Catching Up

It's been a few days since I last posted on the blog, so it's time to catch up on our weekend activities.

Saturday I played a lot of poker at Ballys and it was a losing session. Few good hands and when I did get a good one it was topped. The highlight - or lowlight - was when my three 10s were beaten by a Straight Flush. Not only did the guy take down a $200 pot, but he also got a $650 bonus for hitting the SF. Loss for the day was $65.

Sunday I bought a couple of football teaser tickets and stayed home with Helen to watch the game. Both of my tickets turned into losers when the Packers lost to the Lions. Ouch! About 8 a.m. Sunday morning I went to the grocery store and stocked up on a bunch of munchies for the game. Cheese, crackers, cookies, chocolate candies, ice cream, pretzels and chips & dip. My favorite, though was some Buffalo Wings. The grocery store, Albertsons, has a Wings Bar with 6 different flavors - very Tasty!!

Helen patiently watched some football with me, then in the evening we switched over to her Lifetime movies which she enjoys.

Monday I went back to Ballys. One of the lures of this poker room is the escalating bonuses for big hands - royal flushes, straight flushes and four-of-a-kind. As of yesterday, one of the Royals - Clubs- will pay a bonus of $10,400 while another (Diamonds I think) is at $7,200. Not only does the player with the big hand get paid, but everyone at his table receives cash. If the bonus is more than $5,000 - then every player receives $599 (to avoid taxes at $600). If the bonus is less than $5,000 everyone receives $200.

So it's a nice attraction to play at Ballys even though the room is nothing special - the chairs are crappy and it's a noisy joint. But the players are usually weak and those bonuses are juicy...

Yesterday was frustrating. I won one hand in the first hours and a half. Very cold cards -- 7-Q, 9-4, K-3. Lots of very bad cards and I when I did play something like Q-10, I hit nothing.
I was losing the whole day until shortly before I left when I was dealt 2-2. I limped into the pot for $2 and the flop cam J-2-J -- a full house! I took down a $100 pot against a guy who had a third Jack. That brought me to about $25 up and I melted that down to a $14 profit before I headed home.

A small profit, but it broke my slump. I've had losing sessions in four of the past six days, but I've been able to minimize my losses. Twice I've lost $65, but nothing worse. In the first 13 days I've had seven winning days and six losing days.

While I was at Ballys, Helen was on the phone with Anna. She also spent some time watching TV and doing laundry. For dinner I whipped up a penne pasta with onion marinara sauce, plus a salad of organic greens, tomatoes and feta cheese.

We've been keeping an eye on the Michigan weather and feel sorry for our TC friends. So great to be out of that ice and cold. Today it'll be about 65 and partly sunny, but then it cools off into the 50s and cloudy for the next few days.

Big LV news this morning is an armed robbery at the Bellagio. Seems like a guy wearing a full-face motorcycle helmet walked into the B about 4 a.m. and held up one of the gaming pits - not the cashier. Don't know how much you get from a pit, since I thought all the cash went into those little metal boxes at the tables. A news update just reported that he also got away with a large amount of chips...I imagine more details will come.

Today I'll probably head back to Ballys to take a shot at those Royal Flush bonuses as our adventure continues.