Why I now hate Seattle poker (trip report)

[Lottery Larry]

I happened to be on the West Coast, hoteling it on my own, and so I went to some area poker rooms on two evenings/mornings.

On Wednesday night, I started off at Diamond Lil’s, in Renton, WA. I drove past it at first, as it was in an old restaurant building and I missed the sign. They had 10 tables set up, with a nearby bar/kitchen. Most of the listed games were hold’em, starting at $4/8, and there was also one $6/12 half-kill Omaha/8 game as well.
Diamond Lil’s had several promotions going: a bad beat jackpot (one for hold’em around $5k, another for Omaha, with only one card from your hand needed to qualify in HE, supposedly) and a $500 best-hand bonus payout, every two hours. I, of course, got nowhere near a hand good enough to have a shot at either one- quads or better were the best hands that cashed in.

The game started well for me, but strangely. After I folded my first 1 ½ orbits, only calling twice preflop, I raised in middle position with AQs… and got four callers. When the QT6 flopped, I raised again… and got three callers through the river, where we all checked the King that fell.
That pretty much was my highlight for the evening, as my stack kept shrinking. Another AQ on the button got flushed away against an 86s just to my left (the woman was on a bigtime heater for a while and was playing a ton of hands… and raising with them).
Soon, as more big hands got cracked, I started raising with weaker ones. I raised with K7o in early position, trying to represent, and raised again on the 876 flop…. but had to fold when it was capped behind me. Turn 7, river King and I’m cursing in my head….

Another hand, I flopped a straight draw holding J8 but two big cards on board. I folded the side pot on the river, sure my opponent had me beaten as he’d called multiple raises…. only to see him turn over J8 to take the side pot.
Q6c in the BB, called a raise along with 4 others and flopped 875 but got no other help. I had a number of draws like that, which would have been good if they hit, in raised pots, but they wouldn’t come in.
Another beauty- Q9 and flopped a Queen that I raised, turned another one, driving the betting…. and the river T gave Heater Woman a two-out suckout.
The end was near when UTG made it $8 to go and I repopped to $12 with black Aces, happy to see several callers and UTG capping it. 3 hearts flopped, I got reraised and the KQh had me through the river.
I finished my last few dollars all-in, on a straight and flush draw that missed, and decided that 3 hours of this abuse was enough.

So, I drove south for about 20 minutes to check out the Muckleshoot casino and bingo hall, as they had a larger poker room that was open 24 hours. I passed a large open-area bazaar right next door, with a number of vendors selling fireworks of all types. Since I didn’t think they’d make it past TSA on the return flight, I drove to the casino instead.
Right off the bat, I noticed that there was no parking near the poker room entrance…. and it wasn’t because the lot was already full. There were a TON of handicapped spots right there, with the other spots being reserved for valet parking. Across the entrance drive, the closest spots were also handicapped.
So, I drove to the other side of the complex and parked near the parking garage, walking back through the casino. It was somewhat dark inside, reminding me of Resorts back in AC. A lot of slot machines and some table games- including craps, BJ, pai gow and a hold’em table game variant- along with a nightclub and a buffet area in the back end.

Here at Muckleshoot, it was pretty much all hold’em, all the time… though I noticed the board had a teeny, tiny signup area for $1-4 stud (with no names). There were hold’em games ranging from $3/6 up to $10-$500 spread cap (meaning, the most that could be bet by any one person was $500 per street… or two grand on a hand) and all of the hold’em tables were 9-seaters.
There was also a bad beat jackpot of $15k for hold’em (Aces full of Queens to qualify, both cards used) up on the board, and they were finishing up a Wednesday night high hand special of $500 per hour. After midnight, it dropped to $300 for every two hours. You needed at least quads to have a decent chance, and several straight flushes took down the money in the two days that I was there.

Anyway, it started off badly for me, as my big draws weren’t coming and other hands weren’t getting paid off. One early hand I noted: limped with 44 UTG, with a large field in for one raise when the flop came TT4. The table checked the flop, then folded when the third heart came on the turn and I bet.
Most of my hands were more like this- got in cheap with a T5h, flopped a flush draw… and the river heart nailed me against K7h.

Then I ran through a nasty period of trips/sets hands…. 6 of them within an hour, to be more precise. First, I bluff-raised with a flush draw after an 88X flop, only to run into someone holding an 8. The next hand, against the same player, my T9 looked good on a J9X9 board… but his Q9 was better.
The very NEXT hand, I raised TT and flopped a Ten, getting one caller to go with me and pay me off. Unfortunately, that money and more went away, as I ran into three more flop or turn sets to eat up the rest of my buy-in and part of another.

Luckily for me, things turned around a bit soon afterwards…. when I decided that playing big hands was points. So, I raised The Power of 4 from the button, getting several callers, raised the Q74 flop after nailing the bottom two pair and got paid off in several places. Later, I raised preflop in early position with a middle pair, flopped a set that I check-raised and got paid off in two positions. The next hand, I raised crabs UTG, flopped another set and got paid off again.
I eventually got back to even and had won back about half of my Diamond Lil’s loss…. and then things went south again. I



The last hand I noted was T7 in the SB, flopping TJJ… and the BB with $4 in preflop held 98 and caught a river 7 to take 70% of the pot away from me.
I left shortly before 5 a.m., only down a few dollars from when I started at Muckleshoot.

I came back two nights later, on Saturday morning after an attempt at a power nap didn’t work. I arrived back at the Muckleshoot at 1 a.m, getting seated right away in another $3/6 game with the $15k jackpot still up on the board. I had only played with one player at my table before, and when I limped in early position with JTo and raised the Jack-high flop, getting a few callers to pay me through the river. That was pretty much the end of my positive flow, as draws and top pairs in big pots didn’t come through.
One hand that temporarily stemmed the tide: I limped with 44 UTG (remember yesterday?), with multiple callers in for a raise. On the K52 flop, the King bets out and whittles down the field. I made a fairly bad call, even with the large pot, to catch a runner-runner wheel that I could check-raise and get paid. That brought me back to even… but not for long.

Our table kept shrinking and there were no other $3/6 tables to combine with. Even with a few Muckleshoot dealers propping the game up (they weren’t eligible for the high hand bonus, I found out), the $3/6 dissolved at 5 a.m, along with 1 ½ buyins for me. Since my flight back wasn’t for a few hours, I reluctantly joined the only game available- a $4/8 full kill (two pots in a row of $20 or more)- with only $60.
I tried to get lucky with a short stack, to avoid re-upping, but I just treaded water. When they combined two games into a 10-handed game for a while, I caved in and hit the ATM for some backup cash to bring my stack up to a semi-respectable 20 BB…. even though it wasn’t really that big, as there were a lot of kill pot hands.
Of course, my cards didn’t hold up and I went through most of that stack, then back it up with another rack and went up and down. As my good draws and bigger hands weren’t holding up again, I declared that I was going to start playing from behind again, to give myself a chance. Hands like this one: I bet A3c through a 4h2hJs flop, third heart turn and river 5 to stun what I assumed was a jack in a solid player’s hand. She got me back when she flopped nut flush draw, picked up straight draw on the turn that I checked behind her, and bet when she caught the offsuit Ace on the river.

Other hands that I remember:
• Raising UTG with A8c, knowing I’d get a bunch of callers at two bets, at least. I bet the TT8 flop, the Ten on the turn and the river deuce…. only to have the player who 3-bet preflop and then called behind me with “I know you have the ten” reraise his last $5 and turn over Kings.
• Soon after that, a really loose woman raised in middle position who’d been playing on the casino floor and decided that Texas Hold’em game must be similar to this one. I called her raise, along with several of the table, with 87c in early position. I called her again on the JX9 flop, the 7 turn and the river 8, sure I’d beaten her…. but Mr. Slowcall Kings had 97 to take that pot away as well. The woman had A9h.

Then, just as I was running into “going to miss my flight” time, I FINALLY picked up Aces after UTG raised, with two callers. I reraised, got a few more callers and UTG capped, with all of them in. Visions of recovering a lot of my loss were dancing in my head…. until the KsTQs flop came down and UTG bet out and reraised me, with two players cold-calling. I had close to the odds I needed, even with only having a probable 4 outs… until the third spade came on the turn and UTG+1 raised UTG to $16. I folded, the river paired Kings and UTG’s QQ resucked to beat the flush on his left.
I lost a few more dollars when my gutshot draw didn’t come in, as I was racking up, and I left at 7:15 a.m with another 12 BB down the drain.

Obviously, the west coast poker gods aren’t amused by The Power of 4… but they sure understand how to smack me around with eights.