I meet lady luck's boyfriend.....

The “Bike” Casino in L.A. Sunday, Aug 28th

(If you haven’t read the previous entry, this is a continuation of the last two entries, you may want to go back and read those first to appreciate this one better.)

As I take my seat back at the N/L table, the “self-proclaimed” expert at the table, declares, that he has won enough for today and it is time for him to go. Then he left with $400 of mine and $600 from others, all on 1 or 2 outer suck outs. I know nobody promised “life would be fair”, but this….#$@$@%.

Oh, well there are at least two loose players and two novices left that are playing almost every hand. So, I am going to get my money back. (Me thinks…)

I buy in for my third buy-in and my first hand comes QQ. I raise the BB $25 and get 3 callers. The flop produces Js9h3c. I am first to act so I go in for $75 and get 2 callers.

Hmm, no raises, I am sure I am still ahead the turn is a 4c. I push in the rest of my chips from this latest buy-in and I get called by one person. She had earlier declared this is her first time in a casino. She played a little on-line on her son’s computer, but she said she “watches a lot of poker on TV”. (I knew I was in trouble...)

The river is a 5s and I turn over my queens and she is "giggling", (I am not kidding, giggling) that she got a straight. You guessed it. She bet on her A,2. With no pair and a gutshot straight draw after the turn when I pushed all-in with my queens.

I muttered to the dealer “seat open”, and slunk out to my car thinking I am going to see Rod Serling in the Parking Lot saying “You have just entered the Twilight Zone….” But, only my car was there to greet me. I decide free room or not, I am going to start working my way south to go home. I have had enough of poker in L.A. today.

A half-hour later I am walking into the Hawaiian Gardens Casino. I request a seat in 8/16 limit.

I have had enough of No-Limit for awhile. My confidence is shaken. I know I cannot play my best no-limit poker right now. I win and lose a few pots in limit and my confidence is starting to come back to me.

I hear them announcing a one-table “shoot-out” for $125 buy-in. First place is $550 and second is $250. Third gets you your buy-in back. That sounds good to me. I can win this and be close to even for the day. I have won a few of these before at WPT events and the WSOP. So, I buy-in.

After being told the “shoot-out” would start in 12 minutes I take a stroll and find a hotdog vendor in the casino selling “Chicago Hot Dogs”. I grew up in Chicago and consumed a lot of that fine cuisine in my life-time, so for old time sake I order two. Of course I had them with mustard, onions, hot-peppers, tomatoes, and that bright green relish you only see in Chicago.

Back to the “shoot-out” just in time to get the High Card for the button! That’s a good sign to me, that just maybe my luck is going to change. That was about the last high card I got. I was cold-decked and card-dead for the next hour. I went out in 5th place with KJ suited running smack into a pair of pocket Aces. That’s poker, as they say.

I did feel good about my play, and did the best with what I had, and no monstrous suck outs occurred. I walked away feeling good about my play, but now I am down more then I have ever been in one day of play.

It is now about 10 p.m. and I decide I will drive 90 miles toward home and stop at Oceans Eleven Casino. I have often done well there. In fact my biggest one day win, not counting jack-pots occurred there. I bought in for $300 about 6 months ago at the 20-40 limit table and left 5 hours later cashing out 5 racks of red chips. That is $2500.

As I stroll into Oceans 11 I decide my “game plan” is to play only the rocks. To play extremely tight and double my $300 buy-in at the N/L game and then go home “licking my wounds”, but gaining back a little money.

I stick religiously to my plan, I throw away hand after hand. Even threw away JJ in first position. Finally, it happens, I am "one off the button" and I look down to see 2 Beautiful Red Aces.

Two people limp in and I raise $25. The flop comes 9,7,2 rainbow. I bet $50 and get called by the button. The turn is a 3 I go all-in for my last $200 and the button thinks and thinks about it. I am “screaming inside” don’t call, don’t….. Finally, after two other players say something about that’s enough time, he shrugs his shoulders and meekly mutters call. The river is a nine and he shows K,9 for three 9’s. There is a loud laugh from someone across the table, and the dealer looks at me and says "I’m sorry". I must have had a “pitiful” expression on my face. I know I sure was feeling sorry for myself and starting to drown in a choir of voices, all mine, singing, in my head, the old county-western song “Why me, Lord!”

Now I am 60 miles from home, with only $25 in my pocket and it is 2 A.M. My arrangement with Caren is I wouldn’t come home until 5 A.M. That’s when she has to get up for work. She is a light sleeper, and if woken after 2 A.M. would haved a difficult time going back to sleep.

So what should I do? I could take a nap in the car. No, I am too “wired” to sleep. So I take a look in the Table Games area. They have blackjack, Caribbean Stud and 3 card poker.

There are two people seated at the 3 card poker table. One of them is explaining to the other the strategy and best odds for playing this game. I have never played 3 card poker. He sounds like he knows what he is doing, and he does have a considerable stack in front of him so I sit down to listen. I slap my last $25 on the table and proceed to win the next few hands and I before I know it I have a little over $200 in front of me. A friendly gentleman sits down and for the next hour or so we have pleasant conversations. The new person says he is a “producer” in Hollywood and this is his first time ever in a “card room”. He has been to casinos in Vegas, but didn’t know about these card clubs in California.

He proceeds to go on the most incredible amount of luck I have ever personally witnessed. If you hit a Royal Flush you get paid 200 to 1 at this casino. He hit one on a $50 bet resulting in a $10,000 pay out to him. He tips generously everybody, and then puts up $300 for each of us at the table on the next hand. The dealer doesn’t qualify and we each get to pocket the $300 which I thank him profusely for. 2 hands later he hits a straight flush at 40 to 1 resulting in a $2000 payoff. He put up bets for us again. The dealer beat us on this one. So the $1200 he put out to cover all our bets goes back to the house. Within the next hour he hits another straight-flush and three of a kind twice. Each time he bets for us. We never won when he did that, though he was sure, his luck would work one of these times. I left about 4 A.M. while there was a crowd around him mesmerized by this “run of luck”. With my $200 win and the $300 he gave me I felt a little better about my loss today even though it was the biggest loss I have had in one day ever.

Finally, I arrive home shortly after 5 A.M. kiss Caren good morning, play with Pokey the puppy and go to sleep for the next 8 hours dreaming of poker hands and draws that never came.