***I'll probably catch some flack for cashing out after a monster first hour... but what can ya do***


For a kind of birthday celebration, blog regulars 'my buddy' and 'my buddies girlfriend', myself and my girlfriend booked a room at a cheap Ramada beside the Seneca Niagara -- A casino on the American side of the Niagara Falls.

We made good time and got there in a little over 1 hour. We checked in and my buddy and I headed to the Casino while the girls went to the swimming pool.

The poker room looked decent, more tables that Rama, and a shorter waiting list. We put our names down for the 2/4 limit game, as I've never played in a Casino before and I felt like the players would be bad enough for it to cancel out my lack of full ring limit experience.

So I sit down and see a few middle aged men, some very old men, and an old woman. I was the only one 25 or younger. I bought in for 200, which in hindsight seemed excessive because i dont think anyone else had more than 100 in front of them.

So my first hand, I'm dealt K J. Keep in mind that I'm a little nervous. I'm in a semi-early position and I call. Not surprisingly, no one raises and it's 6 to the flop. The flop comes K K 6, which I enjoy thoroughly.

It checks to an old fart in a Yankees hat. He bets and picks up a caller. I only call, I dont want to tip my hand yet. 3 of us to the turn.

The turn is an 8 and old fart bets again, other person folds and I raise. He looks at me perplexed and says "Did that 8 really help you?" I reply: "First hand and I'm in the middle of the action. Whatdy'know?" He calls and I bet the river, my set of Kings takes it and I've got my first Casino pot of my career. He really didn't like the fact that I waited for the turn to show aggression and he mumbled to an older woman to his left.

A couple hands later I pick up A J of spades and raise it. I actually get a fair amount of callers. The flop comes Spade Spade Spade. I bet...Turn is a blank, I bet. River is a 10, Old fart donk bets it to me. I raise and he 3-bets me. The board isn't paired and there's no straight flush draw. So I cap it and he calls.

I quickly flip it over and say I've got the nut flush, and he shows me pocket 10's for a set. He's complaining about the cards I'm getting... lucky SOB... etc. Not that he's wrong. I was hitting every flop.

I had AQ a few hands later and flopped an Ace and won that pot. I had AK and hit a King high flop and took that hand. I had QQ and raised so much that everyone folded on the turn.

Last nice hand was from the BB. I have J 10 suited and 9 of the 10 ppl at the table call. I check. _9_ to the flop! flop comes 9 Q 5 with 2 of my suit. Open ender with a flush draw. I bet and 6 ppl call. 6 to the turn?? Turn is an off suit King. I bet and everyone calls, except the button who raises. I call and everyone else folds. Heads up with button to the river. It's an offsuit 2 and I bet, button raises, I reraise, button calls.

"I've got the nuts straight" and button shows AK. Super sweet pot. Old fart complains how I'm still getting cards and hit a runner runner straight... Even though he was wrong, it wasnt a runner runner, but I didn't bother correcting him.

So i'm sitting there as dealers are changing and eyeball my stack. I know i've tipped at least 10-15 dollars on 2 drinks I've had and the pots I've won... (i tipped 2 dollars twice on the huge pots, 1 dollar on the rest) and I see I have 280 in 1 dollar chips, 125 in 5's. I had to check and re-check. I didn't think I had doubled my buy in after an hour. but it was true... Naturally it was because I was getting monster cards and really milking the most out of them. By now alot of the bad old folks were leaving and some new players were joining the table. I didn't like the table dynamic, so I actually cashed out after only an hour.

I might not have done it if the oldies were still there. But here's the thing... playing 2/4 limit, and being up 50 BB's in 1 hour, I figured things could only go downhill from there. I checked the No limit wait list and it was very very long. Screw that.

Some thoughts -- I found myself very distracted between hands. Obviously play moves slower than online and if you fold 4 hands in a row, you can get very restless.

So I cashed out, and my buddy decided to leave too, even though he was only up about 10 bucks. He was at another table and had only hit 1 hand, a full house.

We call the girls and they're just getting ready to go to the casino...

So we decide to hit the nickle slots and get tanked on the free drinks. I played real slowly and downed a ton of free jack and cokes. Naturaly, I tipped a buck on each, and they weren't very strong but still.

I end up playing the same 40 dollars on the slots alllllllllll night. Win a few bucks, lose a few bucks... but I always kept the original 40.

Then my buddy finds this 25 cent poker slot game at the back. they give you 7 cards, and you make the best 5 card hand up top (for X amount of credits) and the best 3 card hand at the bottom (the mulitplier) So if you had 3 of a kind up top ( 6 6 6 A 8, but a straight on the bottom 3 (say, 5 6 7) it would be something like 10 (for the three 6's) multiplied by say 3 for the straight at the bottom (5, 6, 7) for 30 credits.

We play that one forever. I was back and forth between 40 bucks and 96 bucks when I fell below 40 for the first time. Then I hit a full house on the top and a straight flush on the bottom for 350 credits. I cashed out for 125 and netted another nice little profit.

Anyway, by now we realize that it's 2 am. We walk back to the hotel and my buddy and I stop in a Denny's for some late night snacks.

All in all it was a good trip. And no, I didn't see the falls. go figure.

nicely written. Sounds like you had a good time.

The 2/4 game is cake Glad ya had fun

Thread Revival. I think I'm gonna hafta try this out. I'm going up there Friday and Saturday nights and the only break I'm gonna get is when we drive down to Buffalo to see the Penguins probably lose the to Sabres.

[size=13]OH AND 900th POST PARTY TIME!!!