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!