proximity poker tour 2014....

[proximity]

well another win at the beautiful new horseshoe baltimore where we've been on quite a roll with wins in 14 of our first 16 games!!

for today's game we're back at horseshoe for another session of 3/6 limit hold em but first i'd like to apologize for the recent direction the thread has taken with the whole roy cooke tangent. we had a good thread going for 11 1/2 months so i hope we can put this little hiccup behind us and finish with dignity.

after having a nice lunch at horseshoe's asian restaurant i enter the game about 1:30 and immediately notice two live! dealers who are basically tag teaming the table. i'm not an expert on 2+2 dot com so i don't know if it's technically collusion but it's obvious there is some kind of pre-arranged agreement.

dealer A button straddles and dealer B raises.... every time???

in one sick hand dealer B bets the turn and a 90 year old man calls between dealers B and A. dealer A check raises, dealer B reraises to $18. the victim calls but dealer A folds. seriously??

this is just one example and i hear these guys both lost significant money in the game but it's still not a fair game and it's troubling that the horseshoe staff doesn't seem overly concerned about this. maybe i'm wrong and they are talking about this behind closed doors?

anyhow, at one point in the game i actually flop a straight and hold on to win. unfortunately one of the dealers wasn't at the table when it happened so the flop and turn didn't get capped, lol.

after about an hour i'm up $11 after paying my big blind. of course dealer B raises and dealer A reraises and the hand takes awhile to play out. when it ends the guy to my right leaves, dealer A takes his seat and a new player takes the seat to the right of dealer A. the horseshoe dealer (usually a real good dealer) assigns the small blind to the new player and the big blind to dealer A which doesn't seem right, but i'm not a professional dealer, i'm just worried about the game, especially now that i'm right between dealer B and dealer A and my big blind is going to repeatedly get straddled by dealer B and reraised by dealer A.

after this hand the dealer asks for my big blind... which i just paid the hand before. i'll put up with a lot of crap, but i'm not paying two big blinds in three hands in a game that's 9-10 handed and features (at least) two players who are playing together. then dealer A says that i had to say something before the hand?

well (1) i'm not dealing the game and what if i got up during the incredibly long hand during what was my big blind and then came back? do i still have to pay two big blinds? ridiculous. and (2) you don't know me, so watch your tone.

the game dealer insists it's my big blind (again) and i don't want to call the floor on him so i just decide to leave and enter another game when it starts.

so far i've had great experiences with this casino and the staff so like the roy cooke thread drift here i'll just excuse this wacky game as a hiccup and judge horseshoe on their overall positive body of work.

game +11 (3/6 lim)
year +1307 (80-52)

[wiffleball whizz]

Horseshoe is a cesspool.......as unorganized as a casino can be

I made a bet with somebody last night and I have go honor it...

I'm laying $600 to win 5 cents I don't go there till march 31, 2015

And proximity I wouldn't pay the big blind either and will try my best to get to the bottom of this 3/6 dealer episode......personally besides a select few I can't stand any of them

[Red Knave]

Originally Posted by proximity

... i hope we can put this little hiccup behind us and finish with dignity.

I know that for you that will be easy.

Also, imho, His Dealership, The Whizz, is correct. It's worth going after that diamond status. You still have a week and a half. You don't want to be kicking your own butt all next year for missing it by a few bucks.

As my mentor Red Green says, "We're all in this together".

[proximity]

Originally Posted by Red Knave

I know that for you that will be easy.

Also, imho, His Dealership, The Whizz, is correct. It's worth going after that diamond status. You still have a week and a half. You don't want to be kicking your own butt all next year for missing it by a few bucks.

As my mentor Red Green says, "We're all in this together".

idk, showboat's shuttered and horseshoe's gonna be pretty boring with no whizz until april fool's day..... although even the taggiest of vegas fish would probably make that five cent call for a $600 pot.

[wiffleball whizz]

Originally Posted by proximity

idk, showboat's shuttered and horseshoe's gonna be pretty boring with no whizz until april fool's day..... although even the taggiest of vegas fish would probably make that five cent call for a $600 pot.

A little diamond card insight....

I'm a diamond card holder my room rates at ballys in ac was Friday $99 and Saturday $219....

My friend who hasn't gambled at at CET property outside of playing 2/4 at harrahs was $12 and $12 respectively......

At the end of the day the diamond card gets you nothing.com


Very much looking forward next Time I play cards seeing the track collector at CT


In all honesty only thing I'll miss about horseshoe is giving the dealers there some play but at the end of the day I'm better off not going

Don't worry proximity well do the Black-eyed Susan horseshoe double header lololo

[proximity]

Originally Posted by wiffleball whizz

In all honesty only thing I'll miss about horseshoe is giving the dealers there some play....

not even the dealers are safe now.

[proximity]

after leaving the crooked main game I take a couple laps around the horseshoe before returning to the poker room to charge my phone. it's only been 30 minutes since I left the first game but the floor calls a new 3/6 game and allows me to join the action.

but there's not much action for me as i'm getting a lot of practice folding rags and i'm missing flops by a mile when I do see one. about an hour in, I get aces cracked and it takes over another hour before I finally drag my first pot.

i'm down nearly $70 as we approach the three hour mark (6:00) but I strike quickly with AA and KK on back to back hands. despite my horrible start these wins move me ahead about $20 and i'd stay slightly ahead until about 8:00 when I get aces cracked again and fall behind.

for the next 90 minutes I can't win a hand and fall behind almost $50 before striking quickly again with a set of 3s and then another set of 3s just 15 minutes later. the second set was overtaken by a straight on the turn but the board paired on the river to give me a full house and move me ahead again for the game!!

for long stretches of the game though i'm completely card dead and am not much of a factor at the table. I'm hanging tough, but finally fall behind around 11:30 when I raise and lose with AQ suited.

finally at midnight I raise with KK, get several callers and bet the whole way on a board that runs out xxx33. i table the kings and half the table tells me i'm good until about two minutes later when redskins quarterback rg3 finally (and i do mean finally) flips over what is most likely the slowest and most tepidly played AA in poker history.

this puts us down $57 and around 12:30 i'd raise JJ and lead out on a 735 flop. the board runs out 2-x and i bet both streets with no resistance. this time i'm gunned down by a turned set of 2s. if it wasn't for the hand towels in the bathrooms i'd swear i was at the sands.

at this point on the tour i'm long out of tears but apparently one of the dealers at the next table is crying for me and wiping his runny nose with his hands and rubbing them on the cards "with an attitude!!"

a big fight breaks out about this and the guy who was complaining ends up leaving..... or did he get kicked out for the night?

"he got kicked out? he's lucky!" i sarcastically joke in the wake of these two brutal defeats.

apparently the poker gods don't appreciate my attempt at humor because i'm again card dead for hours in this nightmare of a session.

finally about 4:20 am i flop two pair with AJ and win a nice pot to cut my deficit to only $127.

that should have ended it, but of course i stay and try to get back in contention. eventually two pair goes down to a straight though and i have to get back across the Mason-Dixon line before the sun comes up.

with just days remaining in our tour, i had to keep winning. but on this night it just wasn't meant to be.

game -178 (3/6 lim)
year +1129 (80-53)

[Track Collector]

I am visiting in-laws in FL over the Christmas holidays as has been the case for the past 25+ years. On one of the days I am able to sneak away by myself for a day trip to Tampa Bay Downs to enjoy the live horseracing card.

This year looks like I'll be checking out their CARD ROOM both before and after the races.

[davew]

Originally Posted by wiffleball whizz

Horseshoe is a cesspool.......as unorganized as a casino can be

I made a bet with somebody last night and I have go honor it...

I'm laying $600 to win 5 cents I don't go there till march 31, 2015

And proximity I wouldn't pay the big blind either and will try my best to get to the bottom of this 3/6 dealer episode......personally besides a select few I can't stand any of them

If you need more incentive, I'll take that bet for a quarter.

[proximity]

Originally Posted by davew

If you need more incentive, I'll take that bet for a quarter.

lol, the odds of that bet could have been reversed and i'm still not sure it would be fair for the whizz.

[wiffleball whizz]

Originally Posted by Track Collector

I am visiting in-laws in FL over the Christmas holidays as has been the case for the past 25+ years. On one of the days I am able to sneak away by myself for a day trip to Tampa Bay Downs to enjoy the live horseracing card.

This year looks like I'll be checking out their CARD ROOM both before and after the races.

SILKSSSSSSS poker room!!!!!

[dilanesp]

Originally Posted by proximity

well another win at the beautiful new horseshoe baltimore where we've been on quite a roll with wins in 14 of our first 16 games!!

for today's game we're back at horseshoe for another session of 3/6 limit hold em but first i'd like to apologize for the recent direction the thread has taken with the whole roy cooke tangent. we had a good thread going for 11 1/2 months so i hope we can put this little hiccup behind us and finish with dignity.

after having a nice lunch at horseshoe's asian restaurant i enter the game about 1:30 and immediately notice two live! dealers who are basically tag teaming the table. i'm not an expert on 2+2 dot com so i don't know if it's technically collusion but it's obvious there is some kind of pre-arranged agreement.

dealer A button straddles and dealer B raises.... every time???

in one sick hand dealer B bets the turn and a 90 year old man calls between dealers B and A. dealer A check raises, dealer B reraises to $18. the victim calls but dealer A folds. seriously??

this is just one example and i hear these guys both lost significant money in the game but it's still not a fair game and it's troubling that the horseshoe staff doesn't seem overly concerned about this. maybe i'm wrong and they are talking about this behind closed doors?

anyhow, at one point in the game i actually flop a straight and hold on to win. unfortunately one of the dealers wasn't at the table when it happened so the flop and turn didn't get capped, lol.

after about an hour i'm up $11 after paying my big blind. of course dealer B raises and dealer A reraises and the hand takes awhile to play out. when it ends the guy to my right leaves, dealer A takes his seat and a new player takes the seat to the right of dealer A. the horseshoe dealer (usually a real good dealer) assigns the small blind to the new player and the big blind to dealer A which doesn't seem right, but i'm not a professional dealer, i'm just worried about the game, especially now that i'm right between dealer B and dealer A and my big blind is going to repeatedly get straddled by dealer B and reraised by dealer A.

after this hand the dealer asks for my big blind... which i just paid the hand before. i'll put up with a lot of crap, but i'm not paying two big blinds in three hands in a game that's 9-10 handed and features (at least) two players who are playing together. then dealer A says that i had to say something before the hand?

well (1) i'm not dealing the game and what if i got up during the incredibly long hand during what was my big blind and then came back? do i still have to pay two big blinds? ridiculous. and (2) you don't know me, so watch your tone.

the game dealer insists it's my big blind (again) and i don't want to call the floor on him so i just decide to leave and enter another game when it starts.

so far i've had great experiences with this casino and the staff so like the roy cooke thread drift here i'll just excuse this wacky game as a hiccup and judge horseshoe on their overall positive body of work.

game +11 (3/6 lim)
year +1307 (80-52)

On my recent Vegas vacation, I encountered two regular players at the 20-40 game at the Bellagio who claim they were not colluding (and both of them seem to be very nice people), but played a couple of hands as follows:

I raise-4-bet KK with Kd pre-flop, flop 987 all diamonds, one of them has 97, the other has T2 no diamond, and the T2 person raise-caps the turn.

I have J8 off in the big blind in a 6 way pot, one of them has KJ, the other has no pair and no draw and raise-caps a jack high flop.

Those hands were played consecutively, just after I got there.

Who knows?

[wiffleball whizz]

Originally Posted by proximity

well another win at the beautiful new horseshoe baltimore where we've been on quite a roll with wins in 14 of our first 16 games!!

for today's game we're back at horseshoe for another session of 3/6 limit hold em but first i'd like to apologize for the recent direction the thread has taken with the whole roy cooke tangent. we had a good thread going for 11 1/2 months so i hope we can put this little hiccup behind us and finish with dignity.

after having a nice lunch at horseshoe's asian restaurant i enter the game about 1:30 and immediately notice two live! dealers who are basically tag teaming the table. i'm not an expert on 2+2 dot com so i don't know if it's technically collusion but it's obvious there is some kind of pre-arranged agreement.

dealer A button straddles and dealer B raises.... every time???

in one sick hand dealer B bets the turn and a 90 year old man calls between dealers B and A. dealer A check raises, dealer B reraises to $18. the victim calls but dealer A folds. seriously??

this is just one example and i hear these guys both lost significant money in the game but it's still not a fair game and it's troubling that the horseshoe staff doesn't seem overly concerned about this. maybe i'm wrong and they are talking about this behind closed doors?

anyhow, at one point in the game i actually flop a straight and hold on to win. unfortunately one of the dealers wasn't at the table when it happened so the flop and turn didn't get capped, lol.

after about an hour i'm up $11 after paying my big blind. of course dealer B raises and dealer A reraises and the hand takes awhile to play out. when it ends the guy to my right leaves, dealer A takes his seat and a new player takes the seat to the right of dealer A. the horseshoe dealer (usually a real good dealer) assigns the small blind to the new player and the big blind to dealer A which doesn't seem right, but i'm not a professional dealer, i'm just worried about the game, especially now that i'm right between dealer B and dealer A and my big blind is going to repeatedly get straddled by dealer B and reraised by dealer A.

after this hand the dealer asks for my big blind... which i just paid the hand before. i'll put up with a lot of crap, but i'm not paying two big blinds in three hands in a game that's 9-10 handed and features (at least) two players who are playing together. then dealer A says that i had to say something before the hand?

well (1) i'm not dealing the game and what if i got up during the incredibly long hand during what was my big blind and then came back? do i still have to pay two big blinds? ridiculous. and (2) you don't know me, so watch your tone.

the game dealer insists it's my big blind (again) and i don't want to call the floor on him so i just decide to leave and enter another game when it starts.

so far i've had great experiences with this casino and the staff so like the roy cooke thread drift here i'll just excuse this wacky game as a hiccup and judge horseshoe on their overall positive body of work.

game +11 (3/6 lim)
year +1307 (80-52)

After pondering this I'm gonna say the live dealers were not colluding.....we don't like each other there.... There's no comrodery(spelling?) just trying to look cool buying in for 600 in 3/6 and always raising

[wiffleball whizz]

Originally Posted by dilanesp

On my recent Vegas vacation, I encountered two regular players at the 20-40 game at the Bellagio who claim they were not colluding (and both of them seem to be very nice people), but played a couple of hands as follows:

I raise-4-bet KK with Kd pre-flop, flop 987 all diamonds, one of them has 97, the other has T2 no diamond, and the T2 person raise-caps the turn.

I have J8 off in the big blind in a 6 way pot, one of them has KJ, the other has no pair and no draw and raise-caps a jack high flop.

Those hands were played consecutively, just after I got there.

Who knows?

Dilanesp a friend of mine and a few dealers at the other casino are organizing a trip to commerce for the big tourney at end of January....

I'm pondering this trip only thing is my gf is planning on coming down from ct around that time and taking her isn't an option....

I see on the bravo app there is a 4/8 with kill and other limits with half kill are these games good? Looking to play in the 10/20 vacinity and maybe dabble in 20/40 stud...


Other questions.....don't mean to be pain in the ass...


How far is commerce from Santa Anita as I "have to go there if I'm there"

Another thing I have to do as lame as it sounds is go to the rose bowl....always wanted to check it out..

Flight from baltimore to lax is about 320....but I just hate flying---not scared but just so boring it's like a 6.5 hour flight non stop I just dread it

Just dying to go to this place and this is the perfect excuse to go.....


Last question....what do they play these 8-16 games with $2 chips? $4 chips?


Again any input greatly appreciated as I have about 8 days to make a move

[dilanesp]

Originally Posted by wiffleball whizz

Dilanesp a friend of mine and a few dealers at the other casino are organizing a trip to commerce for the big tourney at end of January....

I'm pondering this trip only thing is my gf is planning on coming down from ct around that time and taking her isn't an option....

I see on the bravo app there is a 4/8 with kill and other limits with half kill are these games good? Looking to play in the 10/20 vacinity and maybe dabble in 20/40 stud...


Other questions.....don't mean to be pain in the ass...


How far is commerce from Santa Anita as I "have to go there if I'm there"

Another thing I have to do as lame as it sounds is go to the rose bowl....always wanted to check it out..

Flight from baltimore to lax is about 320....but I just hate flying---not scared but just so boring it's like a 6.5 hour flight non stop I just dread it

Just dying to go to this place and this is the perfect excuse to go.....


Last question....what do they play these 8-16 games with $2 chips? $4 chips?


Again any input greatly appreciated as I have about 8 days to make a move

4/8 with a half-kill is unbeatable due to the rake ($7 per hand). But if you just want to have fun, these games are huge limpfests with 7 or 8 people in every hand and very few pre-flop raises.

8/16 with a half-kill also has a $7 rake, and plays like 8/16 just about everywhere. A handful of players aren't terrible and will play reasonably tight and aggressive. But pots are still massively multi-way and most of the players are awful.

20/40 (no kill) has a $7 rake as well, and is quite beatable (I am a pretty big net lifetime winner in the game). The regular player pool is a mix of a few extremely good pros, some decent amateurs, and a lot of whales and fish. Pots are often 3 to 5-way, though you can definitely get into tough games, so some seat and table selection is important in that game.

I haven't been to Commerce in a few months (I prefer other local rooms), but when I played there they used to have a 20/40 stud game and a 30/60 stud game, and there was usually one table of each. A lot of regulars, so I am not sure the game is going to be very easy, though I don't know that much about stud so that should not be taken as gospel.

Commerce is on the same side of town as Santa Anita. Absent traffic, it's about 20 minutes away. On weekdays there will be traffic, however; on a Friday afternoon, it could be more like 75 minutes.

The Rose Bowl is one of LA's great events, truly. Tickets will be very expensive this year with a battle of the last 2 Heisman winners, Florida State's huge fanbase (which travels-- in the 1990's, they sent 40,000 people to a regular season game against USC at the Coliseum), and a berth in the National Championship game on the line. But if you can get in, it will take up your full January 1 but the pageantry is absolutely amazing, including a flyover, the Rose Queen and her court, the Grand Marshal (which this year will be a memorial as Lou Zamperini unfortunately died this year after being named), the bands, and of course a great football game in a picturesque setting.

One warning-- the Rose Bowl stadium is very old and uncomfortable. I wouldn't recommend it for claustrophobes or very big people.

8/16 in Southern California is always played with $2 chips, which are almost always green. It's ubiquitous-- you can find games at Hollywood Park (check out the old racetrack next door-- it's still standing), Hustler, Hawaiian Gardens (in a Quonset Hut!), the Bicycle, and Ocean's Eleven.