Casino recap.

Well, time to bring you up to date with my casino adventures on Friday night up in the big smoke. It was certainly interesting, let's put it that way. We (meaning Big Johnny, Suze's Bro-in-law) sat down at a table around 10.30pm after a HUGE meal at Alure.

Talk about strange though. I'm sure you Yanks would be interested (if not perplexed) about how Burswood run things. For a start, there's only a dozen tables active and one of those is an Omaha table. Because there's so few tables operating, you've got to register and get a ticket to play, then they page you over the in house intercom. Pathetic really.

Even more pathetic is the structure of the games. (I can't wait to hear some American/Canadian reaction to this!) They way they describe it, is ... $10, $10, $20, $20. So basically it's $5 SB, $10 BB, then a max of three $10 raises pre flop, and after that a maximum of three $20 raises on any street. That means one thing the way I play. You can't jam and stop the action when you're in front! I hated it! L-O-T-S! I mean, I love my poker, but this was just too constricting for my tastes. You'll see why as I go thru a few hands of note.

Overall I was really happy with my play. Remember I never normally play a full ring game so it's a good learning experience for me. I just applied as much of my knowledge that I gained from the Harrington books as I could and played position TAG poker. Even tighter than usual, mainly because I was short stacked pretty much from the get go. My $200 buy in (which was the minimum buy) was all I could muster cash-wise, so I had to fold a lot of hands I'd normally be happy to speculate on. Sooooted connectors and stuff like that. I just couldn't afford to go into a hand that I wasn't a great chance of hitting. If I didn't feel I could call a pre flop raise after limping, then I didn't bother. Hence, I folded heaps and heaps of hands. Heaps .....

I only really misplayed one hand in particular. Pocket 7s when I was first to act in a three way pot. Another guy had hit his Queen and I should've got away from that earlier than I did. Representing cards in this style of game was absolutely pointless. A complete and utter waste of time! It probably cost me $40. I knew my mistake immediately and learned from it.

My first big hand of the night was an absolute ball-tearer. Seriously, it's one that'll stay with me for a looooong, looooooooong time. Pocket Queens, with a lot of limpers ahead of me. I raise $10 to $20 to see a flop. Nearly everyone who was already in calls. (Grrrrrrrrr! I mean fuck! How the hell do you protect Ladies while still keeping a reasonable pot going?! Fucking frustrating as.) So I was absolutely ready to get away from this if an Ace or King came along.

Flop. Q - rag - rag rainbow. W00t! Trip Q's!

Checked to the player on my right (the only guy shorter than me at the fucking table!) who bets $20. I raise to $40, after all, it's all you're allowed to do! He calls. Everyone else folds.

Turn. Q! Double W00t!

Player on my right pushes the rest (i.e. piddling stack) into the middle. I instacall.

I flip over pocket Queens and say (for the first time in my life) "Quads" !!!!!!!!

So I turned quads and win something like $130 for my trouble. What a pain in the arse! Of course the bigger stacks weren't in this hand. Of course the only guy with less chips than me was in the hand. So gross.

But incredibly gratifying!

I then had pocket 9's which didn't amout to anything and a A - 10 - rag board. I had to fold that. The pain in the butt thing was I was definitely in front preflop. But unless you can throw out a sizeable raise it's over as soon as that flop came. CRAP!!!!

So I changed my game accordingly. Limped with pocket pairs. Boats once, Snowmen once and Ducks once but never spiked anything. Folded A - rag a lot when out of position. Played hands like K9 sooooted but never got close to my flush. Out quickly when I didn't hit.

Anyway, I folded and folded and folded with nary a sniff of another made hand for ages. Then as i was almost blinded away, I pick up AJd which I popped to $20 pre flop. Couple of callers.

Flop. 8 - 9 - 10 rainbow. So I pick up an OESD. Bet of $20 before it got to me, and my rationale was, no point popping or trying to protect my draw here, so i just call. Couple of other callers.

Turn - 7 and I make my straight and pick up an okay pot. $150? Hardly huge tho, but it did keep me in the game a bit longer.

Then came some of the most frustrating hands. I get dealt AK offsuit twice in 15 minutes. And both times I flop TPTK. Now I know this isn't quite a dominating hand, but I couldn't protect the hands I had! Calling stations galore and they sucked out on me twice! One guy rivered trips despite me putting heaps of pressure on during the hand. I didn't call his river bet coz I figured I was dead when the board paired. He showed and my read was right.

The other Big Slick hand when I made TPTK there was a runner flush out and it came. But at least I had the balls to get out of there when I was beat. Once again it was unprotectable. FARK!

I saw some amazingly shite poker by other players too. One hand I just shook my head. Thankfully one or two other savvy players at the table also gasped in horror.

Donk with big stack and pocket 6's (as it turns out). Flop comes all spades. Donk first to act, bets out. Couple of callers. Turn card comes 6s. He bets again. Callers. River card 6h. He makes quads!!!!!!

Now think about this. He had no piece of the flush board on the flop. None. He had BUGGER ALL OUTS, EVEN AFTER HE MADE HIS TRIPS ON THE TURN, because he was behind someone ....

...... and he hits.

Appalling, bastard poker. What a goon!

Just as amazing was the reaction of this other donk to my immediate left who says, with a straight face ... after he's just pulled this corker of a move .... "He's a pretty good player. He left with a stack of cash last week when I was here."

I explained that he was behind the whole way, hit his card and that based on his play I just watched he was a shite player, and the guy just looked at me like I was mad.

Staggering. Downright staggering.

So in the end I up and leave the table about 1.30am with $70 in chips left. I was happy to have had a crack, but the structured game sucked balls and I couldn't play the way I'm accustomed to in our home cash games. It was a great experience, and I was RAPT to have finally made quads, especially at the Casino, but all in all it was more frustrating than satisfying. No limit Hold'em? I WISH I could play that instead!!!!!

Dunno that I'd bother next time.

Footnote - The Deerhunter went to one of the cash games (Saturday night when I was doing a wedding) that I mentioned were a possibility last week and left the winner and with $70! None too popular with the host either apparently! But he wasn't the guy who invited him. To soothe the host a bit, The Deerhunter said he'd host next time! A very mushy soft game he said too!

I want me some of that action! Ha!