Mountaineer Table Games

I have been crazy busy preparing for the opening of table games at Mountaineer. I started taking classes for Roulette, Blackjack, and other table games back in October and the casino went live on Dec 20th. I will be working the swing shift from 8 pm til 4 am and the only days off I will have any time soon were Xmas eve and Xmas. So far I have only dealt Blackjack, but I did get to work the High Limit room for a couple nights. That is good and bad... good because it means that management trusts you to work the big tables and deal to the top players, but bad because it is slower in there and the players are not as energetic at the tables since they are gambling hundreds of dollars (or thousands) instead of ten or twenty bucks.

The first player I dealt to in the High Limit room won $4k on one hand which was pretty cool. He had 6's while I was showing a 3, split them, got another 6, split it, got 16, 16, and an Ace for 17, Doubled that down and got a 10 to keep the 17. I flipped over another 3, then a 5 for 11. I thought he was toast, but then I flipped a 2 then a 10 to bust so he won big. I got tapped out then and he left a couple hundred dollars in tips which was cool. But the rest of the night was hit and miss. I might have a player for an hour, but then would go an hour without anyone. There were always players in the room, but they often tried to join in to other tables rather than be the only player at a table so one table might be busy while the next one had nobody.

I did work a $15 table the one night and it was a blast. A couple of girls from Pittsburgh were at the table and stayed for hours. They knew everybody's name at the table and made it fun. Unfortunately I was coming down with the flu and just couldn't get into the fun. I had to focus really hard on the cards and dealing and trying not to pass out. I asked to be let out early but the Pit Boss forgot and by the time 2 am came around I figured I would just tough it out.

And I will tell you right now, dealing is 100 times tougher than I ever thought it would be. I feel like I got run over by a truck by the time I get home every night and the constant struggle at the table is murder on the head. The player's are happy when they are winning and act like your best friend, but when they go on a losing streak (which is often), they curse you under their breath and act like you are ruining their lives. They know that it is just the cards, but since you are dealing it must be your fault somehow. I just always root for them to win and try to have fun with it and I think they appreciate it. I seem to do pretty well with tips so I must be doing something right...

Wheeling Parts 2,3 & 4 :-)

Wheeling has finally settled down during the week but the weekends are still too crazy to try to play. I made it over a few more times. The first day was a Thursday and there were about 12 tables going. I saw some good cards and caught a couple lucky flops (like limping in with 5-6o and flopping 2-3-4) and left up $300 after an hour and a half.

The following week I went back twice (Wed & Thurs). On Wednesday there were only 6 tables active and I had to wait about 30 minutes for a 2-5 table to start. My luck did not hold up as I was continually out-flushed, out-kicked, or just counterfeited. For instance I raised to $25 with AQo. Had a couple callers and the flop came A99 rainbow. I bet out $50 and a guy says "I know you have me beat but I might as well call.". Yay. Just what I want to hear. The next card was the Ks (2 spades on the board now) so if the guy has an A then it will be a split. I bet out $50 again anyways (looking back I probably should have made it more??) and he said again "I'm beat but I will call". Wtf??? Now the 4s comes out but I bet out $50 again and again he calls and shows his A7s giving him the nut flush. Crap. A little while later a lady came to the table and immediately became the table leader. She was talking, raising, and bullying everyone around. She bought in for the max ($500) and quickly had it up to over $1000. I just sat back and waited for a chance to catch her firing at the wrong time. I limped in to a hand with KJo with about 6 players. The flop came Q-10-9 rainbow. Perfect!! I checked and bully lady led out with an $80 bet (way over pot). The guy next to her (the same one that hit the flush on me) went all-in with $91. I then raised all-in with my remaining $136. Bully lady quickly made the call and showed J8o for the low straight. The other guy showed top pair and they both quickly figured they were done when I showed my hand. Unfortunately a K came on the river, which split the pot between the bully lady and myself. That's about $180 that doesn't come my way. So I got up when I was down about $220 and was really ticked about some of the beats. I went up to the $5 slot area and threw $20 in and on the last credit hit for $250. I immediately walked out the door with $10 more than I entered with and called it a win.

The next day I went back over and things were going about the same. I just couldn't seem to get anything going and folded at least 90% of my hands over the first hour and a half or so. Eventually a new dealer came to the table named Kelly. Well she continued to give me absolutely crap cards and when I looked down and saw 2-3 offsuit I finally had enough. I said to the dealer "Kelly, you know my wife's name is Kelly and my ex-wife's name is Kelly, and neither of them treat me as bad as you do." (the wife name thing is true by the way). She then responded "Well, do you know how to play poker?" Ouch... The next hand she gave in a little and dealt me KQo. I raised, got a caller, threw a continuation bet out at the flop and took it down. She left after a couple more hands and the new dealer said that every table complained about dead cards after Kelly left (he was following her around all day). After a few hands he throws me 9-10 clubs. I cracked Aces with this hand last week so I figured I would try again. I called the $5 then a guy raised to $25. I called along with 2 other players. The flop came Ac 8c 4d. One player checked to me and I led out $35. The next player called and then the original raiser made it $100. The checker folded and I thought about it for a bit and made the call. The next player also made the call. The next card came the Kc and made my flush. I checked, next player checked, and then the raiser bet $150 and said he was putting me in. I counted out my stack and I had $146 left and made the call. The last guy only had $20 left and he also called. I flipped up my flush and the raiser showed AsQc so he still had the flush draw. The river came a harmless A and I took down the pot for about $700. The guy was pretty annoyed at getting beat. He understood but thought I wondered why I didn't go away with the reraise. I just figured this was a chance to win a monster pot so I had to take it. About 15 minutes later he brought up the hand again (you can tell he had been replaying it in his head over and over. He told me I played it really well by betting out with the A on the board and just a flush draw because it looked to him like I had a weaker Ace. I won a couple more hands and got up to $800 and cashed out up about $550 for the day. Not a bad 2 1/2 hours of work.

News from Mountaineer: It looks like table games should be starting in the middle of December, depending on the State lottery commission. I'm going to be spending a few extra hours a day practicing after my blackjack classes in the mornings to get ready for it. I can't wait to get started!

Wheeling Poker Room

Wow, I didn't realize it had been so long since I last posted. A lot has happened since to me since then. I still work for the National Pub Poker League, but I have started classes at Mountaineer Race Track for Roulette and Blackjack, which will be starting around the first of the year. At that time I may quit my current position with the National Pub Poker League or I may stay on part-time. I'll decide later or let my boss decide for me.

As I mentioned, the West Virginia race tracks voted to allow table games, including poker. I decided to go to work at Mountaineer, which means I will not be able to play poker or anything else there. But I can still go to Wheeling so this blog is going to focus more on my adventures (or misadventures) at their poker room. I am hoping to get there at least once a week, but I may have to wait to get there that much until I start working at Mountaineer.

But I did make it to Wheeling on opening day (Oct 19th). The room opened at 10am and I arrived at about noon. It was very busy but they were just opening a 2-5 NL table so I immediately got seated. One problem that I immediately noticed was their small cashier. Some of it was first-day inexeperience, and some of it was the lottery commission ruling that dealers could not buy-in players at the table, but it made for long lines to wait for chips. Since we were starting a new table, they sent a chip runner to the table to get chips for everyone but it still took 15 minutes to get things started.

I won't bore you with details, but I was card dead for 5 hours. The best hands I saw in that time were AKs, AJo, A10o, 66, 55, and 22 and the only one that was a winner was the 66 (hit the set on the flop). Ended up down about $300 but won back $60 at a slot machine while walking out the door. The play was what I hoped for, a sizable amount of fish and the players who were threats were easily recognized. I just couldn't seem to get any traction and had to fold often when I went from a favorite to behind on the turn or river. You'll have those days and have to realize that the odds can only get better.

One thing that they have to work on is deciding on some basic rules. One major one that came up was how to deal with a dead button. On a couple occassions, the person who was the small blind ended up losing all their chips and leaving the table. Therefore the following hand they would be required to be the dealer button. I have seen this handled 2 different ways in various casinos, but they came up with a totally different, ridiculous way to deal with it. The simple way would be to move the button to the dead seat and continue the blinds as they were. Everyone gets to be a blind and there are no problems. But an empty seat is the dealer and some people think that this should not be. I have also seen the dealer button skip to the next person at the table (i.e. the previous big blind). With this way, 2 players miss their blinds (1 misses the small and 1 misses the big). This is really not a big deal at a cash table, but it annoys some of the other players. However Wheeling came up with a third way that is totally confusing and ridiculous. The dealer button moves to the next person, but they remain their required blind. And since 2 seats to the left of the dealer should pay blinds, then they are also a big blind. So the seats look like this D (also SB), BB, BB... three freaking blinds!!! The next hand, the person who was the first BB is now the dealer and SB, the other BB is now a SB, and there is also a BB. So the 2nd hand is also mucked up and looks like D (SB), SB, and BB. THe next hand everything is back to normal. So instead of just having a dead dealer and no issues, they have 2 hands with extra blinds and is completely confusing. This may change quickly, and many dealers may not know the rules so it may not happen often, but it was pretty dumb.

I have a bunch of stuff to talk about with Roulette at Mountaineer, but it will have to wait...

Best Hour of Cards... Ever...

I wish I had been playing a bigger game, but I had the best hour of cards ever dealt to me. In that hour I was dealt AA 4 times, numerous KQ, AJ, AQ type hands, hit the flush or straight every time I needed to, and played all the hands to max value. Incredible... Heck, I got 2 of the pocket Aces on back-to-back hands. I should have realizes it was going to be a good hour when I hit KQ clubs on the first hand and almost tripled up. The game was a $10 buy-in cash game with $.25/$.50 blinds. You can buy-in as many times as you want, but you can't leave the table with money until the game ends after 1 hour. It started off with 6 players and within half an hour it was down to 4. By this point I was up to almost $100 in front of me and I just coasted the last 30 minutes. I finished at $105 with the other players all under $30. Not bad for a kiddie cash game...

Bar Game

So I was playing a little bar game last night... 11 players all packed in to a table meant to fit 8, $.25- $.50 blinds. Sat down with $20 and hit a couple of hands with connectors to put me up to about $70. Donkeyed off a little of it and we lost a few players so it opened up a little. I got J6 clubs on the BB and called a small raise. Flop was 6 J J and I flopped the boat. I checked and the initial raiser bet $1. One caller and I slow called. Next card was a 7. I checked again and the raiser bet $2. Again, 0ne caller and then I slow called. River was a K. I bet out $5. The raiser came over top to $20. The other caller folded quick. I put the guy all-in (he only had $2) left. The guy couldn't flip over his KK fast enough and when I showed my boat too, the oohing and ahhhing started. I don't think I played it bad, probably could have raised on the turn and he may have gone away, but with the way the game was going, he probably would have called an all-in. I finished up about $10 which paid for the couple of beers I had...

Catching up with Pittsburgh...

Well, I am officially back in Pittsburgh. It's been a whirlwind 6 months in Wisconsin, and I am disappointed that things did not go as planned there, but I am thrilled to be back in the 'burgh and looking forward to figuring out what I missed...

Let's start off with the Steeler's... when I left, they were defending Super Bowl champs but they had some big issues. Big Ben's face, no extension for Cowher, no Bettis, Santonio Holmes arrests... but they came out and beat what was thought to be a good Miami team on opening night. Now I am back and there was no playoffs, no more Cowher (not to mention Whisenhunt, Grimm, or Hoak), and next season is a HUGE question mark with the new coach. He has things in place, but Cowher was a terrific motivator and Tomlin has some huge shoes to fill in that regard. And with Baltimore and Cincinnati having quality teams and Cleveland looking like they might turn things around with Crennel, it's going to be hard for the Steeler's to become a dominant team again quickly.

At least things are looking up for the Buccos. I like LaRoche but I still don't know if their starters will be enough. Every team needs a solid veteran to anchor their rotation, or at least be a guy where the rest of the team has confidence behind whenever they are on the mound. They may pitch a bad game here and there, but everyone knows that they can count on the guy when things are going bad. Young pitchers need to grow into that role and I'm not sure if there is anyone currently on the staff that can handle that role now. The offense should be good, but the Cubs and Brewers both did some work too and it will be hard for the Pirates to get out of the 5th spot in the division.

Meanwhile when I left Pittsburgh, the Penguins were relying on the Isle of Capri to save the team and get them a new arena. I like what the Pens have done management-wise in trying to get a new arena. Over the past few years they had very little to bargain with. Lemieux came out of retirement to try to jump-start things and when that did not work (because the NHL had horrible salaries where small-market teams were having a hard time competing) he stopped spending money, lost a lot of games, got some good draft picks and used them wisely. Now the team is loaded with young talent, fans are going to the games, and Lemieux has suitors from around the country who want the team to move. There really is no excuse now for the State and local governments to get together and create a plan that keeps the team in Pittsburgh for a long, long time.

Well, I have not mentioned poker yet. The one thing about Wisconsin is that they have Indian casinos all over the state and about half have poker rooms. The one in Green Bay at Mason Street was nice with 2-5 NL and 3-6 Limit. I stuck to the NL and did ok... some big hits and small losses. The Ho-Chunk Casino was located about 8 minutes from my house in Baraboo but they did not have poker... until 3 weeks ago when I had determined that I was moving back. They only have limit (3-6, 5-10, and occasionally 10-20) and I was not able to go even once!! ARGHH!! But I do have an interesting hand that a friend of mine witnessed...

3-6 Limit. Flop comes A K Q all clubs. 3 players in the hand. Player 1 bets, player 2 calls, Player 3 raises. Player 1 raises, player 2 calls again, and player 4 says something about flopping the flush and caps the raising at 4 bets. Player 1 says "I have outs!" and calls. Player 2 calls too.

Next card is a blank. Player 1 bets, player 2 calls, player 3 raises. Player 1 finally just calls and player 2 calls.

Last card is a K. Player 1 says "Gotcha!" and bets. Player 2 suddenly wakes up and raises. Player 3 calls for some reason (he has to know he's beat and that player 1 caught a boat). Player 1 raises and player 2 caps the betting at 4 bets. Player 3 shows his cards to my buddy and says something about not being good. But he goes ahead and calls. At this point Player 1 looks at Player 2 and asks if he has Aces? But he calls the bet. Player 1 shows AK, Player 3, who should have folded as soon as the King hit the river shows 9-7 clubs, and Player 2, who did not raise until the river, shows J 10 clubs for the Royal Flush... needless to say there was a lot of oohing an ahhing over the hand. If it was No Limit, I have no doubt that everybody would have had all their money in. But that's what I don't like about Limit: you can't get your money in and use it to your advantage. So therefore you get sucked out on a lot and do a lot of sucking.

Til next time!