Harrah's St Louis

So I found myself the last month in St Louis on business. In fact, have been up there 4 of the past 5 weeks. It wasn't until my boss met me there last week, that he clued me in, that there was a Harrah's casino in StLouis, and more importantly, they had a poker room. So my boss who is also a poker player, talked me (read: not much arm twisting needed) into going and playing a little live poker. As it turned out, the casino was pretty close to where we were staying, so off we went after having a nice steak dinner.

The poker room was small, probably about 20 tables. They hold a nightly 7pm tournament, I think it was like $60 buy-in, and they get about 100 players. We weren't able to leave the office till after 7pm, so we when we got there, we stuck to the cash tables.

The 2 nights we went, they were spreading 1/2 NL, and a few Omaha tables, although I don't recall the stakes. The 1/2 games were action packed, and that's putting it mildly. The first hand I observed set the tone, for what would be the norm. First thing that caught my eye, was the standard open was $10 bucks. Usually there would be a minimum of 3 callers. There were some hands were the entire table called! That led to some of the craziest action I've ever seen.

So, you would think that even the fishiest of players, would understand that with that many players seeing the flop, weird holdings would give action. For example, in what was one of the craziest, yet somewhat standard play, the UTG opens for $10, 5 callers came along including the blinds. Flop comes 6JK all hearts. The UTG who had about $300 total checks, 2nd caller FOLDS (yup that was also standard), button bets pot, SB raises to $300 all-in, BB folds and the UTG shoves his remaining $300. The button stands up, makes a full production about what a great hand he has, and finally calls, and then, as if he's trying to slice the table in half with the cards, slams them so that the edge's hit the table and then bounce all of over the place! It was quite the show! Turns out he had TT(no hearts)...oooh great hand indeed!. SB has KQ (no hearts), and UTG had 74 of hearts for the flopped flushed. Unfortunately for him, the poker gods brought JJ on the turn and river, and Mr KQ dragged the big main pot. UTG then pulls his wallet out, counts out 2 crisp benjamin's from a fairly large wad of Benjamins, and rebuys.

A few hands later, I get in the mix with AK in the BB. Folds arond to Mr Benjamin in the SB, and as is the custom in many card shops, they always ask if you want to chop, which I politely declined. That seem to tilt the guy, and he proceeds to raise me $20 bucks. So I chuckled, which just tilted him more, and I called. Probably should have raised, but at any rate, I flop the joint, and my tilting buddy obliged by betting out $50 bucks. So I looked at him, made a comment about how I think he's just trying to bully, and declared all-in. I don't think I got the words out of my mouth, and he had chips in the middle. He had 98, the donkey end of the straight, and I had a nice double up.

It was that kind of night, and unfortunately, I didn't get any more playable hands to speak of. However, there was one more hand which made it a big night for me. I don't know much about angle shooters, other than what I've read. But I think this qualifies. Basically, a 'cowboy' sits in the 1 seat. He has a fancy coin card protector, look like some kind of gold dollar, not sure. So he starts telling the guys on his side of the table to touch it, of which one of the dudes obliges. Then he starts laughing and said, "you know, anyone who touches that coin, has eternal bad luck"! Needless to say, he was the only one to laugh.

So, I'm getting ready to leave, just waiting for the BB to come my way. I get dealt T9 of spades UTG, and limp. 3 more limpers and it gets the cowboy in the BB, and he tosses 2 green chips, and says raise. That was 5o bucks, but he says "oh no, I thought those were red chips". Of course, I smelled a rat, and he had won some hands and had more than doubled his stack. I felt like the guy had a big hand, and I was annoyed at the speech. But it was my last hand, and I just wanted to stick it to this guy, so although I know it was wrong, I spite called. The rest folded. Luckily, the poker gods realize what a horse's ass this guy was, and shine nice on me. The flop comes 99k. He checks, and I bet 2/3 pot, and he hem/haws and shoves his stack. So I call, and even though I'm all in, he doesn't show his hand, and neither do I. Turn comes a 5 and the river brings a beautiful T! I flip my boat over, and he disgustingly shows his AA. Freaking most satisfying beat I've ever put on anyone!

So I walked out a big winner, having only really played 2 hands not including blind hands.

The next night, I played for a few hours again, and walked out about 40 bucks ahead. Unfortunately my boss didn't fare as well, he dropped about 5 bills combined for the 2 nights we went out there.

It was nice to play live again, and I'm looking forward to December, when we go out El Lay to see family for the holidays...and a visit to the Commerce Casino!

2BA