Wednesday & Thursday Update

After a good run at the tables, my poker fortunes turned for the worse on Wednesday and Thursday.

Wednesday I played at Harrah's and spent about 5 hours of win-a-few-lose-a-few types of hands. There were no big dramatic pots and the end result was a loss of $46.

So yesterday I returned to my favorite poker room - Ballys - and hoped my poker luck would turn. Unfortunately it did not. But it was a different situation from Wednesday, in that yesterday I was snagging good hands, but they lost to slightly better hands. That gets expensive.

For example, I hit two flushes and lost them both. One a king-high diamond flush lost to an Ace-high diamond flush. Another nice flush lost to a full house. Those were two pots I thought I'd actually won. I did win a couple of nice pots with an A-10 straight and three Kings. But overall it was another losing session. Minus $65. So I've lost 3 of the past 5 days, but have fortunately kept the losses to a minimum. But I'm still ahead for the trip.

One of the most interesting and tense hands took place about an hour before I left Ballys. I wasn't in the hand, but was watching the whole ugly scenario. The two key players in the drama were a Chinese Guy (CG) sitting to my immediate right (I was in the 3 seat) and a Noisy Drunk (ND) in seat 10, to the immediate right of the dealer.

The drunk was pounding down Heinekins at a 5-per-hour rate and it was only 11 a.m.

Before the flop, CG bet $25 and everyone folded except ND who called. The flop came Q-10-4 of mixed suits and CG bet $50. ND raised to $100 and then opened his big mouth. "If you go all-in, I'm calling," he taunted.

CG wasted no time. "All in" he said, shoving huge stacks of red chips ($330) into the pot.

The mouthy ND tried to fold his hand, but the dealer said his boasting was a verbal commitment to call and that he had to match the $330. When the hand was over, CG's K-K won the hand and the nearly $800 pot.

But ND protested, demanding to see the poker room mgr. who backed up the dealer's ruling. That wasn't enough for ND and he made the mgr. call the Casino Gaming Manager, who showed up and again ruled against ND, who eventually left the poker room muttering complaints about Ballys, its management and everyone in the room, it seemed. It was an ugly scene...

I got home about 5 or so and whipped up vegetarian nachos for dinner - refried beans, salsa, cheese and sour cream. It was pretty tasty.

Today Helen and I are planning to hit the Strip together. After two days of losing, I'm taking a break from the poker tables. We'll probably hit the Bellagio conservatory to check out the holiday display and grab dinner somewhere as our LV adventure continues...