More proof that United sucks.

OK, the other half of the trip. AKA poker. 8-)

We got in late enough on Friday night that we just got food and played a few slots at Harrah's and then went to bed. On Saturday I checked out the poker room at Horizon. It was pretty small, but very friendly. When I came in they had one game going, which was a 2-6 hold 'em. Not 2/4 or 3/6 like I'm used to but 2-6. As in you can bet 2 anytime or 6 anytime or anything in between. I've seen this in 7 card stud before but not in hold 'em. Being a smaller poker room, they also have a bit of a gimick to help bring people in. It's the hand of the day. If you get the hand of the day, you get $50 on the spot, even if you lose the pot. Today's hand of the day was a full house, Jacks full of 7's. Anyways, I came in at the same time as another guy and we both got put on a table that had 5 people on it. Who interestingly enough, were all travelling together. I was a bit afraid that they were trying to do some organized cooperation to take other people's money, but they lost so much and were so friendly that I think they just wanted to sit at a casino and play poker. For the ammount that they paid out in tips and rake, they should have just bought chips and had a home game, but that's up to them. Only one big memorable hand for the evening. I was in early position with Ah7h, and called. These guys rarely raised preflop, so why not take a look with a midling hand. Well, the flop came out JJJ. I'm figuring that my ace high is good, so I bet out 6. Only one caller, and the call put him all in. Turn comes a 7. I've got Jacks full of 7's. Remeber that hand of the day thing from up above? Yup, one fifty dollar bill coming my way. I couldn't flip my cards fast enough. River was a blank...don't even remember what it was. The lucky thing for me here is that the other guy was all in...because he had the fourth jack. So I lost a pot that had about $22-24 prerake in it, investing only $8 myself, and get the $50 side prize instead. They guy with quads got a mug for his hand. He kept trying to sell it to me for $50 for some reason. I declined to take him up on it. lol.

Sunday night I sat at Harvey's poker room for a few hours playing 3/6 hold 'em. This was a really nice poker room, and I had a lot of fun here. Although no really good stories from it. Some bad beat stories that make me miss no limit...fecking idiot calling down my flopped straight to runner runner a full house on me....gah. Correction. He raised on the turn when he hit trips, and i raised him right back and told him his trips were no good. fecking board paired again on the river...sigh. Still left up for the night, but nowhere near as much as it should have been. I'm only up $80 on poker at this point.

On Monday I was back at Horizon for their Monday night freeze out hold 'em tournament. We're about 1 hour in and the blinds are getting a bit high when I get KhQh in middle position. A guy early on raises, I call, and about 3 others call. Flop comes out K93 with 1 heart. I bet, the dealer calls, the rest fold. Turn comes 3h. I've got top pair with a good flush draw. I bet strong, the other guy puts me all in and I call. Flips over slick...dammit. No heart, K, Q, or 3 on the river so I'm done. The annoying thing is I was 3rd in chips on our table of ELEVEN at that point...but that guy was the chip leader for the table. Oh, well. Whatcha gonna do?

Go play blackjack, obviously! We went over to Bill's cansino, which if you've clicked on all the links so far you'll see that it's another offshoot of Harrah's. Yes, I'm sick of that music too. Bill's has the only $3 blackjack in town, and I didn't feel like playing for much on blackjack so Josh and I found a seat there. Well, the dealer was really fun and we had a great time, especially since we both made about $50 there, so I got to leave up a respectable ammount for the trip. All in all, not bad. Andrea even tried a little blackjack there, and it was her first time ever at a table we found out. How that is possible at...31 or 32 and being married to Josh who is like f'ing Yoda when it comes to blackjack I don't know, but she left up $10 and was bouncing off the walls with excitement for it.