Tunica - Goldstrike weekend trip report

[UATrewqaz]

A very quick trip report...

Was in Tunica this past weekend and played 1/2 NL, I was buying in a little short for $100 as I am a relatively new NL cash player (waaaaaay too much limit over the past few years, just getting into NL cash).

Interestingly enough the 1/2 NL games they spread are UNCAPPED buy ins, so there were people at every table who had bought in for $500+, so the many stacks around the table were very deep in relation to the blinds, there were always 2-4 players with $600+.

Many of them looked to be wealthy gambler types and had no real interest in playing "good" poker at all, so the money was flying around the table.

Another thing to note, they allow straddles from ANY position. I had never seen this before. As an online player mostly I'm not used to straddles as is, and when I have seem them in B&M they've always been immediately to the left of the blinds. So as you can imagine there was a fair amount of straddling. The button was a very popular spot to straddle and it looked like it might be +EV but I wasn't in the mood to experiment so I never actually straddled myself.

Friday night, ueventful first 2-3 hours. I busted my first $100 and rebought for another $100. The next 2-3 hours were fun, running up my stack to $1,100. Most of my profit came through doubling through the same guy twice (one of the deep stacks), in almost identical hands

First hand had about $180, pick up 99 in EP, limp in, someone make small raise to $10 or so, a bunch of callers including myself. Flop is 984, two hearts, giving me top set. I bet out $35 or so and pick up 2 callers. Turn is a very pretty 8 of hears, giving me a boat. I check on the turn (maybe a mistake) hoping an 8 would bet or a flush would bet, and the button doesn't disappoint. He pops in $50 or so, I push, and he insta calls. He's got A [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] K [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] and is dead to my boat, with the double up and the extra money in the pot I've got a little over $400 in front of me.

I was sitting at about $500 when I double through the same guy, and I felt a little bad because he was one of the nicest and friendliest guys at the table, anyway I pick up QQ in LP and raise it up to $10, get like 4 callers. Flop is a lovely Q22 and it checks around to me and I check. The turn is some non-significant diamond, putting two on the board, guy bets into me for about $50 and I pop it to $200, he calls. River is another diamond and he goes all in, I insta call and he asks if I have the boat and I do, he has Ax [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] and is busto now.

Saturday night the cards weren't quite as hot, busto on my first $100 (QQ<AA), busto my next $100, bought in for another $100 and played on it for probably 3-4 hours, wavering between $100 and $250, winning and losing medium sized pots. I was playing pretty poorly and calling way too much of my preflop stack with marginal crap. I was pretty card dead and drinking enough to make me pretty drunk. I'm really skinny so I go from sober, to buzzed, to drunk pretty fast without meaning to sometimes. Eventually got moved to a different table and had about $260 or so, so was pretty even for the night.

There is a total douchebag at the table I get moved to, got on his hoodie, chewing a toothpick, was talking smack about all the tournaments he wins down in the islands or some BS, etc. I won a decnet pot off him though and actually got accused of slow rolling, haha. I have a 65o and called a preflop raise of his, along with a few others. Flop is 246 giving me top pair and a gutshot. It checks to him and he bets, a few others and myself call (I was a little drunk and forget the amounts). The turn is like an 8 and it checks to him and he bets again, this time a good bit. I still think he has two overs most likely and I call, even though I know I'm probably calling too much, we were heads up at this point. The river is a 3 and I have completely forgotten this makes my straight and I check, for some reason my mind knew I was going for a straight but was wanting a 4 for it. He then raps the table, checkign, and flips over his JJ, I flip over my hand like almost immediately, and am about to read it as a pair of 6's but my drunken mind begins to processes the board and my cards and after about maybe 5-10 seconds I say "I have a straight" to which he makes a snide remark of "Nice slow roll, sir" I'm too drunk to really defend myself but I assure him I was not slow rolling and began reviewing things in my mind to see if I did accidentally and nope I hadn't, he was just being a douche. If he would have checked his hand rather than flipped it up I would have flipped mine up first, but he flipped his up first and like I said, I instantly flipped my cards over, it just took me a few seconds of looking at the board to figure out I had a straight and verbally call it.

Regardless I was up $200 for the night and was pretty tired/drunk and decided to call it a night.

So winner winner, $1100 over 2 nights, lots of money on the table being thrown around, very very good games. I played pretty decently, not particularly good, but better than most at the tables, and the cards were kind.

[MicroBob]

You should have been at GS when they first started that 1/2 uncapped game.
$600 was a small-stack.
$3k or more in a stack would not be uncommon.
It was just weird.

At Horseshoe the 1/3 is capped at $300 but the 2/5 is uncapped.

Yes, all the straddling gets weird sometimes and I can see how it would be really awkward for a newcomer.
Fun times when some guy straddles 20 non-blind hands in a row or something.

[MikeTheGeek]

Hey thanks for posting. I'm heading to Tunica in a few weeks and we're planning on playing the Gold Strike mostly. Now I have played their 3/6 limit table a bit in the past and done ok, so I'll probably put in 5 hours there for my hotel discount. I have no live N/L experience but was considering their 1/2 - however - I didn't realize it's uncapped !? Would I/we be better off walking over to the Horseshoe for the capped 1/3 or is the GS 1/2 soft enough that we might prefer it anyway? We're pretty casual gamblers and the goal in my case is to be able to play plenty. Can you sit and limp for hours at tables like these?
Thanks again for your TR.

[UATrewqaz]

Playing at $200 when everyone else has $800 is actually to your benefit, rather than everyone else having $200 as well, especially if they are playing very loose preflop and on the flop. You just have to be comfortable with getting it all in. The pot on the flop will often almost equal or exceed your remaining stack so any hand you hit you are often committed. But assuming you've read the necessary NL literature you understand the advantage of being short stacked in a cash game (you usually get your money in good, you offer your opponents no implied odds, it makes your game very simple).

For the fish who bought in for 1K, it's "just $200" but to you it's a double up, so he's much more apt to give you action when you got something good.

It really is a mixed bag as far as preflop play goes, at least in my 10 or so hours of play there this weekend. Alot of pots went unraised preflop and a fair share got raised preflopped, usually too much, the first raise was often $10, $12, $15, $20, etc. which is much bigger than the standard 3-4 BB you might expect.

I was limping with trash a TON, especially after I built up a decent stack, figuring I could outplay people significantly after the flop, since people wanted to give so much action. However after I limped quite often it was getting raised behind me and I was calling those raises too often with trash.

[Brad1970]

Good TR. I play there alot. Glad you like our little spot in the world. I was there too in a 1/2nl game this weekend.

You didn't slow roll dude in the hoodie if you immediately turn your cards over. You might have trouble focusing due to the alcohol but cards speak & you have a dealer that will figure out the best hand. If he's stupid enough not to know the definition of a slow roll...I really want to play in that game.

[NicksDad1970]

nice report - Was the guy in the hoodie in his late 20-early 30's and short dark hair? pretty good player and sneaky?

[MicroBob]

There are some reasonable players of course. But overall live NL players of the 1/2 or 1/3 variety are going to be so mind-numbingly bad that anyone with a clue should be in a very small minority and should do okay.
As long as you don't think playing 63o from MP is good poker you can already consider yourself better than 2 or 3 of the players at your table.