Reports Of Their Death Have Been Greatly Exaggerated

On the final day of my Pittsburgh Road Trip, I decided to swing by Mountaineer on the way home to see if the place is still standing. Since they got half or more of their players from the Western Pennsylvania area, most people expect that Mountaineer is in big trouble now that Pittsburgh has casinos.

But it was still open for business. In fact, on Sunday they had Chicago in for a concert in their little arena at 4pm. The Poker Room was definitely slower than it used to be on a Sunday afternoon. When I headed home at 6pm, they had five tables of 1/2, one table of 2/4, and an interest list for 2/5. They probably got a few more tables after the concert ended. They also had a tournament at 2pm that had 63 runners.

One good side effect from all of this Doom & Gloom is that they will be moving the Poker Room to the Main Building before Labor Day. The Dealer said it will have 20-25 tables, instead of the 40 tables now. This is actually a good thing because there might be more casual players wandering by, and wanting to try that "All-In Game" they saw on TV.

As for my $1/$2 session, it was utter frustration. The table was rather soft, with no real "Players" or Action Guys. But I would build my stack, and lose some in annoying spots. I would then start to rebuild, and then lose some more in another ridiculous spot.

I don't Tilt from one bad hand. I've been playing for a few years now, and I'm used to the Beats. What I do Tilt from is a series of bad hands. Twice today, I had to get up from the table, and walk around to cool off. For those who don't regularly play with me, this is not something that I do often.

Another factor was that I had "Hit the Wall", and got rather tired. I hadn't slept well the last two nights, and I had just had lunch in the below-average Mountaineer Buffet.

During my second break from the table, I had considered just cashing out, and heading home. But I was only down about $120 at this point, and I should be able win it back from this soft table. So I headed back to my table to start grinding back into profit.

And I was able to do so, mostly thanks to an older gentleman who had busted out of the tournament, and bought into the table for $100. He had played a lot of pots early on, and built up a nice stack. But it didn't take me to long to realize that he was full of shit. He kept overbetting on the Flop, and would not shut up during a hand, even in the multi-player hands. The dealer even told him not to comment during the hand, but the Geezer just ignored him.

It didn't take long for him to blow through his chip stack, and a few more $100 buy-ins. I managed to get a few chunks of his chips before he gave up and left about 90 minutes after he sat down. I left shortly after he did with profit of $163.