Tao of Poker

Pauly in Miami!

Quick update: up $45!

I arrived late last night and headed to meet up with some friends from college... including Jerry and his wife Sarah. Around Midnight, we hit the casino! Miccosukee Casino is run bt the local Miccosukee Indians, which was located just thirty minutes west of Miami in the middle of the Florida Everglades. It was a quick ride and there are two different poker rooms there. The bigger one was packed. Only Stud, Omaha, and $1-2 Hold'em was going on. There was a two hour long wait, so Jerry took me over to teh otehr side of teh casino to the smaller poker room... not so much a room, as it was six tables behind some slot machines. All hold'em games... and we were seated right away, next to each other. The blinds are $1 and fifty cents... and the betting is the usual $1-2 format. Everyone there was a local. I realized after the first half hour, I was down $35! I was pissed at myself. I mean, it's freakin the lowest limit I ever played and I was getting housed. This is what happened... early on I didn't play any hands. However, I saw people winning with shitty hands. So I loosened up a bit. I ended up getting two solid hands... top two pair both times. I lost to a three of a kind (caught on the river by a middle aged women who clutched her pocketbook like it was a sick baby) and to a straight (that I misread on the baord... that was my mistake). I was dejected and not happy, with my play especially since I got schooled at Foxwoods, just afew days earlier. I decided to get back to the basics and only play strong hands.

Jerry was doing well early on. He won a couple of pots on full houses. He had won pots with J-J and Q-Q. I finally won my first hand when I had Kc-9c. I was on the button! The flop had two clubs including the Ace. I raised on the flop and caught my nut flush on the turn. I kept re-raising and two people insisted on seeing the river. I continued my raising barrage and won a hefty pot with my nut flush. Two hands later, I caught and inside straight with a J-9. I was in the late position, so I decided to limp in with that hand. I realized a valuable lesson last night... position is as important as starting hands. I never got any power hands. My best starting hand were pocket 6! Yet I won several pots... mostly staying in on medium hands in late position. Anyway, I hit another straight and feeling good. The biggest pot of the night I won was when I was the little blind with a Q-6o. I limped in and caught a Queen on the flop. I checked and someone bet and raise. I called. I caugth another Queen on the turn. Time to raise like a mad man! Thre epeopel stayed in until the river. Again, I kept raising and two people called and were staying in with shit... like a medium pair. Oh well. I took a nice pot and we decided to leave, since we would be returning later today.

I noticed that $1-2 was not as low limit as I thought it would be. 50% of the time there was a pre-flop raise. And only once did I see soemone with A-K or A-A who raised. Folks were raising on medium pocket pairs and a slew of face cards. Since we're in southern Florida, mostly everyone spoke Spanish. All the dealers, the players, the casino workers. The dealer were decent, but slow. Several times I had called out the best hand for the table, because they were taking too long.

Anyway, more to come for sure. I really enjoyed my quick trip to Miccosuke!