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Old 11-06-2007, 04:11 AM
swope swope is offline
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Default TR: 10-20 LHE at The Peppermill, Reno (WARNING: LONG TR IS LOOOONG)


A friend had been on my case to check out the poker in Reno for quite some time, plus I heard that Ken Shamrock of UFC fame played the 10-20 limit game at the Peppermill regularly, so I made a point for some time to try to get out there. That dude trains 14 hours a day. If he can beat that game, its worth making an effort to check out.

As it happens, the same friend mentioned it to me last Thursday as I debated taking a weekend road trip, so I called and was told that there was in fact a substantially discounted poker rate this weekend due to tourns running. And so on Friday night, I popped half of a girlfriends medical amphetamine spansule, loaded up my entire Bad Brains mp3 collection, 2 shirts (including my Lol Donkaments shirt obv), and went on pretty much my first real road trip.

The drive was really quite beautiful. Very clear weather, very few cars on the road at night. My first impression of Reno, as I roll in around midnight, is like, this is what Vegas will look like about 6 weeks after a plague rolls through it. All the lights are on but there arent that many people around, even at midnight on a Friday night. Small collections of survivors on the occasional corners and on every block, dancing neon framing brass doorways and windows. Of course, in between all that neon were an average of four pawn shops per block. Its that kind of party.

Anyway, I roll into the Peppermill at midnight. I look haggard. I havent had a haircut in months, I have a weeks worth of stubble on my face, and Im probably looking as tore up as I feel from the meds and the long drive. I expected there to be problems, honestly, as I looked quite simply like a transient serial killer. I walked in and saw two types of people; tourists and honest to god transient serial killers. The desk was gracious and kind and had me in my room within 10 minutes or so.

The room is actually quite large but it smells like cheap disenfectant, like the lockerroom in a well used gym. I grab a shower, start to towel off, and see a patch of what looks like a dried blood stain. Elsewhere I notice what could easily be a small dried hunk of [censored]. I get back in the shower. The next towel I grab, I examine about six square inches of it for ten minutes then dry off using only that six square inch patch. I actually didnt get too upset about it btw; this is simply what you can expect from just about any hotel in the country outside a handful of really, really good (expensive) ones. This however is Reno.

Oh yeah, btw, I took that half a pill before I packed, and was starting to rush pretty hard by the time I was ready to pick out clothes. One thing about speed; it kills the part of your brain responsible for vetting ones actions. Like, its no coincidence that if you created a map of urban speed abuse, it would overlay perfectly with areas where HIV transmission is in full bloom. Long story short; so it came to pass that I ended up in Reno with only the pants I was wearing. I just didnt feel like I needed another pair of pants. Go figure. So when I knocked over an entire mini-bottle of ketchup onto my pants leg while wolfing down a room service delivered cheeseburger (4 out of 10), I was forced to wash them by hand and rig up a blow drier inside a pantleg for 15 minutes.

This half-assed solution produced what appeared to be a huge jizz stain on my thigh, which earned me many a knowing glance from what I can only assume were veterans of various strip clubs in the area.

Anyway like I was saying, I knew sleep wasnt happening so I grabbed 4 hundred dollar bills and hit tables. In the elevator, I notice that not only are they piping in what appears to be a light jazz version of Lets Spend the Night Together by the Rolling Stones, but it appears that its a particularly lackluster live version of it. I wonder if its some incredibly cool, postmodern, hyper-ironic version of it, like maybe its Ween or something and they are performing some weird cultural leveling that snuck past the censors. Strangely, I also hear a second song being played under it, very softly, like a radio signal bleeding in. I cant quite make it out. I make a mental note to see if its still audible tomorrow when Im sober and well rested (in fact it was).

The elevator door opens and I realize that the Stones song was actually being performed, live, by 3 dudes who look seriously like middle school history teachers on a stage in front of a bar.

Awesome.

Let me tell you something; the Peppermill has a real nice poker pit. Very cozy and dark. And at the time; completely empty. Because of the tourns, they moved the entire poker operation into the goddamned convention center. It was noisy and horribly bright and cold. And the entire thing looked like it had been layed out by the set designers for Saturn 3 if they had been paid in shots of cheap scotch. Mirrors everywhere, on the cieling, up on the walls, and on any elevated surface, inexplicably, plastic tropical plants had been arranged.

Very different crowd from say, the major poker rooms in Vegas, my friends. A great many people were seated who could skew your drug test results if you simply looked at them too long. Many of them had just busted out of the nightly tourn, and there were a whole lot of chips getting thrown around. I resisted the tempation to sit at any NL games, I wanted to stick with limit, mostly for bankroll reasons; I had a 1k budget to dick around with and I wanted to spend a lot of time playing cards.

Around 1am, I get seated at the 10-20 game (one table only). Immediately I saw this wasnt going to be a profitable night. At least one third of the table were just total rocks, VP$IP is literally in the mid teens. And although there were a couple of donators around, there were also a couple of full blown gambletards who were just hitting right and left. Straddle with 92o, call a middle position raise and a late position 3 bet, flop 2pr and call all the way, taking down really substantial pots and gutting the table of all the loose money. There was simply no one I wanted to be in a pot with. Against the rocks I was beat if I saw action and didnt hold the nuts, against the gambletards I had to hit the flop incredibly hard, aggression was useless against them by itself, and after 20 or 30 minutes the donators were broke.

By 3:30AM, I was down about 345$, and the game broke.

I popped a xanax in my room and slept it off. I wasnt really that upset; I hadnt played *that* badly. If I caught even average cards against that same game I would have broken even without a problem.

Woke up around noon with a solid 8 hours under my belt. Felt just fine. Had a big breakfast delivered, and by 1pm I was back at the tables. Lots of huge hands, I wasnt involved in most of them. Someone flopped a royal flush, and even more impressive, took down a big pot with it. I flopped middle pair and the nut flush on a KsTc4s board. Dude to my right goes all in with his last bet on a Kc turn. I bet the spade river and its folded to us. I table my nut flush, he tables pocket kings. At least I went down with style.

Even with all that, I still made just over 1BB an hour and cashed out with about 740$ 6 hours later on a 600$ buyin. Went back to my room, had a 22oz prime rib dinner delivered (9 out of 10, seriously great meal imo), took a nap, and was back at the tables by 8:30pm.

Despite being on the list since I got there for 3-6 HORSE, no game got off the ground, which was frustrating because I really wanted to play HORSE live and they apparently get it spread quite often. 10-20 LHE had a list so I sat at 1/2 NL for a bit. First hand, jacks UTG. Raise to 8, hoping to get reraised and get my 100$ buyin in the middle as I had watched people getting incredibly frisky with like A7s pre flop. Doesnt quite work out; get called in a total of 5 places. Flop is AxQxTx, and I pretty much open fold. Predictably there is heavy betting and AT gets tabled at some point. Next hand I get aces in the big blind. Predictably, there is a 12$ raise from MP, LP calls, I call and hope to get my money in on a fertile flop. I see Kd8d3h. MP bets 18, LP folds, I call, hoping to check a brick turn and represent a flush draw. Brick hits, I check, MP bets 25$, I make with the shoving, MP tanks and folds. A few hands later I rack up 145$ when I get called to the 10-20 LHE game.

I buy in real short, dropping a hundred in cash behind my 145$ in chips, and things start off real slow. I bluff at a small pot and recover some blinds but eventually I have to rebuy due to a frigid deck punching me square in the balls. Plus the table has gotten short handed due to the overall [censored] action, so the orbits are butchering me. We have people drop in from the 20-40 LHE game saying its a bad joke with no action. They stick around for about half an orbit before wishing they had never given up there seat at 20-40.

Eventually the table starts to fill up with a fresh crowd of bust-outs from the tourn and I hit a few rushes, ending up with my original stack + 300 in front of me. At one point during a kill pot, I stare at the dealers hands and try to manipulate the shuffle using my mind and breathing patterns to get me dealt aces. I get dealt aces. The flop is 347, two spades. There is way, way too much action, I end up in the middle of a reraising war. I want it to be two flush draws. Its not. 5d6d gets tabled and Im pretty much back to ground zero.

One hand in particular saved me. It was getting late and there had been a lot of action at the table, some of the pots had been getting pretty large. I look down UTG and see Kd2d. I limp to conceal the nuts. UTG+1 calls. UTG+2 raises, and I swear to god, gets 5 callers. I announce that Im calling the gambulance and put in my money, UTG+1 calls as well, we see a flop.

Flop is 722, rainbow.

I check to UTG+1. UTG+1 checks to UTG+2. UTG+2 bets. 5 callers to me. I call, so does UTG+1.

Turn is a K, no flush draw. I check and UTG+2 bets, and we all call. Every single one of us. River is an ace. I bet, pretty sure that Im getting raised by a bigger house. Everyone calls. I table my house and there is much hooting and hollaring and laughter.

Let me point that out again; hooting and hollaring and laughter. The truth is, the people at the table were a gas to play with when the action was decent. I never saw anyone get [censored] with another player, there were no egos. People lost huge pots and said "nice hand" and they really meant it, they werent just putting on airs.

At some point however our good nature gets tested when the floor stuffs a tenth player in at the table. It was bad. I am what many people (myself included) consider a fatass. The 79 year old vet to my left was easily bigger than me, and the 450 pound Turk who ended up on my right was so huge that the heat rising off his body mass made me phsycially uncomfortable. Whats worse, I now became cold decked again. After 2 hours or so I was real close to my original buyin.

One hand saved the night. Around 3am, I had this real LAG young dude from the night before to my right. Glasses, hyper aggressive, the whole 9. Nice dude, dont get me wrong, but he was constantly out of line preflop and tended to get just as out of line post flop. My impression of him was confirmed when he mentioned he was down 2k this weekend. I feel like pointing out that maybe capping against my pocket kings the night before with dueces is probably a bad long term tactic, despite the fact that he flopped a set that hand.

Anyway, me, LAG dude, and Mr 56>aces end up in a raised pot with me. Im on the button with Ac6c, we are basically the last people at the table at this point. Flop is KhJdQc. He bets, Mr56 calls. I call. For one thing, Mr56 would have reraised if he had a big piece of the flop and probably called down any heavy action from me. Plus I know hes a good player and makes solid reads, and Im pretty sure hes thinking exactly what Im thinking about LAG dude; that his range is so rediculous that its -EV to give him credit for anything on this flop.

Turn is a 9c. LAG *checks*, which means exactly nothing. Mr56 smells blood and bets, but Mr56 loves taking stabs at scary pots. He often has marginal holdings but is rarely entirely out of line. He could easily be betting a 9 or a lower pocket pair, or a flush draw, or he could have the nuts. It could happen. The thing is, I have nut flush draws plus a T will probably give me at least half the pot. So I call. LAG dude immediately pounds a reraise onto the felt like he wanted to cry out Yahtzee when he did it. The pot at this point is really, really big and I am miles beyond priced in, so when Mr56 folds, I toss in the extra chips.

River is a ten, and he comes out firing. I reraise and mention something about how its probably a chop. For one thing I honestly thought it was a chop at that point. For another, it was a reasonably friendly game, so if he mucks his set on the river, Id rather it be because I warned him he got sucked out on. We had been having a friendly game and I was thinking also about what mindset I wanted him in if we played again the next day. Besides the bet alone says I have the ace, Im not exactly tipping him off by suggesting verbally that I put him on an ace too.

But he doesnt fold; he stares down the board, open mouthed in horror, and mutters something about how "he cant believe I caught up with him on the river" as he calls. I still dont think he understands that any ace beats him. I table broadway and he tables TTP. Whatever, that was that. We all shook hands and wished eachother well, calling it a night.

I went immediately to bed, even from my losses the night before.

Sunday was fairly awesome. I had a great breakast after checking out and hit the tables. I proceeded to take down about 5BB an hour for 5 straight hours. By 5pm I cashed out 950$ on a 500$ buyin. After lodging/gas/food I was up about 200$ for the trip, which is just fine with me.

I stopped at Boomtown for a shockingly epic lobster buffet that I promised a friend I would check out, then made it home without event.

Overall it was a good experience but I doubt I'll be back any time soon. The games were really quite poor compared to the 15-30 LHE games in Vegas and Oakland, or the 20-40 games in LA and San Jose. Although I ran hot on a few occasions, very often the tables were completely without substantial action for hours, and despite being pretty pleasant company, the presense of every so goddamned many rocky old men at the tables just slaughtered any potential action and made me yearn for my crazy Baysian gambloors. Combine that with the long drive, and I just dont consider it very economical option overall.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed it.
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  #2  
Old 11-06-2007, 04:45 AM
SDone SDone is offline
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Default Re: TR: 10-20 LHE at The Peppermill, Reno (WARNING: LONG TR IS LOOOONG)

The lobster buffet at Boomtown is actually rather good.
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  #3  
Old 11-06-2007, 09:51 AM
Lurshy Lurshy is offline
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Default Re: TR: 10-20 LHE at The Peppermill, Reno (WARNING: LONG TR IS LOOOONG)

[ QUOTE ]
I look down UTG and see Kd2d. I limp to conceal the nuts. UTG+1 calls. UTG+2 raises, and I swear to god, gets 5 callers. I announce that Im calling the gambulance and put in my money

[/ QUOTE ]

With the nuts how do you not limp/raise that PF?!

Nice TR
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  #4  
Old 11-06-2007, 10:03 AM
Javanewt Javanewt is offline
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Default Re: TR: 10-20 LHE at The Peppermill, Reno (WARNING: LONG TR IS LOOOONG)

Nice report. Thanks for the read.
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  #5  
Old 11-06-2007, 11:00 AM
jeffnc jeffnc is offline
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Default Re: TR: 10-20 LHE at The Peppermill, Reno (WARNING: LONG TR IS LOOOONG)

lol, when someone says "long" it usually means they're remedial typers, and it's 3 paragraphs. Thanks for the TR, an actual long one!
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  #6  
Old 11-06-2007, 11:05 AM
canis582 canis582 is offline
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Default Re: TR: 10-20 LHE at The Peppermill, Reno (WARNING: LONG TR IS LOOOONG)

check raise the river? would have been 5 or 6 more bets, but less hooting and hollering.
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  #7  
Old 11-06-2007, 11:24 AM
jaydreb jaydreb is offline
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Default Re: TR: 10-20 LHE at The Peppermill, Reno (WARNING: LONG TR IS LOOOONG)

Aaah, the good old Peppermill. I won my first live MTT ($100 buy-in) there during the 2005 Fall Poker Tournaments.

I traveled to Reno a lot for business in 2005 and 2006 and agree that it is pretty much a dump.
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  #8  
Old 11-06-2007, 11:38 AM
diddyeinstein diddyeinstein is offline
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Default Re: TR: 10-20 LHE at The Peppermill, Reno (WARNING: LONG TR IS LOOOONG

"I look down UTG and see Kd2d. I limp to conceal the nuts."

That really cracked me up.
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  #9  
Old 11-06-2007, 01:10 PM
SpleenLSD SpleenLSD is offline
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Default Re: TR: 10-20 LHE at The Peppermill, Reno (WARNING: LONG TR IS LOOOONG)

[ QUOTE ]
on Friday night, I popped half of a girlfriends medical amphetamine spansule, loaded up my entire Bad Brains mp3 collection

[/ QUOTE ]

Looks like the trip was a success early. Nice TR.
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  #10  
Old 11-06-2007, 02:30 PM
Zaphrous Zaphrous is offline
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Default Re: TR: 10-20 LHE at The Peppermill, Reno (WARNING: LONG TR IS LOOOONG

Nice report and well written.
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