Poker at the Chans II

Playing poker with some friends - 20 dollar buy-in with 6 players.

• You get 40 chips and a chip is a chip. The blinds are 1-2 until someone gets knocked out and then the blinds double. There were only 6 players and winner takes 85 dollars and this time there were 3 payouts.
  
  
• I had to sit with the most aggressive player again but this time she was sitting to my left. And I busted her out when I called her all in. She was going for a Nut flush draw but another club didn't come up. She commented how she didn't think I was going to call her.
  
  
• I lost a big hand when I call someone's all-in. I had K J off and that person had pocket 10s. The flop comes up K J so I had 2 pair but on the river came and it was another 10. Pretty dramatic.
  
  
• I took 2nd and won $25 dollars.
  
  
• I ended up using my winnings to buy my friend a b-day gift.

Poker at the Chans I

Playing poker with some friends - 20 dollar buy-in with 5 players.

• You get 40 chips and a chip is a chip. The blinds are 1-2 until someone gets knocked out and then the blinds double. There were only 5 players and winner takes 80 dollars.
  
  
• Player to my right is very aggressive that bluffs a lot. I didn't play 2 hands because of her aggressiveness and I would have won with a flush and a straight when the turn came.
  
  
• Her brother was the one that knock her out so that made things a lot easier.
  
  
• I was short stacked but I made some all-ins and I won with the better hole cards.
  
  
• Defining moment - I go all in with pocket Qs and the guy calls me with his pocket Ks. I got another Q on the river and the tournament was my mine after that.

Thunderbird Casino - III - Norman, OK

I go back on a Saturday afternoon and I buy in at $60.

• I got a great pot with trip 8s with a K kicker. I knew this guy had the other 8 and I was pretty sure my K would be the deciding factor.
  
  
• I remember chasing a flush but I am glad I folded when the river came out as someone had a full house.
  
  
• In about a span of 40 minutes, I saw 4-5 4 of a Kind. Luckily, I wasn't in any of those hands. I couldn't believe that many were played out.
  
  
• I was probably up $50, but I got rivered 2-3 times.
  
  
• I go all in with pocket Qs....I only had $10 left. And I ended up losing to 2 other players who one got trip 6s (2 of those were on the board) and the winner of the actual hand who won with a straight to the 6 when the turn came out. Yeah...Everyone plays crappy cards and you can never shake anyone out. So I lost $60 in about 2 hours.

Thunderbird Casino - II - Norman, OK

I go on a Friday afternoon and as I waited to play poker...I play some BJ. And I lost $40 in about 20 minutes. I hate it BJ....I get more stressed out than when I play poker. I swore off BJ and finally bought in at $60 on a 3/6 table.

• The entire table was retired. It was like I was in a cocoon movie or something. I watched the table for a bit and notice that everyone played to the flop. It didn't matter if you had 9 3 off suit....Everyone played every hand even if you raised. And the 9 3 off won the pot. So I figured why not play crappy cards and see what happens.
  
  
• I was probably up like $400 dollars and I am getting a lot of mean comments from the table. The old people were telling me to leave the table and go to the NL table. I did a lot of check raise and that drove them mad. I have never seen so many chasers in my life. It was unreal. If I wanted to be rude, I should have said, "Don't you have an appt with Dr. Death."
  
  
• The lamest moment was when this guy straddled and the pot was so huge before the flop came out (close to a $100 from 2 re-raises). The dumbass who straddle ended up folding before the river came out. And I played with my K 2 as my low card paired up. But I ended up losing to this guy who had A and mid-card and he was desperate for a win. I should have not been in the hand at all.
  
  
• I colored up my chips and I was up $300 dollars and I told my friend to cash out those chips. Well this old hag who didn't like me on the table told me I couldn't do that and call over the pit boss. And they said that I have to have all my chips on the table or I have to leave so I just said that I will be fair and just leave since I was going to when the blinds comes by my way (in about 3 hands).
  
  
• So I just cashed out all my $1 chips and I came out ahead. -$40 BJ -$60 buy in = -$100 and I walked out with $350, so I made like $250 in about 2 hours.
  
  
• I watched this 2/5 NL game where this guy had pocket As re-raised to $75 and 2 players called him. Flop comes out 2, 3, and 5 rainbow. 1st guy goes all in with about $300, 2nd guy thinks for a while and said he wanted to play and calls with about $285, and the guy with the As calls. The 1st guy had pocket Ks, the 2nd guy had A K off, and the guy with the As wins the entire pot as the 4th and 5th cards were blanks.
  
  

Thunderbird Casino - Norman, OK

I was actually surprised how clean and somewhat smoke-free the indian casino was when I was there. Of course when I left, I did smell like an ashtray but that was to be expected. I put my name on a list for a 3/6 table and it took like 30 minutes for me to be seated on a Wednesday night. I buy in at $60.

• On my very 1st hand I get A J suited, so I raise. Boy....Not a good idea when you are the new guy on the table. Anyway, pot limit is so hard to get people out of the game so a lot of people called me. I get top pair and I check. This girl raised it to 3 so I re-raised to 6 and everyone looks at me like I am crazy. The turn comes out and it's another A, so I check again and she raises and I re-raised to 12. Everyone tells her to fold but she called me and when the river came, I knew I should have bet 6, but I just check and she was wise to checked this time around. I won the hand and I take quite a few hands after that.
  
  
• I played this hand where I had mid pair (7s with a K kicker). I kept checking and this guy kept betting and I don't know why but on the river I wouldn't call his 6 dollars and I folded while I have already matched every single raise before that. I asked him later if he was bluffing and he was....UGH. That really bothered me for most of the night.
  
  
• Since I play so many hands, my chips started to dwindle a bit and I remember chasing a flush and that cost me a lot of chips.
  
  
• I won this huge pot where there was 7 players in before the flop with a raise of 6 so a total of $42 dollars before the flop. I really don't know how I won it, but I think I chased and bet my last few chips to the river and I won with a straight. Crazy....
  
  
• I won this huge pot playing heads up when I was doing the check-raise on a guy who just sat down. I got a J high straight off the flop but it got better when a Q came out. But to be honest, I didn't even pay attention to the suits and I should have lost to a flush as there were 4 spades on the board and I had no spades. It was weird....This nice guy raised to 6, I go to 12, and he goes to 18. He had 2 pair As and something. And he asked me immediately if I was going to stick around so he could win it back. Pretty funny...
  
  
• On my very last hand, I get A and 6 and this guy raised to 6 before the flop and since it's only 3 more to call....I do. Heads up....And 3, 6, and 3 comes out. He bets 3 and I raise to 6 and he calls. Ace comes out, he bets 6 and I raise to 12 and he just re-raises with all his chips left (3 more). I call and he ended up getting Quad 3s and I couldn't do anything but laugh. So I lost a big pot and everyone was pretty cool about it.
  
  

By the end of the night, everyone knew my name and everyone was pretty cool on the table. I walked away with 143 - 60 (the money I bought in with) and I ended up winning 83 dollars. And that's cool with me for 2.5 hours of poker time.

My buddy Will was so into BJ that he never made it to the poker table. He was up like 300 dollars but when he got 2 9s he decided to split them. He already bet $50 on the hand and so splitting it he had to match every bet. I don't know the exact details but it goes to the effect that he split another 9 and double downed on 1 of the splits. He said by the end of his betting turn he had like 200 in the 9s (I think he had 20, 19, and 19). As it turned out....The dealer somehow got a 21 when she was just showing an 8. But on his last hand of the night, he got 2 Aces and just split them and he won both of them with 21s. So he walked away with an 11 dollar profit. He was so steaming about the 9s. I felt so bad. He kept telling me that he should have just walked away. Don't we all keep telling ourselves that?

Lucky Star Casino - Okarche OK

I went with 4 of my friends and we all lost except for a girl who never once played Texas Hold'em. I bought in at $80 on a 3/6 table.

• I won on the 1st hand with a boat, Aces over Js.
  
  
• Played too many hands and I got rivered on very large pots.
  

I didn't last very long at all, but I had a very good time losing my money if that is possible. When we were driving home, we discussed how everyone played because everyone was on different tables. We came to learn that everyone only won a few hands the whole time we were there and everyone stays in the hand before the flop. The turn and the river is what scares people since the betting increases. Everyone thinks they are the best poker player in the whole world and I know I get a little arrogant, but I put myself in check when I have lost half of my stack.

I don't think I will be going there again since it is very far away from Norman and I didn't like how everyone plays. I heard that Golbsy (right outside of Norman) is building the biggest indian casino in OK. So big that it will be comparable to the size of a casino in LV. They estimated it to be the size of the MGM Casino. That's nuts!!

Bellagio & Ballys - Las Vegas, NV

Like everyone else in today's gambling world, everyone thinks they are a great poker player. I don't think I am very good, but somewhat decent. So going to Bellagio and sitting in the poker room to play some 4/8 Hold'em, I knew what to expect.

I put my name on the list and waited for the $40 buy-in. The poker room was totally full but after waiting for about 10 minutes they opened a new table. I went with a close a friend and he played also. It was a little weird because we sat next to each other when we were playing. Only being there for about 1.5 hours, I was up close to $300. I never really paid attention to how I was playing just playing hands and keeping up with everyone else on the table. My buddy ended up going all in with pocket 10s ($40 isn't a lot to play with when turn and river bets are $8 min) and I remember winning the pot with an Ace high flush. I didn't stay long but I wish I did because I think I was controlling the table. My buddy told everyone that I was playing pretty aggressive and played a lot of hands. I didn't think I was aggressive, but I know I did play a lot of hands. But he said I look like I knew what I was doing and played some great poker. :)

After thinking about it, there were some good players on that table compared to my next poker playing experience which was at Bally's. Going from the Bellagio to Bally's was night and day. And Bally's poker room was crappy as they come. They place their poker room right in the middle of their main casino where you can see and hear all the slot machines going off and they bring in the trashy poker dreamers I have ever seen. I just wore shorts and a t-shirt, but everyone was either wearing a wife-beater shirt or love showing off their hairy chest with their shirts only buttoned at the bottom of the shirt. 75% of everyone on each table wore sunglasses. Come on....It's only pot limit Hold'em.

I lost $60 on 4/8 table where everyone played every single hand. My worst beating was when I lost to a guy who kept complaining how Ks were killing him when he had it. Well...He beat me with it..not exactly...It was his 2nd card, a 7, and the matching river card that came out to beat me and my Ks and high card.

I went over to another table and bought in at $40. My buddy's sister who is an extremely aggressive player lost $100 on that table and told me not to play. I didn't care, I just wanted to play so I sat in her exact seat. The girl I mentioned played in a radio promotion poker tourney in Dallas a few month back and took like 4th out of 600 players to try to win a seat at the WPS. So she is a good player and for her to tell me not to play on this table because it was so tough....made me want to play even more. 2 more bad beats when I was clearly ahead but lost on the river. I had a straight to the 8 with one of my hole cards being 5 and when the river came out and it was a 5...I knew I lost but I had to play it out. Sure enough a guy won with a straight to the 9. The last beat....I had As 2c and played to the flop. I pair up my Aces and I bet into it since I notice this guy who was on his last few chips seemed very desperate. Everyone folds except the guy who had no chips left and a player two seats to my left (this asian guy who wore a wife-beater, listening to his ipod, and wore sunglasses..Anybody you know? Stereotypical...I know). The river card comes and it is a 2h. 2 pairs.....I thought I had it won. The asian raises and I re-raise and he was so freaked out that I re-raised and it took him a bit to call. Well he did and he ended up having a flush and the all in guy had a better flush. The pot was like $80 dollars and I never paid attention to the flush draw because I felt it was so bizarre that the pot was going so high for maniacs who were chasing the flush when I was raising. I recouped my losses and only lost about $25 dollars when I put $100 dollars at Bally's. I felt good how I was playing since I did a lot better than my friend's sister and I bought some pots when I felt I could do it.

I did lost $40 dollars in 2 hands on my very last day of Vegas Vacation. Very horrible playing on my part and I admit it. It was the poker rush of playing and I realize what I have done and I think I have learn a great deal from it. Live and Learn. I got to play poker where everyone was brand new to me and I know that Bellagio is the best place to play with good players and who are pretty respectful.

But in the end, I lost every since I played in Vegas after my big win on the 1st day (4 day trip). My net winning was $84 dollars. I lost a dollar playing a stupid slot machine. The only game I played was poker and I had no inclination to play anything else. I am addicted!!

Cirque Du Soleil - It's the coolest

I think these acts of the mind, body, and soul is some of the most wondrous performances that we should experience. I have been to 4 live performances and I truly believe they are greatest shows on earth.

http://www.cirquedusoleil.com/CirqueDuSoleil/en/default.htm