Two Plus Two Newer Archives - There and Back Again a trip report to Colorado's Casinos

Our journey starts as these usually do with 2+2 being down most of the day on Friday. The day of a release at the place I'm a test lead. Not much to test those days and not much to do so re-figure my hours and realize I can leave early. Woo Hoo! I grab my backpack, or as Fret might say "rooksack ya!" and look for an empty room to change in. I remember there are a bunch of empty offices on the first floor so off I go. Unfortunately, those all have plate glass windows, and I realize I left my iPod up on the 3rd floor. Later I realized this was a bad omen.

Back up to my work space I grab the pod and just go into an empty lab and change. I look like the GAP threw up on me. I'll blend. I scurry out of the building before I run into someone who will wonder why a contractor is wearing shorts and looks so good. I need to fill up the car before the trip up the mountain and am feeling baller so I get the car washed. This means paying the human in the building instead of the pump, he asks if I would like a membership to Waterway Carwash and I quip my car doesn't deserve it. He looks at my whip and says it's one of the nicer ones that comes in (2005 Altima FTW) and I have to explain to him that no, the car hasn't done anything to deserve this and I just made someone's afterwork story. This is a bad omen.

I also pick up some road smokes (FU Dr. Algar) and watch my car go throw a shower. This is the first time I've seen my car move without me inside it and it's pretty creepy. I'm feeling baller and tip the guys hand drying my ride a dollar, stay in school kids. Finally I'm on the road, and it's a pretty frustrating drive. 128 West to 93 South 10 miles per hour under the speed limit circling Rocky Flats Ex-Hydrogen Bomb Plant. This is a harbinger of things to come.

Turning West onto 6 I'm heading up the mountain following, like most roads in the mountain, a stream coming down the mountain. And this stream is gurgling or bucolic, this [censored] is coming out of the mountain like thats its job. I want to stop and take about a million pictures but I'm in a hurry. Looking back this is only a small mistake, but a crucial one.

Finally, I pass a crappy looking compound outside an actual mine across the stream and around the next corner, with no warning, is Gambool Town Colorado. Imagine a fairly narrow ravine with a road running through it that is surrounded by casinos, much like arterial plaque (FU Dr. Algar), microphage Kero starts looking for the Colorado Central Station and realizes he just drove past the least signed casino in the state. Crap, loop around and try again. Foreshadowing anyone?

I park and hit the skybridge to CCS, turning the corner into the casino I see down a flight of stairs to the slots. I'm underwhelmed. However, across the room I can see the poker room and my curiosity is piqued. I do my best Danny Ocean pose going down the escalator, except for the GAP chunks wardrobe and the fact that in my hours at this casino I will see 1 woman want to have relations with an a handful I would if they asked. I wander around looking for the stairs to the poker room and am take a quick look at the games and then hit the restaurant behind. Fried egg and bacon grilled cheese sandwich FTW and a final FU to Dr. Algar. Greasy Omen. My edgy punk band or a peek into the future? Well, I'm not sporting any safety-pins captain.

Turns out Jaran hasn't left Boulder yet and I'm flying solo for a while. Large parts of the evening to come will revolve around Jaran or his friends not being on time or even locatable. But whatever. I watch a game for a while trying to figure out the mechanics of poker with no buttons or check boxes and get me a rack of white and sit down.

Sound effect: Needle scraping across an actual vinyl record, ending the peppy soundtrack of the trip.

Probably 5 hours of table time and it's a natural disaster. I probably pull 2 large pots in that time. I'm on the OMFG end of flush over flush and set over set. Worst hand was ending up putting my last 25$ of sub-session one into what turned out to be KK v QQ v 66. My 66 no good. The rest of the night was a nightmare of card deadness. I was probably playing around 10% vpip 2 or 3 PFR. 83o 83s 96o Q <8o I remember getting a lot. Even these guys noticed so raising big from EP ended up getting folded around and stealing the blinds. Twice I limped big hands; AA makes 6 bucks and I pull a good pot when my AQ UTG or in the blind runs over Jaran's A9 who was sitting on my right for sub-session 2. When I did have something playable it would be raised behind me and I would miss the flop. I don't think I saw more than 20 or so turns all night.

These casinos spread 2/5 or 3/5, the biggest bet you can make in Colorado is 5 bucks, and there is only one blind. Generally the raise is to either 5$ or 7$. You can also put in up to 5 on your blind instead of just 2 or 3. Limping monsters and other slow play is the norm and it is considered smart play to trap with every [censored] hand you hit. Looking back I don't think I was outplayed as much as I was card dead. I was probably a little too eager to fold 3rd or 4th pair to late position bets which cost me 1 or 2 pots, but saved me at least that many.

Cliff notes and the final tally:
It was raining soup and someone stole my bucket. Down $164 in 5 hours of 2/5. I'm hoping to have more monies for poker for a July trip with more 2+2ers.