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#1
03-28-2005, 12:20 AM
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Tunica trip report #4
So this will probably be the last in my Tunica trip report series. Not that I don't plan on going down again, because as soon as I can get a weekend room at the Horseshoe I'll be making trip #5. But this was the last of the series of trips I had planned out a month ago. From now on it will just be going down to the casino, which will rarely be worth a report.
I got out of here a little bit late on Friday. I had wanted to start off at the Horseshoe but since I arrived in Tunica at 5pm I decided I would just knock my 10 hours out at the Gold Strike that night and then be free the rest of the weekend to play at the Horseshoe. So I head over there and sign up for a game. All they have as far as limit holdem goes is 3/6. That's a bit disappointing, but I'm just there to log hours for my hotel room so I get into a game. Nothing remarkable happens and I'm not making any great hands, so after a while I'm like a stack of chips down but that's only like $20. I'm trying hard to play my best game but I just wasn't really in the poker mood. A 6/12 game is announced so I jump into that. I haven't ever played 6/12 and the betting took me a while to get used to. That of course didn't help my game at all. I was down like $150 before I got comfortable. I'm not having much luck with the cards either. All of the good starting hands I'm getting are either monsters UTG which required a raise but resulted in stealing the blinds every time (I guess they all had a lot of respect for my raises considering I routinely went on 1/2 hour or longer streaks folding every hand, not by choice though) or they were in the big blind and everyone would fold around forcing me to dutifully chop the blinds. I chopped with AK twice, AQ once, and JJ once. I hovered around that -$150 mark for a long time until I was dealt AT. I raised and got a few callers and saw a flop of AQ3. It's checked to me and I bet it, only to be raised by someone after me. I call and it's heads up on the turn which is a T. The woman I'm playing has been aggressive with some marginal holdings so I have to believe my 2pr is good more often than not here and I bet out again. I get raised again, so I call and plan on check calling the river, but an A comes out. That was a good card, I'm no longer worried about a set of 3s or an unlikely set of Qs, I'm only beat by AQ, which is possible but I'm almost sure my hand is good. So I bet it again and I'm raised again so I reraise and am reraised back. At this point Im thinking I might be beat, but then I realize I'm at a bad beat jackpot table and I'm looking at Aces full of tens most likely being beat by Aces full of queens, with both hole cards playing and both of us holding an ace. I get all excited but then I'm informed they changed the qualifying condition to Aces full of anything vs Quads. So that kind of sucks and I might lose a big pot, so I just call and she's like "I got a boat." and I'm like "No **** really? I have a boat too, but I thought I had made that obvious." She turns over A3 and I'm like "Wow that is garbage, I can't believe I just called with AT." She got pissed, like she actually expected A3 to be the best hand after all of that action. Whatever. I'm a bit pissed too cause in other casinos that would have been a bad beat jackpot winner right there. But at least I get the pot and by the time the 6/12 table breaks up I'm down $21. I have about 1 more hour before my room is played off and I don't want to come back in the morning just for 1 hour so I sit back down at a 3/6 table, play a few orbits and leave +$59 overall for the 10 hour night. The next morning I head over to the Horseshoe and although I hadn't done great the night before I'm in a good mood today and I want to take a shot at the 20/40 table. I saw someone win a pot there with Q3o, the button was at the opposite end of the table, so I figure I can easily beat this game. But the list is long and no one wants to leave that game so I'm playing 10/20 for a while. That's fine, because I want to build up $500 there into $1000 to have a decent buyin for the 20/40 table. The cards are running much better than they did last night and I'm playing them well I think. Nothing spectacular, I just had decent hands that help up and as always in the 10/20 game there they were paid off huge by hands that didn't stand a chance. I really can't ask for a better game than what I get over there. It's always incredibly loose and incredbly passive. I can just pick the hands I want to play and decide how much I want the rest of the table to pay me for them and they're all more than willing to do so. If you have enough skill to recognize the best hand when you see it and you have the bankroll for 10/20, this is an excellent game. I saw a guy who I remember playing 5/10 with once about 4 months ago at Casino Aztar in Indiana. He remembered me too, as I thought he might. If someone cracked my Ace high flush by hitting a gut shot straight flush on the turn and then later in the night cracked another excellent hand of mine with KK for Kings full of Aces, I'd remember him too 4 months later. Fortunately though he didn't hold that against me, and I got to talk with him a bit. A bit later I notice an interesting hand at the 10/20 table. It's called by 5 people preflop and the flop comes out 774. It's checked around to the last to act who bets it and is called by everyone. An Ace comes on the turn and everyone checks it. A 4 comes on the river and it's checked around again. So there's a small 2pr with an A kicker on the board and it's looking like nobody has a 7,4, A or pocket pair bigger than 4s. Some lady announces "I play the board" and flips over Kc2c, everyone looks at it and mucks their hands. Everyone who realizes what's going on is looking at eachother but nobody wants to interfere. In the end all of the remaining players cards had hit the muck pile so the first woman takes the whole pot for playing the board. Have I mentioned yet that the people in this 10/20 game practically give their money away? After a couple hours a seat opens up at the 20/40 table for me, so I take the $800-something I had at the table and took my first shot ever at 20/40. I quickly realize that this game is nothing like the 10/20. There are bad players, and I can still look around the table and think to myself "I'm the best player here" and actually believe it, but the passive play is gone. People still play the same trash to the end but they're doing it a lot more aggressively. Pots are still 4-5 way. I realize I need to make a lot of adjustments to win at this level, but I don't think it will be a problem. What I didn't expect was the wall of bad luck I was about to hit. It's not that I wasn't getting any playable hands, that wouldn't have been so bad. I got my fair share of them, and I played them all well. But no help ever came for me on the flops. My $800-something was shrinking quickly after putting in raises preflop, continuing my betting on the flop and being forced to fold when I was raised on the flop or bet into on the turn. I had KK cracked twice, AK flopped a K on a nonthreatening board but someone stayed to the end and caught runner-runner for a straight. I played KT and flopped T-high, I bet the hell out of it on the flop and on the turn when an undercard came, it turns out I was up against QT and T9, so I should have been good until a 9 came on the river. I flopped a set once but the board was 1-suited and it became clear that at least 2 people had flushes. Before long I had to buy in for another $500, which I did because I had told myself before I came down that I would put up $1000 to take a shot at the 20/40 and so far I had only bought in for $500 in chips (even though I had lost $800 something at that point). I flopped a gutshot straight draw with AQ which I came out firing on every round, but in the end I only had A high. The pot was big though and my only remaining opponent was check calling the whole way, so I needed to take another shot at it. My table image at that point probably looked incredibly weak-tight, just because I was running into some bad cards and had no choice but to fold, so I thought a bluff on the end should be very effective. This guy took what seemed like forever to finally muck his cards, and I managed to restore a bit of much needed confidence after pulling that off. But the bad luck kept coming, I think I could count the number of hands I won on 1 hand. My last hand at the table I had about $150 in chips left and I look down to see AA. I'm thinking that should be good, especially after it's only 1 or 2 limpers to me, so I raise it and only 1 of the blinds follows me in. Flop is JJT and I bet it again, fully expecting to see a Q on the turn and a 9 on the river. Only the blind calls me. Fortunately the turn is a rag but when I bet this time I'm raised. With all the aggression I've shown so far I'm thinking this guy must have slowplayed a J or TT, and when a 3rd J comes on the river I'm thinking "Excellent, if he had a TT his full house just got counterfeited, and it looks unlikely he has the case J." So I bet out and the guy says "How much do you have left?" (I had $40 left) I'm thinking "You have got to be kidding me, don't tell me my AA just got cracked by quad Jacks" as he raised me. I called and he showed down his J. I get up from the table and get on the 10/20 waiting list again. That was one incredibly painful session. I mean I know that's poker and all, and it's nothing I haven't seen before, but to have it happen as I'm taking a shot at a higher limit is really bad timing. But I think I can make a good portion of my money back if I grind it out for the rest of the night at a 10/20 table, maybe even all of it if I have a good night, so I take a walk and talk myself into a good mindset again. The list for 10/20 is long so I have plenty of time to cool down. As I'm waiting by the rail the floorperson asks me if I want to take a 20/40 seat while I'm waiting. I'm like "OMG NO!" and shes like "Well I'm starting up another 20/40 table and I need players, you can take a seat if you want to play while you're waiting on the 10/20." So I'm like "Whatever, fine." I had been waiting for over an hour on the 10/20 and I haven't completely gone on tilt from the earlier session, I still realize that I should be able to beat that game if I can get my fair share of hands to hold up in a showdown. If nothing else I'll only be playing for a while so surely I can't lose another $500 right? Then whatever I have left or whatever I've made I can take to the 10/20 table and grind out another 5 or 6 hours. I try to think long term, I figure sitting at the 20/40 is still +EV, as long as it doesn't cost me my entire bankroll it can only hurt me in terms of short term results. So the floorperson talked me into taking the seat. I sit down and take a seat to the left of the guy who had called me all the way to the end with T9, he seemed like a good calling station and was +$2000 for the night so he should be looser than normal. The guy to his right bought in for close to the minimum and he just has that look of someone who would allow me to run him over, you know the look I'm talking about. So I thought I got a good seat. I was unfortunate enough to play the first hand UTG, which was garbage. My big blind was raised and it was garbage too. Just as I'm taking my small blind they call my name for the 10/20 table. Bad timing, I've played 2 hands and I'm already down $30. There's no way I'm leaving on my button, so I reluctantly decide to stay at the 20/40 table. If my bad luck continues I'll just be down another $500 and probably just quit for the night. But my bad luck didn't continue. I started making hands that held up. They were all BB/SB specials, but whatever, I'll take what I can get. The first was an unsuited 2-gapper in the big blind that flopped a gutshot straight draw. There were plenty of people in the pot so I called 1 small bet to see the turn which gave me the nut straight. It was still the nuts on the river and I was up against someone with the small end of it, so I won a nice pot there. The very next hand was 44 in the small blind. It was raised but there were more people than I could count in the pot so I called another 1 1/2 small bets. The flop was a rainbow K54 so I'm thinking that's great, but the pot is plenty big enough for me and the PF raiser was just a couple to my right so I go for the check raise hoping to drive out maybe half the field and get it 2-3 way. Unfortunately the bet came two to my left, and the preflop raiser raised it again. I think "Well I can 3 bet it, hopefully that will have the same effect." I'm hoping the preflop raiser doesn't have KK but when he calls the 3 bet instead of making it 4 I'm a little more confident. I didn't drive too many people out though and this pot is incredibly huge, I mean like overflowing off the table there are so many chips in the middle. A 6 comes on the turn and I'm thinking "Man I'm screwed, theres no way anyone has a 37, 23 is doubtful, but I don't know about 78. Let me find out." So I bet it, everyone had just called my checkraise so if I get raised here I have to believe someone's got a straight. Sure enough I got raised. But it's one more bet to close out the action, and the pot is so big at this point I probably had the odds to call even if I needed to draw to quad 4s. But I figured any of the other 9 to pair the board would also be good so it was an easy call, and sure enough the river brings a second 6. I bet out, and get called by the 2 remaining players who are pissed and yelling "Show me the 4s full of sixes!" I guess they're actually paying attention, there's no way a 10/20 player would have been able to read my hand that well, even if I had made it as obvious as I did. So I say "Well I was going to muck it but since you want to see it, here it is." and I take the pot with just over $1000 in it. The table had completed 2 more hands by the time I finished stacking all of that. Fortunately my next 2 hands were unplayable anyways. A bit later I get an 8c2c in the big blind and see 7c9cTc on the flop. It's bet and raised in front of me, but these guys have been betting aggressively all night, it's just as likely that someone has a straight they're trying to protect from a 4 flush than a made flush higher than mine, plus I have an open ended straight flush draw, so I 3 bet it to protect my own hand from a bigger 4 flush. No more clubs come and I'm called down by someone who flopped a straight. At this point I decide that I need to get off of this table before it breaks me again. I hate to leave, especially now that I'm beating it but +/-$1000 swings in the course of a couple hours is really more than I can afford. I need to build up my bankroll just a little bit more before I can try that again. I ask to get back on the list for 10/20 and move back over there when a seat opens up, although not before being dealt AK and seeing a flop of AKx. It was passive play all the way and I knew I had that hand locked up. I generally broke even in my 20/40 adventure, I don't know exactly because I moved my chips straight from the 10/20 table to the 20/40 and then back to the 10/20 again and I didn't keep track of where I was at when I moved, but I knew I was +/-$100, and in a game like that I guess you can call that breaking even either way. Although for the record I think I beat the 20/40 by a little bit. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] I think 20/40 is a great game there, there is plenty of opportunity to profit if you know how to play, but it's just a little above my bankroll right now. I needed to get back into the kiddie pool and stop making moves before I got hurt in a cash game. I couldn't catch much when I moved back to the 10/20 table, and there was some overly drunk guy who was slowing the game down, pissing everyone off, and throwing everyone off of their game. Unfortunately he was taking everyones money too. When I left the 10/20 table for the night I cashed out $500 even, so at the end of the day I had cashed out exactly the same amount I had bought in for. I was kind of down about that because I had played for 14 hours, it sucks to break even, but considering where I was at earlier in the day I can't be too upset. And then I realized that one of the pots I had won at the 20/40 table had $100 in cash in it, which I pocketed when I left the table, so really I was +$100 for the day. (There have been many times when I unexpectedly found $5 or $20 in my pocket that I didn't know I had, but this was the first time I had found $100 and it felt pretty good). Sunday wasn't a great day. I had a couple good hands beat, and a couple hands I was outplayed on. The 10/20 game on Sundays is much tighter than the game on Friday and Saturday night. I'm starting to think maybe I don't adjust well enough for that. The most profitably way to play on a weekend is definitely a bit loose, but that costs way too much on Sundays. I was in danger of losing an entire $500 buyin after just a few hours, I got all-in preflop with QQ, but that held up and I took the main pot of $141 and cashed out with the same amount a few hands later. So after close to 30 hours this weekend I came away -$200 even, my first losing weekend out of 4 in Tunica (it was bound to happen some day I guess). But it was still probably worth the trip just for entertainment value and the experience of moving up a limit. If nothing else that should give me more confidence in my regular 10/20 game. 
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#2
03-28-2005, 09:43 AM
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Re: Tunica trip report #4
This is your best trip report so far. Keep posting.
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