OT - Caesar's Indiana TR (Longish)

[LesJ]

My sister-in-law turned 22 Friday, so she wanted my wife and I to take here out to Caesar’s Indiana to celebrate her birthday. We make the same journey last year for her 21st birthday and we all 3 scored well on the trip.

Friday’s trip started off around 7 pm, as we left Central Kentucky and headed towards Southern Indiana for dinner and gambling. After much debate, we decided to stop at the Olive Garden in a newly built up area in Clarksville, IN for dinner. About 4 yrs ago, this road was desolate, but now it is retail/restaurant heaven. The Olive Garden we entered had only been open for 2 weeks and the wait was still almost an hour even though it was the back end of “dinner” time. I had pretty much played my normal amount and time of poker online Thursday night/Friday morning, staying up until 8 am or so playing and then sleeping until about 3 pm or so Friday (that’s when my darling 6 yr old girl came home from her school Christmas party bouncing off the walls, making it impossible for anyone within a 5 mile radius to sleep!) In addition to having very little sleep, I really do not remember eating anything significant since supper Thursday night, roughly 24 hour prior to our sitting down at the Olive Garden. Suffice to say, after we endured the hour wait time, I ate heartily. The appetizer sampler that was delivered promptly to our table was devoured even more promptly. The server had sorta forgotten about our salad and breadsticks, but once they arrived, they too did not last very long. For my entrée, I purchased the Tour of Italy, which included Chicken Parm, Spaghetti & Meat Sauce, and Lasagna. I DID NOT have room, nor attempt to eat any dessert. I was stuffed beyond belief.

We then made our pilgrimage to Caesar’s Indiana. The ladies departed to their favorite slot machines and I headed down to level one, where the Poker Room is located. I signed up for 1-2 NL and was 8th on the waiting list. I bought $200 in chips and was assigned a table within 10 minutes (a lot quicker than I thought). I had read the sign when buying in that the min buy in for the 1-2 game was $100, and the max was $300, but I had only had $200 to play with (not very balla, eh?) Oh well, I thought, maybe the stacks won’t be too deep when I get to the table. Yeah. . .right! I got to table #11, as I was instructed, where I found 2 open seats. Trying to decide where to sit, I looked at the stacks in front of each player and was quite dismayed. It looked roughly like this:
Seat 1 - $550
Seat 2 - $1200
Seat 3 - $1400
Seat 4 - Open ( YEAH RIGHT!)
Seat 5 - $600
Seat 6 - $1300
Seat 7 - $500 (but chips had a clear covering on them and the player wasn’t present)
Seat 8 - $400
Seat 9 - $250
Seat 10 - Open (This chair looks cozy!)

I obviously sat down at seat 10 and proceeded to play 3 hrs of the most boring poker in my life. Over the last two weeks or so, I have predominately been playing 6 max cash games. I have really been working on LAGing it up, and my recent numbers are trending in the 22/18 range. This live experience couldn’t have been more different than what my recent online play has been like. Not only was I a very small stack with a table full of monsters (have these guys been eating fish all night long????), but I shortly realize that the “standard” raise at this table is at LEAST to $17, and oft-times $22 (yeah, I am gonna call off 1/10th of my stack in position to see a flop with T8s - wtf???) To say the least, I did not see many flops. I called a small raise in position one time with KQ s and whiffed on the flop, and that may have been the entirety of my action in the first hour.

By about the end of the first hour, I was starting to get “uncomfortable.” My massive dinner was working its way thru my body and I knew I needed to get away from the table soon. As my problem started to actually make me squirm in my seat, I realized the “smart” play would be to play 3-4 more hands, since I was on the button, and take a quick break when I was utg or utg+1, hopefully to return from my much need sabbatical in good position at the table.

When I got to MP that orbit, I looked at my hole cards and found K[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img], K[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img].. My bodily function issues suddenly became very much secondary. I finally had a hand to play. Damn tho, I thought. . . I had been so passive so far. I was sure that I soon as I brought it in for a raise, the entire table would duck for cover! A player in EP limped for $2 and it was folded to me. I bumped it to $15 (which is more than a typical standard raise for myself, but a little lower than standard for the table). “Here come the folds,” I thought. Not quite so. A player in LP called, both blinds called, and the EP limper called as well. “FIVE TO THE FLOP?????? Noooooooo!!!!” I was already mentally divorcing myself of this hand, telling myself that I can come back from my break refreshed and “start over” after I muck this hand post-flop.

That was, until the flop came 2[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img], 8[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img], K[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] . All 3 players in front checked to me. I was convinced that with 5 to the flop, someone HAD to be on a diamond flush draw, so I thought I needed to fire out a strong flop bet. I bet $70 into the pot of $75. The LP player folded, as did the sb. The player in the bb called and the Ep player mucked, leaving just two of us to the turn. The turn came and there were only two things I noticed. First of all, I knew the run was NOT a diamond. Secondly, I noticed that the player in the bb was betting at me. He bet $75 into the pot of $215. Calling this bet would only leave me $25 behind, so I went ahead and pushed the rest of my chips in the middle as well. My opponent obviously made the $25 call for a $390 pot, and I asked him if he has a flush draw as we flip over our cards. He says “yeah, “ as he flips over 2[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img], A[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] and I expose my pocket kings. Someone else at the table announces, “drawing dead.” Then and only then did I realize that the turn card was 8[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] , making the river card meaningless.

After that hand, I took my much needed “break” and then sat down and played 2 more very boring hours of poker, never really having an opportunity to mix it up, By the time I paid the $6 rake every 30 minutes and posted the blinds every orbit, I cashed out with $363. I figure this isn’t too bad for essentially only playing one hand in 3 hours. Both the ladies went busto at slots, but at least they never journeyed downstairs and bugged me for monies!

[pineapple888]

Caesar's Las Vegas trip report summary:

Me 5/130 in the noon tourney +$800
Bones +$3000 or so, after 19 hours straight of 2/5 NL starting at midnight Fri.
Me ready to score the quirky but hot chick with the supermodel body who just got promoted to brush from dealer
StupidSucker applying to buy a house so bones can finally move to Vegas for good. Or he might just buy the crackhouse apt. building he lives in now.

Shipitholla.

[bones]

Donked off like 900 towards the end 3-barrelling some douche wearing sunglasses. Live sessions are brual, but I'm slowing introducing flipping for hundos into the 2/5 game at caesars.