Great Caesars Post!

OK, I’m not really calling this a great post.  That’s not for me to say, I only write this crap.  It’s for you guys (and ladies, if you ladies are offended by being referred to as “guys”) to decide whether this is any good.

But this is about a great session I had at Caesars Palace.  I could call it “Great Caesars Session” but that has no panache to it. Since this is a blog post, I can change “session” to “post” and it becomes a play on the exclamation “Great Caesars Ghost!” as uttered by Perry White in the Superman comics and TV show (and the movies, maybe, but I can’t remember).  And not only does the play on words amuse me, but it will give me a perfect excuse to post an otherwise gratuitous pic of one the fine ladies who has played Lois Lane on the screen over the years.  And if you have ask why, when I’m using a Perry White reference, I’d post a sexy pic of a Lois Lane actress rather than a sexy pic of a Perry White actor (assuming such a thing even existed, which I doubt), you obviously haven’t been paying much attention to this blog over the years.  In fact, I think I may just post several pics of several of the attractive females who have played Ms. Lane.

But since you have been paying attention to this blog all these years, this is surely the post you’ve been waiting to read for at least two months.  Because this is the “very successful session” I referenced in the post here that I had forgotten to write about at the time.  Or until now.  So here it is. 

And it goes back a ways.  Back to December of last year, in fact.  This was my first visit back to Caesars since the session I’d written about here.  Since that post, the room had come under new management, something I wrote about for Ante Up (see here).  After meeting with Frank, and hearing about his plans for the room, I knew I had to go back and check to see how things were going under his leadership, and to check on the changes that he made, some I knew about and some I didn’t.

I knew for example, that they had changed the 1/3 game to 1/2. This is something I really like, I honestly.  For reasons I won’t go into here, I much prefer playing 1/2, especially in Vegas.  Another big change….they got rid of the jackpot drop.  No more promos (tho they used the left over funds to give away WSOP seats in drawings through April of this year). 

And when I got there and started playing, I noticed another improvement.  They got rid of the dreaded two dollar chips that I had bitched about in the previous post.  So that was cool.  They also had the WiFi working a lot better than before. 

Anyway, when I first got to the game, I kinda/sorta recognized one player.  I couldn’t place him in a specific poker room, but I was sure I’d played against this guy before.  He was very aggro, raising a lot preflop and staying aggressive after the flop.  I’ll refer to him as “FLG” for Familiar Looking Guy. He was key to my early run.

Very early on I found myself in the small blind looking at the dreaded pocketKings. Before I could raise, FLG made it $10.  It folded to me.  I meant to raise to $27 but somehow, I had grabbed an extra red chip and I actually made it $32.  It folded back to FLG and he said to me, “You don’t like the kind of guy who plays bad hands out of position,” and folded.  Note, since I recognized him, it’s possible that he recognized me, but honestly, he gave no indication that he knew me from Adam—or from George Costanza for that matter

A bit later I had pocket 7’s and raised to $9. FLG called and it was heads up.  The flop was Queen-7-4, two diamonds.  I bet $15.  FLG raised to $40.  Cool.  He had started with about $110 when the hand was dealt.  I re-raised to put him all in and he called.  We didn’t show until the board bricked out and he turned over Queen-7.  Offsuit.  Note: he had folded to my three-bet thinking I don’t play bad hands, then he called my raise with Queen-7 offsuit!  Much appreciated.  Unfortunately, he decided this wasn’t his night and left.

I had over $300 at this point (from my $200 buy-in) but I managed to lose chips with fairly run-of-the mill hands.  Then NYR came and took the open seat to my immediate left.  I’m calling him NYR cuz he mentioned that he had played hockey his whole life (what…in the crib, even?) and was a huge New York Rangers fan.  He was kind of aggro too.  I’m assuming when he played hockey he spent a lot of time in the penalty box. 

I had King-Queen in the small blind and completed.  He checked from the big blind and three of us saw a flop of Queen-Queen-3, rainbow.  I decide to slow play it and checked.  I called NYR’s bet of $5 and it was heads up.  The turn was a blank and I checked again, this time he bet $10.  I’m not sure why I didn’t check raise there, but I just called.  The river was just a Queen.  This time I led out for $25 and he tanked a bit and then called. When he saw my quads, he said he was seriously considering raising.  He didn’t show, but he claimed he had a pocket pair for a boat.  Must have been a pretty small pocket pair to have not raised preflop.  I know I didn’t get much value there for my monster, but honestly, if I had bet or raised earlier I might have scared him away.

Very next hand I limped in with pocket 3’s. I missed the flop but nobody bet it (it was five-handed).  I caught a three on the turn and no one called my $5 bet.

An older gentleman raised to $6 and I called from the button with Ace-Jack offsuit.  It was three-ways. He bet $12 on a Jack-high flop.  I just called, suspecting he might have an overpair.  It was now heads up. He bet $17 on a blank turn. Again, I just called and he seemed really annoyed.  “You’re gonna keep calling me?”  He was clearly upset that I hadn’t folded.  Then a Jack hit the river.  “Well, you’re gonna keep calling me, so I check.”  I would have checked behind except I now had trip Jacks to beat his overpair, if that’s what he had. I bet $35 and he called.  But he mucked when he saw my hand.  He remained annoyed with me the rest of the time he was there, but he busted out not that much later.

I raised with Ace-10 suited.  The flop was Ace-King-10, I bet the flop and the turn (sorry, I didn’t record the amounts).  NYR was the only guy who called each time.  After my turn bet, he said, “Why do you keep betting, I thought this was a friendly game.”  I bet the river too and he called and folded when I showed my two pair.

I completed from the small blind with pocket 8’s.  A bunch of us saw the flop, which was 8-6-6.  Flopping a boat is an advanced skill; don’t try this at home.  I checked and NYR bet $12, it folded to me and I just called.  The turn was a 5.  I checked again, and he bet $20.  I called again.  Another 5 hit the river. This time I bet, putting out $40 in front of me.  NYR wasted little time in raising to $140.  There were two hands that beat me, quad 6’s and quad 5’s, and of course I didn’t think either was very likely.  I looked at his stack, he didn’t have that much behind…..a lot less than the $140 he had just put in the pot. It was like $40 or $50 behind.  So of course I was about to shove when he said, “If you go all-in, I might have to call.”  Well duh.  When he made that $140 he was certainly pot committed.  So as soon as he got that out of his mouth, I said, “all-in.”  NYR said, to the dealer, or to me, “Is he allowed to do that?”  I guess he was joking, but he didn’t sound like it.  He actually sounded like he was surprised by my move.

But he called and showed 6-5 offsuit.  Ugh, bad luck for him, he turned a boat and rivered a second, smaller boat (as had I).  Sorry, Rangers fan, this was my night, not yours.

As I was stacking my chips, I was thinking about how he had said he “might” call if I shoved, and about a similar situation I was involved in way-back-when.  So I asked the lady dealer, “When he said he might have to call if I shoved, was that binding?”  She said no.  “It was conditional, so it wasn’t binding.”

So I asked her about the situation I wrote about years ago (see here).  “What if he said, ‘I’m going to call any bet you make,’ and didn’t put any conditions on it.  He was going to call me no matter what?”  Well….no, she said, that still wouldn’t be binding.  So that would be different from the ruling I got back in my regular room.  Interesting.

I won a few more smallish pots, a couple of top pair hands, another set of 3’s (no one called my turn bet after I bet the flop).  By the time I racked up, I had won a bit over $400.  So it was a very pleasant return to the new Caesars poker room.