On Gambling

New on 12/18/2011
Once again, I placed fourth. There were 20 in the tournament total.

Supposidely, they have hired a new dealer and just have to train him. I hope they don't loose him like the last one. They need to get the two tables back in the tournament.

New on 12/11/2011

I played poker yesterday and placed fourth. There were 16 in the tournament total.

They still don't have a second dealer. They were going to hire one after training him, but when he gave the casino he currently worked for two weeks notice, they offered him a shift supervisor position and he saayed. So, no second dealer for the forseable future. That sucks.

New on 12/4/2011

I played poker yesterday and placed fifth. They still don't have a second dealer so there is only one table for the tournament. This makes the tournament run longer. I want to tell you about a particlar hand I had. It was kinda cool.

Earlier in the game, I had lost when starting with a queen and jack of Spades. Before the hand in question, I was talking the the lady sitting next to me about that hand and when dealt, I again had queen and jack of Spades.

I was big blind which was $400 (in chips, of course). When the flop came, it was 8, Q, and 5. The lady I had been talking to put me all in (500 more) and, naturally, I went with her since I had top pair (Qeens). Since I was all in, we turned our cards face up. She had two 5's underneath so she had trip 5's and I had 2 queens.

The turn came another quee so I had trip queens, but the pair of queens on the board gave her a full house so I was behind again. The river card was another 8 so there was a pair of 8's on board. That gave me a higher full-house and I won the hand.

Just thought it was rather cool.

As I mentioned, I ended up fifth in the tournament. I haven't actually won one for a long time. I'll probably do better once we're back to two dealers (next week I hope).


New on 11/6/2011

I did get to play poker yesterday. I found out that one of the dealers quite so there will only be one table for the tournament untill they hire another dealer (or train one of their current staff members). Well, I guess I did okay. I placed third. I was almost out of chips in fifth place but the guy in front of me went all-in but, since I had a pair of queens, I went all-in too. He had a pair of eights. I won and got doubled up. From there, I managed to stay in until I busted out in third. Unfortunately, they only paid two places that day so I had no winnings. At least it doesn't cost anything to play and Brenda (my wife) and I go out for Lupper (a compination of lunch and supper) before the tournament. We do it every week so it is kind of nice. I'm just going to have to make sure I get there early enough each week to get on the first table. I may have to start going a bit earlier because the players have found out that there is only one table and many have started showing up earlier to get on the one table. Hope they ge ta new dealer soon.

New on 10/31/2011

Well, I'm a bit bummed about my try at poker playing last Saturday. It was Nevada day in Carson City (Actually the real Nevada day is the 31) so it can be on the weekend and they can have a parade. It's sort of nice because I got Friday off, but not nice because Carson becomes full and it's hard to find anywhere to park. Anyway, I was late signing up for the tournament but I was 16th. They usually run two tables but someone was missing so they only ran one table and, since I was number 16, I was to be the 6th alternate. That means I had to wait until at least 6 people got busted out of the tournament and  didn't buy back in. Well, the same thing happened about a year ago and I waited an hour and a half to get into the game and then played only a couple of hands before I lost it all because the blind were so high at that point. I wasn't about to do that again, so I just left.

New on 10/23/2011

I live in Dayton, Nevada about eight hours from Las Vegas, but, as you might imagine, every town in Nevada has gambling casinos. Basically, I don't do any gambling, but I do like to play poker.

As it happens, in Carson City, which is the state capitol and where I work, there is a small casino where every Saturday they have what is called a free roll tournament.

That's a poker tournament where you don't have to pay any money to start the tournament with $600 in chips. But, if you run out of chips, you pay $7 the first time for $500 in chips and $5 each additional time. Generally, I don't pay anything and frequently win (at least a share since we almost always end up splitting the pot 3 or 4 ways) and virtually always end up at the final table in the last 4 or 5 players.

Only once in the last 10 or so times I have played have I failed to make the final table.  That is not really as impressive as it sounds (making the final table) as there are only two table to begin with. But they do have alternates who take the place of anyone who looses and chooses not to buy back in so there is usually 5 or 10 alternates which, in essense, means there was a third table.

I played yesterday (10/22/2011) and lost to the final three at the table (I was fourth in other words), but they only paid three places which is usual (sometimes only two). In the past 7 weeks, I have been in on the split four times.

As impressive as that sounds, it is certainly not a way to get rich since I usually only end up with 30 or 40 dollars.