Poker For Fun & Profit

For the second time this week, I rolled down to the Strip to play poker at Bally's.

The Bally's poker room is not really a room at all, but a section of the casino separated from the other table games by velvet ropes. It's not very luxurious, but it's functional, fun and - most importantly - profitable for me.

I arrived around 9:30 and the room was dead silent. I spoke with the mgr. and put my name on the list for $1-2 No-Limit. Within 15 minutes, there were six of us playing and soon the whole table filled up. Originally, I was going to sit in the #5 seat, across from the dealer. But I had some luck from the #1 seat on Tuesday and decided to sit there again today. It was a good choice. After buying in for $100, I started the session by winning the first three hands and was immediately up $60 or so.

My biggest hand came when I looked down and saw K-4 of Spades. I put in $2 to see the flop, which came K-K-7 with two Hearts. I raised to $10 and got only one caller. The turn was the 4 of hearts, giving me a full house. I bet $20 and the other guy went All-In, shoving $55 into the pot. I called. The river card was a small diamond, 2 or 3, I think, no help for either of us. The guy showed Q-9 of Hearts, giving him a heart flush. I showed my full house and the dealer shoved the $150 pot my way.

That was the only HUGE pot that I won, but I won several in the $40-50 range. After about 3 hours of play, I was up about $260 and thinking of trying to push it to $300. I lost a couple of hands and decided to take my profits and leave. I walked with $224 in profit, then went to have a chicken salad on rye sandwich (comped) at the Nosh Snack Bar.

Before I drove home, I stopped by the sports book and bought 3 basketball tickets - Louisville, Buffalo and UCLA. As of right now, two of them have lost...Louisville and Buffalo. Go BRUINS!

Then I drove home, a happy winner.

While I was playing poker, Helen logged some quality phone time with her friend Sherry, Lois Edson, sister Natalie, daughter Anna, and granddaughter Katherine. For dinner, I whipped up some scrambled eggs and hash browns. Breakfast at night...

Thursday is one of our favorite TV nights, with the NBC comedy lineup. So we'll just chill out for a while, but tomorrow our adventure continues...