March 3 Biloxi
It is about 2 AM and I've had a good night of playing with good profit. If I could do this every night, I'd be rich.
I washed out the losses from yesterday and got another 151.
March 4 6:30 am
I would have liked to have slept in a bit, but here I am watching the horizon brighten just beyond the water.
I slept well from about 3:30 yesterday until about 7:30 and that fine nap kept me alert for poker into the late night.
I used my comp for the crab legs at the Isle and they were just wonderful. Complemented with corn, sweet potato and some brussel sprouts I hardly tasted anything else. I did eat a taste of pecan pie (just average) and a fine old sugar cookie like my grandfather loved so much. That was very good, probably baked right there.
The crab was Alaskan king crab and the taste was just perfect. I managed to snap the legs just right so a section of meat pulled out in a long strip. The butter was some fake butter and I did not stay with that, but ate the crab with nothing but the salty water taste. I can't remember enjoying crab more except of course the stone crab at Homosassa.
I wanted to see the two casinos set more to the north. They are still on some inlet of water. First, I visited the Imperial Palace and took a good look around. It was very fancy and interesting. I especially liked the Chill Lounge, a dark modern looking bar and lounge decortated with bands of blue resembling ice. There a band of young men put out some fine sounds. I stood and listened for a while. They mixed some more modern sounds with old favorites and each took a improvised turn at playing with the music. Vocalists alternated.
I left in the early morning. I took a bit of a walk around the area facing the bit of calm water. It was relaxing in the early morning. I wonder what they use that large outside area for in nicer weather. It looked like it would make a fine outdoor cafe area.
IP POKER
The IP poker room was not crowded. They raked 5 and 1 with no bonus awards other than one high hand of quads beat. For some reason the backup smaller award which seems to be common here for aces full of queens was not offered.
So I decided to pass.
BOOMTOWN
I drove to the nearby Boomtown and loved the look of it in the dark on a bit of calm water. It had a small western flavor and was trying not to be quite as grand looking as the Imperial Palace and others. Some of the look of it reminded me of Sam's Town in Vegas.
Inside I liked it too.
I liked the looks of this little casino. They had some fine displays of old slot machines made to look like cowboys and Indians. In one spot was a huge stuffed bull with spiral horns. Murray Bull I believe it was called.
BOOMTOWN POKER
There was only one table going in the poker room. The rake was 4 and 2 and as well as a 50 grand bad beat there was aces cracked. I like that bonus. Earlier at the Isle I had aces twice, but won both hands. Still it is a fine bonus. Also you had a chance at drawing a number 7 for $500. Odds were about 60 to one. There were 80 numbers but some had been eliminated.
They offered on a card about a dollar an hour comp beginning with $3 for the Grill where I thought the pecan pie would be. $5 earned a lunch and $8 a dinner buffet. The grill would be enough for me. I had signed up for a card and gotten a $10 free play bonus which needed to be played after midnight, so I thought I'd play poker.
I did ask questions, but the fact that this room allowed smoking missed me as did the spread limit nature of the game. Here one could bet from one to four for the first two rounds and from two to eight for the second. I did not really get that until I was already playing.
The dealers were not unfriendly but they were not really attentive to detail. When I first noticed the odd betting, I asked about it, and the dealer ignored my question while counting chips. I got my information from the players. That annoyed me. Later I found they made small mistakes and did not much like being asked about details. When a person left there was some odd movement of the button that created for a couple hands three blinds, a person getting both the button and being required to put a dollar on the button.
There was a sense that this was a local's game and there was too much outreach to new players. At one point a woman left a few dollars in chips and it was two hours before she came back. We asked many times that her chips be locked up and the seat freed up, and then we complained that the woman came back and picked up her chips, smiled to all of us, and left. Virgie the dealer, a pleasant enough older woman who thought I was naming a drink after here when I ordered my virgin bloody Mary, said that they were not about pushing out their regulars and the woman played with them often.
Seating was frustrating for the entire session. Often we played with six and getting the rake reduced was always that cat and mouse game I hate to have to play. The first time it went to six Juanita, who I found particularly remote in interacting with any question, said there would be no reduction in rake just a move to one $2 blind. So I picked up my chips to go. A regular player then asked for a rake reduction and while I was checking out, they cleared it with the floor and suddenly I was back in the game with a dollar dropped from the rake. Not a huge gain, but important to me. I sat back down.
Earlier Juanita had been particularly obtuse when I wanted a seat change to see better. Another regular told me I could buy the button, but she ignored him until finally she offered it too. Otherwise I would have seen the blind twice.
The game, however, was delightful. Players overbet hands and my first few pots were great surprises as I called people who raised me with third best while I had second best. A couple players were very new to the game. One Hawaiian woman had been playing for just three days and tended to call even low pairs on the river. She won a few with good luck and was there a while before her money ran out. A Black woman not quite forty joined and delighted me with her accent and mannerisms. She was not exceptionally good looking, but her voice and the lilt of her tones were delightfully entertaining. For a while she sang softly to herself and that too had such a fine sound to it.
After playing mostly with only men and experienced tight players at the Isle, this game was a delightful mix of all sorts of people and I liked that. There was some banter and some story telling. I stayed mostly quiet but laughed a good bit.
I was not particularly liked because I was winning. I caught good cards all night and played well up until the last few hands. Once I had ace king three times in a row. So I looked looser than I was. One pocket pair of jacks flopped trips and turned a full house. One flopped straight just got better. The nice spread structure allowed me to get more money than I might have in a structured game. I could raise just two chips on the button with a draw hand and expect everyone in to call. I could raise the full eight to push out. I found the possibilities increased.
And the players paid me for almost every good hand, often berating themselves for staying as they made the final eight dollar call. I did not bluff until the last couple hands and was called on those. I looked like I was bluffing late just before those hands. I was up against the best table player. The others all talked about my quick eight and thought I had nothing. No noe stopped them from voicing their opinions. The good player thought a long while. He would have called a $4 bet but he decided to fold. I showed my flopped quad fours because I always show in case there is some hidden high hand award. Had I done that after ten this morning, I'd have gotten and extra hundred dollars.
The smoke never bothered me. They must have some sophisticated air system as I could not tell when a person was smoking by smell. So that was not too much of a disadvantage.
When I left I had made a hundred and fifty, but most of it earlier in the evening. In the last hour I stayed about even. Against that rake this seemed good profit.
In one conversation on tips when the bad beat hits a regular player told stories of people hitting and not tipping or only tipping twenty five dollars on a many thousand dollar win. I asked what the right tip might be and the fellow said 3 percent. That might be three thousand for the dealer if everyone followed that principle and the bad beat was huge. Some tip ten percent. I don't know how I would be. I know I would leave with the money and not play again there. I would have trouble tipping more than a couple hundred. So that is the final rip off of these raked awards. I would rather play for no awards and a smaller rake. Here they could rake just $4 if they offered no bad beat. Why doesn't someone try that. That means as much as $60 spread around the table every hour.
I notice the pots get much smaller when the players were not nine or ten. I stayed because some of those left would pay me a bit, but it is not the game to play and it is tough to predict. They could barely fill a table while there was a list at the Isle. Folks were drawn by the large bad beat just as they are drawn to buy a lottery ticket when the payout goes up. All these good players drawn to play one another for very little profit just for the possibility of the bingo award. It goes against the choice of poker in the first place.
I met a woman at the Isle who traveled forty minutes from her favorite casino Hollywood just to play for the bad beat. I guess the dream part can always lure the dollar.
Boomtown poker room offered free popcorn for players and popped a fresh batch when asked. They also had hot dogs but the one fellow taking one complained that the bun was hard enough to crack a tooth. My guess is that for most players this will add up to more than their bad beat awards over a lifetime.
When I left I had another $3 in comps for my pecan pie this morning on my way to see the Jefferson Davis home.
What I like is the Jean Scott argument that the purpose is just to enjoy the traveling and the freebies and not to look to get rich quick, but just to enjoy the game. She was talking about video poker. In live poker we get some closeup time with people who are different than the folks we meet everyday. And we get time to check all aspects of their character.s
So I liked Boomtown, but there were some drawbacks. I do like waking up this morning a bit ahead of my games. I hope I can keep a small edge.
VIDEO POKER
I played my freeplay and got nothing in a fifty cent double double 9/5 bonus game. I wanted the volatility rather than a couple dollars. I caught a few two pair, but in the end it was all gone. I suppose I should have just played four hands.
Earlier at the Isle I had been bored and played five dollars in one of the quarter diamond slots where the diamonds move in the direction they point. I won about fifty dollars when triple bars combined with one double.
Here I played five dollars again on a quarter slot and hit two sevens and a doubler for another sixty dollars. So my slot play has been quite good. Each time I quit ahead. I should quit for the trip now and not get suckered back in. the odds are I won't win. I usually play $7 megabucks so I can have the dream, but I don't see that here. The Wheel of Fortune seems to be progressive. Perhaps I'll try that for a few dollars each day.
I was thinking of Greg playing poker at Turning Stone and then winning with a hundred in the slots.
SLEEPING ROOM NOTES
It is very quiet here. I don't think there is another guest on my floor. The television was out again last night when I returned. I am not calling for another reboot, but I am going to watch the next person who does one so I know how. This is the second casino where the televisions were nice wide screens but fragile and requiring restarts to work.
It does not bother me really because I have the computer and like the quiet. If I get bored I'll read a bit.
I have finally carried up most of the things that I need here in the room and it is almost time to carry them back down again. I'll head out to the Silver Slipper and Hollywood early tomorrow so I want to see the Jeff Davis house today. So I had better get ready I guess to do something besides play poker.
This is quite a room for $43. It would be an $80 room out in the world and then I don't imagine I could get an ocean view for that many places. I forgot to ask for an ocean view and just got one by chance when I asked for a quiet room.
I have called each day and canceled room service. I like not to have to sleep or write around the interruption of a cleaning person. There have been no carts with towels in the hallways so that adds to the quiet.
I am enjoying the refrigerator and the cold beer. I could get used to that. However, I do think it is very irresponsible to falsely claim to have meds to refrigerate. I did not get one the first day because they ran out. I would not want to worry another guest who held medicine that they worried would warm up. But I enjoyed a Saranac chocolate Amber before bed last night. After Danny's the beer will have to be on ice, the Costa Rican way.
No boats on the Gulf today. Much of this area is deserted. I should have rad more about the return from the hurricane. The town at night looked deserted but not destroyed. There is a large hospital nearby here which could be a benefit for old people traveling with health issues.
I wish I might have slept in today, but I just don't seem to do that. So I'll try to be back for my nap again in the afternoon. That seemed to work for some late night poker possibility.
It is about 2 AM and I've had a good night of playing with good profit. If I could do this every night, I'd be rich.
I washed out the losses from yesterday and got another 151.
March 4 6:30 am
I would have liked to have slept in a bit, but here I am watching the horizon brighten just beyond the water.
I slept well from about 3:30 yesterday until about 7:30 and that fine nap kept me alert for poker into the late night.
I used my comp for the crab legs at the Isle and they were just wonderful. Complemented with corn, sweet potato and some brussel sprouts I hardly tasted anything else. I did eat a taste of pecan pie (just average) and a fine old sugar cookie like my grandfather loved so much. That was very good, probably baked right there.
The crab was Alaskan king crab and the taste was just perfect. I managed to snap the legs just right so a section of meat pulled out in a long strip. The butter was some fake butter and I did not stay with that, but ate the crab with nothing but the salty water taste. I can't remember enjoying crab more except of course the stone crab at Homosassa.
I wanted to see the two casinos set more to the north. They are still on some inlet of water. First, I visited the Imperial Palace and took a good look around. It was very fancy and interesting. I especially liked the Chill Lounge, a dark modern looking bar and lounge decortated with bands of blue resembling ice. There a band of young men put out some fine sounds. I stood and listened for a while. They mixed some more modern sounds with old favorites and each took a improvised turn at playing with the music. Vocalists alternated.
I left in the early morning. I took a bit of a walk around the area facing the bit of calm water. It was relaxing in the early morning. I wonder what they use that large outside area for in nicer weather. It looked like it would make a fine outdoor cafe area.
IP POKER
The IP poker room was not crowded. They raked 5 and 1 with no bonus awards other than one high hand of quads beat. For some reason the backup smaller award which seems to be common here for aces full of queens was not offered.
So I decided to pass.
BOOMTOWN
I drove to the nearby Boomtown and loved the look of it in the dark on a bit of calm water. It had a small western flavor and was trying not to be quite as grand looking as the Imperial Palace and others. Some of the look of it reminded me of Sam's Town in Vegas.
Inside I liked it too.
I liked the looks of this little casino. They had some fine displays of old slot machines made to look like cowboys and Indians. In one spot was a huge stuffed bull with spiral horns. Murray Bull I believe it was called.
BOOMTOWN POKER
There was only one table going in the poker room. The rake was 4 and 2 and as well as a 50 grand bad beat there was aces cracked. I like that bonus. Earlier at the Isle I had aces twice, but won both hands. Still it is a fine bonus. Also you had a chance at drawing a number 7 for $500. Odds were about 60 to one. There were 80 numbers but some had been eliminated.
They offered on a card about a dollar an hour comp beginning with $3 for the Grill where I thought the pecan pie would be. $5 earned a lunch and $8 a dinner buffet. The grill would be enough for me. I had signed up for a card and gotten a $10 free play bonus which needed to be played after midnight, so I thought I'd play poker.
I did ask questions, but the fact that this room allowed smoking missed me as did the spread limit nature of the game. Here one could bet from one to four for the first two rounds and from two to eight for the second. I did not really get that until I was already playing.
The dealers were not unfriendly but they were not really attentive to detail. When I first noticed the odd betting, I asked about it, and the dealer ignored my question while counting chips. I got my information from the players. That annoyed me. Later I found they made small mistakes and did not much like being asked about details. When a person left there was some odd movement of the button that created for a couple hands three blinds, a person getting both the button and being required to put a dollar on the button.
There was a sense that this was a local's game and there was too much outreach to new players. At one point a woman left a few dollars in chips and it was two hours before she came back. We asked many times that her chips be locked up and the seat freed up, and then we complained that the woman came back and picked up her chips, smiled to all of us, and left. Virgie the dealer, a pleasant enough older woman who thought I was naming a drink after here when I ordered my virgin bloody Mary, said that they were not about pushing out their regulars and the woman played with them often.
Seating was frustrating for the entire session. Often we played with six and getting the rake reduced was always that cat and mouse game I hate to have to play. The first time it went to six Juanita, who I found particularly remote in interacting with any question, said there would be no reduction in rake just a move to one $2 blind. So I picked up my chips to go. A regular player then asked for a rake reduction and while I was checking out, they cleared it with the floor and suddenly I was back in the game with a dollar dropped from the rake. Not a huge gain, but important to me. I sat back down.
Earlier Juanita had been particularly obtuse when I wanted a seat change to see better. Another regular told me I could buy the button, but she ignored him until finally she offered it too. Otherwise I would have seen the blind twice.
The game, however, was delightful. Players overbet hands and my first few pots were great surprises as I called people who raised me with third best while I had second best. A couple players were very new to the game. One Hawaiian woman had been playing for just three days and tended to call even low pairs on the river. She won a few with good luck and was there a while before her money ran out. A Black woman not quite forty joined and delighted me with her accent and mannerisms. She was not exceptionally good looking, but her voice and the lilt of her tones were delightfully entertaining. For a while she sang softly to herself and that too had such a fine sound to it.
After playing mostly with only men and experienced tight players at the Isle, this game was a delightful mix of all sorts of people and I liked that. There was some banter and some story telling. I stayed mostly quiet but laughed a good bit.
I was not particularly liked because I was winning. I caught good cards all night and played well up until the last few hands. Once I had ace king three times in a row. So I looked looser than I was. One pocket pair of jacks flopped trips and turned a full house. One flopped straight just got better. The nice spread structure allowed me to get more money than I might have in a structured game. I could raise just two chips on the button with a draw hand and expect everyone in to call. I could raise the full eight to push out. I found the possibilities increased.
And the players paid me for almost every good hand, often berating themselves for staying as they made the final eight dollar call. I did not bluff until the last couple hands and was called on those. I looked like I was bluffing late just before those hands. I was up against the best table player. The others all talked about my quick eight and thought I had nothing. No noe stopped them from voicing their opinions. The good player thought a long while. He would have called a $4 bet but he decided to fold. I showed my flopped quad fours because I always show in case there is some hidden high hand award. Had I done that after ten this morning, I'd have gotten and extra hundred dollars.
The smoke never bothered me. They must have some sophisticated air system as I could not tell when a person was smoking by smell. So that was not too much of a disadvantage.
When I left I had made a hundred and fifty, but most of it earlier in the evening. In the last hour I stayed about even. Against that rake this seemed good profit.
In one conversation on tips when the bad beat hits a regular player told stories of people hitting and not tipping or only tipping twenty five dollars on a many thousand dollar win. I asked what the right tip might be and the fellow said 3 percent. That might be three thousand for the dealer if everyone followed that principle and the bad beat was huge. Some tip ten percent. I don't know how I would be. I know I would leave with the money and not play again there. I would have trouble tipping more than a couple hundred. So that is the final rip off of these raked awards. I would rather play for no awards and a smaller rake. Here they could rake just $4 if they offered no bad beat. Why doesn't someone try that. That means as much as $60 spread around the table every hour.
I notice the pots get much smaller when the players were not nine or ten. I stayed because some of those left would pay me a bit, but it is not the game to play and it is tough to predict. They could barely fill a table while there was a list at the Isle. Folks were drawn by the large bad beat just as they are drawn to buy a lottery ticket when the payout goes up. All these good players drawn to play one another for very little profit just for the possibility of the bingo award. It goes against the choice of poker in the first place.
I met a woman at the Isle who traveled forty minutes from her favorite casino Hollywood just to play for the bad beat. I guess the dream part can always lure the dollar.
Boomtown poker room offered free popcorn for players and popped a fresh batch when asked. They also had hot dogs but the one fellow taking one complained that the bun was hard enough to crack a tooth. My guess is that for most players this will add up to more than their bad beat awards over a lifetime.
When I left I had another $3 in comps for my pecan pie this morning on my way to see the Jefferson Davis home.
What I like is the Jean Scott argument that the purpose is just to enjoy the traveling and the freebies and not to look to get rich quick, but just to enjoy the game. She was talking about video poker. In live poker we get some closeup time with people who are different than the folks we meet everyday. And we get time to check all aspects of their character.s
So I liked Boomtown, but there were some drawbacks. I do like waking up this morning a bit ahead of my games. I hope I can keep a small edge.
VIDEO POKER
I played my freeplay and got nothing in a fifty cent double double 9/5 bonus game. I wanted the volatility rather than a couple dollars. I caught a few two pair, but in the end it was all gone. I suppose I should have just played four hands.
Earlier at the Isle I had been bored and played five dollars in one of the quarter diamond slots where the diamonds move in the direction they point. I won about fifty dollars when triple bars combined with one double.
Here I played five dollars again on a quarter slot and hit two sevens and a doubler for another sixty dollars. So my slot play has been quite good. Each time I quit ahead. I should quit for the trip now and not get suckered back in. the odds are I won't win. I usually play $7 megabucks so I can have the dream, but I don't see that here. The Wheel of Fortune seems to be progressive. Perhaps I'll try that for a few dollars each day.
I was thinking of Greg playing poker at Turning Stone and then winning with a hundred in the slots.
SLEEPING ROOM NOTES
It is very quiet here. I don't think there is another guest on my floor. The television was out again last night when I returned. I am not calling for another reboot, but I am going to watch the next person who does one so I know how. This is the second casino where the televisions were nice wide screens but fragile and requiring restarts to work.
It does not bother me really because I have the computer and like the quiet. If I get bored I'll read a bit.
I have finally carried up most of the things that I need here in the room and it is almost time to carry them back down again. I'll head out to the Silver Slipper and Hollywood early tomorrow so I want to see the Jeff Davis house today. So I had better get ready I guess to do something besides play poker.
This is quite a room for $43. It would be an $80 room out in the world and then I don't imagine I could get an ocean view for that many places. I forgot to ask for an ocean view and just got one by chance when I asked for a quiet room.
I have called each day and canceled room service. I like not to have to sleep or write around the interruption of a cleaning person. There have been no carts with towels in the hallways so that adds to the quiet.
I am enjoying the refrigerator and the cold beer. I could get used to that. However, I do think it is very irresponsible to falsely claim to have meds to refrigerate. I did not get one the first day because they ran out. I would not want to worry another guest who held medicine that they worried would warm up. But I enjoyed a Saranac chocolate Amber before bed last night. After Danny's the beer will have to be on ice, the Costa Rican way.
No boats on the Gulf today. Much of this area is deserted. I should have rad more about the return from the hurricane. The town at night looked deserted but not destroyed. There is a large hospital nearby here which could be a benefit for old people traveling with health issues.
I wish I might have slept in today, but I just don't seem to do that. So I'll try to be back for my nap again in the afternoon. That seemed to work for some late night poker possibility.
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