Aces "Cracked".....a good thing?

…… I was moved to the main game at the Horshoe Casino in Council Bluffs, Iowa when I looked down and realized I had pocket AA on my big blind. 5 people limped in and I raided it to $20 more. Three of us saw the flop come 9, Q, 7 (rainbow) I bet out $75 and only one person calls. The turn comes 3 and I decide to end this because I am sure he has a queen and I don’t want him to get a second pair with it. I shove all-in $175 more and he says “I don’t think you have AA or KK I have you on Jacks. He calls showing QJ. I calmly state I have Aces and turn them over. The river spikes a J to the audible gasp of 3 or 4 players at the table. He had a horrible read, a worse call, and he pulls in the pot of almost $500. I turn cold inside, calmly stand, and choke-out, “lock my seat, I’ll be back, “ and I walk away because I feel like I am going to “throw-up”……..

Before I finish telling you about this game at the Horseshoe, let’s go back to the night before………

It was cold in the Colorado Mountains. The furnace came on many times that night even though I had set it to turn on only when it dropped below 50 degrees inside. Our RV is well insulated, and usually our body heat keeps it above 50 unless it gets real cold outside. It was real cold outside. A check on the Internet indicated the overnight low was 37 degrees at the altitude we were sleeping.

The next day we started up & down Colorado scenic highways again and at 11,000 ft my cell phone beeped, indicating I had a message or two. We had not had cell coverage all night. There were two voice mails from my sister. The first one indicating my sister-in-law had gotten worse. The second one requesting I call as soon as I could!

It seemed so surreal, sitting here in the Rockies enjoying the beauty of the snow-capped peaks, against the backdrop of a beautiful sun shining day speckled with white fluffy could, knowing I was going to hear she was dead.

I called my sister.

My sister-in-law had died at 12:03 A.M. last night.

I consulted the map and decided to redirect us on a more direct path to Chicago. After a few phone calls to family, we found out the funeral would be on Saturday. We would have plenty of time to make it.

I did quite a bit of driving as we talked about things we remembered about my sister-in-law. It took awhile to get out of the Rockies. We passed Denver right before “rush hour”, and made it almost to the Nebraska border. We needed to stop for gas and supplies. We saw one of our “favorite road side attractions: A Super Wal-mart. Since we had about 1200 miles of hard driving to do, we had the RV lubed, oil changed, and checked over, while we shopped. Then back on the road again. I drove about ½ the night and we went to sleep in another Wal-Mart Parking lot in Kearny, Nebraska.

The next day we drove scenic byways, (Some people think there is no scenery in Nebraska or Iowa..grin) and reached Omaha in the mid-afternoon.

It has been 20 years since I have driven through Omaha. I was quite impressed with the West side of the city. We stopped at a nail salon because Caren needed a manicure, pedicure and treatment before we saw the family. (It’s a girl-thing) Pokey and I napped in the car, (“It’s a old-guy & dog thing”)most of the time Caren was in the salon.

We crossed the Missouri river and found Harrah’s Casino. I was planning on playing poker until I was ready to go to sleep for the night. We found a beautiful spot right next to the river to park. I showered and then went in to the Casino Riverboat, only to discover they no longer had poker there. They directed me to The Horseshoe Casino a few miles from there.

About 30 minutes later I was sitting at a 3/6 hold-em game waiting to be called for the 2-5 N/L. After 40 minutes of play, I had made $1 and was ready to get to the No Limit game. A new game was called and I took my favorite seat only to be moved to the main game after folding 5 hands in a row.

At the new table I was the very short stack with my $200 buy-in. There was a lot of money on the table. The stacks averaged about $800-1200 (I thought these “chip owners” of a late of players who came and have already gone from this table leaving their chips behind. These players must be fairly good or at least very lucky.

I played very tight for a while and watched some fairly decent play. The button’s were always raising and doing big continuation bets. There were usually one two players beyond the flop. When hands were showed down, they were very good hands.

I paid my blinds for an hour or so looking for a chance to win a pot when the AA hand I mentioned at the start of this blog occurred. After walking “aimlessly” around the casino I stumbled out into the Iowa night. I called Caren in the RV where she was watching a movie. I didn’t want to whine, but for some reason this beat was “really hurting”. Some of my feelings about the loss of Donna must have gotten mixed up in my poker feelings. I needed comforting. She was great. She was comforting, sympathized with my “bad beat”. Asked me what I wanted to do? When I said, I am going to go back in there in a few minutes after I settle down. She asked me if I could let it go and play my best poker. (What a great supportive wife. I am so grateful to have her as a life-partner.)

I walked back in, bought another $200 in chips and resumed my seat. I turned to the guy next to me and nicely asked if he had any more great catches since I was gone. He told me about a huge pot he took down when he flopped a flush while I was gone.

I waited till my blind came to me to take Cards and then folded 9 hands around one circuit. When my button reached me I saw I had A4 suited and gave it a raise. The flop came A,7,8 (none of my suite) There was one medium size bet and one call. I raised it ½ stack and both bettors called. The turn came a 3 and I was checked to. I pushed my last $75 in to a $200 and both other players took a long time to think about it and folded.

Then like an Epiphany, I realized this was a table of mid-western players. Hard-working, tight rocks, smart, “waste no-money”, tight-fisted, no bs kind of guys. I knew my game plan. I could make some creative plays. I could bluff at a few pots, because I knew almost everyone of these players were capable of laying down good hands. Well, that is exactly what I did. I ended up with a couple of creative hands I bluffed for small & medium size pots. Then I had pocket 2’s & pocket 3’s in early position “triple up” on the flops and I made two large pots with those hands. A couple of hours later, I was able to walk away about $600 up.

It is hard to believe, but the best thing for me that day was to get the AA beat after playing like a rock for an hour and then taking a walk to have to “re-think” my strategy at this table.

Rocky Mountain High...Part 2

Well, we did push on to the four corners monument. This is the only place in the USA where four states come together. This turned out to be as exciting, as when we saw the world’s largest ball of string in Darwin, Minnesota

We arrived an hour after it closed for the evening. Good thing. . We were met by a locked gate and a sign that said it closed an hour earlier. It would have been very frustrating for me, if we had arrived on time. The signs make it look like it is an actual national park. However, it is owned by an Indian tribe who charges $3.00 per person, and then tries to sell you tables full of Indian Trinkets. (B.T.W. one of the useless facts in my head that I read somewhere, indicates that when someone actually did a GPS on this site it was not totally accurate)

We were able to squeeze through the locked gate, and hike about a ½ mile to the “possibly, misplaced” monument.

Caren, the dog Pokey, and I had a lovely walk under a rising, full moon to the monument and were able to plant one of Pokey’s paws in each state. How many people can say their dog was in four states at once?

We continued on to Cortez, where we spent the night. It was cold in the RV that night. What a pleasant change from Laughlin.

Caren went shopping at Wal-Mart while I worked on the previous blog entry. We filled up the propane tank, and headed north up State Route 145. What a majestic route. We followed a beautiful river the entire way and the scenery was magnificent. We took a walk up by Lizard Head Pass at 10,322 ft above sea level. Just a short walk, and we were winded. We took out the lawn chairs and ate a peanut butter and jelly sandwich while we stared at the “Alpine covered mountains” rising to over 14,000 feet above us.

Later that afternoon, we stopped in Ridgeway, a beautiful little town, with a clean alpine village look. We walked in a city park and Caren shopped in a thrift store while I took a ½ hour nap.

Then it was on to Gunnison, Colorado where we are spending the night in Blue Mesa Recreational Ranch. Good time to have hook-ups, empty the poop tank, fill the water tank and have Internet Access for the night.

Back in 2002, when we traveled around the country in our RV, I had to drag my laptop to the clubhouse and plug-in to a phone-jack and use dial-up.

Tonight, I am sitting in the comfort of my RV on High Speed Wireless. (It did cost an extra $4 for a 24 hour period of access from Tengo Internet Wireless) But, “the times they are a changing”. I noticed one of the RV’s had a sign that stated he was a dealer for a Satellite Internet, company (I forgot which one)and he could have you installed and going in 1 hour or less, so you could Internet in your RV, anytime, you wanted, anywhere in the U.S.

So after checking email, posting updates to my blog, and making dinner, I am ready to crawl in the sleeping bag and enjoy the rest of my night in a prone position.

I almost logged onto Party Poker, but it just didn’t seem right when I can enjoy this great outdoors.

Rocky Mountain High......

9/11 A day that will be in our nation’s psyche forever. I said a little prayer for the families of those victim’s that will have even more vivid memories then the rest of us. My parents remember where they were Pearl Harbor was announced. I remember where I was when Kennedy was shot. My children will tell their kids where they were when they heard the planes had flown into the “Twin Towers.” God help us for the stories there children will have.

However, today I am glad to be alive and traveling in the beautiful Rocky Mountains with my wife Caren, and pokey, the dog. We spent the night in a 24 hour, Super Walmart, parking lot, with about 12 other “covered wagons.” I mean R.V.’s

Right before my last entry we had heard my sister-in-law, Donna was given 1-2 weeks to live. (Final stages of cancer, and now kidney failure, & lungs filling with fluids) We were scheduled to go on vacation this Thursday to British Columbia in the RV.
Some creative thinking produced, a let’s jump in the RV tonight, leave early, vacation as long as we can in Colorado, and then drive to Chicago for my brother and his children when Donna dies.

So Friday night, while I threw things in the R.V. and asked the neighbors to get our mail, and move our 2nd car around on the street so it wouldn’t be ticketed, Caren was cleaning house, & making lists. She ran back to work and worked till 8 p.m. preparing her staff for her to be gone that long. Then we worked till midnight doing everything else that showed up on a list. The next morning we were on the road with a two hour stop in “Hillcrest” for Caren to have her done. I don’t like to stereotype, but for you women readers. no explanation is necessary. And for you men, no explanation would be sufficient. (grin)

Well, Saturday found us driving up the I15, making cell phone calls to our friends and families to let them know where we were going. One of the person’s we had called, passed us a few miles later heading for her mother’s home in Hemet. (lol) We turned right at Riverside, and headed toward Palm Springs. It was the weekend and I didn’t want to deal with the traffic on the way to Vegas, but I did want to play a little poker tonight. So, we took the back way, through Amboy, on country roads, through the desert and went to Laughlin for our first night’s stop.

9 P.M. found me sitting at a 2-6 Texas Hold-em game at the Riverside Casino. I asked one of the dealers if Felicia & Glenn had been in tonight. I was really hoping to meet them. Her poker blog is one I read every day, and I wanted to tell them in person how much it meant to me and probably many others. But, alas, they had already been there for the tournament and had already left for the night.

My commitment and promise to Caren, was to play until about midnight and then get a good night sleep for the drive tomorrow. I bought in for $80. At the table were two maniacs, one desert rock, about three tourists, and me. (The other two seats were like revolving doors, people came bought in for 20-30 dollars and left as they busted.)



By eleven I had re-bought for $40 more and had seen 3 open-ended straights and two flushes never make it. I was down to my last $25 when I played a K7 suited, just for the heck of it. As usual, the table capped it, and I was half-in by the time the flop came. (7, Q,A,) rainbow. I checked, the rock bet out, everybody else folded, and I against my better judgment called. It was just me, and him, when the 4 came on the turn. I checked, he bet, and I called with only six chips left. The river was another 7, I bet, he grimaced, called, my final six. As I turned over my suck-out of three sevens, his A,Q hit the table. I think I saw his “trigger finger”, twitching, imagining, emptying every chamber of his six-gun into me.

I managed to get back up to $115 in chips, by the time the “stroke of midnight” came. Because, I lecture my daughter, on keeping her inner promises, I was compelled to get up and keep mine, even though I wanted to stay. This was a table I could triple up on, when I “catch” some cards.

It still must have been 90 degrees out when I walked to the RV at midnight. It was quite warm inside even with the fans going and windows open. After an uncomfortable night sleep, 8 a.m. found us getting up and getting the RV ready to roll, because the sun was beginning to “cook the contents” of the metal box , (which is us) that is our RV .

We crossed the “mighty Colorado river” and turned left to drive through Golden Valley, (Where Felicia & Glenn live) to catch Interstate 40 at Kingman, Arizona. With due respect to F&G & anybody else who doesn’t deserve it, Kingman seems to me, to be filled with only Truckers, Bikers, Drug Dealers, and anybody else who doesn’t want to found by the authorities. However, for me, the one redeeming thing about Kingman, is they have cheap gas, compared to California, so I always stop, and fill up keeping a vigilant look out for the local chapter of “The Hell’s angels” or another biker gang filled with criminal, trucker, drug-dealers. (grin)

Well, after safely, leaving Kingman, we drove the Interstate to Flagstaff, Arizona. I think Flagstaff is beautiful and is so unlike the rest of Arizona. (Not to say the desert isn’t beautiful, it has it’s own kind of beauty, but I am a Ocean, and Forested, Mountains kind of guy.)

We drove through Flagstaff, and stopped for lunch at Taco Bell, and filled up the RV with provisions at a Safeway store. Then hours of driving across some unique countryside that was a Navaho, and then an Apache reservation. We drove across, the “Grand Canyon” near the start of it, where it was only about 100 feet across. Then angled our way up the foothills, and the start of what will become the western slope of the Rocky Mountains. Then it came to me, like a flash of insight!!. “I am hundred’s of miles from home, but if I walk outside and take a pee, it will wash into a creek, and then the Colorado, through the Grand Canyon, past Laughlin, under the “London Bridge”, through a series of conduits, and then come out of my tap in San Diego when I fill a glass of water to drink”. “Talk about, your circle of life!! (I think I will stick to bottled water, like Caren does.)

The sun is setting, but we want to make it to see the “Four Corner’s monument” before dark.

So we push on for the top of the Rockies.......