Fly like an eagle

Let my spirit carry me

Steve Miller – Fly Like an Eagle

Saturday was my brother’s 18th birthday and he wanted to play some live poker. The Soaring Eagle Casino in Mt. Pleasant is the only Michigan casino that doesn’t have an age limit of 21, so Isaac and my Mom made a day trip down. The plan was to meet them there in the afternoon, but they weren’t leaving Rogers City until 2:00, so I decided to head over earlier. Ever since Soaring Eagle opened the poker room last February I’ve been talking about going to play with my friend Dave from work. It’s only about a 45 minute drive from Saginaw for me and less than a half hour for him from Midland, so it’s actually pretty sad we’ve hadn’t gone yet.

Dave and I walked into the poker room shortly after 2:00 and put our names on the list for $3/6 hold’em. Both of our names were called within 15 minutes. Quite a surprise since I had heard it took 3 hours or more to get a seat. I bought $100 worth of $1 chips because that seemed to be the norm. I normally like to buy in for 30 big bets, but I didn’t want to draw attention to myself right away. I walked over to table #5 and saw two seats open, the 1 and 9. The button was at seat 10, so I took the chair to the left of the dealer.

The button passed me and I posted my $3. I’m dealt my cards and look down to find big slick in the first hand. It’s raised in front of me, so I re-raise and we pick up one caller in between. The flop brings an ace to which the original pre-flop raises bets. I raise and only he calls. I keep betting, he keeps calling, and it ends up we both have big slick for a split pot. Two hands latter I get QQ and raise. The flop comes all hearts so I bet out to see where I’m at. The 2 seat raises and I make the call. I call his bet on the turn, but he checks the river. He shows QhJh for the flush. Who said dominated hands only win online? At least he saved me $6 by checking the river.

A little while later I get AK again. This time I lose to a back door straight draw from Mr. Straddle lover with his T4o. Yes, he called my pre-flop raise with nothing, called my flop bet with nothing and when I hit my ace on the turn he called with a gut shot. As he was debating the call on the turn, Mrs. Loosey Goosey says, “You know you’ll hit it on the river.” So he calls and when a 2 falls I can see him jumping in his seat, but I still bet out after he checks. He raises and I call for some stupid reason. Who says back door draws only happen online?

Shortly after that I raise with AT from late position and get a few callers. The flop comes QTX so I bet when everyone checks to me. I get one caller who has been calling down anytime she makes a pair with the board. I bet the turn and check the river. She turns over Q6o from the small blind and I’m beat. Who says online players are worse than live?

I’m down to about $25 from my $100 buy-in and don’t want to run out of chips if I hit a big hand, so I re-buy for $100 more. I miss some flops and my stack goes down to about $100, which will be the lowest of the day. It seems like ages before I get a hand worthy of taking to a flop, but I finally win two in a row. AT flops a ten, then TT holds up on a king high board and I’m nearly back to even.

Then I kind of went on a tear from there. QQ flops a set, AQ flops a Q, 55 flops a 5 and turns into a full house. Then another back door beats me. I’m holding JJ and put in my pre-flop raise, but we take about 6 players to the flop which has an ace and a king. Well, I can’t bet into that because someone surely has me beat. The turn is a beautiful jack, so I bet and almost everyone calls. There are only 8 cards in the deck that I don’t want to see on the river; queens and tens. Sure enough a ten hits. I see Mrs. Loosey Goosey quickly look away from the board and she thinks about betting out. She even picks up some chips and then decides not to bet. At that point I know she has the queen and everyone checks. She turns over Q6o and takes down the pot. If I had bet on the flop she would of had to fold, but how could I bet that flop?

I win some pots here and there by hitting 2 nut flushes and a nut straight. One of those hands I had Ac8c in the big blind with a flop of 2 clubs. The turn is another club so I bet and get raised. I love getting raised when I hold the nuts! I re-raise and the old man calls me down. After the hand he says, “I didn’t like when that club came,” so I say back, “I did.”

Dave ended up leaving around 6 or 7 with $51 more than he had when we walked in. When he left I was about $100 ahead. Over the next bit I’d go ahead $200 before the following hand. I raise with KQo from the cutoff. The flop is Q99 so I bet out and the old man calls me. The turn is an ace, really the only card in the deck I don’t want to see. He checks, I bet, and he raises. Shit, I know I’m beat with either a 9 or an ace, but I call him down. He turns over AJ and once again I was beat by a three out draw. Who says this only happens online? As he stacks my chips he tells the dealer he’s leaving. Classy.

After some more missed flops and having my set of twos beat by a river flush, which I was check-raised again on, I’m back to about $100 ahead. As it got later in the night more and more college kids came into the poker room and a few sat at my table. My 2nd favorite hand of the night was with K5o in the big blind. I flopped two pair and was raised by Mr. Overplay. Anytime he flopped top pair he was raising and betting all the way. He raises me, another player calls in between us, and I re-raise. They both call me all the way down and I take a $90 pot. Mr. Overplay had something like K3o and the other guy had KTo. I was really pretty card dead toward the end of the night.

The last hand I won was my favorite hand of the night… I’m in the big blind and look down to see 5d6d. Mr. Overplay raises pre-flop, a few people call, and I call with my suited connectors. The flop is Kh6h5h and I hit two pair. I’m not too happy about all of the hearts, but I have to take a shot. I bet and Mr. Overplay raises. Everyone else folds and I have to call. The turn is a blank so I call him again. The river is another heart which I did not want to see. He bets again and I go into the tank. Ok, I know he has a king in his hand, but does he have a heart to go along with it. I finally realize the pot is too big to fold here, so I call. As I flip over my cards I do a double take. My 5 and 6 aren’t suited! I have one diamond and one spade! Even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in awhile I guess. Mr. Overplay shows AdKd for TPTK. I play a few more hands and decide to leave after 9 hours of play and $215 profit.

Remind me again why it took me over a year to make it to Soaring Eagle’s poker room when I live 45 minutes away. I’ll be making a lot more frequent trips, that’s for sure. You may have noticed I kept talking about online play throughout this post. Everything I read says that online players are worse than live players at the low limits. I have to disagree on that one. I’ve played in three different casinos and the players are horrible. Why? Well, I think it has to do with the fact that people are willing to give poker a shot on their night out and they can do this at a casino. Instead of pumping $100 into the slots they can sit down at the poker table and try to get lucky. After all, they’ve watched the pros on TV, so they know how to play this game. I don’t know how many times I saw someone calling all the way down with bottom or middle pair against multiple opponents. Or calling raises with top pair shitty kicker. They’re just giving their money away and I was glad to take it. I should have walked out with more, but I still have a leak of calling when I’m check-raised. Players at these limits aren’t capable of making a bluff with that move. 99% of the time they’ll have it at the low limits. In order to win all you have to do is wait for big hands and play them aggressively. I was only playing one or two hands per orbit but no one seemed to realize this and still called me with their garbage hands.

I don’t know if I have enough fingers to count the number of times I saw someone check or simply call with the nuts. When I have the best hand possible, I guarantee I’m betting or raising. Rebuying was another concept beginners don’t seem to understand. Why would you keep playing with only a couple of big bets? If you hit a big hand, which you’ve been waiting to hit for hours, you won’t have enough chips to make the most money on your hand. If I had a dollar for the number of times that someone won a pot when they were all-in, I might have made $300 on the night instead of $215. When my stack starts to get low the first thing I think about is doing a rebuy so that I can maximize profits on a future hand.

Isaac played until about 3:00 in the morning, losing $100 and Mom won over $1,100 on the slots. Overall it was a winning night for everyone but my brother. It was his first time though and he doesn’t have much experience playing limit poker. For his birthday I bought him SSH, so hopefully he’ll read it and adjust his play.