Took a trip to Hollywood Casino at Charles Town, WV yesterday with a friend and fellow recreational grinder of mine. First bit of bad luck was that we had to wait about 2 hours to get a seat at a $1/2 table. We couldn't even see our names on the monitor until after we had killed about an hour and a half playing video poker on the nearby Game Kings. Later on we found out that sadly one of their dealers had passed away recently and a lot of fellow staff members were at the funeral, at which point we both felt like massive assholes for being slightly salty over the wait. Nevertheless, the whole upstairs room was closed because of the short-staffing, and given that a lot of people seem to have nothing else to do on a Sunday afternoon than play cards, we had to pay our dues to get an eventual seat.
At this point I had been playing for about an hour at a table that seemed semi-tight with not a lot of big pots being played. I had taken down three solid pots myself - twice with TT that hit a set but didn't get paid off, and once with KQs. On the latter hand I had raised UTG to $8, got 5-6 callers including the BB. Flop was KKQ and I c-bet about half the pot, trying to look like a feeler and hoping someone else had a K, JT, or a flush draw. Only the BB called, and then he led out the turn (off-suit 8) for $15. I Hollywooded for just a bit and put out what I hoped would appear as a hesitant call. River was a 9, giving JT the straight and filling the flush draw. BB bet $20 this time and I cut out chips to raise to $90, trying to look like a bullyish steal. BB starred me down, showed me a Q, asked if I would show, etc, trying to get some sort of read. I guess I did a good job of looking scared because he eventually called and mucked AQo.
An hour or so goes by and we find ourselves at it again, this time he's in the SB and I'm the BB. About 4 or 5 players limped in and the cutoff makes it $6 (ok?) to go. Everyone and their mother calls, including me with ATo. Flop is a beautiful TT5 with two spades (I have the Ace of spades). SB (same guy as before) bets $5 (ok?) and I decide that's just way too small to build a pot that's already about $40 and raise to $25, expecting maybe a spade draw or another Ten to call. Only the SB comes along and the turn brings another 5. Not the ideal card if I'm up against the other Ten, and a spade draw is probably check-folding at this point. SB checks, I bet another $25, SB calls. River is the King of diamonds, and now all of a sudden SB leads out for $85. I tell him that I'm assuming we're chopping and elect to just call. He shows KTo for the lovely 6.82% (about 12% on the flop) river suckout. Nice hand sir.
That hand put a sizable dent in my stack but I was able to chip back up over the next three hours or so, even after a pretty cold run that occurred at the worst possible time, when a super-LAG kid was donking off tons of chips and had the rest of the table getting quite donkey-ish at the same time just hoping to bust him. Either way, up is up, and I had a good time overall. Still can't wait for poker to come to Maryland to spend more hours playing and less hours driving back and forth and waiting for an open seat.
Until then, best of luck at the tables, and watch out for those 3-outers.
Bo
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