about 4 straight confrontations. After a hand where i check raise him in the turn with 2 aces on board(I had garbage), he says "That's it, i'm coming after you. Consider a target painted on you from here on out" Not a problem. Next hand, i call, he raises behind me, i flop a set, checkraise, checkraise, bet out, and moron pays off with his top pair, which was formed from a stellar K8s. Love when I can use people's aggressiveness against them. I win $800 in 3 sessions here,(about 16 hours).
2. The Horseshoe. First off, this must be the dealer abuse capitol of the world. Never in my life have I seen more crabby broken down cardplayers. The dealers are not quite as nice here either, but i think this has more to do with their clientele than them. Love the $2 max rake though. I have to thank the woman who burned through about $2000 who would call all the way down with even the weakest draw and herself had a lovely habit of betting or raising after the turn, then looking back at her cards, as if she didn't know what she had before she raised. SHe saved me at least $120 on that move alone,( i twice folded flushes when board paired on end, where i normally have to bet and pay off if raised.) Then sunday night, I played with a guy who'd taken some brutal beats from a fish who was killing the game. He decides to start drinking $700 down, and in the process, turns into a complete asshole. AMong other things, where earlier in the night we were discussing hands and players( I'm a very social player), he then proceeded to tell me how dumb I am and how bad I play, going so far as to repeatedly tell my best friend Scott, who was sitting to his right, that he needs to tell me when we get home that I'm not very good at poker and that i'm nowhere near as good as Scott and that Scott should show me how to play, since only he and my friend had a clue at the table. Very funny, considering I taught Scott how to play and I continually average 1 BB per hour more than he does. This guy drank a minimum 18 beers as he next next to me, dug out of his $700 hole to go up as much as $400, and proceeded to lose about $125 by the time he was done crying that he wouldn't play another hand until a deck change was in. I also suffered my ugliest beat ever here too. I raise UTG with AsAd, get 3 callers, then the really loose fish in the SB who's been bad-beating everyone makes it 3 bets, I RR, and he caps. I figure him for any group 1 hand(not that he knows what that is), and figure the rest for medium to large suited connectors or medium pair(the people that were paying attention had me pegged as pretty tight). Flop comes Qc5s3s- SB bets, and I just call, figuring anyone with ANY kind of draw had more than sufficient pot odds to take any draw to the river at this point, plus I thought there was a very real possibility of QQ out, 2 behind call, (ugh), one folds. Turn comes 2h- I can't imagine that helped anyone else, but i figure i'll just call SB's bet again with the best hand since i don't wan't to lose customers, SB will not fold under any circumstances here, and I know these people weren't going anywhere with any kind of draw and i didn't want to take a chance on having to pay an additional $40 or so to see the river(plus the main percived threat called out-of-turn the 20). Call call behind. River comes 4d-total blank- NO WAIT! I just backed into a wheel! However, so may have 1 or more people. I think of bumping SB's bet here, but figure the pot's big enough to not have to expose myself to a possible RR, plaus, again, i don't want to lose customers calling worse. Both behind call. SB, who capped me preflop flips over 66. Thanks for playing. That's ok, i got it all back from that numskull and then some. Profit here, about $450 in 19 hours. Not bad considering I was bad beat into being down about $800 and i crawled out to only lose $90. Good trip(my friend won about $800 himself), which could have been alot better. Can't wait until next time.
1. Mirage was my first time playing there. Nice room very good dealers(John, a tall silver haired gentleman being my favorite), VERY good games. Had an 8 hour session first night and saw at least 20 cappucinos, at least half non-nuts. Had to strap on some gills for this trip,(I usually play about 18% or so-this trip closer to 25%). My favorite sights came from a 60-something woman who seemed to be a regular who constantly scowled as she played who seemed tighter than a drum who had a lovely habit of checking and then grabbing two 4-chip handfuls which she would immediately throw into the pot after ther opponent bet, and only with two pair or better. Saved me at least twice when I would have bet top pair, but instead checked and folded,(she had trips and a flopped straight, heh heh heh.), and also made me alot of money when i was going to fold to a flop bet on my gutshot, but another astute player at the table checked his overpair after seeing the double chips in her hand. I get there on the turn, bump her and rebump(over called first bump, heh heh heh) she never fills and pays off like a slot machine. About 10 hands later she raises from UTG, very aggressive players raises, I fold 1010,(saw reraise coming), gets capped, flop caps, turn bet, river pairs board, bet, call, and AA goes down to QJo. She then proceeds to rip the cards in half. Very impressive. My second session, there's a guy playing with sunglasses on who's a regular I guess that was really bad, doing things like calling my early position raise with KJs from 2 positions behind me, then crying when i outkick him about 4 straight confrontations. After a hand where i check raise him in the turn with 2 aces on board(I had garbage), he says "That's it, i'm coming after you. Consider a target painted on you from here on out" Not a problem. Next hand, i call, he raises behind me, i flop a set, checkraise, checkraise, bet out, and moron pays off with his top pair, which was formed from a stellar K8s. Love when I can use people's aggressiveness against them. I win $800 in 3 sessions here,(about 16 hours).
2. The Horseshoe. First off, this must be the dealer abuse capitol of the world. Never in my life have I seen more crabby broken down cardplayers. The dealers are not quite as nice here either, but i think this has more to do with their clientele than them. Love the $2 max rake though. I have to thank the woman who burned through about $2000 who would call all the way down with even the weakest draw and herself had a lovely habit of betting or raising after the turn, then looking back at her cards, as if she didn't know what she had before she raised. SHe saved me at least $120 on that move alone,( i twice folded flushes when board paired on end, where i normally have to bet and pay off if raised.) Then sunday night, I played with a guy who'd taken some brutal beats from a fish who was killing the game. He decides to start drinking $700 down, and in the process, turns into a complete asshole. AMong other things, where earlier in the night we were discussing hands and players( I'm a very social player), he then proceeded to tell me how dumb I am and how bad I play, going so far as to repeatedly tell my best friend Scott, who was sitting to his right, that he needs to tell me when we get home that I'm not very good at poker and that i'm nowhere near as good as Scott and that Scott should show me how to play, since only he and my friend had a clue at the table. Very funny, considering I taught Scott how to play and I continually average 1 BB per hour more than he does. This guy drank a minimum 18 beers as he next next to me, dug out of his $700 hole to go up as much as $400, and proceeded to lose about $125 by the time he was done crying that he wouldn't play another hand until a deck change was in. I also suffered my ugliest beat ever here too. I raise UTG with AsAd, get 3 callers, then the really loose fish in the SB who's been bad-beating everyone makes it 3 bets, I RR, and he caps. I figure him for any group 1 hand(not that he knows what that is), and figure the rest for medium to large suited connectors or medium pair(the people that were paying attention had me pegged as pretty tight). Flop comes Qc5s3s- SB bets, and I just call, figuring anyone with ANY kind of draw had more than sufficient pot odds to take any draw to the river at this point, plus I thought there was a very real possibility of QQ out, 2 behind call, (ugh), one folds. Turn comes 2h- I can't imagine that helped anyone else, but i figure i'll just call SB's bet again with the best hand since i don't wan't to lose customers, SB will not fold under any circumstances here, and I know these people weren't going anywhere with any kind of draw and i didn't want to take a chance on having to pay an additional $40 or so to see the river(plus the main percived threat called out-of-turn the 20). Call call behind. River comes 4d-total blank- NO WAIT! I just backed into a wheel! However, so may have 1 or more people. I think of bumping SB's bet here, but figure the pot's big enough to not have to expose myself to a possible RR, plaus, again, i don't want to lose customers calling worse. Both behind call. SB, who capped me preflop flips over 66. Thanks for playing. That's ok, i got it all back from that numskull and then some. Profit here, about $450 in 19 hours. Not bad considering I was bad beat into being down about $800 and i crawled out to only lose $90. Good trip(my friend won about $800 himself), which could have been alot better. Can't wait until next time.