CMP
05-10-2004, 01:26 PM
I decided to drive up to Milwaukee to check out the new poker room at Potawatomi Bingo Casino. The room just opened on 4/26 and is the only game within 2.5 hours, so needless to say, the place was JAMMED.
I arrived at around 3pm and put my name on the $5-10 (full kill) and $10-20 (half kill) lists. The $10-20 was much shorter, and right when I was at the signup board, the floor staff was talking about “freezing” a $2-4 table to change it into a $10-20 table. When I arrived, there were 3 $2-4, 3 $5-10, one $10-20, one $20-40, and one $1-5 stud. When you sign up, they give you a pager that works anywhere on the casino grounds. When your seat is ready, they give you a buzz and you have 5 mins to show up at the room. I think they actually give you 2-3 pages (i.e. 2-3 chances at 5 mins) as I was more than 5 mins away from the room when my pager went off, and when I got back to the board, my name had 2 check marks by it.
I adventured out of the casino while I was waiting for a seat. The floor was telling people “a few hours” to get called, so I figured I’d find a bank outside the casino, plus I wanted to get a $5 quick pick on the $200+ million Powerball that night (did I win this? Anyone?). So, I took a little adventure through the streets of Milwaukee. I tried to find a gas station/convenience store around Marquette without any success, so I just headed away from downtown exploring. I was driving through some pretty rough areas, not finding anything that met my needs, but also just taking it all in. I finally found a gas station that had a drive-through ATM outside, I got my ticket inside and I guess I have some sort of daily ATM limit (around $250) that I forgot about, because I couldn't withdraw $400 for the $10-20 buy-in, but when I tried a lesser amount ($240) I was able to get that. I'll have to plan it better next time. Time to head back. I’m about 30 minutes away. On the way out, the pager beeped at first, and played the automated message “You are too far away to receive the page” or something like that (pretty fancy paging unit). When I came back into range, it started beeping again, and I was still out on the streets approaching the place when it started going off! Crap, I thought it was going to be a FEW hours, not one, and if I get rolled on the list now, it will be even longer. So I got back to the parking garage in about 8 minutes, back into the room in about 10-15 total from the page, and my name was still up on the board. They had indeed changed the $2-4 table to a must-move $10-20 game. I bought in for $280 (my w/d plus what I’d had in my wallet that morning) and joined the 6-handed game (I made 7).
The $10-20 was supposed to be half-kill, but the new table didn’t play half-kill in the hour that I was there. The main game was half-kill, though, and later I heard the floor instructing the must-move table to start playing half-kill. My first experience playing $10-20. The game I was in was pretty much like a $5-10 game, but with only a few people were playing “any 2 will do” as opposed to the majority of the table. Loose-passive. The table eventually filled until we were playing 9-handed, I think. My hour there was pretty uneventful. First big hand I got QQ and raised. We saw the flop 6-handed. A-high flop, checked to me, I bet, player to my immediate left raised, and I folded when it got back to me. Turn was a Q, d’oh. The flop-raiser had A10. Later, I got AA in my BB and raised a few limpers. I bet on the rag flop and got one caller. I bet the turn and he folded. I got 1010 on the button and limped after a bunch of limpers. Overcards came and it was bet and called in several spots before me so I had to lay it down. Those were my memorable hands. After about an hour, my name came up for $5-10 and (being exactly even for the hour and feeling short-stacked, especially with a ½ kill coming) I decided to switch to $5-10. I’ll definitely be taking some more shots at $10-20 in the future, though.
On to my $5-10 table, where I bought in for $200. I’d call this poker bingo, right next to the bingo hall proper. Note: it’s kinda strange how quiet everyone gets out in the hall when the bingo is being called. There’s a loud buzz of conversation between games (with over 1000 players, had to be), and then it’s stone quiet except for the caller during the games, until you can faintly hear “Bingo!” screamed from across the room, and the buzz begins again. Back to the poker. You needed to show a very good hand here to win. Not the nuts, but usually 2-pair or better. At least it seemed that way to me. Also, fear any ace on the board - it connected with someone. If there are 3 other players besides you, it may be the last ace in the deck that appeared, lol. Though the night, I could identify 3-4 players who came and went with some sort of starting hand selection. Everyone else, let go of any expectation about what, specifically, they might turn over.
I had made a plan to leave around 9pm, but I wound up staying longer for several (bad) reasons:
1) the session felt short, even after 4-5 hours, and leaving then would’ve meant almost as much drive time as poker time
2) we hadn’t been playing full-kill for the first 4 hours I was at the $5-10 (5-9pm), then decided to make a change, so I stuck around to check it out
3) on what was to be my last hand, I sucked out on a brand-new guy’s KK, his first hand in the BB, with Q10s (hit trip 10s), so I didn’t want to appear like a hit-and-run artist, so I stuck around for another round, which led to...
So, I was up $110 at 9pm when I should’ve left, but the above led to the embarrassingly stereotypical “wish I wouldn’t have lost that pot – I’ll just play until I get back to $100 up…..I’ll just play until I get up a little from being even again…..I’ll just play until I’m even again…..damn, I wish I would’ve left at 9.”
The winners: I made quad deuces from the BB (3 deuces on the board, 2 flopped, and the case on the river) and got paid off by someone who had a FH with one of the other board cards; the dealer insisted that the casino was giving out hats for quads or better, and one of the floormen uneasily went along with him, so I got a hat. Later, it was revealed that hats were for straight-flushes only. But it was too late in my case, ha. I made a set of 7s and won a big raised pot early on to get even after being card cold for a while. I had A4 suited and limped. Someone behind me raised, and many people called 2 cold. Flop came A-3-4, giving me top-2. I bet out, raiser folded, and a few called. Turn was a 5. I bet out again and an LP player raised me. I thought to myself, “there’s no way this guy called a raise with any hand with a 2 in it,” and decided to call him down. What he turned over wasn’t really that much more plausible, but he held 4-5 suited for a lower 2 pair. Holding KQ, I got to a 3-way showdown on a Q-x-y-z-K board, and my top 2 were good against Qy and sK, but I needed the river K! Craziness.
Trouble hand: Q10 (suited or off) – I must’ve had this hand 10 times in the session. Nuts, I wasn’t getting any other big card combo, but if anyone was watching me for tells, or if we could review the video, you’d see me smile in exactly 2 circumstances – when I found Q10 again, or on the few kill pots we had, one of the reasons I stayed you know, when I found 83o or something similar again. So I played a good number of Q10 hands when in position. My above mentioned suckout was on a Q10s hand. Flop came 10-high all hearts (not my suit). Pre-flop raiser from the BB checked the flop, I bet, and one other player (button?) and the raiser called. Turn was a black 10, giving me trips. BB now bet out, and I warily called, as did the 3rd player. BB bet the blank river, I called, and the 3rd guy now raised, BB just called, and I overcalled (poker bingo, don’t you know, let’s see what we all have). River check-raiser showed 107 (for lower trips, no FH), raiser showed red KK (needed one more heart or a K), and I took it with my trips. Other than that, Q10 didn’t get me into trouble with any second best hands, but didn’t really connect either (so all my limping money went away on it, I guess).
The pain: I had KK twice and BOTH times, AA was out against me. I had AK only once and didn’t connect on the flop. I had AQ twice, once didn’t connect, 2nd time turned Broadway to lose on the river to a flush. K10 flopped K-8-x and lost to K8. Raised 1010 pre-flop in EP, called in 2 spots. Flop was all lower than 10, I bet, called both spots. Turn was an A, checked around. River some blank, I check-bet-raised to me, I fold, and I think A7 (one pair) beat A5 (one pair). 99 twice, a few other small pairs, no sets made. No draws came in (flush, open-ended, or gutshot, which usually had the odds on the flop). We only had a few kill pots (maybe 1-2 per hour), and I never found a playable hand in any of the kills.
The second KK vs. AA confrontation was my second-to-last hand of the night, and I palmed 2 remaining red chips as I walked away. I wish I had left at 9 as planned, lol.
So, until they expand the room, the crowd and the drive combined are too much. If I’m ever already IN Milwaukee for some reason, and poker comes up, I’ll check it out again, but I won’t be making a special trip back.
I arrived at around 3pm and put my name on the $5-10 (full kill) and $10-20 (half kill) lists. The $10-20 was much shorter, and right when I was at the signup board, the floor staff was talking about “freezing” a $2-4 table to change it into a $10-20 table. When I arrived, there were 3 $2-4, 3 $5-10, one $10-20, one $20-40, and one $1-5 stud. When you sign up, they give you a pager that works anywhere on the casino grounds. When your seat is ready, they give you a buzz and you have 5 mins to show up at the room. I think they actually give you 2-3 pages (i.e. 2-3 chances at 5 mins) as I was more than 5 mins away from the room when my pager went off, and when I got back to the board, my name had 2 check marks by it.
I adventured out of the casino while I was waiting for a seat. The floor was telling people “a few hours” to get called, so I figured I’d find a bank outside the casino, plus I wanted to get a $5 quick pick on the $200+ million Powerball that night (did I win this? Anyone?). So, I took a little adventure through the streets of Milwaukee. I tried to find a gas station/convenience store around Marquette without any success, so I just headed away from downtown exploring. I was driving through some pretty rough areas, not finding anything that met my needs, but also just taking it all in. I finally found a gas station that had a drive-through ATM outside, I got my ticket inside and I guess I have some sort of daily ATM limit (around $250) that I forgot about, because I couldn't withdraw $400 for the $10-20 buy-in, but when I tried a lesser amount ($240) I was able to get that. I'll have to plan it better next time. Time to head back. I’m about 30 minutes away. On the way out, the pager beeped at first, and played the automated message “You are too far away to receive the page” or something like that (pretty fancy paging unit). When I came back into range, it started beeping again, and I was still out on the streets approaching the place when it started going off! Crap, I thought it was going to be a FEW hours, not one, and if I get rolled on the list now, it will be even longer. So I got back to the parking garage in about 8 minutes, back into the room in about 10-15 total from the page, and my name was still up on the board. They had indeed changed the $2-4 table to a must-move $10-20 game. I bought in for $280 (my w/d plus what I’d had in my wallet that morning) and joined the 6-handed game (I made 7).
The $10-20 was supposed to be half-kill, but the new table didn’t play half-kill in the hour that I was there. The main game was half-kill, though, and later I heard the floor instructing the must-move table to start playing half-kill. My first experience playing $10-20. The game I was in was pretty much like a $5-10 game, but with only a few people were playing “any 2 will do” as opposed to the majority of the table. Loose-passive. The table eventually filled until we were playing 9-handed, I think. My hour there was pretty uneventful. First big hand I got QQ and raised. We saw the flop 6-handed. A-high flop, checked to me, I bet, player to my immediate left raised, and I folded when it got back to me. Turn was a Q, d’oh. The flop-raiser had A10. Later, I got AA in my BB and raised a few limpers. I bet on the rag flop and got one caller. I bet the turn and he folded. I got 1010 on the button and limped after a bunch of limpers. Overcards came and it was bet and called in several spots before me so I had to lay it down. Those were my memorable hands. After about an hour, my name came up for $5-10 and (being exactly even for the hour and feeling short-stacked, especially with a ½ kill coming) I decided to switch to $5-10. I’ll definitely be taking some more shots at $10-20 in the future, though.
On to my $5-10 table, where I bought in for $200. I’d call this poker bingo, right next to the bingo hall proper. Note: it’s kinda strange how quiet everyone gets out in the hall when the bingo is being called. There’s a loud buzz of conversation between games (with over 1000 players, had to be), and then it’s stone quiet except for the caller during the games, until you can faintly hear “Bingo!” screamed from across the room, and the buzz begins again. Back to the poker. You needed to show a very good hand here to win. Not the nuts, but usually 2-pair or better. At least it seemed that way to me. Also, fear any ace on the board - it connected with someone. If there are 3 other players besides you, it may be the last ace in the deck that appeared, lol. Though the night, I could identify 3-4 players who came and went with some sort of starting hand selection. Everyone else, let go of any expectation about what, specifically, they might turn over.
I had made a plan to leave around 9pm, but I wound up staying longer for several (bad) reasons:
1) the session felt short, even after 4-5 hours, and leaving then would’ve meant almost as much drive time as poker time
2) we hadn’t been playing full-kill for the first 4 hours I was at the $5-10 (5-9pm), then decided to make a change, so I stuck around to check it out
3) on what was to be my last hand, I sucked out on a brand-new guy’s KK, his first hand in the BB, with Q10s (hit trip 10s), so I didn’t want to appear like a hit-and-run artist, so I stuck around for another round, which led to...
So, I was up $110 at 9pm when I should’ve left, but the above led to the embarrassingly stereotypical “wish I wouldn’t have lost that pot – I’ll just play until I get back to $100 up…..I’ll just play until I get up a little from being even again…..I’ll just play until I’m even again…..damn, I wish I would’ve left at 9.”
The winners: I made quad deuces from the BB (3 deuces on the board, 2 flopped, and the case on the river) and got paid off by someone who had a FH with one of the other board cards; the dealer insisted that the casino was giving out hats for quads or better, and one of the floormen uneasily went along with him, so I got a hat. Later, it was revealed that hats were for straight-flushes only. But it was too late in my case, ha. I made a set of 7s and won a big raised pot early on to get even after being card cold for a while. I had A4 suited and limped. Someone behind me raised, and many people called 2 cold. Flop came A-3-4, giving me top-2. I bet out, raiser folded, and a few called. Turn was a 5. I bet out again and an LP player raised me. I thought to myself, “there’s no way this guy called a raise with any hand with a 2 in it,” and decided to call him down. What he turned over wasn’t really that much more plausible, but he held 4-5 suited for a lower 2 pair. Holding KQ, I got to a 3-way showdown on a Q-x-y-z-K board, and my top 2 were good against Qy and sK, but I needed the river K! Craziness.
Trouble hand: Q10 (suited or off) – I must’ve had this hand 10 times in the session. Nuts, I wasn’t getting any other big card combo, but if anyone was watching me for tells, or if we could review the video, you’d see me smile in exactly 2 circumstances – when I found Q10 again, or on the few kill pots we had, one of the reasons I stayed you know, when I found 83o or something similar again. So I played a good number of Q10 hands when in position. My above mentioned suckout was on a Q10s hand. Flop came 10-high all hearts (not my suit). Pre-flop raiser from the BB checked the flop, I bet, and one other player (button?) and the raiser called. Turn was a black 10, giving me trips. BB now bet out, and I warily called, as did the 3rd player. BB bet the blank river, I called, and the 3rd guy now raised, BB just called, and I overcalled (poker bingo, don’t you know, let’s see what we all have). River check-raiser showed 107 (for lower trips, no FH), raiser showed red KK (needed one more heart or a K), and I took it with my trips. Other than that, Q10 didn’t get me into trouble with any second best hands, but didn’t really connect either (so all my limping money went away on it, I guess).
The pain: I had KK twice and BOTH times, AA was out against me. I had AK only once and didn’t connect on the flop. I had AQ twice, once didn’t connect, 2nd time turned Broadway to lose on the river to a flush. K10 flopped K-8-x and lost to K8. Raised 1010 pre-flop in EP, called in 2 spots. Flop was all lower than 10, I bet, called both spots. Turn was an A, checked around. River some blank, I check-bet-raised to me, I fold, and I think A7 (one pair) beat A5 (one pair). 99 twice, a few other small pairs, no sets made. No draws came in (flush, open-ended, or gutshot, which usually had the odds on the flop). We only had a few kill pots (maybe 1-2 per hour), and I never found a playable hand in any of the kills.
The second KK vs. AA confrontation was my second-to-last hand of the night, and I palmed 2 remaining red chips as I walked away. I wish I had left at 9 as planned, lol.
So, until they expand the room, the crowd and the drive combined are too much. If I’m ever already IN Milwaukee for some reason, and poker comes up, I’ll check it out again, but I won’t be making a special trip back.