Tiger Tours the Tables in the USA - Table of Contents

10/17/99 sunday

The Gold Strike

i drive to the gold strike, in the central cluster (gold strike, binion's horseshoe and sheraton casino. i find the poker room, off against the side. they've got six tables, with one 1-5 stud, one 3/6 hold' em, and one 3/6 omaha/8 with full kill in progress. as soon as i walk in, a pleasant-looking man, about 6', solid build, glasses, jacket and tie, gives me a southern hospitality greeting. this is david horton, swing shift supervisor. i intro- duce myself, and he immediately fills out the paperwork necessary to book my room (25 bucks a night for six hours of play). david also mentions that they're not all that strict about clocking my time. that doesn't bother me. i honor my obligations. besides, there's more than $3000 on the table at that omaha/8 game....and the pots are monstrous! };)

i play in a new 1-5 stud for an hour or two, winning $41 (room is paid for! all right!) there's been no movement on the omaha list. i ask david if i can check in, grab a bite to eat, and stay on the omaha list. "sure! you want a comp to the buffet?" ooooh, i like this room. :)

i check in. i eat at the buffet (ahhhh! wonderful!). i go back to the poker room. i'm first up for omaha. i'm seated. i'm surrounded by chain smokers. three hours later, i'm up a stack-and-a-half of reds, and it's time for bed. :)

My Room

my room is magnificent! well-appointed antique-style furnishings, a writing desk with chair, a separate armchair and side-table, king-size bed, brown marble and gold fixtures in the bathroom, with enough towels to start my own hotel. everything except a separate data port for the 'puter. but the phone cord is long enough to reach the desk. unfortunately, my online service does not have a local access number, and my brief online session to tell you that I have arrived here costs me a $22 long distance call. :(

The Gold Strike Poker Room

some notes about the card room: the rake is 10% to a maximum of $4. they've got bad beat jackpots here, and all over town. "playing over" is allowed. the room has no rulebook available for players, but their rulebook is based on the las vegas hilton's. :) cash plays. dealers keep their own tips. the two seats next to the dealers are not no-smoking seats. the room awards bonuses for high hands: $100 for a royal, $50 for a straight-flush, and $25 for quads. my stud game missed a bad bead jackpot by a hair, when a royal flush in seat #8 beat sevens full of 4s in seat #1. the fourth seven had been the burn card!! one dealer was late getting to the room, so david jumped into the box. he's been there before! wtg david! the omaha game has a full kill; notwithstanding the button and blinds, first action is always to the left of the killer. curiously, all the tables are for stud (8-handed). but they play flop games using these tables.

10/18/99 monday

3/6 omaha/8 with full kill all day. small loss. i see that new players do not have to post. during the game, one old geezer was losing. before the flop, he put his last chips into the pot (he still had cash on the table). flop came down three high cards. geezer stood up, bounced his cards into the muck, and exclaimed, "goddamn fucking dealer!" and he stomped out. dealer chad (who's both a good dealer and a good guy) immediately observed: "that's a check!" the entire table erupted into laughter.

ken lambert, manager of the horseshoe poker room dropped by. i stood up and introduced myself. the horseshoe and the gold strike have just announced "jack binion's world poker open - presented by the horseshoe and the gold strike." this is a major tourney planned for march 27 - april 16, 2000, with buy-ins ranging from $500+40 up to $5000+100. there will be 59 tables available for action, and 600 rooms available for players. the tourney will be directed by jim albrecht, and rooms can be reserved by calling anita at the horseshoe at 1-800-303-7463 x5755.

back to the gold strike, where I play 1-5 stud for a few hours. i'm in seat #8 and i'm rolled up with 10s. bring-in is in seat #2, and they all call. I call. seat #1 raises two dollars, and they all call. when it gets back to me, I raise five bucks and I get six callers. dealer rick mumbles "this shore would be a fine time to be rolled up!" I give him a "hehehehehe." :) checked to me on 4th and I bet. they all call. someone makes a running pair of kings on 5th and I make a running pair of 4s. checked to me and I bet. they all call. same thing on 6th. same thing on the river, and three people pay me off. what a pot!! :)

I win a rack-and-a-half of whites in something more than two hours, and I never did get back to the omaha game. I cash out and thank david and his staff for a very lovely two days. room manager pat walker, and shift super- visors david horton, terry wildman and john peoples run a delightful and friendly poker room! it's now time for a session at the laptop. perhaps i'll see how that shot glass from station casino works.... ;)

10/19/99 Tuesday

Check out the Lowball

after i check out and put my bags in the car, i stop by the poker room. two dealers (hunter and dave) and a player from last night (ron) are playing 1-5 triple draw lowball - for practice white cheap plastic chips. perhaps a few players will stop by the room and we can get a game cranked up. i sit down and i am presented with a rack of white chips. i take the big blind. i'm dealt ace, king, queen of diamonds and the king, queen of hearts. terrific. this is lowball. so i call and draw four. they're two more aces and a pair of nines. lol!! we're playing lowball and i've just drawn four cards to make aces full!!

Omaha/8

sure enough, we soon crank up a 3/6 omaha/8 game, and i win a rack of whites in something less than three hours. i say goodbye to all the friends i've made in the room, and drive to sam's town. i'm scheduled to meet newjane there tomorrow, and i want to get a good head start on the competition.

tiger goes to Sam's Town

so i go back to the gold strike, sheepishly tell the story to john peoples, day shift supervisor, and abracadabra, i've got a room at the gold strike (again).

well, i'll give lauren credit. two hours later, i'm paged to the phone in the gold strike poker room. it seems that lauren has found my paperwork, and she has managed to get me a room at sam's town. thanks, but no thanks. i'll page newjane tomorrow, and we'll hook up somehow.

i play poker all day, and i've got a couple table stories to tell you, but i've made a couple mixed drinks by mixing (1)my new shot glass with (2)my old bottle of scotch, and i'm done for the day.

:)

10/20/99 Wednesday

The Gold Strike Dealers

the dealers at the gold strike are very good. most of them have been here for at least four or five years, and many have prior experience dealing poker. the 3/6 omaha/8 full kill game *always* has lots of chips in the pots, and pots are split quickly and efficiently. vicki is a bespectacled buxom blonde, in her 30s, cheerful and quite proficient. she started dealing poker in may 1994, to earn some money to help pay for the rest of her degree in mechanical engineering. she hasn't gotten back to school yet. "this ain't work. where else can you sit on your ass and have so much fun?"

mississippi gaming regulations allow the use of props and shills. i am told that only the horseshoe uses props (very few), but most of the rooms use dealers as shills only to help get the games started in the mornings and early afternoons.

The Previous Night (10/19/99)

last night, i played some omaha with mike, one of the twins (mf and ef). a few months ago, someone reported a story here at rgp involving a couple who was staying at the burgundy, a fleabag motel across north carolina avenue from resorts, in atlantic city. after a few days at the motel, the couple complained about the smell in their room. after investigation, the motel manager found a dead body under the bed. the previous occupant of the room was found and arrested, and the story made the newspapers and was picked up by the national news services. one member of this newsgroup, steve jacobs, derided the story as being an "urban legend," but i noted that the twins had been staying in the adjacent room.

the twins are a couple of muscular fellows in their 30s, from staten island. they hang around atlantic city, reaping a meager living from the omaha split games. they play poker. they don't read books. they don't read newspapers (except for the sports section). they don't watch television (except for the sports). they don't do much of anything except play poker, and hang around the beach in the summertime.

i was quite surprised to see these two fellows in tunica, for i had been under the impression that, except for a rare visit to vegas, they stayed pretty close to new jersey. however, they spent some time in biloxi and they've been here in tunica for about six weeks, staying at the horseshoe, and ripping up the higher stakes omaha games that go on weekends. they have yet to pay for a meal here in town. they're having a ball!

i told mike about the "urban legend" comment.

he snorted. "[expletive deleted]! we smelled the [expletive deleted] thing for two days! and we saw the police take the [expletive deleted] corpse out of the room!"

i'm getting a very late start today, and splurged $15 on a room service breakfast. but how else would i complete my last report and get it up on the board? ;)

stay tuned!

tiger

p.s. a note about technique.

some of you may have noted that my last report actually contained (ack!) a number of capital letters, including days of the week and the personal pronoun "I". here's the story.

when i'm done writing these reports, i usually wash them through my word- perfect spell-check sub-routine. the dratted program has this annoying habit of replacing "i" with "I" .....

::::sigh:::::

10/20/99 wednesday

this trip report has a surprise ending. };)

i'm playing 1-5 stud at the gold strike. at my table is ed, a gray-haired gentleman of about 55-60, gray beard, wire-rimmed glasses, about six feet tall, medium build. i've seen him in the room yesterday, and he's still wearing his "vietnam veteran" baseball cap. he's retired, and lives in an rv. originally from michigan, he has post office boxes in memphis, tennessee, el paso, texas, mesquite, texas, and boulder, colorado. he's a quiet, self- confident, educated and articulate individual who just doesn't have a real "home." he's complaining that his bankers, who (so he says) make half of what he earns, won't loan him money because he doesn't have a permanent mailing address other than four p.o. boxes. ed isn't a very good poker player, but he's a helluva nice guy.

this is in contrast to "ice cream doug" who is at my table when i move to the 3/6 omaha/8 game. doug is from st. louis, and he claims to have seen me walking around station casino last week with my green notebook. doug has nothing good to say about vito, the day manager of the station casino cardroom, so doug immediately makes my list. yeah, you know the list. he doesn't stop talking, and he doesn't stop talking trash. but i don't say anything. i just watch his stack of some 200+ white chips dwindle down to about 40.... i lose $9 in three hours.

it's time to go to sam's town! i've got a date! [ tiger goes to meet newjane1 ]

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