Canterbury Park Trip Report (Long, some content)
I was stuck in Minneapolis for three days with nothing better to do after 4pm, so I thought I would check out Canterbury Park. I got good feedback from some of the regulars here, that even midweek it would be worth playing, so, I bit the bullet, rented a car and headed out both Wed and Thurs night.
Finding the place was relatively easy given the address from the website and a Yahoo map. Though I think I entered on the wrong (east) side of the place. Anyway, after a few confusing turns, I found the entrance to the card room. First impression, very nice place. Decent tables, decent chairs, nice atmosphere. After sitting in the games for awhile, I was trying to figure out how many times a year I was going to be coming to MN. If you can stand the variance, the 6/12 games are bee-yoo-tiful…..
Wednesday started off slow, not much happening in the first few hours, won a few, lost a few. Got moved when the Wed night tourney started. Moved to the new table and turned a flush, rivered a straight flush (and check-raised the river) on the very first hand. Got a crappy purple hat. They said they were out of the nice black ones, but gave one away the next day. Must have known I was a tourist and not a regular. The game got exciting around 11 when a Wannabe sat down to my right. I could tell from the way he talked when he sat down it was time to buckle up and go for a ride. Sure enough, the raising started right away. Any two cards. Any position. He caught a wave of cards early, went from less than a rack of $2 chips to about three racks. He had a bad habit of liking to color up too. So he colored up two racks. Then had to color them back down as his cards cooled off, but his betting didn’t. I watched in amazement as one hand was capped on the turn FIVE ways. Wannabe three bet and capped. With what turned out to be a gutshot, against two flopped sets and two pair hand. It went three bets on the river, of course he spiked his gutshot and dragged a monster. He also cracked my three bet aces hitting a gutshot on the turn with A-5. (I’d get him back for this later). All in all I loved the game and checked out around 2:30 am up almost enough to cover the two day rental on my car. Got back to my hotel around 3:30, got four hours sleep and headed to a day’s worth of meetings.
Thursday, I was back at CP around 5. Much less action without the tourney that night, but still very nice. After about an hour of play, I’d bled about half a rack away when Wannabee sat down to my right again. I really wanted to focus on taking his checks, but three or four other reasonably good players had the same thoughts. Wannabee had been in two or three hands (out of maybe five dealt) when I caught Aces in the BB. One or two limpers to him, and he raised. I, of course, three bet, causing both limpers to fold. He decided to four bet, I called for the cap. The dealer announced that it was heads up, and there was no cap. So he six bet. I seven bet. He finally wised up and just called. He proceeded to check call all the way to the river (A King hit the turn which made me nervous), and when I turned my advertised aces up, he mucked claiming AK….six big bets in a heads up pot? Thanks…. Wannabe dropped a rack in about two orbits, then got up, but I would see him again. I made a seat change about an hour later to get to the left of a couple of the bigger stacks/better players. Got to play with an old man who said he’d been thrown out of CP eight times, and one more time would be for good. He burned off a rack in about three hours, complaining about bad beats the whole time. I had a rough night, missing a lot of draws and being card dead for about three hours straight. Variance is a real bitch. Our table broke up about 3am, and I thought about leaving, but I was down two racks or more and wanted to get some back. I moved tables, got another rack and buckled up. Lots of action, and I went card dead for another hour. My luck turned on this hand: With J-10o in late position I limped in. 10-high flop, but all spades got checked around. A Jack on the turn got me to bet, a call from my immediate left, plus one or two more. Another jack on the river and I bet my full, got raised from my immediate left, folded back to me, and I three bet. A disgusted call from my left “did you fill up”? I said of course and tabled my hand. He got caught slowplaying the nut flopped flush with A-J of spades. About ten minutes later, Wannabee is still in the house and moves from his 8/16 game to our 6/12 table. I manage to crush him in several more hands to get a couple of racks back before I realize that its 6am and I have meetings at 9 downtown. I can’t get any sleep if I get back to the hotel anyway, so I play until seven and make it an all nighter. Over the course of the two nights, I dropped about rack and a half of yellow, but if I could have come back on Friday I could have lost another three racks or won five. WOW, I love those games.
If anyone else here was there either night, I was wearing my Montana sweatshirt on Wednesday, and a beige sweater on Thursday. Thanks to the guys who bought me a beer late on Thurs. Nice playing with you guys, even if you took most of my checks....
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10-31-2005, 03:57 PM
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