Reno Trip report (Low Poker Content) very long

[djoyce003]

Hey guys, thought I'd post this here since this is really the only place I post.

Went to Reno with my father and brother, and a group of guys that my father goes on a golf boondoggle with every year. This year, Reno was the location of choice. I didn't plan anything, I was just along for the ride.

We stayed at the Atlantis, which is not downtown with the rest of the Casino's in Reno. However, this worked out because there was much less traffic and the hotel/casino was very close to the golf courses.

We arrived thursday, checked in, and immediately headed to Wolf Run golf course. The course was really pretty. Greens were tough to read because I'm used to playing in fairly flat territory. There were many of the greens where the hills and mountains created optical illusions of being uphill or downhill when you were really the opposite. However, I played fairly well and shot a 77.

The next 3 days we played LakeRidge Golf Course. I thought the course was nice, but overrated and was not worth the $20 more to play than Wolf Run IMO. If I was planning the golf, we would have played more and different courses every day, but I wasn't. I shot 78/85/78 at LakeRidge.

On the way to the car on day 1, my dad got something in his eye. He of course rubbed it and irritated it to the point where it was really bothering him. We managed to get him a doctors appointment the next day and he had a huge abrasion on his cornea from whatever had gotten in there. He had to sit day 2 of golf out.

During our round on day 2, one of the people in our foursome got sick and couldn't finish the round. This was a bit of forshadowing as 6 out of our group of 12 went down with food poisoning. We were lucky that we didn't eat with the group after day 1 due to dad's eye. On days 3 and 4, our group was cut in half due to the food poisoning. 2 people had to spend the night in the emergency room.

Casino

The rooms at the hotel were nice, no complaints....fairly standard hotel room. The table game areas for the most part were full of decent looking non-scuzzy people, with a few exceptions. Dealers and floorpeople were all courteous. I unfortunately did not get to play very much poker at all because I felt guilty leaving dad by himself at the blackjack tables....so mostly I played blackjack.

Highlights - The casino deals all double and single deck for the most part. I'm not a card counter or anything, but I'd pay attention. I normally play $5 a hand and increase my bets if i'm winning. On the first deal on one deck, 16 cards were played, all the 5's and 6's came out, and only 1 ten was used, no aces. I raised my bet to $50, blackjack baby!.

Idiocy - Gotta love this. Had a guy sit next to me that wouldn't hit a bust card period. If he had 12 and the dealer had a ten up, he'd stand. Loses $100 in about 10 minutes complaining about the dealers "luck." Also saw a lady stand on a hard 5 against a dealer 7 and saw a drunk guy stand on a 10. Nice.

Poker - I only played one night and didn't have much of a bankroll so I played 3/6 limit. The game is 3/6 half-kill but blinds are 1/2. There were multiple 9 way limped pots. To call this game insanely soft would be an understatement. First hand I play, I limp 44. Flop is 422. I bet all three streets, get multiple callers and take down a nice pot against flush chasers that didn't get there unfortunately, and a guy with pocket tens that didn't raise preflop...nice open limp with the TT guy.

I saw three people get pocket aces and not raise preflop. Memorable suckout hand. I raise AK, get called in about 4 spots. Flop is KT7. I bet, get 1 caller. Turn A. I bet, 1 caller. River J, I check/call and lose to Q2 who had no hand and no draw on the flop, but called anyway.

They also ran a stud tournament at 10:00 a.m. It goes for 1 hour, and is a shootout structure. You get 200 chips for your buyin, and for $2 more you get 100 extra chips...everyone takes the add-on. The tourney is 20 minutes of 1-5 stud, 20 minutes of 2-10 stud, 20 mins of no-limit. After the 20 minutes of no limit, there is 1 more final hand. Whoever has the MOST chips wins, you don't have to have them all, just more than anyone else. I got nothing playable for basically the entire tourney. The only pocket pair I was dealt in 1 hour was 99 and I won with that.

It was getting down late in the tourney, maybe 8 minutes left and I knew I had to make a move or I'd lose. I had a little more than the 300 chips I started with and pick up the monster, Q64 rainbow. I call the bring-in, it gets raised behind me by a guy with a K up, and called by a guy with a Q up. I go all in for about $350 total and get called by the other two guys, who have me covered. They end up all in in a side-pot. We turn over the hands and i'm up against KKJ and QQJ. All my 6's 4's, 5's, 7's, 8's and 3's are live however. I turn an ace and they don't pick up 2 pair so I picked up some ace outs. I hit a 7 on 5th street and an 8 on 6th. They still don't have 2 pair so I can catch an ace, or a 5. River 5, ship-it baby and I triple up to t1100 in chips.

We are three way on the next to the last hand, shorty moves in for about 150, the only guy to have me covered calls, and loses. Now shorty has 300-400, I have 1100, and the other guy has to have around 900-1000. I wanted to make a deal but the dealer said no deal. Last hand, shorty pushes, the other guy FOLDS, and so I fold my way to a victory. Win 120, tip dealer 15. Had I known everyone was retarded, I wouldn't have made any deals.

[ChipStorm]

Great story. I keep hearing how live play is donktastic, but the stories continue to amaze me. Thanks for posting this.

[djoyce003]

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Great story. I keep hearing how live play is donktastic, but the stories continue to amaze me. Thanks for posting this.

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Out of 10 players at the 3/6 table, only 3 people ever raised preflop, and they were the same three people....everybody else always just limped, no matter what they had. I saw QQ/TT/AK all limped preflop. Another doozy I saw was a preflop raise, then reraise...this assclown CALLED the threebet with A2, and called down on an ace-hi flop and of course lost to AK. I can thank the Caro book of tells for saving me on another particular hand. I pick up in AQ in middle position, a dude eating dinner raises, I fold. Dude eating has AK.

I forgot to mention the one cheesy angle-shoot I saw. This old guy on my right was a calling station, but he had the bad habit of folding lots of rivers in big pots with hands like TP bad kicker, etc. So if you had a big hand, it was tough to get a payoff from him on a river value-bet. So he's involved in a hand, and flops TP, but the board is like 236xx with a flush possible. Old guy is calling this guy down (same guy that sucked out on my AK with Q2). Angle shooter tries to bet 12 on the river instead of 6. Old guy insta-calls, and of course the angle-shooter has the straight. The old man called because he got sucked in by the "fake" bluff.