Charity And Giving

6:10 $300 - I walk into the Grand Sierra Poker Room on Friday evening, and was immediately seated at the second $1/$2 table that was just opening. We start with six players. The biggest stack is $400, and he's one of the Dealers in this room. (In Nevada, Dealers can play in their own Poker Room, sometimes while on the clock. I don't like this rule, but that's another post for another day.)

6:30 $312 - The Dealer left the table to go do his job. We are now five chip stacks, although one of the players played one hand, and vanished. We've been playing 4-handed for a while now. The action is all small pots, as you would expect.

As it turns out, the Grand Sierra is hosting two different Charity tournaments tonight at 7pm in their tournament area right outside the Poker Room. Hopefully, a few of those players will venture in the Poker Room after they bust out of the Charity tournament to give another donation.

7:00 $341 - The nightly non-Charity tournament started at 6:30 with two tables. In a strange occurrence, the main $1/$2 game broke due to players going to the tournament, and the remaining few joined us. We are now full with nine chip stacks, but four of those players are wandering around, and have "Missed Blinds" buttons next to their chips. So much for the "3rd Man Walking" rule.

7:30 $250 - One of the Charity tournament has eight tables; the other has five. Another $1/$2 table just opened. My table is down to eight chip stack, but they all have players now. So far, the play has been rather tame, which is what I expected. I lost chips in a cooler hand. In a limped pot, I just called in the SB with AJ. The Flop was AA2. I bet $5 on the Flop, $10 on the Turn, and $15 on the River. The only caller was a 60's gentleman who looked a lot like Sidney Pollack. He raised on the River from $15 to $35, and I called. He had AQ.

8:00 $239 - We are finally full with nine chip stacks, and nine players. However, this table is dead, even on a Friday night. (This town is full of Super Nits.) We are getting one or two walks every orbit. Unfortunately, my cards are also dead. I think it's time to start the $5 Straddle to try to loosen up the table. It's had some success in the past. (I know my former Home game players are saying, "He's straddling?", but it's really that bad in Reno on some nights.)

The Charity tournaments are doing some raffles and auctions over the loudspeaker, with an emphasis on LOUD. It's really a major distraction for everyone in the Poker Room.

8:30 $202 - Here's a list of hands from the last 20 minutes: (Button) 84d, it was 3-Bet before it got to me, so I folded. (CO) 96d, limp; I flopped a Flush Draw on a Paired board. I called a $10 bet, but folded on the Turn. (Hyj) 92o, fold. (Mid) J2o, fold. (Mid) Q9o, fold. (UTG+1) Q3o, fold. (BB - the player on my Right took a walk, so I wasn't able to straddle.) 72o, checked my option and folded on Flop. (SB) A3o, flopped Top Pair and called $5 on the Flop & Turn from the Sydney Pollack guy. River was checked, and he had ATo. (Btn) 94o, fold. (CO) 33, limp and fold on Flop. (Hyj) 93o, fold. (Mid) J6o, fold. (Mid) JTo, folded to a $10 raise from a Super Nit. (UTG+1) Q3o, fold.

As you can see, it was a whole lot of nothing. At least the walks have stopped, as I don't think we had one in the last 30 minutes. However, the Charity tournaments are still doing their festivities. Our Dealer was just dealing in the tournament area, and said it's even louder out there.

9:00 $192 - A third $1/$2 table has opened up. I really only played one hand, and got stacked off. It was partially a cooler, and partially a small mistake by me as I didn't need to lose everything. It will be a future Hand Of The Day, so I can give it a full analysis. I reloaded for my last $200.

9:30 $181 - Since I'm leaving around 10:30, I started splashing around more. The results were mixed, but nothing noteworthy. The Charity tournaments have finally quieted down.

At 9pm every night, the Poker Room wheels in a table with a few dishes from the Buffet. Tonight, they had spaghetti with meatballs and sausage, some sort of chicken dish, pork chops in a teriyaki sauce, and BBQ beef ribs. Why they would bring ribs into a Poker Room, I'll never know.

10:00 $195 - Here's a hand to describe how this session has gone: UTG+1 limps. Everyone else folded to me. I'm the SB with Ac 2h, and call. Three players see a Flop of 5c 4c 3h. I bet $5 with my Straight. Both players call. Turn [5c 4c 3h] 7h. That's a terrible card, as any 6 just hit a better Straight. I check, and so does everyone else. River [5c 4c 3h 7h] Jc. Great, now the Flush gets there. I check. BB bets $5. UTG+1 folds. I quietly say "FML", and call. BB shows J8c for the Flush.

10:40 $263 - I pulled off a sweet bluff against a No0b that will be future Hand Of The Day. One of the $1/$2 tables broke, so they're down to two tables. The Charity tournaments are down to their last few tables, but none of the players seem to be coming to the Poker Room. The Buffet sent over some desserts, some sort of cheesecake with a restaurant presentation (whipped cream, half a strawberry, and other decorations).

Since I have to work in the morning, I head home down $234 for the evening. Even though this was a lousy session, I am +$19 for this week with one more day to go (Sunday). For the last two weeks, I was +$81 and +$414. So I'm slowly pulling up out of the freefall I was in shortly after I arrived in Reno.