Tuesday not 30 mins after finishing my inaugural blog entry I was on the road with two (female) friends on the way to New Orleans. And let me tell you--these two women could gamble it up more than any group of guys I've ever been with.
Tuesday night we stopped off in Lake Charles, LA and while I immediately hit the sack (It was nearly midnight I had been up since 2am that morning thanks to my wacky schedule) the ladies immediately hit the Harrah's casino. They did well, too, winning quite a bit at mostly blackjack, but also some other table games and video poker.
The next day found us in the scenic cess pool that is Nawlins. I had only been there once before, when I was eight, and so couldn't appreciate what is really some beautiful architecture. There is a lot of style to the city but unfortunately, like any big city, a heck of a lot of destitute areas.
We were staying at the Sheraton which is conveniently located about a block and a half from Harrah's casino, which itself is two blocks from the Mississippi river; something I didn't know until returning and actually looking at a map. Yeah, I admit it--besides first entering the city and leaving for good, I didn't see a single part of New Orleans other than that two block stretch between the hotel and the casino. What can I say? I had to do what I came to do.
And that is play poker. Harrah's New Orleans isn't quite like, say, the Bellagio, and so when I got seated at the 10/20 table I was surprised by a couple of things. First, it was the biggest game running. Second, our table go the VIP treatment. You see, Harrah's poker room is divided into three sections. Section one is the big outer area which is right off the casino floor. It is right next to the slot machines and is very loud. They also allow smoking in that area. The second area a little enclave at the back, where smoking is not allowed, the slot machines' constant pinging don't bore into one's head as much, and where, in stark contrast to the first section's constant bustle of its numerous games, there was but one game going, tucked into the back corner. Maybe it was coincidence, but much like the high-limit area in the Bellagio (where saying "ten-twenty" probably refers to $10,000/$20,000), our "big limit" game was far away from the rest of the action and any other disturbances. It was quite nice. Finally, the third section is the cage where there's also a couple of tables that don't seem to get much use.
Also unlike Vegas, there was not quite as many celebrities playing poker. No Phil Ivey, no Gus Hansen, no Tobey Maguire. I did get to play with "world renowned" chef Paul Prudhomme, though! And, despite how the picture makes it appear, he really doesn't resemble Dom DeLuise much at all in real life.
The 10/20 at the New Orleans was very soft, but played quite differently from similar level games in Vegas. Vegas seems to be dominated by loose-aggressive maniacs, while the Louisiana poker games (Lake Charles included) seem to play a lot more loose-passive. That probably has something to do with the average age at the poker tables--it is simply much older in Louisiana than it is in Vegas. Late at night there were a few younger guys, but for the most part everyone was over 50. And, in fact, on Friday night they spread 15/30 and not a single player at the table was under 65. Unfortunately, no one at that table budged for hours and so I never got to play in it.
Tired from drive, I didn't play too late on Wednesday night, only for about five hours, and ended up down $162. Thursday night the game was super juicy, with an average of about six or seven players seeing the flop every hand. This predictably lent itself to high variance, and I was down $300 at one point and up $600 at another before finally finishing up a somewhat disappointing $101.
One notable hand, I was dealt 9d8d in the big blind. UTG raised and there was the typical five or so callers, so I called. The flop came JsTd6d, so I was open-ended with the flush draw. With three other players staying in, I pushed it hard, raising at every opportunity, and so the UTG raiser and I ended up capping it on the flop with the two other players following along. The turn was a blank, I still bet and got two callers this time, UTG and UTG+1. UTG+1 was playing his hand exactly like a flush draw, so I told myself that I would of course bet if I hit my straight, but could only check-call or possibly check-fold the river if I made the flush, depending on my read. The river, though, brought the beautiful 7d giving me a straight flush. I bet out again, but surprising me somewhat, UTG raised and UTG+1 folded.
Now, I knew UTG. He was a tight player, probably the best of the other players at the table, and if he was raising, he had the goods. He had to have a flush, but what would he have that he would bet as heavily as he did on the flop and still make a flush? He wasn't one who typically pushed draws very hard. His river play convinced me that he had the nut flush, however, especially the confidence with which he raised, and so I sat there for a few seconds and reraised. He immediately asked the dealer "can I raise again??" Wow, is there a better situation to be in--you have the nuts and someone wants to keep raising you? He stopped for a second, though, looked at me and then looked at the board for a full 30 seconds. My guess is that any other player at the table besides me, he would have raised, but finally he just called and immediately flipped over AdJd (aha, that's what he could have that he'd play that way!). I showed my straight flush and took down the huge pot, over $450.
On Friday, the game was once again a loose-passive fish-fest. I had some big hands, but also some disasterous hands. The most disasterous one was when I was dealt 88 in middle position. There was an EP raiser and I three-bet, hoping to isolate. I succeeded and the flop came Q85, rainbow. He bet and I just called. On the turn, a 6, he checked, although a bit suspiciously. I bet and now he check-raised. At this point, I should have folded, and that's not hindsight speaking. The reason is that he just looked supremely happy and confident in himself. He wouldn't have raised with 97 (something I have legitimate outs against) and he didn't have the brainpower to slow-play AA or KK this way. Similarly, there's no way he raises 55, 66, Q8, Q5 or Q6 preflop. He could have one hand and one hand only--QQ. One month ago, I would have folded, and two months ago I probably would have just called down. Recently, however, I've been getting the feeling that I wasn't aggressive enough, and so have been making a concerted effort to be more aggressive. This got into my thinking, and so while deep down I was screaming at myself that he had QQ, my knee jerk reaction was to reraise and figure "okay, if he has QQ he'll cap it and THEN I can fold." And so that's exactly what I did. He just called and so I temporarily convinced myself that he might not have QQ, even though there wasn't a single other hand he could legitimately have. He check-called the river, perhaps expecting me to show 97, and of course, he had QQ. Like I said, these players were P-A-S-S-I-V-E.
So my desire to be more aggressive overrode the clear-as-day read I had, and ended up costing me $60...it doesn't take many mistakes like that to turn a winning player into a losing player. In fact, I attribute my rather lackluster bottom line for this trip to my raising in too many places where I should have been folding or just calling.
I did end up winning the biggest pot I saw the entire trip, however. There was an EP position raiser and then three straight calls. Both blinds were looking like they would obviously call, and so I called, begrudgingly with 4h5h from the cutoff. Seven of us saw the K63 flop, and it got three-bet six ways. An A turned, and it now got two-bet three ways. The river was the beautiful 7, and it was again two-bet three ways, as BB and the EP raiser both show down AK for top-two to my straight. $560, minus rake and tip (a rare $2 by yours truly).
I won $491 in my few hours at 10/20. The game got tight around the dinner hour and I pissed away $28 at 3/6 while waiting for the others to finish what they were doing so we could hit the road again for the return trip. My final haul for the trip was $402.
Speaking of the others, I must have seen them for a total of about 2 hours the entire time were were in New Orleans. They probably slept 10 hours total the entire four days, most of that the first night. Otherwise it was blackjack, video poker, caribbean stud, let it ride, etc, etc, for twenty hours at a time, with brief breaks for (what else?) coffee.
They were hardcore. Despite their early successes, both finished the trip well down. When I have more time to go off on random tangents, I'll get into it more, but it is amazing to watch what being in a casino does to some people.
Anyways, that night we traveled back to Lake Charles for the night before finally returning to Austin on Saturday.
But...no rest for the weary. I got back at about 5:30pm on Saturday, and after just enough time to watch a World Series game, catch some sleep and do some laundry, I am leaving Sunday evening for my home away from home, Las Vegas. This time a friend and I will be driving the 22 hours or so each way, for a nice 3800 miles put on my car over two weeks (including the Nawlins trip). I'm seriously considering finally trying something higher than 15/30....either the 20/40 at the Mirage or the Bellagio 30/60. Or both. I will return either on Sunday, Halloween, or Monday 11/1. Full report when I return, of course.
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