Spirit Mountain Trip Report
 

I spoke about not going to the southwest of my training in the Niagra trip report thread from Smurph and Wook, but I changed my mind and made the 1.5 hour drive when we finished two hours early.

A lengthy trip report coming, probably later this evening after I return home.

Gotta love online poker.

Re: Spirit Mountain Trip Report
 

You start a new thread to tantalize us BEFORE you even have it written? For shame.

Re: Spirit Mountain Trip Report
 

agreed, bump

Re: Spirit Mountain Trip Report
 

Yeah sorry. I'm a poker tease. Just letting everybody who wants to bookmark it for later.

Re: Spirit Mountain Trip Report
 

Gee, and he's humble, too, presuming that people will be bookmarking this in anticipation. If this trip report isn't dog's bollocks, there are apt to be consequences [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img].

Re: Spirit Mountain Trip Report
 

Did you see a guy playing there that looks exactly like Sean Connery? He's been there everytime I've played and it's seriously uncanny.

Re: Spirit Mountain Trip Report
 

[ QUOTE ]
Gee, and he's humble, too, presuming that people will be bookmarking this in anticipation. If this trip report isn't dog's bollocks, there are apt to be consequences [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img].

[/ QUOTE ]

A little slack please. I'll clarify some things.

My contributions to this forum have been paltry, rudimentary and average. Further, I love trip reports, reading them that is. I bookmark them like crazy because I love reading, learning, talking about and playing the game of poker.

If anyone has even one of those characteristics, then they MIGHT be interested in reading my later report.

Honestly, I'm just excited. Excited that I get the chance to provide something unique and fun to this group. I've loved hearing about the recent reports from you guys, and again I'm just really excited to be able to do the same, for the first time.

So that's my reason for originally posting this, this morning. I couldn't hold it in.

My report will include travel, casino notes, poker and gambling philosophy, surprise historical sightings, humor, hand details and other details.

Coldcash: There was one guy there who could have looked a big like Connery, but no dead ringers. He was an older man, with Homer Simpson like hair, meaning two or three strands. Average size dude. Might be your guy. Not sure.

So again, I'm just excited. I apologize for those clicking on the link and being disappointed the details of the trip haven't yet been revealed. I'm not supposed to even be typing this. I'm supposed to be working in some test environment.

Re: Spirit Mountain Trip Report
 

Wookie is a big nit who likes to flex his moderator "muscles." Don't let him ruin your excitement, Mobster.

He thinks of himself as living a life roughly like this dude:
http://www.msu.edu/~daggy/cop/images/00000272.gif

Re: Spirit Mountain Trip Report
 

If you didn't do a double take and say "Holy crap, Sean Connery is over there" to the person sitting next to you, then it wasn't him.

Looking forward to the trip report. Was this your first casino trip?

Re: Spirit Mountain Trip Report
 

Bf,

If you didn't detect me just ragging on you without much serious intent, I think you need to turn your sarcasm detector up. However, you could have used teh NC thread to announce your impending trip report, and then posted a new thread when it was actually written.

Re: Spirit Mountain Trip Report
 

[ QUOTE ]
Bf,

If you didn't detect me just ragging on you without much serious intent, I think you need to turn your sarcasm detector up. However, you could have used teh NC thread to announce your impending trip report, and then posted a new thread when it was actually written.

[/ QUOTE ]

Sarcasm alert went off, but I also wanted to add why I did it. I'm not too familiar w/ the readership of the NC thread, so I wasn't sure who'd see it. Either way it was premature, but now I just got word that we are finished for the day. It's noon here. I'm debating going back for a bit more play on my way home. It doubles my driving, but it's damn early. We shall see.

Re: Spirit Mountain Trip Report
 

Doitdoitdoit.

Re: Spirit Mountain Trip Report
 

CRAZY!!! [img]/images/graemlins/crazy.gif[/img]

Never seen so many replies to a post that hasn't even been written yet!!!

What's next? Getting pushed a pot before the blinds were posted??? [img]/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img]

Maybe one of you guys can lend me your http://i52.photobucket.com/albums/g1...r/delorean.jpg

Re: Spirit Mountain Trip Report
 

Befolder,

DEFINITELY GO BACK AND PLAY MORE.

LET US GOGOGOGO!

Holla,
Doc

Re: Spirit Mountain Trip Report
 

Apparently I'm being persuaded to go back. Only thing I'm worried about is that it is the middle of the day and there were only 5 tables last night. Likely less right now, and perhaps not the limit I want to play. Looks like I'm going back though. This may delay the report though, but will lengthen it.

I'm pretty wordy so I could get a lot of tl;dr.

Logging off and heading to poker country.

Re: Spirit Mountain Trip Report
 

bf,
I'm hitting portland next month and Spirit Mountain is the high up my list of places to go.

I await the trip report with bated breath (well not quite but i'm curious)

Re: Spirit Mountain Trip Report
 

Short update.

Being out of town for work a couple of days has put me further behind than I thought for a couple of projects. I've got two pages of notes and a cell phone full of hand histories so it will get done, but I want it done well and that will take time. I'll try to get part of it done today to at least get us started. Sorry for the delay.

Opportunity Knocks
 

Opportunity Knocks

As I have been mentioning, I had to attend a training in Beaverton, OR on Monday and Tuesday of this week. For those of you even remotely curious about the location and routes taken, I have mapped out all the driving here:

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m...s8/TripMap.jpg

There is overlap between the routes so I’ll explain a bit.

F to D: Trip to Training
D to E to D: Back and forth to casino after Day 1 Training
D to E to F: Back to casino after Day 2 training, and then home.

Total driving for the trip, about 380 miles.
Total number of idiots that wouldn’t get right when I was driving faster: too damn many

Now, I knew that Spirit Mtn was close by (actually barely closer than to my home as you can see by the map), but I when I have to travel for business, I usually just prefer to relax in the hotel room in the evenings. I had brought my personal laptop and was planning on getting some online play in during the nights though.

What might have turned the tide was reading Wook’s version of the Niagra report, while on a break from training on Monday. I had been thinking about at least seeing what the route would be like to Spirit Mtn, but I think reading his fun turned the tables for me.

I decided to do it. I’d need the practice in these ridiculously loose games for my Vegas trip in three weeks anyway. I hadn’t played in games that ridiculous since I first started at .50/$1 on Party over three years ago.

Actually now that I think about it, finishing two hours early that day was the biggest clincher of all because I didn’t want to roll in extremely late and be groggy for another training ‘stare fest’ the next morning. Trying to stay awake in these things is excruciating and the group wasn’t big enough that I could get away from it.

Cold Cash asked earlier if this would be my first time playing in a casino. It would not be, though my experience isn’t extensive. My experience is as follows:

10 years ago
Reno, in town for the Nevada/Oregon football game. Played only BJ and roulette. Won money on the roulette and lost the rest on BJ. Final hand as I was walking out of the casino. I stopped at some random BJ table after hearing we weren’t coming back and plopped down my final $94 on one hand. Got a 14, took a hit, busted. Dealer would have beaten me anyway. I’m a low roller so for me to throw $90-anything into one thing is rare. Balla for a moment baby! Had no idea how great poker was at the time. I played semi-regularly with friends, but that was it.

Vegas: Twice in three years, early in my poker educated career. Down small sums at the end of both trips.

About four other trips to the places in Oregon that are more than 1 ½ hours away. Down under $100 on all of those trips. These were after I started playing online.

So while I certainly have the poker fortitude to run well at these joints, I was never better prepared for this trip, or less intimidated by the environment.

Not a lot of live experience, but not ashamed to ask stupid questions either. I’ll talk more about that during an image discussion in the next section. Pretty boring so far, but I like setting the tone.

Part 2 when I can.

Re: Opportunity Knocks
 

Befolder,

I hope this gets at least 38% jucier in the next go-round. So far very dry and un-balla.

Also,

What was it about Wookie's TR that inspired you? Wookie trip reports don't have funny jokes or creative names for villains and just contain the phrase "O RLY?" over and over again.

Re: Opportunity Knocks
 

It's not so much the presentation of Wook's report, but just the fact that I read it and was close to making a decision on going.

As far as being balla, this report may not get there, but it will come in stages. Each with perhaps a different flavor. Opponents will have appropriate names and such and they will be described also. You'll enjoy that part much more. I have about 20 hands roughly noted.

Re: Opportunity Knocks
 

What limit did you play?

Re: Opportunity Knocks
 

During all the other trips I played 2/4. I'll get to this trip's action in the future.

Re: Opportunity Knocks
 

[ QUOTE ]
What was it about Wookie's TR that inspired you? Wookie trip reports don't have funny jokes or creative names for villains and just contain the phrase "O RLY?" over and over again.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm sorry I couldn't live up to the amazingly high standards of your own report, in which you merely stole the clever names from str8fish, and won as much money for your whole trip as I did in my first two hours of play. I know Befolder is going to be trying hard, as it's tough to be as balla as playing 2/4 and eating at a diner.

Travel, Sites and Casino Layout
 

Travel & Image Notes

I left right from work, not bothering to stop by the hotel. I took a few wrong turns as the directions were complicated going through part of town to get to the one lane rural highway that would take me there.

If you’ve ever taken a trip somewhere on a rural highway, there generally isn’t too much to see. At the same time, it’s the little things you start to notice that become interesting. Along the way I passed by a federal penitentiary way out in the middle of nowhere. It reminded me of Shawshank Redemption, a fine piece of cinema. I also passed through a little town called Dundee, population 2900. I had never had a reason to drive this road before and I’ve lived in Oregon all of my 32 years.

There was a building and a couple of signs that read, “No Tolling, No Tracking My Car.” I wondering what these stupid messages were talking about so I decided to write down the website in small print at the bottom of the sign on my second pass during day 2.

www.dundeeparkinglot.com

I just now checked it out and some of the stuff is funny. Goofy ass ruralites. I tell ya.

One of the highlights of the travel was along an open stretch of road (many country highways here are bordered by trees and not open) I started to see the appearance of a very large, almost entirely glass building. Once again, this is out in the middle of nowhere, 30 miles from any metro area. Occupying the entire freaking building was the Spruce Goose!

http://www.sprucegoose.org/aircraft_.../exhibits.html

Howard Hughes was a big investor in this flying boat. The highlight was a one minute flight, for one mile, at an altitude of 70 feet.

Anyway, it’s a gargantuan beast and I was surprised to come upon it where I did. I knew it was housed in Oregon, but didn’t know where.

By now D-Mod is probably going apesh*t saying, “This ain’t balla, it’s boring."

On to Spirit Mountain.

This is an Indian Gaming Place w/ rooms to stay if you like. Like most places, slots own this place. The poker room has about 15 tables, which is more than some of the older places in LV. Only about five or six were running when I was there during these two weekdays.

Game choices were 2/4 limit HE, 3/6 limit HE, 2/4 NL HE of the games I would consider.

Now I want to talk about image. Usually when I go to a place where nobody knows me, my general strategy used to be that I want to look like a sucker, or at least a beginner. The nice thing is with my limited live casino knowledge, I can pull that off because I get to ask dumb questions like, “Hey, what are those punch cards you guys have for,” which I actually don’t know the answer to. Lots of stuff like that.

What I realized since my last live experience and my increase in poker knowledge is, it generally doesn’t even matter to the average player because the average live player isn’t paying attention to anything at all. They don’t adjust to your image so just forget it. The only benefit would be for the first hour of play or so if you should happen to have a good player with you at the table. They are the only ones you can affect.

So now I just want to portray the image of fun. I’m there to have a good time so I just let my natural talkativeness mesh with the table. I’m just one of the boys who happens to have built up the biggest chips stack real quickly if the cards let me.

I signed up for the 3/6 waiting list which was three deep. After about ten minutes I put my list on the 2/4 table too. There were two of those and I’d be seated quicker. Even though the rake kills at 2/4 and I know it, as it’s been repeated time and time again, I know I’d be playing a little scared at 3/6 because I haven’t played that high before. And yes, I know it plays more like .50/$1. If it had come up sooner, I’d have been a man and taken it.

While I waited I decided to sign up for their players club. Why not? Earn some free points for some day. Besides, any other ball would right? Happy Doc? LOL.

Re: Opportunity Knocks
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
What was it about Wookie's TR that inspired you? Wookie trip reports don't have funny jokes or creative names for villains and just contain the phrase "O RLY?" over and over again.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm sorry I couldn't live up to the amazingly high standards of your own report, in which you merely stole the clever names from str8fish, and won as much money for your whole trip as I did in my first two hours of play. I know Befolder is going to be trying hard, as it's tough to be as balla as playing 2/4 and eating at a diner.

[/ QUOTE ]

Well,

This settles it. It's time to post the announcement for my next Foxwoods trip. This one will be waaaaaay more balla.

Or at least more drunkern and hilarious.

Re: Travel, Sites and Casino Layout
 

The Spruce Goose exhibit is awesome.

Also, I think you took the long way.

Re: Travel, Sites and Casino Layout
 

I saw the same guy I described last time, yesterday. Taking a second look. I'm sure he's the same guy. He has more hair than I remembered the first sighting. More Connery-esque looking this time.

Re: Travel, Sites and Casino Layout
 

Did you take any pictures w/ your cell phone?

Next time I see him I'm going to. You guys seriously won't believe it.

Re: Travel, Sites and Casino Layout
 

My phone is w/o camera. I'll get a new free one from Verizon in August which I'm making sure has one.

Day 1, Table 1
 

Day 1, Table 1

On my way to the desk to sign up for the Ballas’ Club, I passed Big Al. How did I know Big Al? I didn’t, but he was singing happy birthday to himself in Drunkenese as I passed him. Alllllrighty then Big Al, you have yourself a good time.

Got back to the poker room and post birded for about another 20 before being called to a 2/4 seat. I leaned against a post. There are no rails there.

The cast:

Seat 1: No one of consequence
Seat 2: Older Passive/Aggressive guy. We’ll call him OPA
Seat 3: X
Seat 4: Young internet player who has a Poker Stars cap and a Full Tilt jacket. Unless I’m being sponsored, I don’t ever want to be seen wearing this crap. It’s opposite the image I want. I hate these morons. He shall be known as Wannabe. He was loose aggressive
Seat 5: The Straddler. Middle aged woman who was also loose aggressive.
Seat 6: Another young fella w/ his gf sweating him from behind. He was loose passive.
Seat 7: Befolder
Seat 8: Middle Aged Anti-Milf or MAAM. She touched my arm in the first minute I sat. She was loose passive, occasionally aggressive in random spots, totally clueless.
Seat 9: 20-something whiny bitch. She came to the table w/ $20, obviously for a short sit and complained about everything she saw as if she knew what she was talking about. A gf of hers was sitting behind.
Seat 10: 50-some TAG w/ headphones. He was quietly annoying to me. There was an air of arrogance and entitlement. If you want my attention at the table, be either totally silent and too serious or just be a total ass. Either way, you’ve got me watching. As Seat 8 threw in her last few chips w/ a raise, he said, “If you can’t be a donkey, be a monkey.” She obviously had no idea what he said so she didn’t react. She was the type to have a retort if she even knew it was directed at her.


I have to say it’s a pretty good feeling to sit at a table for ten minutes and realize that you might be the best player there. Even Wannabe and Straddler, whom I suspected from a couple hands played aggressively possibly being good, soon showed down ugly unsuited Ace/rags. That dispelled that notion, but I was glad to have immediate position on them

My plan going into these tables was to look for many situations where I could see the flop cheaply w/ suited connectors and small pairs against many folks. This is something that has seems much harder to accomplish over the last year with the tables drying up.

The hands were frequently 5-6 handed and probably only raised 30% of the time. I knew I’d have to adjust quickly and I made some mistakes in trying to find the right game.

I found KK on my third hand and was thankful because I wanted some action. That hand didn’t make it to the river and I took down a small pot. My later JJ hand did and held up to a ten high flop.

When I made mistakes, it was preflop trying to get hands against these donkeys. I usually made up for it by playing better postflop. Here’s one of my favorites:

Straddler blind straddles from UTG, I cc2 w/ 67s, which I debated because I was basically first to act after her straddle, but I figured others would come along giving me odds. Surprisingly, only Wannabe called the extra bet. A three way pot was very rare.

Flop came AT3, all my suit. Wannabe checked, Straddler checked cards and bet. I stupidly just called, knowing damn well I should be protecting my hand against a heart redraw. I was greedy and wanted the extra BB on the turn. There’s nothing worse than knowing what you should do, and ignoring it. My day two would be full of this. Wannabe called. Turn was 2x. I raised Straddlers’ bet, wannabe folded and she called. The river came Qx. Wannabe came out donking. Thank you, I raise. She was surprised and called. She ended up w/ AQ for her blind straddle. Ship it. I love stacking chips. Whenever I had more than a five stacks, I started towering a bit.

Another was a J7 in the BB hand. It went 7 to the flop which came QJx. MAAM to my left bet out after two checks including mine. There were about three calls and I thought better of calling w/ middle pair and no draw. I called anyway…idiot. Turn came a wonderful seven. I thought about donking, but the bettor was to my left. I chanced that she’d bet again. She does, three callers and I raise trapping those 3 bets in there. MAAM calls only and I bet and show on the river for another nice pot earned but a poor flop play in my opinion, but a nice make up on the turn. I definitely was not playing my best. A bit too eager to get the money on the table.

Re: Day 1, Table 1
 

Getting 10 or 12:1 on that J7 flop, folding middle pair is a mistake.

Re: Day 1, Table 1
 

Something I was thinking about when I read this: I've played quite a bit of low limit live poker, and I've seen a very, VERY small amount of checkraises.

Re: Day 1, Table 1
 

I think the J7 hand is fine, you're getting like 10:1 on the flop call.

Raise the flop in the flush hand for sure.

Re: Day 1, Table 1
 

That's another thing I'm going to comment on in my summary. I have a really hard time tracking the pot live. Something I need to work on. Knowing there were a lot of bets in the pot was surely a reason I called, but not knowing exactly bothered my. I need practice counting as the bets are going in. Anybody have tricks?

I finally started computing my odds mentally playing online months ago, but I kind of abandoned it these past two days, which I hate.

Re: Day 1, Table 1
 

Yes, I think they typically think it's unfriendly. I did it several times, but no one openly criticized me, like I'd care.
[img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Re: Day 1, Table 1
 

Oh two other live experiences I forgot were in the Bay Area of CA on another training trip. Something Garden near Cupertino, a card room and nothing else. Ended up $120 there. Later that week I went to Bay 101 w/ my cousins bf. Up $80 there. All 2/4, which was way out of my comfort level at the time.

Re: Travel, Sites and Casino Layout
 

[ QUOTE ]
The Spruce Goose exhibit is awesome.

Also, I think you took the long way.


[/ QUOTE ]

I took whatever way Mapquest told me, but there sure were a lot of roads to take. Weird route. 26 to 217 to I-5 to 22 to 18 probably faster? I just hate that it takes me in a circle away from my destination for 15 miles before heading south again.

Re: Day 1, Table 1
 

[ QUOTE ]
That's another thing I'm going to comment on in my summary. I have a really hard time tracking the pot live. Something I need to work on. Knowing there were a lot of bets in the pot was surely a reason I called, but not knowing exactly bothered my. I need practice counting as the bets are going in. Anybody have tricks?

I finally started computing my odds mentally playing online months ago, but I kind of abandoned it these past two days, which I hate.

[/ QUOTE ]

No tricks for counting the bets, but a "trick" for a quick estimate of your odds: The rule of 13!
On the river outs + odds = 13 (from 5 to 9 outs, which is the most relevant part). So with 5 outs you need about 8-to-1 odds to continue.

This is a rough estimate that neglects the decimals, but for a live game that's better than pulling out a cheat sheet. [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

Re: Opportunity Knocks
 

2+2 Forum lingo learning moment coming up:

What the hell is this "balla" thing you guys are on about?

Re: Day 1, Table 1
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
That's another thing I'm going to comment on in my summary. I have a really hard time tracking the pot live. Something I need to work on. Knowing there were a lot of bets in the pot was surely a reason I called, but not knowing exactly bothered my. I need practice counting as the bets are going in. Anybody have tricks?

I finally started computing my odds mentally playing online months ago, but I kind of abandoned it these past two days, which I hate.

[/ QUOTE ]

No tricks for counting the bets, but a "trick" for a quick estimate of your odds: The rule of 13!
On the river outs + odds = 13 (from 5 to 9 outs, which is the most relevant part). So with 5 outs you need about 8-to-1 odds to continue.

This is a rough estimate that neglects the decimals, but for a live game that's better than pulling out a cheat sheet. [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

[/ QUOTE ]

Is that easier than the rule of 4 & 2. That's easy for me online, but I do have to know the pot to use it.

Flop: Outs x 4 is chances of making hand by river.
Turn: Outs x 2 is chances there.

Help me understand the Rule of 13 better. Is it outs + odds of making the hand? The only other option for odds I can think of is pot odds and I don't think that's what you meant.