Dipping Toes Into Bigger Pond..........

Been venturing to the casinos a bit more these days. Past three weekends I have been to Hollywood Casino in Lawrenceburg IN. Also visited the Horseshoe Hammond IN and Majestic Star in Gary IN this past weekend before heading south through Indiana to the Hollywood.

First trip to the old Argosy outside of Cincy was a long night. Played for nearly 8 hours and was stuck most of the time. (I tend to be a shorter stack player and do not normally buy in for max buy ins. I play 1/2 or 1/3, whichever is the standard for the location.) At the end of the 8 hour session (5AM) I managed to get a lucky river card and win a decent pot. The pot which pushed me positive for the day and got me up from the table for the two hour drive home. My friend who had traveled with me ( the trip was his idea and request ) was a sleep in the car as he ran fairly poor early (course played a tad looser also).

This trip showed me that even during extended sessions I was maintaining my patience and playing well, not great.... but well.

Second trip was the following weekend back to Argosy (Hollywood).... this time for the Sunday $15k guaranteed tournament. Another friend wanted to play in this tournament as he leans more towards tournament play versus ring games. My original intent was to go and rail him and play some ring games myself. After some cajoling from my friend and an offer to buy 50% of my action in the tournament I decided to enter the tournament. Unfortunate for my friend he was out fairly early. Set over set .... and in these tournaments, most players are going broke in that situation. I managed to play very patient, get a couple of well timed hands and one huge suckout on the river (ss at the time with less than 25 players remaining). I made it to the final table (76 players started) as the short stack. One other player only had a slightly larger stack. Probably had an M of about 20 or 21 at the start of the final table. I played patient while I watched the other stacks do battle. Top 8 were to be paid. After the first knock out from the table a deal was worked out for $400 for the bubble (9th). Being the shortstack most of the day I was elated with this deal. This was one of the larger buy ins I have played with only two other tournaments being equal or greater value, both being WSOPC events 4 years ago. This was also my first tournament at this casino. So anyways, after at least securing a break even day, I proceeded to work my way up the payout chain mainly by allowing the others to fight it out. Found few key hands to pick up chips and I even managed to knock out one of the players myself. I worked my way into a 4th place finish. In retrospect, I should have entertained talk of a chop. At the point I went out the blinds were 4k/8k with a 1k ante (I think... memory is not perfect on this) and the biggest stack was 230k and three of us at 122k, 148k (me) and 159k. Would have been a much nicer pay day for me but was still happy with the 4th place finish. Made a decent profit for myself and my friend.

Third trip was a mini pokercation (poker+vacation). Took off a few days of work to travel with my friend who planned on playing in the HPT $1k event at the Majestic Star in IN. Got there on a Friday afternoon and played a little 1/2. Made a very small profit before they broke down the tables for the start of the HPT event. Went to the Horseshoe to play before the tournament started. Again made a small profit. Went back to the Majestic Star and decided to take a seat in the 3/6 LHE game. Had a very nice run at 3/6 and called it a night. First day of the trip was a successful one..... for both of us as he had advanced onto day 2 of the HPT event. Saturday was a day off for my friend as they were running two more day 1 flights for the HPT. So we played some 1/2 at different tables so that we could get our poker room rate. For me the day was a long long dead day. Played 5 hours and lost about 80. I still was patient and didn't get trapped. Just couldn't put together a good hand with a good pot. Went back to the room as my friend had already returned to the room to sleep. We had been woke up early by the cleaning crew as they thought our room was empty.... we didn't check in till 5 AM. LOL Pretty tired. Original plan was to go back to the Shoe to play in the evening....... well that never happened. Got some much needed rest instead. Third day was the 2nd day of the HPT. After hanging around for a little during the first level of the day for the tournament I decided to get on the lists for the ring games. First game I was called for was the 2/5 game. Now this is where I decided to try and step up my game. I sat down with 320 (max buy in was 500). This was probably for me the most I had put on a table at one time. I have lost more than that but through multiple reloads. The game had pretty good action and I stayed pretty even... up a little... down a little... back up... you get the idea. My friend came up to tell me he got knocked out.... was a little bummed. He got 61st... only paid top 46. Close but no cigar. He was willing to stick around for a little while as I was being patient and my table was good. For awhile I didn't feel like I was out of my comfort zone. I decided to add another 100 to what I had on the table. The action was pretty good and stacks were on average about 600... couple over 1k. Unfortunately the texture of the game changed with two new players coming to the table. Very aggressive and loose players. I should have recognized that this moved me out of my comfort zone and I should have quit. Unfortunately I did not and my play deteriorated. I played poorly. Added another $200 to my stack as it had been chopped away. Ended up calling it a day down $435. So much for a good weekend. LOL We still had a good time.
My friend wanted to play in the first event of the ISPC at Hollywood on Monday so we left and headed south through IN. We get down there in a fairly quick 4.5 hours and go to the poker room for him to register for tomorrow. Unfortunately you could not register till the next morning at 9. So we decided to play some NLHE...... to say the least it wasn't 2/5. LOL It will be a while before I venture back to that level. And the frustrations unfortunately continued for me. Was getting 2 and 3 outtered most of the night. I made good lay downs but still got little respect from the table. The table would chase just about anything. That is what we want but having a losing night makes it hard to take. Ended up losing my buyin of 200. No biggie.... we were tired so we went and got a room. Wanted to get some rest for the next day. My friend got up early to go and register then came back to the room for additional sleep. We got to the casino just as the tournament started. I could still have entered as it was a deepstack tournament but with the way I ran (and played) the day before I passed on the opportunity. Decided to play some more 1/2. Continued with my patience... this time it payed off... but only marginally. Still happy to have a profitable session after the previous day's results. My friend unfortunately got knocked out in the first level of the tournament...... set to a chaser for a gutshot, turned flush draw. Course they hit.... live poker..... so rigged.