Despite the fact that in the past eleven weeks I’ve played forty tournaments, a couple city-sanctioned “timed tournaments with one blind level” and a few home cash games, I had never played poker in an actual casino until last night.<\/p>\n
I’m still not sure that’s not true, because the casino I played in was a tribal establishment<\/a> where the “Poker Room”<\/a> was more of an alcove off the rows and rows of slot machines in the main hall. There was a single table playing $1\/$3 Limit Hold’em at 10pm on a Sunday and I put my name on the list, went to the bar to get a beer, and waited for someone to get tired or broke. I read news on my iPhone for about thirty minutes, then took my place with $60 between the oldest player at the table and a lady with an impressive rack of $5 tokens.<\/p>\n I played tight for the most part\u2014it took me a while to figure out the betting structure of $8 max raise\u2014although I did pull down one pot with a complete bluff holding 8<\/span>\u2663<\/span><\/span> T<\/span>\u2663<\/span><\/span><\/span> when an A<\/span>x<\/span><\/span><\/span> hit the turn. I managed to get up to about $90 before a couple of good hands were outdrawn and I tumbled to only $25.<\/p>\n I split a large pot holding K<\/span>\u2660<\/span><\/span> 9<\/span>\u2660<\/span><\/span><\/span> with the oldest player on the same ranks but unsuited, then played A<\/span>\u2660<\/span><\/span> 6<\/span>\u2663<\/span><\/span><\/span>. Several players were in for calls of $16 on a flop with Q<\/span>\u2663<\/span><\/span> J<\/span>x<\/span><\/span> 8<\/span>x<\/span><\/span><\/span>. I stayed in with one other player for the turned T<\/span>\u2663<\/span><\/span><\/span>. He pushed to the max and I called plus put in my last chip when a K<\/span>\u2663<\/span><\/span><\/span> hit the river. I thought for sure he’d hit the flush when I turned over my ace for the straight, but he had Q<\/span>x<\/span><\/span> 9<\/span>x<\/span><\/span><\/span> for a pair on the flop and a straight on the turn, but I’d snuck through with the Broadway draw. With the money from the other players’ early action I more than doubled up and left at midnight with twice what I’d bought in with.<\/p>\n 90 minutes. ROI: 100% (including tips).<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Despite the fact that in the past eleven weeks I’ve played forty tournaments, a couple city-sanctioned “timed tournaments with one blind level” and a few home cash games, I had never played poker in an actual casino until last night. … Continue reading