Moving to MN, an interim Canterbury Trip report (very long)

[BigBaitsim (milo)]

Three nights into my trip I've met with three psychologists about private practice options, two realtors about housing and office space for myself and the wife (a family lawyer), and played 31 hours of poker.

First a comment or two about Canterbury. This place is the best run poker room I've played in. 30+ tables, big board, great floor and incredibly very competent board girls, who keep tables running well, manage insanely long lists some nights, and are not to hard to look at either. Swing shift manager Annie sat in the 6/12 I was playing last night, and we had a pleasant chat about MN in general and the cardroom in specific.

Night 1: Played mostly 6/12. Games are VERY different from Vegas. Players on the whole have more experience, are much more sober and more intelligent. Most at this level play a fair bit, and have learned a lot through their frequent play. Fortunately, they THINK they know more than they do, because many still lack a strong understanding of the fundamentals of the game. Not surprisingly, they see too many hands and take them too far. I played terribly the first night, bizzarely adopting the local style of play. So in late position I pick up JJ for the third time in an hour (having lost with it both times). It's raised ahead of me, I three-bet and EP (who I have a good read on) calls. Okay, I'm likely up against a lower PP or over cards. I think this guy would have 4-bet with any overpair. Flop is AK4r. He bets, I raise and he quickly three-bets. I call and then call him down to the river. He shows AK (big shock), and I'm left wondering who is inhabiting my body. I had the guy read cold as a tight and not overly aggressive player. No way he 3-bets with less than two-pair. Despite moronic play, I managed to eke out 10BB for a $114 profit.

Day Two (first day of actual moving stuff): Got in four hours' sleep before taking my sister-in-law to the airport. She's gone a week and I have a car for the duration. I spent two hours in the afternoon meeting with a psychologist about practice options and three hours with a realtor getting driven around MN. I see 10 houses, most of which I cannot afford as the most expensive houses in my hometown of Farmville are cheaper than a real cheesy place in Chaska or Eden Prairie. At about 4:30 I tell the realtor I'm getting tired, go get my car and head for Canterbury.

First mistake of the evening is the "Asian Buffet." Hint to the uninformed: Do not trust Asian food prepared at a Minnesota Racetrack-Casino ("Racino"). Eight bucks (one time through only, please) isn't bad, but the food was. Second mistake was signing up for the 8/16. While only slightly higher than the 6/12, the players were much more aggressive and more experienced. When I made my hands, I made little. Additionally, they liked to stay in with draws to the river, and while I usually want my two-pair to be called by the idiot with the gutshot, Every river went the other way. In one hand I held TJs. Five saw an unraised flop, which came QJ8 with two [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]. Again, I had a good read on this player and bet out. He raised and I called. I bet the turn, he called. The river brought another [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img], and the guy suddenly looked like he'd been offered a blowjob by a supermodel. I check-called, asked to see the hearts and he obliged. Sorry to bitch about beats, but he was getting odds to call, and this sort of thing happened all night. Stuck three racks or yellow($2 chips), I meandered over to a relatively good 6/12, where I recovered all but $80 of my loss. I'd rebought a few times, but now had almost five racks of chips in front of me. Now Annie the manager and two TAG regulars sit in at the same time Drunken Asian Guy, and some 30/60 player slumming it in the 6/12 left. Slummer had been raising 50%, limping 25% and folding 25%. This, and his buying a round of drinks for the table (no free alcohol at CP [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img] had really made the game pretty friendly. Suddenly the game was super-tight for a 6/12 and I moved to the table drunken Asian Guy had gone to. Almost immediataly I picked up KK, blah, blah blah, he had a gazillion of my chips after cold calling three bets with 35o and seeing a 246r flop. The game was wild, with 5-6 seeing a raise pre-flop, so I buckled up for a wild, and hopefully lucrative ride. Drunken Asian Guy slowly sobered over the next few hours, and played better by the time dawn showed up, and the two-hour wild ride ended with me being stuck again for three racks of yellow. I still think I played correctly for most of the night, making tilty calls preflop only twice (accounting for no more than 4BB loss). The rivers continued to flow away from me and I left down $667.

Day Three brought half-dozen more homes, some getting close to affordable and the good news that we would likely qualify for a home loan (which was uncertain because the wife and I are both self-employed and will essentially be jobless when we arrive). Met another family lawyer at a table and he may be able to help the wife with some info, which was cool. Met a psychologist who gave me very encouraging info about insurance reimbursement rates (which are 30% higher here) and a need for forensic psychologists to do custody evals and criminal work. Got to CP at dinner time and had a very good bacon cheeseburger ($5.00!). THe board girls recognized me, and said "6/12, Milo?" That was nice, and I got a seat in 5 minutes (football Sunday). THe jackpot was $100K for the duration of the day, but was never hit. I went on an absolute tear, building a mountain of chips. I got a rep at the table for hitting cards (as if the cards remembered me), and a preflop raise, coupled with a bet on the flop suddenly won me the pot unless the other player had a very strong hand. This allowed me to lay down some strong hands. I straddled a few times, winning each time with an unlikely hand, and suddenly my pre-flop raises were met with 4-5 callers (despite my playing very tight, seeing less than 20% of flops, by far the tightest at the table, aside from Annie the Manager). I was the only straddler all night, and it didn't loosen up the table in general, but they suddenly gave no respect to my pre-flop raises, regardless of position. Many smiles and "good jobs" accompanied my walk up to the cage, weighed down with just shy of five racks of yellow. I cashed out up $537.

Total so far, -$16.

Coming attractions:
Minnesota Laws Test for licensure!
More poker!
More realtors!
Mortgage Brokers!
Realtors!
In-laws!

[BigBaitsim (milo)]

Ran into 2+2ers Edge, Andy B. and Scheids among others. Andy was waiting for the 30/60 and Schneids was sitting with what looked like a reasonable buy-in. I stopped by a few hours later, to see Andy and Scheids sitting in the 3 and 8 seats respectively, peering at each other over mountains of well worn $10 chips. You guys are my heros.

-Milo

[icepick]

[ QUOTE ]
Coming attractions:


[/ QUOTE ]

Snow!

[Edge34]

Glad to hear you enjoyed your trip...I ended up there until 4 in the morning...coldest run of cards in my life, but by the end of the night I worked my way back to being down only one rack in the 15/30, successfully avoiding spewing chips due to said cold run.

Schneids was there even longer than me...and he's my hero too [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]. Beat the life out of the 30 from what I saw.

Hope to run into you again there once you're a permanent Minnesotan!

(Lisa's a cute one too, btw [img]/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img])

-Edge

[Andy B]

Nice meeting you, sir. I do buy in for two racks, and I wound up giving some of it back, but it was a good night nonetheless. Had to leave when, in one hand, I failed to take into account that a decent player had already limped when I made an isolation raise against a terrible limper, and I failed to notice that the turn card put three spades on the board. When my judgment fails that badly, it's time to rack up. I need a few days off from poker now, I think.

[Edge34]

At least you didn't muck a chop hand... [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

[WDC]

I was the family lawyer that ran into Milo. Milo is certainly a nice guy and a pleasure to play with. Although we were sitting right next to each other in a Saturday early evening 8-16 game for about an hour we did not get involved in any significant pots with each other. BTW Milo that game was fairly tame (for 8-16) until I left at 8:30 or so, but I bet it probably got more wild as the night went on, it usually does.

Best of luck in the home buying. Check your private mail as I left a message there.

Bill

[Schneids]

[ QUOTE ]
Andy was waiting for the 30/60

[/ QUOTE ]

Oh that must have been when Andy was on the list, got called for it, sat and played two hands, then decided he didn't want me and Vehn to take all his money and moved off the table like a scared little girl [img]/images/graemlins/shocked.gif[/img].

(actually I am glad he got off the table the game was bad and turning worse if he stayed. Andy got back on the list and returned later in the night when the line up was much better)

[annieadlin]

Hi Milo,
Buy a VERY warm coat and get ready for winter here in MN!
Very nice meeting you (and playing next to you).
Annie

[whiskeytown]

yah...my experience with 6/12 is that SSHE is the best style of play for it....;

but you never wanna join a new game - join an existing one - the first hr. is tighter then a <insert tight methphor here>

Lisa is easy to look at...so is Heather, IMHO (coctail waitress) - I was there on Sun for the $400 tourney and died with the best hand preflop....same ol, same ol...

yah....get ready for winterwonderland...I'm not yet....ech.

RB