A Day of Poker

Saturdays in Las Vegas always crackle with extra energy. Visitors fly in for long weekends and squeeze fun out of every minute they're in town. The California Crowd motors over from LA on I-15 and brings a laid back energy along with them.

But today is even more exciting because MGM is hosting a huge fight - Manny Pacquio vs. Oscar
De La Hoya - and the National Finals Rodeo is being held at the Thomas & Mack Arena. There are fight fans and cowboys everywhere. I wish I had a buck for every cowboy hat I saw today.

In the midst of this zaniness, Al made his way to the Strip for a full day of Poker. His plan was to get there early, around 9 or 10 a.m. and hopefully take advantage of some bleary-eyed Cowpokes who were pulling all-nighters. After parking at Bally's, I hit the casino's poker room. They had only 1 table going and a waiting list of 5 ahead of me. Not waiting around for that.

I headed down to the Imperial Palace, where I've had some luck before. Immediately I was greeted by a friendly Poker Room floor man, who directed me to a seat at the only table they had going. Good news is that I got an immediate seat. Bad news is that it was 2-4 Limit poker, not the 1-2 No Limit that I prefer. For poker newbies, Limit poker means that you bet $2 on the first rounds of betting and $4 on the turn and the river. It's a more mechanical game than No-Limit and usually results in much smaller pots, since the largest bets are multiples of $4.

Anyway, on the 3rd hand I played, I hit a full house and won the pot. But because of the relatively small bets, I only raked in a pot of about $25. In a No Limit game, a hand like this would probably have been $100 or more. That was the highlight hand. After that winner, I went card dead and ended up down $70 for the 45-minute session. The IP poker room is a friendly, laid back place full of new players and a few experienced card sharks. It's usually easy to walk away a winner, but not this time. At least I enjoyed a couple of the chocolate chip cookies they make available free to players.

Then I headed to the Flamingo for my first experience in their vintage poker room. This is where such pros as Johnny Moss, Puggy Pearson and Doyle Brunson used to hold court. I was greeted by a host and led to an immediate seat at a 1-2 No Limit table. I ended up playing there for about 4 hours with some real friendly players. The action was good, with lots of raising and a few guys going All-In. Unfortunately I didn't win any huge pots, but still managed to win $85 by taking in several $20-30 pots.

The biggest hand I had unfolded like this: I was dealt a Q-J and limped into the pot for $2. Six of us played and saw the flop that was Q-6-6. So I've got top pair and bet out $12. Three guys call. The turn card is a 4 with no chance for a flush. I bet $15 and only 1 guy calls the bet. The river card is another 6, giving me a full house, so I bet $25 and my lone challenger raises to $50. I have a full house with the top pair (queens), so I have to call, especially since the pot is now over $100. Since the guy was not raising all along, I don't think he has the fourth 6, but I do suspect that he also has a queen and we'll split the pot. I call his raise and he turns over pocket Aces.

"Nice Hand," I spit out through terse lips...

Outside of that one hand, I had a great time and was really pleased to walk away a winner, since I hit no really big hands. I had one straight and every other winner was two pair or successful bluffs.

While I was playing poker all day, Helen straightened out our closet, talked to her sister Natalie and played around online. We both had fun!

More tomorrow...