Tunica trip report

[Benjamin]

I had a most excellent trip to Tunica weekend before last that I want to share. The idea was hatched for some of us from the local poker group to make the pilgramage across the southland to Tunica, where the food is free, rooms are cheap, and the poker action unmatched in the Southeast.

One regular, Jerry, a retiree, upped the ante by telling us that he would drive his RV, and he had room for 6 or 7 passengers. Yeah baby! My wife and I secured a seat, and we agreed to meet in the parking lot of a shopping center east of town.

Thursday afternoon was cold, grey and blustery when the appointed hour of 4pm arrived. 6 of us huddled around joking as we waited for the RV. No one knew what to expect, and we joked about him showing up with a delivery truck, no windows, or a big pickup with a camper top, but when the RV pulled into the lot, high fives were flying.

Jerry rolled up in his 3 year old 48' Diplomat, and showed off the accomodations. He had 3 pizzas in the oven, a refrigerator full of drinks, and a poker table set up for 6. We piled in and headed west.

The long drive over to the Mississippi and down to Tunica has never been so fun, though it was not the nirvana it could have been. I popped a brew and settled down into the .25/.50 NL game that is the mainstay of the our group's homegames.

The going was slow, as the first 75 miles west out of Asheville go through one of the curviest, most dangerous stretches of Interstate in the nation. It was a bit of an adventure trying to keep the chips, cards and drinks on the table. A few guys went back to the bedroom and hooked up the Xbox to watch movies (Jackass II and ClerksII and play games. We ran into a traffic jam, and the weather got downright nasty, in the 30s and rainy, so the trip took us about 10 and 1/2 hours despite no stops along the way.

We rolled into Tunica at about 1:30 am Central, and most of us made a bee-line for the poker room, after checking into our rooms. We were all staying at the Gold Strike, which I like quite a bit, though it is a somewhat distant 2cnd favorite of mine, after the Horseshoe.

The poker room had a decent crowd for 2:00 am Thurs, with several tables each of 1/2 NL and 3/6 limit, a table of 2/5 NL, and a Omaha HiLo fixed limit 3/6 w/ a full kill.

I hopped in a 1/2 NL that was jammed with frat boy types from regional universities some of them could play ok, but most were loose preflop. The action was awesome. Typical hand would start with a straddle to $4 from late position, a couple calls, a raise to 10-15, a bunch of calls and 4-5 to the flop.

I played pretty conservatively, but joined in on the straddlefest when it was my button. The Mississippi straddle is truly a thing of beauty. Took down a few hands that I don't remember now, and went to bed after a couple hours up about $100.

One minor grouch: the night shift manager is tighter than I am. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] Despite my putting in 2 hours of play, he wouldn't cough up a breakfast comp to this weary traveler.

Daylight slipped it's fingers into my skull around 9:00 am, when my wife's stirring woke me. In seconds, Casino Fever coursed my veins, and I was out of bed like someone direct injected cocaine into my neck.

Darling wife went the extra yard to get dolled up to keep the men interested in her looks, not her play, and believe me, she's a good looking woman. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] Then, we took the express elevator down from our 21st floor perch, strolled across the immense glittering lobby, across the casino floor, up the elevators and into the poker room.

Not a lot of people playing, we both got into games quickly and played for an hour or so before getting our comps and going to brunch. The Gold Strike buffet is pretty decent, but after being spoiled by the consistently delicious one at the Horseshoe, I was a little disappointed.

Back to work around noon, I was quickly seated in another juicy 1/2 NL. I bobbed around even for a few hours, until I helped a 10/20 game get rolling. I think this table was one of the most profitable I've sat on in a casino. At first it started out a little tough, with 5 experienced players playing tightish and/or aggressive. We requested and got a rake reduction from the $4 rake +$1 jackpot drop all the way down to $1 rake.

After 20 minutes or so, I'd identified one of the starters as overly loose aggressive, and one as overly loose passive. A very loose/predictable player sat to my immediate right. I caught some cards, and made some appropriatly aggressive moves when my opponents were weak, and I was up about $500 in just about an hour more. I was getting majorly paid off when I had the goods.

So sweet to play such easy competition after months of mostly playing WPEX. DW came over to see if I wanted to go eat the seafood buffet before it got crowded, and I was hungry enough to say yes, even though I feared my game would break while I was gone. We had to apply some persuasion to get the poker hostess to comp us again that day. Downstairs in the line to the buffet we chatted with a nice gentleman from Indiana, who shared interests in poker and land use planning, so we invited him to join us for dinner. I ate my fill of crablegs and prime rib, on the house of course, and enjoyed the company.

Back in the poker room, my 10/20 had morphed into 2/5 NL, which I didn't feel quite up to playing, so I joined a couple of my buddies in the 3/6 Omaha HiLo game. I chafed at the small stakes, slow pace, and split pots a bit, but then relaxed to just enjoy it. I more or less broke even for several hours, enjoying a couple of beers and cocktails.

Now well into the evening, the Omaha game seemed on the verge of breaking up, and my buddies and I were 3 out of 6 people at the table. We made a motion to switch to pot limit HiLo, which was amended to a mixed game of pot limit Omaha Hi and pot limit Omaha HiLo. It was amazing how the game picked up then, with several people joining the game as soon as it was announced. I was getting my buzz on pretty good at that point, but the cards were kind, and I seriously irritated the locals with this ugly combination of obvious intoxication and winning lots of hands.

Evening rolled into morning, and when the 2/5 game broke up around 3:00am the remainder of that crew came over to the Omaha game. They brought big stacks of money and a lot of experience and gamble to the table. I kept my composure together enough to walk away from the Omaha table up a couple hundy, but I knew it was time to leave when I aggressively bet my nut low/top pair to turn it over and be told we were on the Hi only rotation. DOH!

My opponent in the hand was one of the big money toughies, an Asian/Latino looking young man with plenty of bling and a big stack of 100s in front of him. He couldn't believe it when I flipped my cards. He showed middle set and commented that he didn't raise me because he hadn't seen me play a hand since he sat down. LOL GG GN, see ya tomorrow.

I crept into our luxury 21st story room to find it approximately 100 degrees. My wife is very cold natured, you see, and she had taken the opportunity to crank the heat up when she went to sleep. I am the opposite, and could never get to sleep in such heat, so I cranked the AC to the max while I took a shower, then crashed hard.

9:00am again found me awake and perky for some gambling. That's some powerful stuff, that Gambling Fever. First we enjoyed a tasty brunch buffet on the house, then it was back on the prowl. We'd already racked up enough hours to earn our poker rate at the Gold Strike, so after checking out my buddies for a few minutes I followed DW next door to the Horseshoe!

After weaving my way through the already bustling and smokey casino floor, the glowing Poker Room sign in the back corner was like an oasis or a long lost friend. I took an open seat on the 1-5 spread limit Stud table, and got on the list for 4/8 and 10/20 limit HE. They also had games running at 20/40 and 2/5 NL.

The stud table was an odd mix of people waiting for other games, and a few regulars, including one amazingly irritating blowhard. I had to move seats to get away from him and find a peaceful zone in between two middle aged black cats who were very cool companions. Inspired by one gentleman's brandy sipping, I ordered a Irish Coffee (1/2 Irish Whiskey, 1/2 Baileys in coffee) to start the day and chucked about $20 of ante's and bring-ins down the tube before getting called to 4/8.

I settled into 4/8 and another Irish Coffee, took down some blinds, and was fairly quickly called up to start up a new 10/20. I recognized about 1/2 the table from previous trips. The table was OK, with a few loose spots and not too much raising. Hole cards and flops started fitting together for me, and I got plenty of action. I switched to hot tea to head off an alcohol related self destruction, and the gods of chance smiled on me to the point that after about 4 hours I was up about $600.

DW and I went to enjoy the Horseshoe buffet, awesome as always. While it doesn't match the best of the Vegas buffets in terms of expensive dishes, it is right up there in basic tastiness with some of the best I've found. The sauteed spinach in Little Italy is always delicious, and I greatly enjoyed the prime rib and fried frog legs!

After stuffing my belly, I found a wave of tiredness rolling over me and I decided to take a nap. Set the alarm for 2 hours so that I'd be back up for the primetime Saturday night crowd, I didn't think I actually slept much, but I was refreshed when I got up from the shuteye.

Back in the Gold Strike poker room, I found four of my buddies sitting in a row on a 1/2 NL, they were all doing well and having a great time, but knowing them all to be TAG I went looking for other games. The pot-limit Omaha had started back up, Hi only this time. I couldn't resist.

I sat down into possibly the most action filled poker game I've ever played in. They were playing 1/2 blinds, but they were allowing a Mississippi straddle to $5 'to save making change' and then they were rounding up bets to the next $5 increment. The result: it played like a wild and crazy 2/5 game at least. The big money young Asian guy was there again, and he and his buddies were straddling every hand. He was immediately on my left, unfortunately. But, there were two major donators immediately on my right.

A typical hand would start with a straddle to $5, called in several spots, raised to $20-40, called in multiple places with 5 to 8 to the flop. One or two of the short stack donators gets all-in on the flop when bigger money starts flowing. Then the big stacks go after each other, with the hundreds fanned out like play money.

Given the action and my relative inexperience at the game, I figured tight was right. I bought in for $200 and I settled down with a Cognac to wait for good cards. Fold fold fold while all that money was washing around the table was a little frustrating, but the action was so steady and the characters so interesting that I enjoyed myself even without playing much.

I learned that the big money guy sitting behind me had recently won a pretty big money event in Tunica, his name was Andy, and he attracted poker groupies like no-one I'd played with before. A steady stream of well wishers and wannabes and came by his court, and he kept up a steady patter of commentary on the game, was dressed in Poker Stars gear, and plenty of gold. His play was fearless, and he was a sharp reader. I looked him up and I think this is him: Melandro Alina AKA "Andy" http://www.pokerpages.com/players/pr...ndro-alina.htm

After about a 1/2 hour with me hardly seeing a flop, I was dealt AAxx w/ a suit. Ahead of me, the action went straddle to $5, call, call, raise to $15, I reraised pot, Andy called behind me, commenting that he was calling just because I hadn't played a hand all night and he wanted to bust me. LOL. The raiser called. The limpers folded. I flopped a flush draw on an otherwise uncoordinated board, pushed all-in and took it down.

Fold fold fold, then I saw a flop cheap from the big blind, just calling the straddle, with a double suited hand 689Q. I flopped a flush draw with my queen, a backdoor flush draw, and a pair. Probably a hand I should just check/fold, but starved for action I bet out $30, a little less than pot. Andy called behind me, commenting about his hand being a flush draw and top pair (which was a K, my pair was eights), and another caller came along. The turn brought me my second flush draw, and I fired out a roughly pot-sized bet. I figured I was behind, but wanted to play given my big draw, and I thought I might shake them off here if they hadn't hit too hard by now.

Andy put me all-in, the other caller folded. I felt like he wasn't all that strong, and getting about 2.5:1 I called. The river brought me 2 pair, but no flush, and he took it down with a higher 2 pair. Either of my flush draws, or trips, would have been good, so I had odds to call, but I don't know about how this hand unfolded, and I probably lost way more than I should have. Comments welcome.

Rebuy to $200, blind away some, see the flop a couple times and miss, and then rebuy another $100 so I have enough for a decent flop bet if I connect. Meanwhile the donator to my right is peeling money out of his wallet $100 at a time, time after time after time. He must have dumped $1,500 dollars $100 at a time onto the table. Kind of a pitiful sight.

Finally I get aces again, I have a suit again, and a king. It's straddled, and raised to $15 ahead of me with several callers. I reraise to $60 and get 5 or 6 callers. The flop comes J34 rainbow. Checked to me, I put the rest of my stack in, about $160. Probably the biggest mistake of mine at the table, with that many callers, the chance of taking it down or being best was slim to none. Well, I got 4 callers. LOL. A set of 3s was ahead on the flop, a big straight draw pulled ahead on the turn, then J3 boated up on the river and took down the roughly $1,000 pot.

Feeling burned and out of my league I watched for a while and decided that prudence dictated I retreat to the comforts of a 1/2 NL table where my closest buddy from home was playing. We had a blast, played through the rest of the night, on a table full of frat boys all having a good time. One notable hand I raised preflop w/ 56s. Continuation bet the flop, called in two places. Checked the turn, checked around, then bet the river on a bluff, only to find that in my dazed state I didn't notice one guy was all-in. My other opponent folded, and, PTL, my 6 high was goot! LOL. I was up a couple hundy on that table.

We played 'til 10 am, grabbed breakfast and piled into the RV for the trip home. I was in a seriously whacked state of mind, but bought into the home game on sheer adrenaline. The cards came my way, and I tortured two of my nittier compatriots time and again until sleep deprivation caught up with me and I crashed after a couple hours. The drive back home took freaking forever, with several pitstops along the way, we rolled back into town at about midnight.

I tallied up the wins and losses the next day to find myself up $1,100. DW lost about $150, and we spent about $150 on rooms and miscellaneous expenses, so we came back solidly in the black.

Best Tunica trip, I'm already jonesing to get back and give that pot limit Omaha another crack.

B.

[phiphika1453]

Ben, hell of a report, I am a Tunica local (not this past weekend though). Nice to see you had a great time here in the Delta.

Andy, is HANDS DOWN the most enjoyable person to ever play cards with. You will never hear a harsh word from him. He actually took me in and allowed me to sweat him for endless hours when I was first learning Omaha.

Shoot me a PM next time you are in town and we can get in on some of that insane omaha action.

Good Luck

[bonuspokergod]

RV, awesome! Sounds like it was a blast. I head over there once or twice a month usually, and stay & play at Sams, $35 a night. Been able to get 5/10 limit going there recently which is awesome. When it breaks, if I have my hours for the hotel room in, I head to the Strike for a couple hours.

Nice report.

[phiphika1453]

Oh yeah, how did you like the 1000BB deep stack cash games, lol. Some people cant understand this when they visit Tunica. I cut my with with super deep cash games so I dont know any different.

[Sam Spade]

[ QUOTE ]
Jerry rolled up in his 3 year old 48' Diplomat, and showed off the accomodations. He had 3 pizzas in the oven, a refrigerator full of drinks, and a poker table set up for 6. We piled in and headed west.

[/ QUOTE ]

So, uh, is Jerry married. I mean, it's for , umm, uh, a friend and stuff.

Seriously, this kicks ass!

[MicroBob]

nice report.


So Andy was the big-money Asian guy?

I have occasionally played with a regular there named Andy usually in 10/20 limit HE or something at Horseshoe but he's not Asian.
Eastern European or Russian type of accent.

Come to think of it though I haven't seen that guy lately in my very infrequent visits.
a year or two ago it seemed like he was there all the freaking time.


Very enjoyable report.

[scottc25]

Sounds like fun. I have my flight up to Tunica for 1/11 - 1/14 when the major tourneys are in town. How is the $2/$5 NL there? Min/max buy-ins?

[Chipr777]

[ QUOTE ]
How is the $2/$5 NL there? Min/max buy-ins?


[/ QUOTE ] At Horseshoe it's $200 minimum, no max.

[MicroBob]

Played the 2/5 last night.

Usually several stacks well over $1k and this night was no exception.

Live-straddling is allowed from any non-blind position and became somewhat frequent.
Fun game.
Although not enough super-fish on that game and too many tricky opponents for my liking. I broke even.

some of the players there are experienced and tricky enough with their wild play and deep stacks that I'm thinking the 1/2 NL at GS as described by the OP might be a better game sometimes.


I was on the must-move table at Horseshoe last night.
Had 10 players when I got seated at 10p or so but we lost a 1 or 2 at a time....mostly to the main-game.

Eventually we were 5-handed and still kept the game going for awhile.

Then 2 seats open up in the main-game at about midnight and now we're down to 3-handed.
WTF??
They can't just let us try to keep a game going?
They're going to yank 2 more players from our game even though it's a virtual guarantee that means the game will die and 3 players will be without a game?

A couple guys wanted to stay just one or two more hands because on almost every hand we had a live-straddler and 1 or 2 guys calling his raise 'in the dark'.

But they wouldn't even let the guy play one more hand even though the main-game was still 8 or 9 handed and we were just barely hanging on at 4-handed.

I left.

[Benjamin]

Phiphika wrote: [ QUOTE ]
Andy, is HANDS DOWN the most enjoyable person to ever play cards with. You will never hear a harsh word from him. He actually took me in and allowed me to sweat him for endless hours when I was first learning Omaha.

[/ QUOTE ]

Nice! Yeah he was a blast to play with, and he seems to be an excellent player. Good one to sweat.

[ QUOTE ]
Shoot me a PM next time you are in town and we can get in on some of that insane omaha action.

[/ QUOTE ]

Will do. You also mentioned the deep stack games, yeah, I love em, good times.

B.