1/5/05 Turning Stone trip report! (short but sweet)

[Tregan]

Hey all,

Yesterday me and a buddy of mine drove to Turning Stone for a fun day of poker. We got up there around noon after a long drive, ended up playing for about 11 hours, and then drove home.

I spent all my time playing poker. I bought in for a rack of white and sat at the $1-$3 spread table, which was soft as anything. Made about $30 off some nice people in about an hour. After my name got called for NL $1/$2 I sat with a couple of decent players. One guy played WPT Aruba and had qualified in the side games here for WSOP '05. A girl that was sitting had finished in second in the tourney the night before. Other than those two, there were mainly young people at my table, with the exception of a middle-aged tourist guy who had never played NL Hold'em before.

I was quickly up about 2 stacks of Red, but after being card dead for a while and making a couple stupid boredom plays, I cashed out with $137 in profit. I used this to register for the $70+$15 with optional $40 add-on that started at 7PM. Big fee for me, but hey, if I lose, I'm still up $12 and get to play more of the ring games, right?

After busting limped aces with my 95o from the big blind (idiot wouldn't shut up about how I called down his flop reraise), I used the add-on and gained some momentum from my QQ vs QJ, and my AA vs KJo and 66. When we were down to the top 20 (75 enrants total), I had AA twice within a little more than 2 orbits, each of which only won me blinds. :[

But nevertheless, after stealing at the right opportunities and waiting it out, I made it to the final table in the first live event I've played. Hell, this was my first time ever to a casino, since I'm only 18. One guy pushed on the first hand with KK, saying "Eh I'm in the money, I don't care anymore," which got beat by the big blind's Ax. A few more people went down, and I was looking at a slightly below average stack with 6 people remaining.

After some hard cards and some blinds stolen, I was looking at about T11,000 with 2000/4000 blinds, 300 ante. Yes, it sucked, every time I had stealing cards in late position the pot was raised before me, and I had nothing to defend my blinds with! GAH! Anyways, I was on the big blind for 4000, guy in EP limps, sb calls, I check down with T6o. Flop comes 345r, and the sb pushes for 5k or so. I know here that the EP limper has either AA or KK, since limping for the past 45 minutes or so was hazardous to your stack. However, I decide to push here for my remaining ~$7k, knowing that my 33% equity against two other players was the best I was going to get. The limper indeed turns over AA, the sb has K3o (I was surprised she was a good player and shouldn't have called 2k out of her remaining 7k on that hand), and I flip up my OESD. The turn brings a K, and we all go nuts basically, but the river 4 counterfeits her two-pair and she's out in 7th.

It turns out that I actually had the limper covered by T1600. This put me all in on my small blind, and I looked down at A5o. Hey, not bad, considering I would have pushed with this hand anyways. Everyone folds to the big blind, who shows 84o. After a T224K board, I'm out in 6th for $403.

After dealer gratuity, my friend's 12.5% stake in my winnings, gas money (long trip), food, and tolls, I walked out at 11:30PM with about $280 more in my wallet. Not bad for a guy who plays the NL $.25/.50 games online!

All in all, it was a great first casino experience. The people there were nice, all the dealers I had were cool except for one, and the players are mostly bad. Definitely can't wait to go back again.

Thanks for listening,
Tregan

[elevated]

This was a daily wednesday tournament and it started at 7 p.m.? They have this every week? I'm planning to go next week and I want to play in a tournament. What was the first place prize like?

[Tregan]

elevated,

Yes, I'm pretty sure this tournament is held weekly. They have the tournament schedule somewhere on their website, but I can't find it offhand. If you look around a bit I'm sure you'll find it.

First prize was somewhere in the neighborhood of $2.9k. Top 10 paid, and I believe the tournies are capped at 110 max entrants.

Good luck!

[PokerFink]

[ QUOTE ]
The people there were nice, all the dealers I had were cool except for one, and the players are mostly bad. Definitely can't wait to go back again.

[/ QUOTE ]

That's pretty much TStone in a nutshell. It's not Vegas or AC, but it's more than acceptable.

I have a TStone 1-2NL trip report somewhere on this forum, probably on the second page. Got some tips for that particular game, so I'd suggest a look.

[Falker11]

Yeah the wednesday tourny is a weekly event.
Falker

[Kevmath]

TS Poker Calendar Tournaments are every day but Friday.

Kevin...

[W. Deranged]

I live in Upstate New York and consider the Stone my home casino. Not the most glamorous, but friendly people, very good dealers (most of them have been with the casino for quite awhile, and are much better on average than at Foxwoods or the Taj, from my experience), not too much of a wait usually.

The best tip I have for people looking to play tournaments at the Stone is to get on a table first. There is never a reason to wait in line for tournament entries... they can get really long, particularly for Saturday's NL tournament. Get there early, get on a table, and they give preference to people playing live games first. And who wants to wait in line when you can wait winning your entry fee playing?

[dtbog]

[ QUOTE ]
I live in Upstate New York and consider the Stone my home casino.

[/ QUOTE ]

Can I put in a vote that it be changed to "The Rock"?

That's certainly what we all call it... sounds more menacing. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

-DB

[Evan]

[ QUOTE ]
very good dealers...much better on average than at Foxwoods

[/ QUOTE ]
I tied my own shoes this morning. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]