Chris Is Up $180 From Regina

So $180 might not sound like much considering I can smash $500 regularly at Dunes, but it is a very big win. Considering I was stuck 2K by Saturday afternoon. Omg, do I play bad. Or maybe it's the low caliber of players at the Dakota Dunes that has deteriorated my game so much. I am a decent player, but I was very humbled playing Regina.

We got there Friday night around 10pm and rolled straight to the casino. It was of course buzzing with tons of poker players all there for the tournaments. I jump into a 2-5 NL game right from the go and proceed to watch my stack go up and down. I wasn't even meaning to play as tight as I did, but the onslaught of getting face-rag (face card, little card) was the reasoning behind that. And anytime that I did pick up a quality hand, it just would never hold up. But I did manage to pull a $9 profit from that night! Woots, free chicken fingers meal for me... So we shut it down at around 2am since the dude we were staying with was playing the tourney on Sat and needed to head home. And also, he was so belligerently wasted at the table, that he got asked to leave. Lol.

So comes Saturday. We head out to the chino to drop Derek off to play the tourney. Cash games aren't running quite yet, so we hit up the mall across the street for some food court sushi. Back to the chino after that and cash games are beginning to start. I get on the list for 1-2 and 2-5 and head back out to the casino floor. Since I'll be waiting for a bit, why not play some Blackjack to abide the time and maybe try to build a roll? Big mistake. I sit down at the big limit game where the minimum bet is $50, maximum $1000. I buy in for $400 and away we go. It's going ok til I get to a hand where I had to cash another $400 to split 4's against the dealers 6. Which becomes a 14 and an 11. So I double the 11 (I was betting $100 on my squares) and hit a 17. Ok, I'm kinda nervous now. Dealer goes from 6 to 11 (!!!) to 15 (whew...) to bust. Word, ship it! And then brilliant me, I decide to bump the bets to $200 and another guy joins the shoe. It just goes downhill from there. I get stacked for everything plus another $400. Grrr, I shoulda just left after that double... So now I'm stuck $1200 for the day and haven't even started poker yet!

Well, I finally get called to the game and I only have $280 left (I went up with $1500) so I borrow $400 off of Brian and jump into the 2-5. I play super tight, pretty much cuz I have to, and get stacked when I get called down on a semi-bluff. So now it's 6pm and I'm completely busted. F me. I go back to Brian and borrow another $200. He's playing Limit Poker, so he brought a huge bankroll to start with. So with my newly acquired $200, I jump into a 1-2 game. I knew after Blackjack that the day was gonna be a grind, but after getting stacked at 2-5, it's gonne be even moreso. Going down in stakes is so lame too. But the 1-2 was pretty soft. I figured I could make money if I pick the right spots to make moves. And I did. I managed to turn that $200 into $600 by 10pm. At which point, I needed a break so I called up Lucky (a friend that lives there) and we went for a quick bite at Houston Pizza. That's right, not Boston, Houston! Weird...

So back to the chino after that, I get into a 2-5 game right off the hop. Which was pretty sweet, seeing as the lists were all super long, but I've played lots with the floor manager so he bumped my name to the top. :) I sit down with the $600 I've managed to grind back and get JJ first hand. I end up nailing a set on the flop and doubling through a guy who flopped two pair. Swizz balls! Sitting at $1200, $800 more to go. The night goes on, I play super tight and long story short, I'm sitting at $2280 at the end of the night. Which was 6am! Ugh, 14 hour session to win $180, but I'm super happy. Better than being stuck 2K. We roll home after cashing out for some much needed sleep.

Sunday, we all wake up around 2pm, get washed up and head to the chino for one last session before heading home. Nothing too exciting, I'm up, I'm down, and at the end of it, I'm even. F sakes, we coulda just rolled home way earlier and been good. We get home around 2am and I'm super bagged from the day, so I roll straight to bed.

Not a huge bragworthy weekend, but I did learn a lot. And now I'm gonna go super smash the Dunes game. I thought it was soft before, but after playing in Regina, I realize how ultrasoft it really is.