So here's the story this week, thus far.
Saturday, I decided to kill time and play low-limit just to feel the felt. I haven't been playing much Middle limit lately since it involves an hour and a half commute each way to Bay 101 and I haven't had any meetings in the South Bay to justify the trip. Besides that, I've been working on a couple of leaks in my game. Many thanks goes out to Bob Ciaffone and Jim Brier; I'm only 25% of the way through their advanced book Middle Limit Holem Poker and it's already been an eye opener in a couple of key areas. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
So, I made the trip to Cache Creek and played for 7 hours in the 4/8 Kill game. The game was pretty average and I must have plugged the leaks nicely, because when I racked up at the end of the night it took me 13 minutes from start to finish. Cashed in 11 racks for a $1,000 win. That's $142.86 an hour or 17.8 Big Bets per hour, how's that for a crumby 4/8?
Yesterday, I took my car in for a quick service check since the ABS lights came on. The mechanic said that it didn't look like there was an issue, maybe it was just an anomoly that a wheel speed sensor didn't respond quickly enough for the computer so it flagged it as a potential issue. They reset the sensors and sent me on my way to see if it happened again. When I was about to get on the freeway I was a little pissed that the chick in front of me was taking her time turning onto 29 when I happened to look up and saw Napa Valley Casino across the freeway. Hmmm... Ya, I had to stop in to take a look.
Napa Valley Casino is a smaller card room, but I wasn't really there to play. Besides that, it's only 23 minutes from my house, I always assumed that it was much farther away. I ran into one of the Sonoma Joe's regulars that I had known for a couple of years and Dennis was running the floor. We chatted briefly about the action and then I headed back to the home office to get some work done. Come 5:00 though, I was back out the door to check out the games.
I got in and found the first 2 hours to be a pretty decent game with a couple of fish that I'd played with before at Cache Creek. Later the game got really strong, since the fish busted out or went to the freeroll tournament. Since there was only one Holdem table going, there weren't many weak players for quite some time. I ordered a pizza from a local joint for delivery and kept swilling beer ($2 each!) all night since their service delivered beers unlike Cache Creek. I think that I just found my new bar/hangout.
Two of the Sonoma Joe's - sorry it's now called Casino 101; which about the 10th name that card has had in its' history - came into play, Dean and Sarah. Dean got seated next to me and we chatted for a couple of hours while playing and watching the Spurs/Mavs game. "Anyone order Pizza?", chimed the floor man. I had just picked up a hand, and announced, "Ya, I did." I folded after missing the flop, "How much is it?". She said that it was $15 and change and I immedately started cutting off chips. Dean said, "you can always spot a gambler..." "Oh, my god," I said, "I can't believe that I was going to pay her in chips. Laughter. I got the chips changed and sent her on her way with dollars.
I played until almost 1:30 before racking up and was only down $4, not too bad since it was a tough game. The $4 loss combined with all the beer and $18 for pizza made for a net winning evening. That beats the hell out of just shelling out cash for $50 bar tabs at my other spots. Ya, I've definitely found a new place to kill brain cells.
Today, I'm getting ready to head out for an actual business trip to Vegas which should allow me some ample time to get my fingers green. Going to try to catch up with Linda since we've not had a chance to really chat in my last 3 trips. I may even get to join the Pan crew for their weekly game. Otherwise I'll probably just play middle limit at Bellagio. If I happen to run into Bob Ciaffone, I'll be more than obliged to buy him a coffee. ;-)
Nicholas has left the 3s