Late night Louisiana casino outings

Lake Charles
I spent all last week on the road for the holidays visiting family in Louisiana. On Christmas night I drove from Lafayette to Lake Charles at 11:30pm, got to the Isle of Capri at 12:45am. My family thought I was crazy but like I told them, I'm an opportunist. I knew everyone was planning to go shopping the next day and I could care less about going with them, so why not get some cards in while everyone's sleeping and then sleep while everyone's out shopping? Plus I could jam the new DJ Heather mix I bought from iTunes all the way there. :)

I brought $150 with me to play and my plan was the same as my last trip to the Isle: play bonus holdem, make some quick easy money and then go sit at the poker table. So I went straight to that table, bought $100 in chips and began putting down my $5 ante and bonus bet. "The table minimum is $10 tonight" she says. $100 isn't nearly enough when it's costing $40 to play a flop and put in a bonus bet. I was stupid and played anyway hoping to get a big hand and get paid on a $10 bonus. I didn't and lost the $100 in about....6 hands.

I had $50 in my pocket, not enough to play anything and I wasn't about to turn around and drive back after being there for 10 minutes. So I went to the ATM and took out another $100 and headed to the poker room to play some mind numbingly boring limit holdem. It was all I could afford, the no limit game was 2/5 and I'd need at least $250 to sit there without completely gambling.

I don't have a lot of limit experience, but I do have an idea of how hand selection and position play into a solid strategy. These games aren't hard to beat if you aren't completely card dead, which I was. I started out playing a little too loose and lost $50 of the $100 stack I bought. I buckled down, threw my last $50 on the table to get back to a decent stack, and ground it out until 6am. When it was all said and done, including the bonus holdem game, I lost $38 on the Isle session. I had a lot of fun for a limit game though, and I was surprisingly focused. Made $70 in the poker room which made me happy.

The best part of the night was a young redneck looking guy comes over with a rack and says to the table "take it easy on me I don't know what I'm doing". Anyone who's played long enough would take that comment with a grain of salt, but this guy wasn't kidding. Seriously, at one point he's in a hand and asks the dealer "How many cards does it take to make a straight?" The dealer just started laughing and said she'd been working there a long time and never heard that one before.

The guy was hilarious and even though there were some horriffic players at the table, EVERYONE was having a laugh at this idiot's expense. No one was nasty about it, but the guy on my direct left would welcome every new player to the table with "Welcome to the twilight zone". :) Tony, from Crowley, was very nice and seemingly the only person with a clue at my table. Props to Tony.
--
New Orleans
Saturday we were in NOLA to visit my Aunt Mona and Uncle Harry who has lung cancer, along with the rest of my Dad's side of the family. That night Kristina and I went out with my Dad and stepmom to Bourbon street and had a very good time. It was the first time I'd ever been. We stopped at a club called Rue 44 for vodka tonics, and did the electric slide to the Deja Vu band that was playing some awesome funk. Midnight Star, Dazz Band, etc. The best part was the black lady getting down telling me I was wayyy too stiff and needed to loosen up. In the meantime she's cheering Kristina on "Get DOWN GIRL!!". LOL

The rest of the night we hung at Pat O'Brien's piano bar drinking hurricanes. That was a lot of fun.

So on the way there and back we walked through Harrah's which was right across from our hotel. I still had the cash from the Isle and wanted to play since they had a $1/$2 no limit game I could afford to sit at. I went to check out the area on the walk back to the hotel and told Kristina I wanted to play but she said nope. I got my poker in the other night in Lake Charles. The rest of the walk back I had it in my mind, "I'm going to sneak out and come back when everyone's asleep."

We get back in the room and I see the extra room key on our bed that my Aunt had left. I snagged it quickly and slid it in my pocket, took off my shoes and laid down on the bed with all my clothes still on. I didn't even get under the covers. It only took about 5 minutes for everyone to start snoring, and then I snuck out and walked across the street. Hehe.

The 1/2 list was a pretty good size at 1am, so I signed up and went sit back at the limit table until a seat was open. Made about $30 quickly when I turned a King high flush against a guy with three queens. Took that over to 1/2 and ended up walking with $150 profit. I'll go ahead and rundown the one hand that I made all the $ on:

I had KQ in the small blind. Early position limper, loose guy raises to $7 in late position, guy on my right calls, I call. Then the big blind who's a new player raises to $20. Everyone calls and the pot is so big that I decide to call and take a flop.

Flop comes Q x x with two spades. I check and the big blind bets around $40 if I remember right. It folds around to the late position raiser and he asks the waitress passing by if he should chase. She says no, he folds reluctantly. The guy on my right folds, accidentally exposing his A2 with the Ace of spades.

Based on all the information I just observed I wasn't worried about a flush draw anymore, or the real hand I was worried about: AQ. Even though I wasn't sure the big blinds playing style, I figured there was a good chance I was ahead and could get called by some worse hands. So I shoved for like another $60 and he called. I showed it and he mucked after the turn and river were dealt (everyone in LA waits to show their cards until all the cards are out). Turns out the guy was really loose aggressive and terrible the more I observed him through the night.

I cashed out at 3:30am and went to look for the bonus holdem game in hopes they were running a $5 minimum. They were running the $10 game just like in Lake Charles so I walked back across the street and snuck back into the room.

The next morning we all wake up at 8am and Kristina says "man those people next door to us woke me up when they brought the party back at 5am." I said "I brought it back at 4am". None of them had a clue I was ever out of the room. :)