Aces, Spicey and I hit Boomtown around 3 to play limit hold 'em before the tourney that night. Stamp and Barry would join us later. The limit game was a success for me, as I made around $90. There were some very bad players there, but one guy was on a run, hitting a full house 4 times out of 8 hands played. It was a kill pot at that point, playing 2-10 (spread bet). I have JJ, and call his 10 max bet. The flop is 4-5-5, he bets 10, I say "Let's have some fun, make it $20". He thinks about re-raising, but just calls, then check-calls my $10 bets on the turn and river. He shows 66, mutters something, and then gets up and leaves as I win $50 from one guy in that hand. I don't believe Spicey and Aces did as well, with Aces needing to buy a second rack.

 

The tourney for me was up and down, with a positive end. Early, I raise under the gun with KK, and get a caller with A3 offsuit. The flop is A-Q-2, all of clubs (I had the K of clubs). I push all-in, and he calls. Luckily, a club comes on the river and I've doubled up. Next time around under the gun, I raise with AA, and the button moves all-in. I say "I gladly call", and of course, first card off the deck is a K, and I'm forced to re-buy. Next hand I have A-10 suited in the BB, and call an all-in that is the same size as my rebuy. Of course, he has AK, and I rebuy a second time. The next round under the gun, I get AA again, and move in. I get called in two spots, both with AJ. The aces hold up, and with the add-on, I'm slightly above average. As tables start to break, I just avoid conflict, picking up a few blinds and betting in careful spots. I make it to the final table (only top 5 get paid), where about 6 of us are in similar chip status. The guy who busted me with KK was first out, and glared at me (poker karma?). At 6, it's folded to me in the SB, where I have AK. BB has less than me, so I move in. He's forced to call with something like J-4, but a J comes and he wins. I'm now second short stacked, but the guy who is short stacked is on my right. He moves in for just slightly over the BB with K-10. I have AK again and call, and win. Not enough to get past 5th place, but still a win as the tournament stops and we're paid. The $250 payment gets knocked down with a $25 tip, and $40 to Spicey and Aces (a pre-arranged profit sharing deal), so after the re-buys and add-on, I only win about $50. But still a win!

 

After some jumping around to different places, we play for a bit at CalNeva. I don't get a good feel, and after about an hour and a $20 win, head up to the room.

 

In the morning, we head over to Harrah's to get some breakfast. At 9:45, we pass their new poker room, and see they have a 10:00 tournament for a $20 buy-in. We sign up and look at the blind structure, which becomes a total crap shoot after about a half hour. Oh well. I decide early that I need to take risks and pick up chips. One small raiser opened a pot, I moved all-in with AQ. Unfortunately, the SB had AK. The flop gave me a Q, but the turn gave him a straight, and I was out. Stamp and Spicey followed shortly after that, and we sat down at a ring game playing 3-6. Jim continued to play, taking down pots with, shall we say, not premium cards. As we're playing, we continue to monitor his progress. When they're at 4, we hear an "Oh my god!" from one woman playing, and then him says "That's why they call me Aces! YEAH!", and we look over to see Jim was all-in with A-9, and 3 aces on board for quads. Jim eventually takes 3rd in the tournament for a money payout.

 

The side game at Harrah's is great, but I can't pick up any cards - I went 30 straight pots without even seeing the river. Two ladies are playing almost every pot, and between them raised once, when one made the nut flush on the river. Of course, they went broke. One guy was awful, but kept raising in the dark, doing straddle bets, etc. For some reason, he was pissed at me as when I got up he said "Sorry to see you go, I wanted to take you down". I just told him "I'm sorry I didn't get any cards against you, you would have pissed away your money". Jim had a big pot against me. I called with K-J, and he called from the SB with 9-6 suited. The flop was K-J-5, two diamonds. He check-called my bet (one of the calling station ladies helped build this pot as well). The turn was a 7, Jim check-called me again. The river was an offsuit 8, so no flush was possible. He check-raised me. I said "If you hit your gut-shot, more power to you", and he took it down with runner-runner. I still ended up winning $20 for the session. Jim took a big win to even out some earlier losses.

For me, a winning trip of over $200 from poker.