10/13/99 wednesday
hoo boy! have i got a cardroom for you! it's called station casino, and it's part of the "station" chain. it's located on the banks of the missouri river, about 20 miles west of st. louis. this boat (actually, i think that there are two boats) doesn't cruise, so they have what is called "open boarding", where you can enter and exit at any time. you must get a plastic id "boarding pass" which you present to get on the boat, and when you buy chips. you can only buy chips at the cage, and they track how much you buy - missouri state law limits your losses to $500 every two hours.
the poker room is located on the second level. they've got about 11 tables, most of which are set up for flop games. when i arrived in the room about 1:00 pm, they had a couple 1-5 stud games, a 3/6 omaha/8 with a kill, a 5/10 omaha/8 with a kill, and a 4/8 hold 'em game in progress. pretty soon, they cranked up a 20/40 omaha (high only). i sat down at the 3/6 omaha table. they don't spread any stud higher than 1-5. when you start to play, you give your id card to a floorman, who swipes it through a reader. players are paid comp of $.75 per hour, for all levels of play.
this cardroom uses "speed chips." :( but the rake is 10% to a maximum of $3.50. the room has very low ceilings, and although cigars and pipes are not permitted, i can see that smoke could be a problem on a busy night. the two seats next to the dealers are not no-smoking seats. new players do not have to post when they enter a game. they use the "forward moving button" rule in the event one of the blinds busts out. to comply with the state law, cash does not play.
overall, i thought that the dealers were pretty good. they wear long-sleeve white shirts with red pinstripes, wide string ties, suspenders, and arm garters. i just *love* the look! a couple mistakes happened, and the dealers were quick to call the floormen. i had no quarrel at all with any of the rulings i saw. i was advised that, although the room does not have a rulebook available for players, they have a copy of the las vegas hilton rulebook in the room, which they use as their rulebook. :)
i take a break from my game, and chat with the day manager of the room. it takes about fifteen minutes, but we finally realize that we're both rgp'ers! "tapptout", whose real name is vito, is originally from the new york area! he tells me that i just missed "gambler103", whose real name is paul. i tell vito to check out my trip reports! :)
i pick up and wander downstairs to the anchor bar to enjoy a beer as i watch the baseball game. after i watch the mets lose, i have dinner at the buffet, and head back upstairs for more poker. there are one or two more hold 'em games going, but the 3/6 omaha/8 game has turned absolutely *wild*!! multi-way caps on multiple streets....all led by a maniac named "fidel." i sit down and start accumulating chips. when my name is called for the 5/10 omaha/8 game, i pass. the game i'm in is *bigger* than the 5/10. when i finally cash out around midnight, after watching the yankees win, i have another nice chat with the night manager, daniel. i tell him that i don't like bad beat jackpots. :/
in general, this has been the best-run cardroom i've played in so far in my trip. the atmosphere was very friendly, and the players were, as has been the norm, atrocious. i can't really expect to make over $300 playing six or seven hours of 3/6 poker all the time, but it's sure nice when it happens! :)
10/14/99 thursday
one of my very good friends has admonished me by telling me, no matter how good or how bad these trip reports are, i have forgotten the most basic rule of our business: "poker is a game of *people*". so, this first part is about some people.
yesterday, i played 3/6 omaha/8 at station casino. i'm in #2 and ed is in #4. he's a white guy about 70 years old, thinning white hair, glasses, about 5'10" tall, slim build, dressed in casual clothes. he's an easy-going fellow who has quietly smiled as i've been telling some of the other players at the table about my trip. this was the afternoon session, before the maniac (see below) arrived. ed has not yet said one word. i'm in the big blind with a 2 4 5 9 rainbow. nobody raises, and there are five callers, including ed and the little blind.
flop is 4 5 9 rainbow. it's checked around.i spread my hand. "i started with three pair, and that's how i finished!"
ed rolls over A A 9 5 rainbow. "i *really* started with one pair, made two pair on the flop, but i've got two better kickers than you for the high!"
i fire back, "yeah...but my kickers are the better low!"
we look at each other, and burst out laughing! and we split the pot!
bob riley is also at the table. he's also about 70, 6 feet tall, a white cowlick of what must have been blond hair over his right eyebrow, glasses, casual clothes. he's a very good player, and he's waiting for a seat in the 20/40 omaha high game. bob has just returned from tunica, where's he's made about $1500 in ten days. bob gives me the names of some people at several poker rooms in the area with whom i can book rooms. i thank him, and make some notes. today, i see bob again. i thank him for his help, and tell him that i've made room reservations down there. he's glad to help. a couple hours later, i'm up three or four stacks of white chips playing 3/6, and i start putting my chips in some racks. it's about 4:00 pm, and i want to get downtown to the president, the other cardroom in town. bob wanders over. he's carrying two-and-a-half racks of red.
he sees i'm about to cash out, too, and asks, "what does a poker player do when he's made some money at a casino and it's still too early to go home?"
"hey, that's easy! you go downtown to another casino!"
he chuckles and tells me to be careful down there.
okay. last night's 3/6 omaha/8 game was a shoot-em-up because of one player: "fidel." he's about 40 years old, olive skin, full head of wiry black hair brushed straight back, 5'6" tall, medium build, several gold chains around his neck, several rings (but no wedding ring), dressed in expensive slacks and a purple silk shirt. he doesn't stop talking. he doesn't stop raising. players who know him are razzing him because he's from tijuana, but each time he says, "no, no, no, no, no! acapulco! acapulco!" fidel plays any four cards, and there's simply no way you can put him on a hand. he might have suited aces, and he might have 3 6 9 Q rainbow! he plays 'em all the same! fidel is not happy. it seems that tuesday, someone hit the omaha bad beat jackpot ($15,000), while fidel was not sitting in his seat - he was away from the table shooting craps! fidel gives away at least $300 in two hours at this game. remember, missouri law has a loss limit of $500 for two hours. you just can't buy more than $500 in chips in that time period. poor fidel!!
[ tiger takes a side trip to the President Casino ]
i drive back to station casino and tell my story about the four white chips. dealer dennis tells me the story of "white chip terry." he was a regular player at the president, who used to take home racks and racks of white chips. he would put them in his dishwasher, clean them, and bring them back to the casino!! lol!!!
i play 3/6 omaha/8 for about three hours, and win a stack-and-a-half of reds. it's time to go back to the motel, break open the bottle of dewar's, and write this report! :)
10/15/19 friday
i didn't expect this trip to be perfect. things do go wrong. that's a part of life.
when i got back to my motel room last night, i found the curtains pulled open and the lights on. hmmmmm.....when i entered the room, i found that, although the bed had been made, the waste baskets hadn't been emptied. and, worst of all, **there weren't any cups in the room**!!! how'm i gonna make a drink without a cup??? and then there was the fly. i didn't let it in, and the damned thing buzzed all night. some of you have told me that the last trip report was the best so far, but i don't know if i can attribute that to the experiences of the day, the new bottle of dewar's, or the damned fly!
i registered my (extreme) displeasure with the night clerk, and was referred to the motel manager. i spoke with him around noon today. stephen phipps is a very pleasant man of about 40 years, 5'6", light brown crewcut, glasses, mustache and goatee, dressed in shirt and tie. he manages to tame the tiger with calm common sense. and he gives me a break on the price of tonight's room. wtg stephen!
then we start to chat. i tell him about my trip, and that i'm playing poker during the afternoon, and writing these trip reports at night. stephen understands that playing good poker is not gambling, and he tells me that he put himself through college by playing poker!! :) i go back to the room, copy my trip reports to a floppy disk, and give the disk to stephen, together with directions on how to get to this newsgroup! hiya stephen!
at station casino, i finally get to meet gambler103, whose real name is paul, and his child bride, jerry. they're a very lovely couple, and i actually get to play in the same 1-5 stud game as jerry for a short time before i'm called to play 3/6 omaha/8. paul tells me how much he is enjoying my trip reports (you know, i just might get used to hearing that.....not!).
cardroom day manager, vito, has pulled my two prior trip reports off the newsgroup, printed them out, and brought them into the room. my reports were passed around to various staff members and several regular players. i'm a celebrity! :)
vito introduces me to rich ollar. he's a gentleman of about 65 years, crew- cut, glasses, and wearing a station casino windbreaker. at vito's request, rich rolls up his left sleeve. he's got a tattoo. oh, what a tattoo!! under the station casino logo are a suited ace-deuce and a pair of kings. and "professor omaha" is emblazoned above two station casino chips. what a great tattoo!! rich turns out to be a good guy, too! and when he puts money into the pot, he's got the nuts...or he's drawing to 'em. :)
i re-learned a very important lesson today. i played in the 3/6 game for about 45 minutes, before i was called for 5/10 omaha/8 (both games have a full kill). i take the new seat. this was an error. in my 14 hours of 3/6 omaha at station casino, i had become used to multi-way multi-bet hands. there were always one or two or three or more people who would call with anything (which frequently meant nothing) to build huge pots. in the first fifteen minutes at the 5/10 game, i saw exactly one hand with as many as three people in it - and i was the third person who got the short end of the stick by getting counterfeited on the river. the game is deadly silent, and i'm not having much fun. another ten minutes, and i ask the floorman to put me back on the 3/6 list. i don't get back into the 3/6 game for *four hours*, during which time i've finally gotten back to even. another hour or two at the 3/6 (with the maniacs, the calling stations, and the newbies), and i can put another nice "w" into the logbook.
lesson: it's more fun, and a lot more profitable, to play in a lower-stakes game with bad players than in a higher-stakes game with good players.
yeah. i knew this lesson. what was i trying to prove?
10/16/99 saturday
i'm having so much fun at station casino that i decide to stay another day. another fed ex package from home brings a stack of correspondence, most of which requires a response. :( but one is from martindale-hubbel (the premiere lawyer-rating service), who has finally decided to rate me. (note: they don't rate lawyers whom they feel are unworthy of a rating. lol!).
today, i notice that the station casino poker room has a snack bar adjacent to it. they serve burgers and dogs and other bar food (mostly fried).
i also notice that they've got a number of basic "house rules" posted on one wall. i'm drawn to this one: "in a showdown situation, any player at the table may ask to see a hand. excessive use of this rule is considered, at best, impolite and will not be tolerated." this is the local version of the general rule that any player in the hand may request to see any called hand at the showdown. however, i do like the phrasing of this rule, and i urge mike caro and associates to adopt this language in their universal rulebook. i very rarely use this rule. however, since i've been the "new kid on the block" for the last two weeks, i've had it called on me not less than five times!!
obligatory poker story: i play 3/6 omaha/8 all day. it's a "kill pot", and i'm the big blind with 10d 7d 5c 3c. the killer is to my immediate left (although he's the killer, since he's to the left of the big blind, he's still first to act). six players, and it's not raised. i throw in three white chips. the flop comes down 9s 8h 3h. it's checked around to the next to last player, who bets $6. four callers. the turn is the 6d. i check; the killer checks; a fish checks; the next to last player bets $12. the worst player at the table (to my immediate right) calls, and i've got the nut straight. i check-raise, and the killer re-raises all-in. the fish folds, the bettor calls all-in for $17, and the worst player calls all-in for $12. i see that every active player (except myself) is all-in, so i face my cards, and call the killer's re-raise.
floorman john happens to be passing the table at the time, and he hangs around to supervise the action. there's a main pot and two side pots.
while the dealer and the floor are getting the side pots straight, i start chanting, "king of clubs! king of clubs! king of clubs!" the killer shows me his hand. yup. a bad low and two hearts to the king. i'm louder now: "king of clubs! king of clubs! king of clubs!" the dealer burns and turns. you know it! the king of clubs! i do a marv albert-like "yessss!!!!!" and throw her a dollar. she doesn't understand. "sir, you can't bet. they are all all-in." lol!! when the dealer finally finishes awarding the three pots (i get the high from each - the bettor had an ace-deuce), i ask her if i can now tip her. :) (note: the average toke in this room, even when a player scoops a big pot, is a pink $.50 chip.)
semi-obligatory people story: in general, the dealers at station casino in st. charles are pretty good. many are very good. margarite is a black woman in her 30s, about 5'5", slim, with long braided hair. she's got very long manicured fingernails at the end of slim hands, which are all bedecked by bracelets and rings whose sparkle is eclipsed only by margarite herself! her two front teeth are gold. she's one helluva good dealer. if dealers kept their own tokes, she'd make a fortune! she's able to run the game quickly and efficiently, but still keep up a running patter with players whom she knows and players (like your vocal reporter) who enjoy the gay repartee of social interaction. during a break, margarite tells me that she's only been dealing poker for about a year! she has a second job as a telemarketer and loan processor for a mortgage company, and hopes to eventually make the move out west to vegas or california. i ask her for a quote. she thinks for a few moments. she nods and smiles. "dealers are people, too!" you got it, margarite!
non-obligatory people story: i've been posting to this newsgroup for some five years. i've said, many times, that i've met the most wonderful people in the world playing poker. unfortunately, i've also met some of the worst "scum of the earth" at the poker tables, too (as chris downs noted, "duke" at the president is one of these....).
this last week, i played 23 hours at station casino. i met *dozens* of very nice, wonderful people who played in the room, worked in the room, and managed the room. i met exactly three people who qualify as, shall we say, "s.o.t.e's". one of these was named "joe," a man about 60 years old, 5'7" tall, medium build, balding, white hair, glasses, usually wearing blue jeans and a printed checked shirt. i suspect that he's an anti-semite. i know that he's wholly absorbed in him- self, and contemptuous of all who don't find him to be god's gift to poker. at the 3/6 omaha game, i saw joe take out a number of 4"x5" colored photos. he leafed through them again and again, until a woman next to him asked him what the photos were. he told her how he was building a 60 acre lake on his property. he put the photos away. he later moved to the other side of the table. he took out the photos, and looked at them again and again, until a new player asked him what the photos were. he told the same story. joe then moved to the 5/10 omaha game (after making a crack about me never going to church). as soon as he sat down, i saw him take out the photos and start looking through them.....yes, joe. you've made the report.
one final note: soon before i cashed out, day manager vito asked if he could have a private word with me. much to my delighted surprise, vito (who had seen me wear a tropicana jacket, a taj mahal baseball cap, a tropicana base- ball cap, a foxwoods shirt, a taj mahal shirt, and various other cardroom paraphernalia, including my barge99 chips, and my hollywood park "year of the tiger" chip) presented me with a station casino baseball cap, and a long shot glass for my next session at the laptop! thanks, vito! and a big congrats and wtg to vito and his day staff, and to dan and his night staff, on running a terrific poker room! what a great place to play!
i cash out, logging another "w", and redeem my accumulated comp points towards the purchase of a heavy denim "station casino" work shirt. these are my first souveniers of my trip. :)
and it's off to tunica, mississippi!
stay tuned!
tiger
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