River City Casino and New Poker Blog

At the suggestion of a friend I decided to start a Live Poker Blog to keep track of my wins/losses of 2010 Casino poker play. I am also gonna describe a hand or two as well as some other information.

This blog is gonna be a bit different cause I have played twice this year so far.

My first night playing this year was at the Lumiere (a casino in downtown St. Louis).

It was March 4th and my buddy Josh Kirbach and I went for his birthday. I had about 140 bucks left on my H&R block card and didn't really need it for anything so I decided to take 100 of it and "go for it." Josh and I closed down the Casino and I walked out with 365 dollars. No real interesting hands played. Just basically folded until I had the nuts and got it in when I did. The one feeling I take from the night was a sheer confidence that I never seemed to have before playing in a casino. I have been playing a lot online and recently disciplined myself to a set bankroll management strategy. That experience combined with being there with Josh, the most confident man alive, made it very comfortable. After we left, I took 100 of my winnings and blew on blackjack even though I had no interest in playing. Sometimes, you have to do what you have to do to make a buddies birthday fun.

Buy in: 100
Cash out: 365
Expenses: -100 blackjack
Total profit: 165
Bankroll: 265

Tonight I went to the River City Casino. It just opened up. I took 200 of my 265 but only bought in for 100. I decided tonight that my current BR strategy is to take 2 bullets with me and if I lose both then I will get up and leave. This should keep my BR in tact as well as keep me from tilting all my money away in a bad night. I cashed out tonight at a whopping 475 dollars. It took me a while of playing on my belly when I finally had my first double up against a guy who was obviously a regular but not a pro by any stretch of the imagination. He was very aggressive and very loose/crazy. First hand he played he raised right away. I called with a few others with AQ off suit. I flopped an Ace and got it all in against him and that was that. So Mr. Crazy (as I'll call him) went ahead and raised 8 out of the next 10 hands. On the tenth hand he made it 15 dollars to go and I called with 99. 4 other people called making the pot 120 to go pf. The flop came 7 8 10 rainbowd and it checked to Mr. Crazy. He threw out a black chip and announced he was betting 75 dollars. I had about 210 dollars in front of me total...so I decided I had two choices here....move all in or fold. I felt like calling was the worst play because if I called it would put the pot at almost 300 and leave me with 135. I basically could sustain any more betting on turn without putting the rest of my money in anyway. Also after studying Mr. Crazy and combining with my previous information on him I decided there was a reasonable chance that my pair of nines might be the best hand. The reason why this hand was so big for me is I decided right at that moment I was gonna go big or go home when it comes to this poker thing. I had an hand that was impossible to be dominated completely, a read that I believed in....all I needed was the confidence in myself to pull the trigger. I did. I was called (which I was pretty sure I was gonna regardless of what he had) and the J hit on the river to give me the more than 500 dollar pot. Mr. Crazy didn't show his hand nor did he mention getting outdrawn at all which led me to believe that my read was right...but who knows.

I ended the game at 475 dollars which was a nice pick up for me.

Buy in: 100
Cash out: 475
Expenses: 34 (for food and stuff during the week)
Total profit: 341
Bankroll: 606