[BigBaitsim (milo)]

Canterbury Trip Report

Wow, was the floor staff nice. Sure the wait was an hour Thursday and 2 hours Friday, but they were so nice and efficient with the board that it really couldn’t piss you off to wait. Realizing that Minnesota has limited the number of tables, making it not Canterbury’s fault helps. A special thanks to the Vikings for playing a preseason game Saturday, because I got there at 9:00 and got an immediate seat in the 6/12 Note to Minnesotans: It’s the preseason, it doesn’t matter. Met only a couple 2+2ers. Vehn, Schneids, Andy, where were you? AnyTwoCards gave me an especially nice welcome, in the form of a Canterbury fishing hat and some valet parking passes. Since the Canterbury is primarily a race track, the parking lot is enormous and no fun to walk across. What I had no idea, is that the hat he wrangled was the hat people won by getting a straight flush. People kept asking me if I’d won the hat that day, and I kept giving these baffled looks, and they of course never told me that the hat was given to straight flush winners because they assumed I knew, which I didn’t. Eventually, I just started telling them I’d won it the day before, and then would scowl when they asked about the hand, as if pissed that I got no action on my Royal.

Oh yeah, the trip report. I was looking for all the soft and squishy tables, but found the 6/12 and 8/16 tougher than Vegas, with fewer clueless idiots. For the most part the players were much more experienced than I, but not as well schooled. In Vegas there were always a few at the table who were inexperienced and poorly taught, a sweet combination. Admittedly, I was operating on almost no sleep for the first few nights, but I found the games filled largely with players who knew what they were doing. Sure, a few idiots were mixed in, but the decent player to magoo ratio was much better in Vegas. Some of my new SSH strategy was misplaced on tables where 3-5 saw the flop, but stepped up aggression helped. Several badly played hands each night and a few suckouts left me exactly $10 up after two nights and some 12 hours of play. Not a very good winrate. I was determined to win Saturday, and decided to play the 4/8, which was a mix of college boys and twenties, with the odd geezer tossed in. The 6/12 and 8/16 games seemed to have a median age closer to 45. I gotta say, no doubt these mid-limit games were beatable, but I never seemed to feel like I had the kind of advantage I had at many 3/6, 4/8 and 6/12 games in Vegas. For some reason, however, I sat down at the 6/12, instead of the 4/8 (tilt? A desire to “win it faster?”). At about 10:30 on Saturday, down $80 at the 6/12, I noticed the table behind me seemed looser and asked for a change. As I got up, the regular sitting next to me asked me why I was going to table 23, saying, “do you see all those guys there, most of them are pros?” [censored]. Well, I stumbled into some cards worth playing and the “pros” paid me off. Up $200, I decide to follow my original and forgotten plan to play the softer $4/8. I rack up, and then get smoked out of $125+ on the next two hands when I failed to read what everyone else at the table had. Before the fellow in seat 6 showed his cards, seat 4 says, “Bill, you played that set fast because of the flush draw, right?” Bill showed the set of eights I had completely missed. I seemed the only one to not know that Bill had the set, as I was the only one hanging in the hand with some crappy second best hand.

At the 4/8 there was a mix of younger players and older players, most of whom were predictable and very readable. This was my sweet spot, but I watched as hand after hand was rags, and the best hands I got were limping hands, which never paid off, or were raised preflop. I picked up a couple of hands and actually went up a buck or two, when a cocktail waitress wandered by the table at about 1:00 am (just as I was chalking up the trip as a bust), and shoved a horseshoe up my ass. It stayed there for three hours, as I hit every draw, got AA, QQ three times, and a host of good cards. My JJ hit a set when the flop came AJ4r, and some other guy hit a middling flush when I got the nuts, stuff like that. I tilted a bit, thinking myself invincible (hey it’s like 3:00 a.m. and I have had 4 hours of sleep total in three nights of poker before this, including a wonderful NL game at the Moose Lodge the night before we left for Minnesota). So I’m in MP with QJ-o, and EP raises. So I call (stupid, stupid, stupid). On the Q high flop, it bet to me, I raise and get reraised. I call the fellow in EP down all the way, and he shows the inevitable AQ, made better when the A hits on the turn, and I STILL CALL HIM DOWN!! Took a breather after that hand, realized I was not superhuman and played solidly. The horseshoe stayed put and after being down to $140 at the table, I cashed out at 4:00 with $486.

My favorite hand of the whole trip was the one of three AA hands I got that was NOT cracked. I’m on the button in a relatively tight 8/16 game, when everyone decides their hand is worth playing. EP raises, three callers, I reraise, two callers, EP four-bets, and I cap. Five see the flop for five bets, with a couple dropping out along the way, and several speculating that my cap means nothing short of aces. Flop comes 7c8cXd, and EP bets out. Unhappy about the flop, I raise, and he calls. The turn is an ugly 9c. He checks, I check it through (mistake?). The river is a J, just in case his JJ or T needs help. He bets, and I just call, telling him I think I’m beat and asking to see his straight or flush. He thinks his hand is good, and he throws KK across the table in front of me. I turn over the red aces, and get pushed the biggest pot of my casino career, which now stretches into it’s sixth day.

In the end, I finished up about $390 for the three days, glad I was up that much in 18 hours of play, but frustrated that I made a few rookie mistakes. I know better than to chase against a made hand when I’m not getting odds, etc., I could have been up another a great deal more had I played better. I don’t mind when the cards miss, I do mind when I screw up. Nonetheless, I enjoyed the trip immensely, and am looking forward to Vegas in September.

In Vegas 9/4 to 9/10? Look for the avatar!

-Milo