CMP
02-17-2004, 01:27 PM
I made my way to Trump Casino in Gary, IN on Friday night, 2/13. I left immediately after work and wound up getting there around 6:15. Waiting lists were reasonable (5 or so names for each game. I signed up for the $3-6 holdem with a full kill and the $1-5 stud. Within 15 minutes, they opened a new stud table and I started the game 4-handed. The first few hands were funny – 3 septuagenarians and me checking around and pairs of 2s and 3s taking $2 pots. The game eventually filled and became more typical. One memorable hand: the woman to my left was leading the betting, and betting progressively ($2, then $3, $4, $5). By sixth, I had an open-ended straight draw and a 4-flush in hearts, with 3 hearts showing on the board. The river brought me the Ah, completing my flush. I was high, and I checked. She bet into me. The rational part of my brain said “now, the only thing scary about your board is the hearts – she has to know you were on the flush draw, and is she the type of player who would lead the river if she couldn’t beat what you’re representing (or drawing to)? The answer is no.” However, my id jumped up and said “forget that, you just made the A-high flush” and made my mouth and hand and chips check-raise. She just called (feeling sorry for the obvious stud newbie? Lol) and showed me jacks full of 10s (started with a spit pair, paired her second card on 4th, and caught full on the river). Another one: I made open aces on 4th and bet, expecting all to fold. One guy called me all the way to the river (as he had caught a 4th diamond on 4th street), but couldn’t complete the flush or 2-pair. My naked aces won.
After about 30 minutes, I got called to the $3-6 HE with a full kill. Between 7-8:30, there was no waiting list for any of the lower limit HE games. By mid-evening, though, the $3-6 list got ridiculous – there must’ve been 40 names. Arrive early, folks. Anyway, I sat down with my $60 left over from the stud game and planned to reload – luckily, I never needed to. The game was, once again, fantastic. Loose-mostly passive, people calling raises with K2o – one guy called a raise and won with a 1-card straight on 106o, using the 6. Several would raise on any ace (A4o). Kills were pretty infrequent – maybe one a round, if that. Kill pots tightened folks up a bit (usually only 3-4 seeing the flop instead of 6-7).
Aces were poison at this table. I saw them at least 8 times in my time there, and they only won twice (both by the same guy, my buddy). KK and QQ weren’t doing much better, but neither of them appeared as often as AA – and the whole table was talking about it. My best hand was JJ in the SB. Atypically, only one limper to me in the SB, I raised, BB and limper call. Flop comes A-high, I bet out, limper raises, I fold, limper wins the hand with A2o. Other than that, big aces were good to me - AK, AQ, and AJ went 3 wins, 2 wins/1 loss, 1 nice win. A few other memorable hands: I played the 10Jh on the button with dreamy 8-way action, and the flop comes near perfect 7-8-9 (2 spades kept it from perfection). The turn was a second diamond (2 different flushes drawing) brick, I raised, and people commented out loud that they had no idea how the 3d could’ve helped my hand with the board to that point – we lost about 3-4 after the raise. The river brought the 10c – boooooo! I had to chop the huge pot with AJd, who had picked up his nut draw on the turn. Another hand, I picked up A7o in the BB. Flop came down with 2 diamonds, checked around. Turn was a third diamond, and I check-called (I had a diamond and felt my overcard A would be good still). I got lucky with a 4th diamond on the river. I was 95% sure that I had the Ad and not the 7d, but I didn’t want to re-check during this action. I bet out, the previous bettor raised. I 3-bet. He 4-bets. I 5-bet, and he finally called and asked “you got the ace?” I flipped up the Ad and he the Kd as expected. My first 5-bet, I think. There was a weird 3-gap straight flush possible, but this guy probably would’ve played the hand this same way with ANY diamond (so I didn’t think the SF was likely).
No other hands stick out for me, as it was typical loose passive play. I was fortunate to only be on the receiving end of one suckout, one of the AQs where I flopped an A. I don’t even remember what he runner-runnered, so it couldn’t have been that bad. I left about 2am up $120 at HE and up $80 for the night (after giving away $40 to the stud players). I thought I left at the worst possible moment, though, when the board showed A-A-J-J-J on the next hand as I walked past from the cage. No bad beat, though, as both cards have to play. J7s won a nice pot from A10 and A9.
Trump is getting better all the time. Still some dealer problems, but the table was chill and worked it out without a hassle (dealer didn’t notice that a kicker played and went to chop). The NL game seemed to be going strong. I laughed at the Harrah’s billboard on the highway on the way home that said “New- $5 rake!” I think Trump will be the choice for a while.
After about 30 minutes, I got called to the $3-6 HE with a full kill. Between 7-8:30, there was no waiting list for any of the lower limit HE games. By mid-evening, though, the $3-6 list got ridiculous – there must’ve been 40 names. Arrive early, folks. Anyway, I sat down with my $60 left over from the stud game and planned to reload – luckily, I never needed to. The game was, once again, fantastic. Loose-mostly passive, people calling raises with K2o – one guy called a raise and won with a 1-card straight on 106o, using the 6. Several would raise on any ace (A4o). Kills were pretty infrequent – maybe one a round, if that. Kill pots tightened folks up a bit (usually only 3-4 seeing the flop instead of 6-7).
Aces were poison at this table. I saw them at least 8 times in my time there, and they only won twice (both by the same guy, my buddy). KK and QQ weren’t doing much better, but neither of them appeared as often as AA – and the whole table was talking about it. My best hand was JJ in the SB. Atypically, only one limper to me in the SB, I raised, BB and limper call. Flop comes A-high, I bet out, limper raises, I fold, limper wins the hand with A2o. Other than that, big aces were good to me - AK, AQ, and AJ went 3 wins, 2 wins/1 loss, 1 nice win. A few other memorable hands: I played the 10Jh on the button with dreamy 8-way action, and the flop comes near perfect 7-8-9 (2 spades kept it from perfection). The turn was a second diamond (2 different flushes drawing) brick, I raised, and people commented out loud that they had no idea how the 3d could’ve helped my hand with the board to that point – we lost about 3-4 after the raise. The river brought the 10c – boooooo! I had to chop the huge pot with AJd, who had picked up his nut draw on the turn. Another hand, I picked up A7o in the BB. Flop came down with 2 diamonds, checked around. Turn was a third diamond, and I check-called (I had a diamond and felt my overcard A would be good still). I got lucky with a 4th diamond on the river. I was 95% sure that I had the Ad and not the 7d, but I didn’t want to re-check during this action. I bet out, the previous bettor raised. I 3-bet. He 4-bets. I 5-bet, and he finally called and asked “you got the ace?” I flipped up the Ad and he the Kd as expected. My first 5-bet, I think. There was a weird 3-gap straight flush possible, but this guy probably would’ve played the hand this same way with ANY diamond (so I didn’t think the SF was likely).
No other hands stick out for me, as it was typical loose passive play. I was fortunate to only be on the receiving end of one suckout, one of the AQs where I flopped an A. I don’t even remember what he runner-runnered, so it couldn’t have been that bad. I left about 2am up $120 at HE and up $80 for the night (after giving away $40 to the stud players). I thought I left at the worst possible moment, though, when the board showed A-A-J-J-J on the next hand as I walked past from the cage. No bad beat, though, as both cards have to play. J7s won a nice pot from A10 and A9.
Trump is getting better all the time. Still some dealer problems, but the table was chill and worked it out without a hassle (dealer didn’t notice that a kicker played and went to chop). The NL game seemed to be going strong. I laughed at the Harrah’s billboard on the highway on the way home that said “New- $5 rake!” I think Trump will be the choice for a while.