St. Croix Casino trip report (long / boring?)

[el Jefe]

I played no-limit for about six hours at St. Croix Casino in Turtle Lake, WI last Saturday. For those in the Twin Cities, Turtle Lake is about 75 miles from DT Mpls and since there's no NL at Canterbury it might be worth a trip for some.

The room was ok and reminded me alot of the IP's poker room. A bit dingy, all by itself on the second floor and was the only non-smoking area of the casino. They also had free food for players -- self-serve hotdogs, fruit, coffee and a soda fountain and a couple of plasma TVs and a lounge area with couches.

They have 10 tables and when I arrived at 2pm they had four going: two $1/2 NL ($200 max), one $2/4 and one $3/6 limit game with wait lists of about 10-15 people for each. My plan was to play NL but I got on all the lists and left to check-in at the hotel. When I returned 20 min later I was still tenth on the NL list but just then they decided to start a new game.

I could only play for two hours this session and didn't have much to play. My very first hand (BB) I floped a 6-high straight with 53o in an unraised pot but only won about $20 when I had to slow down on the river with the board showing 64257 and a three flush. Finished the session -$30 after losing a bit with AQc when I called a $10 raise on the button, flopped a royal flush draw (KcJcXx), called 1/2 pot bets on the flop and turn and wound up losing to TT (he had my Tc). I'm guessing I should've raised the flop.

Around 9pm I made it back to the poker room and there were six tables going: 4 NL, 1 $2/4, 1 $3/6. I asked if they ever have higher limit games and they said they could start a $4/8 list but that everyone wanted to play NL. They also had a long list for $2/5 ($500 max) NL and $5/10 ($1000) NL. I guess the $2/5 was going the night before but despite the interest they never started it. It was about a 1 hour wait to get a seat.

The evening session (10p-2a) was much more eventful. I had a few big hands (AA twice, KK once) witnessed a $1000 pot between the two big stacks (nut str8 loses to rivered boat) and acted out of turn once with AA which likely cost me $200. In the end I won $40 that session after hitting a high-water mark of +$140 and left feeling so-so about my play.

Overall the play was all over the board and I was by far the tightest player at either table. At one point during the afternoon game the guy on my left, a friendly older local -- and one of the better players -- said to me "you know if you don't play at least one hand per hour they make you leave." Locals made up about 75-90% of the players (more so in the afternoon) and there were plenty of old rocks, young generally loose mediocre players and a couple of decent semi-aggressives with a maniac or two sprinkled in. I'm sure a good NL player (and I am far from one) would have no trouble in this game.

I had never played in a live no limit cash game before and in fact my entire experience in this type of game consisted of a whopping 3 hours of chasing one of my favorite limit fish around the $100nl tables on Party. The biggest difficulty I had playing live NL was betting the correct amount given the sometimes guestimated pot size and erractic betting by other players (5-7bb was the standard pfr, anything else was akin to a min-raise). A few times I found myself under/over betting the pot by miscalculating the pot size or pushing the wrong number of chips out there depending on what my plan was. Also as seems to be the case in live limit as opposed to online -- the play is much more passive. Often times I'd see people take a shot with a big flop bet only to back off completely on the turn and river if called or raised. Only rarely did I see a raise and a re-raise.


A few hands from the late night game:

Halfway through the session I'm in the BB with right around $200 and look down to find red Aces. folded to a bad young player in MP who makes it $12 and has about $100 left. solid player in the sb calls and I raise it up to $40. MP looks at me for about 2 seconds and announces "all-in." Without thinking I immediately say "I call!" of course forgetting all about the sb who is still in the hand. The dealer is now pissed at me, I'm pissed at me, and the sb says "I might have called him, but suddenly my cards don't look so good" as he folds. MP turns over JJ and my Aces hold up. sb tells me he had QQ.

the other time I got Aces I was in the sb and there were six limpers to me. I made it $20 and everyone folded grumbling about my "nice steal"

one orbit later I get KK again in the sb and after four limpers I raise it to $12. One folds and three call. Flop comes AA8 and I bet out $30 into the $50 pot. All fold. Standard?

near the end of the night we're playing 6-handed and it's folded to me (~$300) on the button. I make it $10 with ATs and a loose BB (~$170) calls. He's new to the table and when he sat down posted one hand in front of the BB which should've been a clue as to what type of player he was. Flop comes T85 with one of my suit and BB checks. I decide it's time to take it down and bet $26. The BB quickly raises to $52. For some reason folding didn't seem like an option as I can't think of what he's got that has me beat (T8s, 55?). I decide to call figuring I'll see if I improve or pick up a flush draw on the turn, or maybe he slows down like I've seen them do all night and I get a cheap showdown with TPTK. The turn is an off-suit 3 and BB moves all-in for his last $100. I think for a long time and fold.

-Jeff

[tek]

Did you get to play against Shorty or Rob, two of the better known Lags?

[PhatCasino]

[ QUOTE ]
one orbit later I get KK again in the sb and after four limpers I raise it to $12. One folds and three call. Flop comes AA8 and I bet out $30 into the $50 pot. All fold. Standard?

[/ QUOTE ]

I think i probably wouldn't bet out like that.. good question though, i wonder what others think...

in that position, its pretty much either bet out or just fold to any normal sized bet or hope for a check down...