Thanksgiving Poker

Well I've been all alone here this Thanksgiving weekend. Mike, my other pilot roommate was away in Florida and Shelley (half owner of house) and her brother (new tenant addition) drove into the BC interior to visit with family.

So it was just me and Shelley's 3 cats. Fun and exciting eh? My days off fell Saturday to Tuesday, so I've had the entire weekend off and to myself.

I decided that after last weekend adventures at the casino, I'd give it another go and take advantage of the weekend poker crowd. It's a mix of pros and newbies all in one. It's pretty easy to see who knows what they're doing, and who's there for some fun. The idea of course being, take advantage of the inexperienced and stay clear of the pros.

Friday night was night 1 of 2 that I spent at the casino. I played a solid 6.5hrs of Poker. The night started slow and my $200 buy in had wilted down to the $150 range when I came across a 54 offsuit in early position. I was big blind so no matter, I saw the flop. It came up QT5. I paired my 5. There were 2 others in this hand and the small blind bet $5, so I called and so did the other guy. The turn came a 5, which also made for 2 clubs on the board. The small blind checked and I bet $15 with my 3 of a kind. The other guy folded and the small blind check-raised the bet to $30. I called. The river came a 4. Also a club. So a flush hit the board, BUT, did ya see it? I made my full house. The bet was checked from the small blind and I bet out $30 which was reluctantly called by the small blind. He had tripped the 5's as well with a high kicker, but my full house took it down. A decent little pot that put me into the profit area.

Another round of cards later and I find myself with Q6 in the small blind. It was a cheap flop so I decide to call and see what I can make of it. The flop is a very nice looking QQ2. Trips, I like it! I check the bet and it goes around the table to the guy acting in last position who ups it to $25. I call and everyone else folds. The next card is a 6. Hello! Another full house! I bet out $50 and get raised another $75 by the other player. I'm trying to milk this for all she's worth. I look at my chip stack and at his, he definitely has me covered, so I move all in. He hums and haws and thinks about it for a couple mins before folding his hand. He had tripped the Q's as well but wasn't confident in his kicker. I then proceeded to flash my full house and got some Ooo's and Ahhh's from the table.

Now my stack was well in the profit at about plus $250 on top of my $200 buy in. This didn't last unfortunately. I hit cold cards the rest of the night and hovered around plus $100 for the last couple of hours of play and decided to call it quits when a heated argument began at our table when a very inexperienced player made a questionable call and won the hand which a much more experienced player had been bluffing at. I can't see how the new guy made the call thinking his little pair was good... but he did, and took down a monster pot as a result. So it was time for me to make an exit with exactly plus $100.

I then opted to head back again Saturday night. A quick stop at Starbucks on my way there and I was off to what was going to be a very entertaining night. And it didn't have to do with a lot of poker hands, some, but not many.

9.5 hrs of play occurred in this eventful evening which started out just like my other nights with me sitting down with the max buyin of $200. The table was very loose when I first sat down with big stacks at the table bullying people around. So I tightened right up and didn't play a lot of hands. I had made a few hands and had put myself into the plus $100 range, when I look down to see cowboys (KK). I'm in early position and raise it up to $25 and get 4 callers. This is looking nice, already 100 in the pot, hopefully no Aces on the flop. I was rewarded with a nice flop of J85. I didn't want anyone drawing and would be happy with the $100 in the pot so I bet out $50, which is folded around to the player on the dealer button. Who raises me $50, so I go all in which he quickly calls. The cards are flipped and I'm ahead of his AJ with my KK. The turn is no help to him, and then the river hit... a freaking Jack! I couldn't believe it. He tripped his Jacks. The massive pot went to this idiot! He was a weak player which I had already determined, but what can I do. He rivered me, and rivered me hard. I was not happy, but also humbled at the same time. I watched as he stacked his $450 in chips.. which should have been mine!

I called for chips, and reloaded my remaining $40 with another $150. I ended up loosing another $70 when I was betting heavy into a great pot, but got reraised heavily and I rightfully folded my top pair with ace kicker, and later found out the player had KK. I would have been destroyed. I reloaded with my final $50 and played very very tight for the rest of the night.

Now the night was not all about poker, some of the characters that night made for a very memorable night. There was a younger American who had been drinking for quite a while with his buddy who was sitting at another table, and then a female friend who was also drinking but not playing poker. She had obviously took her visiting friends out to see what Calgary had to offer and she reluctantly came to watch them play poker for hours and hours. What ensued was some of the funniest banter I had ever heard between people. The guy kept berating this hot girl because she had a bit of a mouth on her and there was a fair bit of friendly swearing going on. The guy kept on making reference to how he was going to show her the time of her night later on, so she best be quiet and things of this nature. It was all in good fun and she would reply back with quick remarks mocking his manlyhood and things of this nature. It was some funny stuff. At one point she had blurted out a few too many swears and the drunk American commented on how nice and friendly she was, to which she told him to "Fuck off". Jokingly, but still, she said it quite loud. The older female dealer wasn't too impressed anymore and told her to cut out the language. To which the young girl apologized and looked a little embarrassed. But then the dealer says this classic phrase - "You may not be a lady, but I certainly am one." The table went quiet, and finally someone yelled out "BURN!". Holy cow it was funny. We were all having a good time of it and they were all good sports and kept going at it. It made for a very entertaining couple of hours. I ended up knocking out the American at our table when my pocket 5's made a set on the flop and he moved all in. So it was sad to see him go, but the girl had made a friend at our table who she had recognized so she remained to talk to him. The whole time the American's want to go and she wouldn't give them the time of day because she had been wanting to go the whole time before that. So this made for a lot more comedy, this time getting more vulgar when the American's suggested that she should just get up on the poker table and that way the whole table could have their way with her. I was truly sad to see them go, they had provided great banter.

This wasn't the only thing happening that night though. What transpired next was actually quite a frightening experience. One of the players at our table had accidentally bumped the chair of another player at a different table and after a couple of behind the back comments, the other guy stands up and starts berating the player at our table. Now let me explain to you whom these individuals are. The player at our table is a big black guy who was very mild mannered and very calm, cool and collective. The other player looked like he was right out of the streets of east LA. He was a Latino boy who had on a baseball cap slightly sideways, with big baggy pants and shirt, accompanied by lots of bling. After some more heated words coming out of the gang member they were both standing up. The black guy was very calm about it the whole time while this kid kept shouting his mouth off. The poker room which is usually a buzz of all sorts of sounds of people talking and chips clinking is now totally silent with all eyes glued on this escalating situation. The talk between these two guys quickly turns to taking it outside to the parking lot. The gang member starts yelling at the black guy telling him he doesn't know who he's messing with and starts pointing to his tatoo's. At this point the poker room manager is yelling at them to sit down and shut up, but they're just about on their way to the parking lot but are in close quarters to each other and surrounded by others and closely packed in chairs. The poker manager gets inbetween them when suddenly they start to push and he is thrown to the side. Security is called as they get a little more heated and then suddenly the gang member starts reaching into his pocket! Holy shit, at this point I was quite concerned just waiting to see what weapon he was going to be pulling out! He never did pull anything out, but I'm sure he was armed with some sort of clapped out device. Yikes. Even when security finally arrived you could see that even they were a little scared about the situation and it took about 3 or 4 of them to escort them out of the room where statements were taken and then they were both booted out of the room. Wow, what a stressful couple of minutes. Poker returned to normal, and then the black guy returned to grab his chips and leave and apologized while everyone in the room was yelling out "you woulda kicked his ass!" and things like that. Haha. He would have, but I was a little concerned with what that guy had in his pocket. Poker continued, and throughout the rest of the night you could hear at least once an hour someone getting into a friendly argument which inevitably ended with the joking words of "you want to take this outside?!" Haha, we can all laugh about it now. :)

The rest of the night was filled with good conversation and decent poker. I was down as low as $70 at one point after saving myself from some deadly hands. And did manage to make my way back up. Primarily thanks to one hand which I am proud of how I played. I looked down to see KK, and cringed. This was not my favorite hand of the night after having lost that huge pot earlier. So I up the bet to $25 right away and get one caller behind me. This guy was a good player that called me so I had to play this one right. The flop came up QQ6. YUCK! I bet out $25 and immediately get raised to a total of $80. I hummed and hawwed, disgusted that he might have a Q or AA. But after watching him for a minute and thinking about his other plays, I was certain he didn't have Aces and pretty damn sure he didn't have the Q either. Perhaps Jacks or something equivalent. I push all in, this was my gutsiest move all night and my heart was pounding as the other player thought long and hard about the hand. He finally ended up folding and I took down the nice sized pot. He had AK. So that was a good hand for me and I got great respect from that player based on that play. We ended up talking quite a bit throughout the night and later when we left at the same time he even asked if I smoked weed. Haha, needless to say that I don't but we chatted up a bit more and parted ways.

The night ended with me recovering up to a -$140. So based upon the previous night I was down $40, but I was also up from last week by $95, so my poker outings are still in the plus. I'm confident I can grind away and make money in that poker room and I'll likely return back there every once and a while to see if I can make my thousands.

Well, there you have it. Lots of boring poker talk, but man what a weekend. When you factor in the free food and drinks I also consumed during my stay it also made for a very worth while adventure. Now if I can only recover a normal sleep schedule I'd be a lot better off!