dogmeat
07-04-2004, 01:07 PM
Happy Independance Day to everybody! I hope there are many of you that have the day off, or have even taken up poker for their income. I have not worked in 10 months, just a little unemployment and my poker income.
This past week was spent in Lake Tahoe, NV and Las Vegas. Lake Tahoe is a beautiful lake that straddles the California and Nevada borders. On the Nevada side there are casinos bunched up at South Shore and North Shore. We spent several days playing on the beaches of N. Shore, swimming and rafting down the Truckee River - great fun. Northern California and the San Francisco Bay Area have the most beautiful women anywhere IMHO.
High stakes poker is still not available in Tahoe or Reno. At S. Shore I did play in a $3/6 (about all there was) at the Horizon and enjoyed the soft competition (two tables squeezed into the sports book). One of the very rare opportunities to soft call with the nuts on the river came up.
The game was fairly aggressive with a couple players that wanted everybody to know that they were "experienced". That ment they raised w/anything. I flopped top pair, turned a nut flush draw and rivered it. The "experienced" player bet the river, next player called, player next to me raised and I flat-called while say "well, I guess I'll call";- and sure enough the original better reraised. Both the other players called and then I popped it. To my surprize they all called me down, 2 straights and a 2nd nut flush! Cool.
At Incline Village the Hyatt has two tables in their sports book. The inside of the resort has been redone and is really beautiful. The games are open when there are players, mostly evening/weekend - so no play there and nothing at the N. Shore border.
At the Crystal Bay Club (which was closed two years ago but is open again) I played a 50-hand poker slot. This was a 5-cent machine, $12.50 a pop - and was dealt a wild-royal on deuces. (T-K of clubs with a deuce) The payoff for this is 100 coins x50 for 5000 coins and I thought about tossing the deuce and going for the regular royal that pays 4000 coins, a very close call, and knew I might get two or even three royals, but I chickened out and took the $250)
Down in Reno (35 minutes over Mount Rose Highway) there was only moderate poker action. Many clubs have a $1-4 hold-em game but $3/6 is the standard now. There were some $6/12 games at the Atlantis, Peppermill and Hilton, but not always going - again the evening or weekend is best. Competition is a bit more rocky in Reno, more locals playing - many retired or semi-pro-they will be busted in 6-months types. A solid 2+2'er would do well, probably $12 an hour in the $3/6. The $6/12 games have more tourists, but some are pretty good. Most come from Northern California and with Bay 101, Oaks etc. they are used to $6/12 and $9/18 and play more aggressive but still can be beat.
Down to Vegas and a stay at Binions. We subsided on 99-cent shrimp cocktails and pastrami sandwiches. Binions took out the sandwich counter at the poker room (there is still one 20-feet away) and has about 100 tables still in the WSOP area. I guess they will sit there all year. Downtown is hurting and there is no reason to fill the area with slots............ Medium $4/8 games and a decent NL $2/5 blind game that comes and goes. In the NL game the average buy-in is $200, but there are a couple good players that sit for hours and soon have $500+. I stayed away from the big stacks and pounded on the little guys, although most with a stack under $100 are prone to call all-in preflop with Ace-face or baby pairs and will get all-in on any straight or flush draw on the flop. A good game for beginning players you can learn some patience and good play here. There were not any aggressive, steal the blinds and bully the game players here................nice game.
Thats it - I'm home again and putting away another $170 towards the WSOP 2005. I'm at $850 plus $1500 from my backer for $2350. See you in April - good luck this week.
Dogmeat /images/graemlins/spade.gif
This past week was spent in Lake Tahoe, NV and Las Vegas. Lake Tahoe is a beautiful lake that straddles the California and Nevada borders. On the Nevada side there are casinos bunched up at South Shore and North Shore. We spent several days playing on the beaches of N. Shore, swimming and rafting down the Truckee River - great fun. Northern California and the San Francisco Bay Area have the most beautiful women anywhere IMHO.
High stakes poker is still not available in Tahoe or Reno. At S. Shore I did play in a $3/6 (about all there was) at the Horizon and enjoyed the soft competition (two tables squeezed into the sports book). One of the very rare opportunities to soft call with the nuts on the river came up.
The game was fairly aggressive with a couple players that wanted everybody to know that they were "experienced". That ment they raised w/anything. I flopped top pair, turned a nut flush draw and rivered it. The "experienced" player bet the river, next player called, player next to me raised and I flat-called while say "well, I guess I'll call";- and sure enough the original better reraised. Both the other players called and then I popped it. To my surprize they all called me down, 2 straights and a 2nd nut flush! Cool.
At Incline Village the Hyatt has two tables in their sports book. The inside of the resort has been redone and is really beautiful. The games are open when there are players, mostly evening/weekend - so no play there and nothing at the N. Shore border.
At the Crystal Bay Club (which was closed two years ago but is open again) I played a 50-hand poker slot. This was a 5-cent machine, $12.50 a pop - and was dealt a wild-royal on deuces. (T-K of clubs with a deuce) The payoff for this is 100 coins x50 for 5000 coins and I thought about tossing the deuce and going for the regular royal that pays 4000 coins, a very close call, and knew I might get two or even three royals, but I chickened out and took the $250)
Down in Reno (35 minutes over Mount Rose Highway) there was only moderate poker action. Many clubs have a $1-4 hold-em game but $3/6 is the standard now. There were some $6/12 games at the Atlantis, Peppermill and Hilton, but not always going - again the evening or weekend is best. Competition is a bit more rocky in Reno, more locals playing - many retired or semi-pro-they will be busted in 6-months types. A solid 2+2'er would do well, probably $12 an hour in the $3/6. The $6/12 games have more tourists, but some are pretty good. Most come from Northern California and with Bay 101, Oaks etc. they are used to $6/12 and $9/18 and play more aggressive but still can be beat.
Down to Vegas and a stay at Binions. We subsided on 99-cent shrimp cocktails and pastrami sandwiches. Binions took out the sandwich counter at the poker room (there is still one 20-feet away) and has about 100 tables still in the WSOP area. I guess they will sit there all year. Downtown is hurting and there is no reason to fill the area with slots............ Medium $4/8 games and a decent NL $2/5 blind game that comes and goes. In the NL game the average buy-in is $200, but there are a couple good players that sit for hours and soon have $500+. I stayed away from the big stacks and pounded on the little guys, although most with a stack under $100 are prone to call all-in preflop with Ace-face or baby pairs and will get all-in on any straight or flush draw on the flop. A good game for beginning players you can learn some patience and good play here. There were not any aggressive, steal the blinds and bully the game players here................nice game.
Thats it - I'm home again and putting away another $170 towards the WSOP 2005. I'm at $850 plus $1500 from my backer for $2350. See you in April - good luck this week.
Dogmeat /images/graemlins/spade.gif