The first few posts reflect 2016 and then there is a note telling that the rest is from 2009, my last trip to Mississippi to play poker.
Everything is in reverse order, blog style.
Everything is in reverse order, blog style.
COUNTER
Monday, April 11, 2016
Monday, April 4, 2016
Scarlet Pearl and the IP to eat and play
I thought the IP poker game was a good one, but I found one more to my taste at the Scarlet Pearl. Sunday afternoon was perfect with the table full of tourists who did not like to bet high. It is a spread limit 4-8 game with a 1-2 blind. Seeing the flop often costs just two dollars as opposed to the four dollars it costs at the IP. And there are those fine possibilities for betting based on the strength of a hand. After the flop the bet can be 1-4, and turn and river bets can be 1-8. I have always liked these games.
The poker room has a huge window, although the view will be obstructed soon with a parking garage. It is bright and pleasant and everything is new. The rest of the casino is that was as well.
Really different were the people working. John was an especially patient and attentive dealer. He called the game, talked about the casino, joked a bit, and in general made us feel welcome and taken care of. I rarely tip more than a dollar, but I did tip John two.
One amazing thing was that they automatically changed the rake when we got down to five and with four took no rake at all. This made short play easy to endure.
There is not a NL game in this room, just this unstructured spread limit game.
I think it might be my favorite game in the country.
It took me a while to get used to the spread again at the Scarlet Pearl. I overbet good hands and everyone folded. Once pocket Aces only got me the blinds. I showed them and did a bit of friendly whining. The next hand I had just a good draw, so I just bet a dollar until. I was never raised, so on the river I bet the max of $8 and stole the pot with folks thinking I slow played good cards. I did it again a few hands later. That was in the early afternoon of Sunday with mostly tight tourists.
I did well, playing tight aggressive. Then some fellows came in who were upped the action more than I wanted and I was missing hands, so I left with $85 profit. However, the real advantage was that this game would not kill my bankroll if I played over a long while even with a difficult second best slump. So the price of entertainment was low.
Folks were very friendly. Mike next to me has actually been the fellow who set up the Magic Manatee marina where we rented out pontoon in Homosassa. He was fun to talk with. There was a fellow there who lived in the villages in Florida.
They have a poker rate of sixty nine dollars weekdays and ninety=nine on weekends and the $2.50 earned in comps each hour can be applied to the price, so that lowers it even more. I thought I might stay one more night here and skip the Shelbyville stop, but I can't easily squeeze that out. However, I can spend a bit of Tuesday afternoon, use of my comps for a meal and if I get three or four hours of travel in before sleeping, that will almost be like spending another night here. Part of me would like to see Shelbyville, but I just know that it would be a disappointment after this place.
Their promotions were very accessible too. Every half hour yesterday the house splashed the pot with twenty five dollars. I almost won one time but lost on the river when my flopped trips were defeated by a flush.
They also splashed the pot with bits of bling. I won a sippy cup with the name of the casino. I wanted to trade a woman for her card protector, but she did not want to trade. John just went up and got my a card protector. He did not even take the sippy cup. These card protectors are pretty cool. They are in a plastic case but if taken out they will spin on top of the cards. I have not tried mine out yet. As a card protector, I think I better like it in the case, but it will be cool for the home games.
My best hand was Peter's favorite 6-9. This was of spades. The straight flopped and there were two hearts. I bet hard and was called by heart draws and one two pair fellow. No one would put me on a 6-9. It was the largest pot of my trip so far, well over $100. And it won the sippy cup which also got me the card protector. Pretty good.
IP
I went to the IP to use my poker comps for a buffet. They gave me a full buffet although I only had fifteen dollars. He said I could come back and play. I did. But I lost. I made a bit back at the video poker, hitting a few quads and a straight flush. I caught a seven and jack of clubs to make it.
But even with the win at the Scarlet Pearl I am down for the trip. $358 is my score. So far I've eaten $52 in free food, so that helps, but I'll need some luck if this is to be a winning trip.
I do like the affect it all has on my sleeping and my attitude. I'm relaxed and appreciate not thinking about politics and death for a few hours in the day. I sleep very well, with dreams, but I sleep through the night.
Jen's father Joe died yesterday. So that is two deaths while I've been here in Biloxi. Peter and Casey are scheduled to fly to meet us in Chicago on the 8th, but perhaps they won't make it. We'll see. It is fine to have booked at Southwest where it won't cost anything to cancel and use the money later in the year. What a great airline!
Oh, the buffet at the IP was good but not as good as the Beau. The seafood was rather dry and tasteless. I better liked a meatball and sausage and a jumbo. It all spiked my sugar, however. I did not measure after the Beau. Perhaps I will today.
Heavy day of Gambling
I tried to nap but it did not seem to work, so finally I got up and went to the IP and lost $200 at JOB before I decided to go down to the Beau Rivage for some food. This is quite the upscale place. It is very fancy, unlike the IP which is nice, but not fancy.
Parking at the Beau is a walk through shops to the casino. IP is get off the elevator and there it is.
I wandered around a bit watching the action. I stopped at the M-Life Player's Club for a card and redeemed my free buffet from MyVegas. The price of this buffet on Saturday is $30. Quite a good deal for free. Unlike some of the other MyVegas offers there is not a separate offer for lunch and dinner. I got there during the closed time, walked and checked out the poker room, and came back with ten minutes to wait for the supper hours and there was already a line. I listened to the chatter in line but I was quiet and no one asked me a question. It is so unusual to be where almost all of the speakers have Southern Accents. Fun.
The buffet was a real treat, especially for a seafood lover like me. There were all sorts of seafood from crab legs to crawfish to fillets done in various manners to fried oysters, stuffed crabs, deep fried balls of seafood flavored hush puppies. I concentrated on a creamy soup named after the casino which seemed to have a process broccoli. I ate a lot of deep fried oysters and they were very good. The crawfish tasted good as well. I could not remember much about all the Mudgrift Alligator Dan from Louisian' had shown me in 2009, but I did okay. Too bad ole Dan isn't alive anymore or perhaps he would have met me down here.
I did go back to the poker room and even was seated at a new game, but suddenly the old game was nearly breaking and that took most of the new game players, so rather than wait on a list when half the table were new and not leaving soon, I decided to go to the IP and play some more video poker at the IP.
The traffic outside the Beau was thick. I had to wait in line to exit the parking garage and I quickly decided not to try to go to Pearl, but to go back to the IP. This hotel is easily located for IP access, just a bridge between us really, unaffected by traffic as it is a major highway 10. I sure made a good decision.
Also, near the poker room is JOB in what is the only full pay quarter VP (with reduced points earned) in Biloxi.
At the IP they had a seat for me in 4-8 and so I played for a while. I arrived at 5:30 and I left about midnight. I was up and down and ended down, then put what was left in the video poker and lost a bit, making the day a $297 loss and that was my trip loss so far as well since I broke even yesterday.
I loved poker at the IP. They had a promotion that apparently the locals don't like much, so there were only a few really skilled players and some terrible folks. I'd have left with profit if I hadn't decided to see if I might win the $500 and play to midnight. The easy money players left and so did my cards. Second best took me right down.
I loved the people. Constant chatter in delightful Southern English, some joking, friendly dealers, one very lively and cute girl and a loose game. I played Peter's 6-9 once and flopped two pair, was called to the river and won. I had pocked Aces go to four of a kind and won just a small pot and wished I was in Ocala where the high hand award would be $250 and the Aces would probably hold up for that as they pay every half hour. I'm always getting the best cards in places where they aren't worth much.
I loved the blinds. It is a 4-8 game but with 1-2 blinds, so in long stretches of terrible cards I could not get blinded to death.
If I heard right they pay $2.50 an hour for play, but it is all handled by their poker room. That seems like a lot, so I may have heard wrong. I'm hoping I can collect today and use it toward a buffet. I have enough points anyway, but this would save them for Vegas.
I like very much playing in a B Connected casino. I am drifting more and more in that direction in Vegas and it is just great to be able to earn a few points here and then have them when I go next to the Gold Coast or Orleans or Sam's Town. Also, what was left on my card I am able to use here.
The Young at Heart Monday deals are not quite a good, but then I'm covered for Monday anyway with another MyVegas voucher for the Beau. I can't imagine why more people here don't play for these unless as locals they are shut out from the deal. These buffets are pricey.
My computer connections go in and out, but I set up the Califone box with a tape I made of Jonathan Schwartz radio and that is just great. Boy, I love this box.
At my poker table were some interesting characters. One young girl had one of those young, fresh faces that just beamed with cheer. I loved her. She did not stay long. After she was gone there was some whispering form a snarky local who for some reason resented her poor play and keep talking to the dealer.
There was one old guy with deep hound dog jowls who never smiled, or answered a comment, or did much of anything human until his friends and family showed up to take him off. Then there was hand shaking and such all around and I thought, "Oh, this guy is human afterall"
I sat next to Mohammed and we had some good talks. He was friendly guy and I liked him.
A good player and a regular showed up with a billion chips and watched his phone play a movie unless he was in a hand. He played tight. He was gone much of time too. I think he was just getting his hours in for the promotion. He was tight aggressive and hard to beat, but my pocket Aces took out his ace/ king although he bet every round.
There was a good looking fellow with a confederate flag on his hat who played some of the worst poker I've seen. No wonder they lost the war.
Hardest was a quiet but very spacey Mexican who bet and called everything. It was impossible to push him off a hand and hard to have a sense of what he held. He was not lucky, but he had a pocketful of hundred dollar bills and just replenished after he lost an all in . I had a 2-5 that took the pot on the river from a friendly old guy who had bet his flopped trip 4's.
A couple of young guys showed up and sat either side of me and we bantered a bit. They were from outside New Orleans. Quite a few folks here from New Orleans.
Parking at the Beau is a walk through shops to the casino. IP is get off the elevator and there it is.
I wandered around a bit watching the action. I stopped at the M-Life Player's Club for a card and redeemed my free buffet from MyVegas. The price of this buffet on Saturday is $30. Quite a good deal for free. Unlike some of the other MyVegas offers there is not a separate offer for lunch and dinner. I got there during the closed time, walked and checked out the poker room, and came back with ten minutes to wait for the supper hours and there was already a line. I listened to the chatter in line but I was quiet and no one asked me a question. It is so unusual to be where almost all of the speakers have Southern Accents. Fun.
The buffet was a real treat, especially for a seafood lover like me. There were all sorts of seafood from crab legs to crawfish to fillets done in various manners to fried oysters, stuffed crabs, deep fried balls of seafood flavored hush puppies. I concentrated on a creamy soup named after the casino which seemed to have a process broccoli. I ate a lot of deep fried oysters and they were very good. The crawfish tasted good as well. I could not remember much about all the Mudgrift Alligator Dan from Louisian' had shown me in 2009, but I did okay. Too bad ole Dan isn't alive anymore or perhaps he would have met me down here.
I did go back to the poker room and even was seated at a new game, but suddenly the old game was nearly breaking and that took most of the new game players, so rather than wait on a list when half the table were new and not leaving soon, I decided to go to the IP and play some more video poker at the IP.
The traffic outside the Beau was thick. I had to wait in line to exit the parking garage and I quickly decided not to try to go to Pearl, but to go back to the IP. This hotel is easily located for IP access, just a bridge between us really, unaffected by traffic as it is a major highway 10. I sure made a good decision.
Also, near the poker room is JOB in what is the only full pay quarter VP (with reduced points earned) in Biloxi.
At the IP they had a seat for me in 4-8 and so I played for a while. I arrived at 5:30 and I left about midnight. I was up and down and ended down, then put what was left in the video poker and lost a bit, making the day a $297 loss and that was my trip loss so far as well since I broke even yesterday.
I loved poker at the IP. They had a promotion that apparently the locals don't like much, so there were only a few really skilled players and some terrible folks. I'd have left with profit if I hadn't decided to see if I might win the $500 and play to midnight. The easy money players left and so did my cards. Second best took me right down.
I loved the people. Constant chatter in delightful Southern English, some joking, friendly dealers, one very lively and cute girl and a loose game. I played Peter's 6-9 once and flopped two pair, was called to the river and won. I had pocked Aces go to four of a kind and won just a small pot and wished I was in Ocala where the high hand award would be $250 and the Aces would probably hold up for that as they pay every half hour. I'm always getting the best cards in places where they aren't worth much.
I loved the blinds. It is a 4-8 game but with 1-2 blinds, so in long stretches of terrible cards I could not get blinded to death.
If I heard right they pay $2.50 an hour for play, but it is all handled by their poker room. That seems like a lot, so I may have heard wrong. I'm hoping I can collect today and use it toward a buffet. I have enough points anyway, but this would save them for Vegas.
I like very much playing in a B Connected casino. I am drifting more and more in that direction in Vegas and it is just great to be able to earn a few points here and then have them when I go next to the Gold Coast or Orleans or Sam's Town. Also, what was left on my card I am able to use here.
The Young at Heart Monday deals are not quite a good, but then I'm covered for Monday anyway with another MyVegas voucher for the Beau. I can't imagine why more people here don't play for these unless as locals they are shut out from the deal. These buffets are pricey.
My computer connections go in and out, but I set up the Califone box with a tape I made of Jonathan Schwartz radio and that is just great. Boy, I love this box.
At my poker table were some interesting characters. One young girl had one of those young, fresh faces that just beamed with cheer. I loved her. She did not stay long. After she was gone there was some whispering form a snarky local who for some reason resented her poor play and keep talking to the dealer.
There was one old guy with deep hound dog jowls who never smiled, or answered a comment, or did much of anything human until his friends and family showed up to take him off. Then there was hand shaking and such all around and I thought, "Oh, this guy is human afterall"
I sat next to Mohammed and we had some good talks. He was friendly guy and I liked him.
A good player and a regular showed up with a billion chips and watched his phone play a movie unless he was in a hand. He played tight. He was gone much of time too. I think he was just getting his hours in for the promotion. He was tight aggressive and hard to beat, but my pocket Aces took out his ace/ king although he bet every round.
There was a good looking fellow with a confederate flag on his hat who played some of the worst poker I've seen. No wonder they lost the war.
Hardest was a quiet but very spacey Mexican who bet and called everything. It was impossible to push him off a hand and hard to have a sense of what he held. He was not lucky, but he had a pocketful of hundred dollar bills and just replenished after he lost an all in . I had a 2-5 that took the pot on the river from a friendly old guy who had bet his flopped trip 4's.
A couple of young guys showed up and sat either side of me and we bantered a bit. They were from outside New Orleans. Quite a few folks here from New Orleans.
THE HOTEL
Some of this repeats in other posts, but I decided to break out my hotel comments to develop a nice report for Trip Reports. I'll edit this as I go with new thoughts. Other folks liked this place, but few had any specific comments to make or added details.
It was a great choice for me. I am staying four nights.
http://www.suburbanhotelbiloxi.com/
Here I had a kitchen, a room close to my car, and good location for casinos.
It was nice to have a hot meal of leftovers when I got tired playing video poker at the IP. And cooking bacon and eggs for breakfast with some hot tea was just a great luxury at a cheap price.
There are two nice burners and a timed switch on the back wall that cuts off electricity to the entire stove after a while, like those used for heat lamps in bathrooms.
They stock the room with : a small microwave, two plates, two bowls, assorted plasticware to use with the Teflon pans, real silverware. All this looks brand new.Two real coffee cups. One small glasses and two large glasses.
I put a plastic cup in the bathroom. No plastic here, no Styrofoam. Nice.
Next to the microwave is a roll of paper towels. Mine was new.
The refrigerator is small with little space for larger things, but fine. The freezer is a narrow strip but held all I needed. I thought the place was very comfortable.
The shower looks new. It is simple, but there is a place to sit.
Everything is clean and well maintained. Perhaps these were renovated not too long ago.
The coffee maker was a surprise. I am carrying coffee with me but not filters. There was hotel coffee provided, but this machine will make my own coffee, so I asked housekeeping for some filters and she brought me a nice pile that will last me easily for my stay.
It could get noisy here, but it has not. I have slept easily. There is daylight through the edges of the window curtain and the train sound of housekeeping rolling their sheets, but the workers don't shout back and forth.
The AC/heat system acts as white noise.
I guess if I just had a light carryon I would choose and upper room, but all the junk I want to unload and keep safe in the room as well as a heavy cooler, sleep apnea machine, boom box, computer makes it more convenient to be on the ground floor even if once in a while someone talks a bit too loud outside my door during a midday nap.
The location to casinos is just grand. The IP is a B-Connected casino where points earned on the card can be used in Vegas and vice versa. To get there I hop on I-10, cross a bridge over water and immediately get off, turn right, and I am there. No traffic. Other casino access may come with traffic.
For the newest of Biloxi casinos, the Scarlet Pearl, I don't even have to take the bridge. I just run down a city street, turn, and there it is.
My first night I drove through a torrential rain and wind storm and was happy to have the IP so close. The Pearl would have been more difficult because the self parking I prefer is outside and a bit of a walk to the casino. I'd have gone Valet, but perhaps those spots would have quickly filled.
I do wish they had a better marking on the entrance road. There is one road that is a false road that is first when coming off the I-10 expressway from the casino. Then at night the other entrances are hard to see, blending into the black top of the highway. Even a small reflector would help. On one is a small blue sign that does not project over two bushes and so is easy to miss.
I also did have a slight leakage of tobacco smoke through the vents and into the bathroom. Behind me here are smoking rooms. I might ask for a room more isolated, but in truth it has not bothered me much, and when I sense it, I close the bathroom door. Cooking bacon also covers it up, a sort of natural Febreeze. I had this for only a day or so at the beginning and then I expect those folks went away and smoked up their car rather than the hotel room.
I do like the room facing the back as the parking is easier. I have room number 121 and I like that.
There were just enough plugs, but carrying a three way splitter is also a good idea when traveling. There were not those handy plugs built into the llighting.
Along side the bed were two lights operated with a hand switch. This was very convenient. so many places have these lights controlled by a central switch on some wall. In bed with my sleep apnea mask all adjusted, I don't want to get up to adjust the light and if I go to the bathroom in the dark, I want that simple switch to work and not be cut off by some other.
The lights at the door allow for some variety of lighting with three switches controlling various lights. I like that set up. One switch turns on two lights but they have their own switches as well.
The television has a good selection of stations but sadly not TCM.
The wifi worked well but was hard to log into for me at least and I had to log into it every 24 hours. What happens is the log in page does not easily come up. I have to put something in the google. Here is was
http://www.suburbanhotelbiloxi.com/
for some reason. I have this happen in hotels often. It takes a while to get the log in posted. I don't know why. In my last computer the log in sheet came up easily and right away.
Book on line early because the place fills up. I saw walk ins turned away.
It was a great choice for me. I am staying four nights.
http://www.suburbanhotelbiloxi.com/
Here I had a kitchen, a room close to my car, and good location for casinos.
It was nice to have a hot meal of leftovers when I got tired playing video poker at the IP. And cooking bacon and eggs for breakfast with some hot tea was just a great luxury at a cheap price.
There are two nice burners and a timed switch on the back wall that cuts off electricity to the entire stove after a while, like those used for heat lamps in bathrooms.
They stock the room with : a small microwave, two plates, two bowls, assorted plasticware to use with the Teflon pans, real silverware. All this looks brand new.Two real coffee cups. One small glasses and two large glasses.
I put a plastic cup in the bathroom. No plastic here, no Styrofoam. Nice.
Next to the microwave is a roll of paper towels. Mine was new.
The refrigerator is small with little space for larger things, but fine. The freezer is a narrow strip but held all I needed. I thought the place was very comfortable.
The shower looks new. It is simple, but there is a place to sit.
Everything is clean and well maintained. Perhaps these were renovated not too long ago.
The coffee maker was a surprise. I am carrying coffee with me but not filters. There was hotel coffee provided, but this machine will make my own coffee, so I asked housekeeping for some filters and she brought me a nice pile that will last me easily for my stay.
It could get noisy here, but it has not. I have slept easily. There is daylight through the edges of the window curtain and the train sound of housekeeping rolling their sheets, but the workers don't shout back and forth.
The AC/heat system acts as white noise.
I guess if I just had a light carryon I would choose and upper room, but all the junk I want to unload and keep safe in the room as well as a heavy cooler, sleep apnea machine, boom box, computer makes it more convenient to be on the ground floor even if once in a while someone talks a bit too loud outside my door during a midday nap.
The location to casinos is just grand. The IP is a B-Connected casino where points earned on the card can be used in Vegas and vice versa. To get there I hop on I-10, cross a bridge over water and immediately get off, turn right, and I am there. No traffic. Other casino access may come with traffic.
For the newest of Biloxi casinos, the Scarlet Pearl, I don't even have to take the bridge. I just run down a city street, turn, and there it is.
My first night I drove through a torrential rain and wind storm and was happy to have the IP so close. The Pearl would have been more difficult because the self parking I prefer is outside and a bit of a walk to the casino. I'd have gone Valet, but perhaps those spots would have quickly filled.
I do wish they had a better marking on the entrance road. There is one road that is a false road that is first when coming off the I-10 expressway from the casino. Then at night the other entrances are hard to see, blending into the black top of the highway. Even a small reflector would help. On one is a small blue sign that does not project over two bushes and so is easy to miss.
I also did have a slight leakage of tobacco smoke through the vents and into the bathroom. Behind me here are smoking rooms. I might ask for a room more isolated, but in truth it has not bothered me much, and when I sense it, I close the bathroom door. Cooking bacon also covers it up, a sort of natural Febreeze. I had this for only a day or so at the beginning and then I expect those folks went away and smoked up their car rather than the hotel room.
I do like the room facing the back as the parking is easier. I have room number 121 and I like that.
There were just enough plugs, but carrying a three way splitter is also a good idea when traveling. There were not those handy plugs built into the llighting.
Along side the bed were two lights operated with a hand switch. This was very convenient. so many places have these lights controlled by a central switch on some wall. In bed with my sleep apnea mask all adjusted, I don't want to get up to adjust the light and if I go to the bathroom in the dark, I want that simple switch to work and not be cut off by some other.
The lights at the door allow for some variety of lighting with three switches controlling various lights. I like that set up. One switch turns on two lights but they have their own switches as well.
The television has a good selection of stations but sadly not TCM.
The wifi worked well but was hard to log into for me at least and I had to log into it every 24 hours. What happens is the log in page does not easily come up. I have to put something in the google. Here is was
http://www.suburbanhotelbiloxi.com/
for some reason. I have this happen in hotels often. It takes a while to get the log in posted. I don't know why. In my last computer the log in sheet came up easily and right away.
Book on line early because the place fills up. I saw walk ins turned away.
Saturday, April 2, 2016
From Homosassa to Biloxi
On the GPS my journey was a seven and a half hour drive, so I knew I wanted to leave early, but I did not want to get out of bed at 2AM.
But there I was.
The car was mostly packed, but I still found last minute things to bring, dishes to do, breakfast to eat, the cooler to pack.
It seems hard to believe, but it was after five before I actually go on the road.
The journey up 19 was really a deserted drive at this time of morning. I liked it. Were I to break down I would not like it much, but for the absence of traffic and the quiet, easy ride, it was delightful.
And most of the trip was free of trouble until I got a couple hours from Biloxi. Then the traffic started to pick up and the rain started to get very serious.
Twice I passed vehicles that somehow had just left the road. Both were driven by young men. One was a little red car. However, the other was a grey truck. After waiting in bumper to bumper traffic for a half hour, I saw it, covered in mud, down in a muddy ditch. The driver was just hanging around. Another truck had stopped and the young men there were just grinning.
I thought I knew why.
At my last pit stop I was just heading for the ramp to the highway when I heard the sound of a truck being revved to the limit. I looked in my read view and there it was, going like crazy on the wet road, slipping to one side and the another, passing a car behind me. I pulled off the road to let this idiot go by.
I used to love trucks. I associated them with folks who were working on their houses or carrying their boats. But now I associate them with pushy, aggressive guys who like to tailgate and lane change and push and push. Idiots.
Now here was this idiot in the ditch, the same grey truck I had seen a half hour before.
I tried not to be glad.
I see these big trucks all the time now. Usually they are in the way. When I am driving at night, they sit just higher enough to shine their big old headlights right in my rear view mirror as they tailgate me. I guess the lowered gas prices have improved the market. Behind the wheel is often some old codger, older than even me. And he sort of stumbles out and then waddles on bad knees to the grocery store. I just know this guy ain't putting no sheet of half inch plywood in the back of the truck. Ironically, most of the stuff that might be carried in the bed of a pick up I can put in my stow and go van and the rest of the time I can seat seven.
I misjudged the time change. I hate time change. I'm just too simple minded to get it straight. I kept thinking I was making great time even with my many pit stops, and then I realized that I had an hour more to drive than I had figured.
Well, it went fine.
A thermos of coffee depleted over the trip helped.
A little nap I took in Northern Florida in front of a closed and dilapidated old store or gas station helped.
And I loved my little boom box in the front seat plugged into a cigarette lighter and playing books on tape, real tape, Cassette tape.
One was a sequel to Forrest Gump. It was ridiculous and so it was very entertaining.
Others were old Bob and Ray comedy.
Then Bob Hope.
When I wanted a break, I just put on the car radio and listened to NPR.
I played a bit of music, but these books on tape just do a better job of making the time go by.
I have not driven solo like this for a long while, but without Elizabeth along I could drive as long as I wanted, play what I wanted, and leave early to arrive good and early.
THE HOTEL
I found my pick of places to stay to be a perfect choice.
http://www.suburbanhotelbiloxi.com/
Here I had a kitchen, a room close to my car, and good location for the casinos.
I settled in. I'm so tired of packing. I've been doing it in some fashion for what seems like my whole life, getting things to Susan's that stay in Florida until next winter, packing for this trip and for Chicago and for home. Ugh!
However, it was nice to have a hot meal of leftovers when I got tired playing video poker at the IP.
I could not nap and finally went over to the IP, but I was just too tired to play poker. I found the full pay JOB and ran my $20 up to over $100 and then back down to $20. I enjoyed it. It was good to use my B Connected card here so I can be sure my points will be good when I go next to Vegas.
But I was tired.
The rain was the worst I have seen lately. A huge downpour and winds. I got wet inside the parking garage parking my car. The water just blew in. I was happy not to have much of a drive.
So, here I am.
Some sad news this morning. Gary Caldwell died after a long and grueling struggle with Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis. His lungs had given him problems all his life. Asthma limited his play and school attendance. Then it seemed to ease up a bit. But perhaps the inhaler he used when we were in our youthful days helped cause this new disease. I'll miss the old guy. I have known him from third grade.
But there I was.
The car was mostly packed, but I still found last minute things to bring, dishes to do, breakfast to eat, the cooler to pack.
It seems hard to believe, but it was after five before I actually go on the road.
The journey up 19 was really a deserted drive at this time of morning. I liked it. Were I to break down I would not like it much, but for the absence of traffic and the quiet, easy ride, it was delightful.
And most of the trip was free of trouble until I got a couple hours from Biloxi. Then the traffic started to pick up and the rain started to get very serious.
Twice I passed vehicles that somehow had just left the road. Both were driven by young men. One was a little red car. However, the other was a grey truck. After waiting in bumper to bumper traffic for a half hour, I saw it, covered in mud, down in a muddy ditch. The driver was just hanging around. Another truck had stopped and the young men there were just grinning.
I thought I knew why.
At my last pit stop I was just heading for the ramp to the highway when I heard the sound of a truck being revved to the limit. I looked in my read view and there it was, going like crazy on the wet road, slipping to one side and the another, passing a car behind me. I pulled off the road to let this idiot go by.
I used to love trucks. I associated them with folks who were working on their houses or carrying their boats. But now I associate them with pushy, aggressive guys who like to tailgate and lane change and push and push. Idiots.
Now here was this idiot in the ditch, the same grey truck I had seen a half hour before.
I tried not to be glad.
I see these big trucks all the time now. Usually they are in the way. When I am driving at night, they sit just higher enough to shine their big old headlights right in my rear view mirror as they tailgate me. I guess the lowered gas prices have improved the market. Behind the wheel is often some old codger, older than even me. And he sort of stumbles out and then waddles on bad knees to the grocery store. I just know this guy ain't putting no sheet of half inch plywood in the back of the truck. Ironically, most of the stuff that might be carried in the bed of a pick up I can put in my stow and go van and the rest of the time I can seat seven.
I misjudged the time change. I hate time change. I'm just too simple minded to get it straight. I kept thinking I was making great time even with my many pit stops, and then I realized that I had an hour more to drive than I had figured.
Well, it went fine.
A thermos of coffee depleted over the trip helped.
A little nap I took in Northern Florida in front of a closed and dilapidated old store or gas station helped.
And I loved my little boom box in the front seat plugged into a cigarette lighter and playing books on tape, real tape, Cassette tape.
One was a sequel to Forrest Gump. It was ridiculous and so it was very entertaining.
Others were old Bob and Ray comedy.
Then Bob Hope.
When I wanted a break, I just put on the car radio and listened to NPR.
I played a bit of music, but these books on tape just do a better job of making the time go by.
I have not driven solo like this for a long while, but without Elizabeth along I could drive as long as I wanted, play what I wanted, and leave early to arrive good and early.
THE HOTEL
I found my pick of places to stay to be a perfect choice.
http://www.suburbanhotelbiloxi.com/
Here I had a kitchen, a room close to my car, and good location for the casinos.
I settled in. I'm so tired of packing. I've been doing it in some fashion for what seems like my whole life, getting things to Susan's that stay in Florida until next winter, packing for this trip and for Chicago and for home. Ugh!
However, it was nice to have a hot meal of leftovers when I got tired playing video poker at the IP.
I could not nap and finally went over to the IP, but I was just too tired to play poker. I found the full pay JOB and ran my $20 up to over $100 and then back down to $20. I enjoyed it. It was good to use my B Connected card here so I can be sure my points will be good when I go next to Vegas.
But I was tired.
The rain was the worst I have seen lately. A huge downpour and winds. I got wet inside the parking garage parking my car. The water just blew in. I was happy not to have much of a drive.
So, here I am.
Some sad news this morning. Gary Caldwell died after a long and grueling struggle with Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis. His lungs had given him problems all his life. Asthma limited his play and school attendance. Then it seemed to ease up a bit. But perhaps the inhaler he used when we were in our youthful days helped cause this new disease. I'll miss the old guy. I have known him from third grade.
Monday, June 9, 2014
INTRODUCTION TO THE 2009 TRIP
IGNORE THE DATES OF POSTING. ALL ACTUAL EVENTS from here on HAPPENED IN MARCH AND APRIL OF 2009
I actually copied these posts from my personal blog and decided to put it in a place where I could access it. It is an old trip taken when I bought a new van in Florida over the winter and drove it home over about 22 days trying to find as much poker as possible. I lost money but had a fine time. I figured what I saved on buying that van at a good price in Florida paid for the trip. And actually, I traded it in for a newer van up North and got all of what I spent back in the trade in.
Ignore all the dates of posting. All actual events occur in March and April of 2009. However, I've tried to keep them in actual order rather than the order blog post usually create, a backwards in time order.
Don't think this ends with one page. Hit the prompt "older posts" in the bottom right of this first page and more will come up. There are photos along the way of some places. Or the index on the right will send you to a particular post in a particular place along the Mississippi.
For a while I'll leave this blog open to comment with just moderation so I can see the posts If I start getting spammed, I'll have to put in a robot identifying bit that frustrates posters but is needed if the spam comes many times a day.
PS I know some photos and some material has been posted twice and I apologize. I worry about cutting it and taking out something that can't be put back in. Skim through. I did the best I could at the time, ran out of editing time, and now it is 2014 and I can't really remember the details. Sure is fine to have the blog.
I actually copied these posts from my personal blog and decided to put it in a place where I could access it. It is an old trip taken when I bought a new van in Florida over the winter and drove it home over about 22 days trying to find as much poker as possible. I lost money but had a fine time. I figured what I saved on buying that van at a good price in Florida paid for the trip. And actually, I traded it in for a newer van up North and got all of what I spent back in the trade in.
Ignore all the dates of posting. All actual events occur in March and April of 2009. However, I've tried to keep them in actual order rather than the order blog post usually create, a backwards in time order.
Don't think this ends with one page. Hit the prompt "older posts" in the bottom right of this first page and more will come up. There are photos along the way of some places. Or the index on the right will send you to a particular post in a particular place along the Mississippi.
For a while I'll leave this blog open to comment with just moderation so I can see the posts If I start getting spammed, I'll have to put in a robot identifying bit that frustrates posters but is needed if the spam comes many times a day.
PS I know some photos and some material has been posted twice and I apologize. I worry about cutting it and taking out something that can't be put back in. Skim through. I did the best I could at the time, ran out of editing time, and now it is 2014 and I can't really remember the details. Sure is fine to have the blog.
BILOXI MARCH 2
It was a long but easy drive here to Biloxi because of a good sleep, easy roads and a very early start. Having NPR all the way made the boredom melt away too. I did get a bit tired of hearing the same news each hour, but my mind worked to pick up new details or fill in the blanks. Somehow that kept me mentally engaged in a way that keeps drowsiness at bay.
The terrain was fairly repetitive and uninteresting. Once I passed an area where I could see forests of pine for miles and miles and a few of the swamp water sights were interesting. Most of the trip was just super highway.
However, I encountered very little traffic. Leaving at 5 AM left me free of traffic in Orlando, although not free of the infernal toll roads. I did not want to try going without them, but I had not gone but a few blocks when the GPS sent me down the toll road for fifty cents and then back up part of the way for yet another fifty cents and both of those tolls collected where exact change was required. In Florida you have to have quarters in your car to go anywhere, and over the course of the first part of the journey I was always reaching for quarters or for more where there were attendants.
However, the rest of the journey went quickly. I did not stop for breakfast except to grab some coffee at a reststop. I munched on cheese and Sami's wraps from Tampa. That was a fine plan.
The Google predicted eight and a half hours of travel but the GPS was more accurate at nine and a half. I pushed the speed limit a bit and probably would have made the entire journey in GPS time, but it is hard to measure. Once I got near here I decided to eat and get my oil changed as I was early. They are an hour different in time here too.
I saw a sign for Barnhill's buffet and decided to try it with my coupon. The senior special matched my coupon price. For $7 I had some very good food. I really enjoyed the pulled pork on biscuit, and the sweet potato, fried catfish, and other tastes were good. The greens were the frozen variety and not very interesting. It was a good bargain and a good place to stop with the car packed as I could see the car from where I ate. There are two of these in this area. I am not certain how much of a chain this place it, but I wish we had one in Albany. It made for a fine midday meal after the long ride with just a bit of snacking. Key to my staying fresh for driving is to eat very little and drink coffee.
Policemen came in and I asked one about an oil change place. He sent me a mile away to a Fast Lube and they did a quick and easy job so I am good to go. I should have had that done in Tampa, but this was easy as I might not get into the hotel early and I was feeling pretty tired.
They did say something about a refrigerator but none arrived in my room. I'll keep my humira on ice today in the cooler. I am happy to have that small insulated ice pack also. My television does not work and I got in too late to ask about it. Other than that I am very comfortable. The room safe accomodates my laptop as well as other valuables. It does not read the four digit code the first time, and that was a bit disconcerting, but I may have the key to that which is pushing the door a bit in to line up with something. The bed is just wonderful and it is very quiet here and dark as well. I look out on what may someday be Margarittaville, but is now just a shell deserted of workmen. All construction is on hold due to the financial crisis.
It is fine to have the computer with me. I feel so fortunate. And it is so nice to have the room safe. I'd rather have that than television. I am very glad to have saved all my notes as word documents and not left them in the cloud. I have access without Internet. I could get Internet here for a price.
*************************************************************
I decided to use my time to check out some of the plays.
VP
I am not really the one to check on VP as the details easily slip out of my mind. I wrote some things down, but when I got to my car, I did not have the notes. Since I don't intend to play any VP this trip, surveying the paytables is a bit of a time waster. Beau Rivage and the Hardrock. I saw 7/5 JOB and 9/6 DB. I checked at both desks and there are no benefits. At the Hardrock you can earn points at the same rate as a slot player, except the VP points are not good for the freeplay offered eventually. I went round and round frustrating the counter girl trying to figure this one out. She kept telling me that yes I would earn the points, but could not tell me of what value they would be except to give me a higher status card. There is a food comp. This is a “percentage” but no one knows what equals even a breakfast buffet. It is a mystery and I was sorry to have stayed in line to ask any questions as there were not answers.
At the Beau the answer was the same sort of thing except the line was longer. There the girl “thought” the freeplay could be earned as VP as $5 earned a point for VP while $3 earned it for slots. Again the few machines I checked were ridiculous.
I actually thing that information on cashback ( which does not exist except as freeplay) might more easily be gathered by calling the promotions rooms than standing in line to have people “think” they might know the answer. At the Beau the food comp was also a mystery. However, here the person talking to me laughed with me at that joke rather than getting annoyed with me asking so many questions.
LIVE POKER
HARD ROCK
For poker play no cards are required at the Hard Rock or the Beau or at the Isle of Capri. The Hard Rock awarded food vouchers at the rate of $5 every two hours. That seemed generous. However, games were a spread limit of 1-4 and 1-8 and the tables were not full. They had a small bad beat and I later found that the huge bad beat at the Isle had attracted all the local players. The Hard Rock poker floor told me they were thinking of going more to smaller, daily awards and getting away from the bad beat jackpots that got bigger and bigger but did not pay too many. I prefer those.
The rakes are nuts. They get 5 and 1. The floor said that they were talking about going to 4 and 2 when the new payouts are developed.
Oh, the Hard Rock here is not connected to the Hard Rock in Vegas. To earn nothing but empty points on low paying VP here, you have to be planning on coming back to Biloxi. Otherwise you just lose the nothing you have earned.
BEAU RIVAGE
This was a better attended venue. They had a 4-8 game and the tables seemed to include players who were not all poker faced and well practiced. Here the rake was 5 and 2. It is hard to win even when you win at those rates. They would give some food comps there if you managed to ask at the right shift changes. I hate those dysfunctional comps. I don't come to the casino to keep track of anything but my own game. I certainly don't need to keep track of the time of shift changes to get fed.
The NL here has no maximum. None. Minimum buy in is $100 but there “is not maximum on any of our games here.” Hmmmm. I wish I had thousands to risk on high limit games. I could play here and always be high chipped. What a contrast to the $100 maximum games in Florida. Since low funded players need not apply, I decided to play limit only here as I probably will most of my trip.
I was thinking of just not playing and heading out to the Jefferson Davis House this morning, but I decided to try one more casino. That was a good choice. The Isle of Capri (soon to become just the Isle) poker room was packed. Still I was greeted well and easily by a woman who did know what I was asking. The rake here was 4 and 2, but the bad beat was some ridiculously high number that would pay be thousands were I just at the table when it hit. This meant that the casino was full of fairly good but tight players. The 4-8 was a tough game, but few were really aggressive. I saw only one check raise the entire night of play. The blind structure here in all the games is 1-2 so it is possible to see some flops for just 2 and possible to push people out with a mid position raise because the raise makes it 6. I like this for playing high pairs and it did help me with some pots. I can't however build pots with button raises on draw hands and be certain I'll get enough callers to make the bet advantageous over time.
Still I stayed to play and left at eleven thirty. The game woke me up and I got some good cards. I played well. It was a predictable game for the most part. It was hard to raise on the river and get called as everyone seemed to believe me. I was not in many spots where I wanted to bluff, but that might have worked against some players. One fellow was in too many hands, but just seemed to have full houses glued to him.
These players were all from the South and it was fun to hear the interaction. I did not feel anyone ganging up on me as I had been warned on one board, but I think if that happens, it happens only in no limit games. I think they thought I was from Florida anyway.
I had a fine evening playing and wishing the bad beat would hit with the rest of the players. As that conversation became the perseverated topic of the night, I did feel some ennui, but I also fully enjoyed the good humor and easy nature of these fellows and their quiet jokes. However, I left down $42 as the game started to break up. I have my free breakfast comp and will play this morning for the cracked aces award as well. The Isle buffet is on sale and I expect I'll eat there. The Beau buffet was twice the price. I had read the food was very good there, but I am not trying to overeat so it matters very little if they have tons more choices. Crab legs were encluded in the special buffet prices at the Isle and the buffet is directly across from the poker room.
In fact, it may have been a mistake to take the breakfast buffet rather than a larger comp as the comps are good for three days. I just knew that I was coming to breakfast. Food comps have to be claimed the day of play, but they are food for three days.
Buffet comps were awarded with a card swipe instead of some other dysfunctional system so the change of floor did not affect the record of my play. I think they asked for five hours but gave comps out for less.
I am not much good at evaluating sleeping or poker rooms, but the Isle had two disadvantages. There were no automatic shufflers. The seats were too low and sometimes uncomfortable. Otherwise I was content there.
Overall I just liked the friendliness of this room. However, the heat got oppressive so I'll dress light today in case the air conditioning is on the fritz. The floor messed with it once, but that did not seem to do the trick.
I figure the one dollar lower rake as compared with the Beau meant my losses were 50% lower by the end of the evening. Still, these are tough rakes to beat and some of the other players commented on this. One casino in Bay ST Louis advertises $3 rakes and I will play there one day on my way to see Danny.
I did not feel up to an early morning walk along the beach this morning, but I guess I could find plenty of places to pull off and be right near the water. The old remains of piers are very quaint until I remember they were taken out by hurricane and not just aged over time.
MEMORABLE HANDS
I caught inside straights. That may mean I was too lose. One was after I played 2-7 in the small blind. I caught the A-5. I lost a fine straight to one a bit higher.
No flushes all night except for one I chased with the ace of hearts and caught for no more river money.
No full houses all night.
I won on pocket aces twice. My one experience of trips was with pocket queens and I could not do more than call as straights were all over. The guy betting out had 5-7 for two pair. I was relieved to get that pot.
The only steal was when I bet out on a flopped seven in early position when my pair of sevens was second on the board. My kicker was an ace so I was just over betting to see what might happen and I managed that small steal.
Generally, the game was predictable, fairly tight except for seeing the flop, and folks believed me.
I liked the game. If the bad beat holds I won't try other places today or tomorrow. I am going to play early today and get back for a nap and to ice down my humira once again. I was sorry to be falling behind in money, but my losses were equal to one pot and I played for four hours.
I liked these fellows and enjoyed watching one very pretty dealer as the young fellow next to her flirted with her. She was good humored and fun to watch. No women played here. I saw them at the Beau but here were just men of mixed ages, half old fellows like me.
I would have preferred a bit better position, to the left of the one loose better as he would have allowed me to make many head to head games with a reraise. There were few such plays. I think some of these guys were there to lose as little as possible while they waited for the bad beat. I like that sort of a game because there is less pushing with poor hands. Also, the lower blinds allows for many more flops as raising kills many good hands even when the raise is in late position. No free card tricks here. Still I best like to see flops and I would play some cards just because of all the callers and the lowered odds of raises after me. I had not thought about it, but this game structure means that late raises with aces or ace king are also good as push out rag raises. I'll have to try that this morning, especially with the aces cracked spinning wheel awards.
FINAL TALLY
minus 42 in poker
minus 20 in one two quarter slot to keep my points up to date at Harrah's so I save my $12 in comps. I'll use those up in Tunica. That will be most of my slot play for this trip.
I won't be good at keeping accurate tabs on food, but today I spent about $9 on food and coffee. I filled the tank for $1.87. I got over 20 MPG for the trip.
The terrain was fairly repetitive and uninteresting. Once I passed an area where I could see forests of pine for miles and miles and a few of the swamp water sights were interesting. Most of the trip was just super highway.
However, I encountered very little traffic. Leaving at 5 AM left me free of traffic in Orlando, although not free of the infernal toll roads. I did not want to try going without them, but I had not gone but a few blocks when the GPS sent me down the toll road for fifty cents and then back up part of the way for yet another fifty cents and both of those tolls collected where exact change was required. In Florida you have to have quarters in your car to go anywhere, and over the course of the first part of the journey I was always reaching for quarters or for more where there were attendants.
However, the rest of the journey went quickly. I did not stop for breakfast except to grab some coffee at a reststop. I munched on cheese and Sami's wraps from Tampa. That was a fine plan.
The Google predicted eight and a half hours of travel but the GPS was more accurate at nine and a half. I pushed the speed limit a bit and probably would have made the entire journey in GPS time, but it is hard to measure. Once I got near here I decided to eat and get my oil changed as I was early. They are an hour different in time here too.
I saw a sign for Barnhill's buffet and decided to try it with my coupon. The senior special matched my coupon price. For $7 I had some very good food. I really enjoyed the pulled pork on biscuit, and the sweet potato, fried catfish, and other tastes were good. The greens were the frozen variety and not very interesting. It was a good bargain and a good place to stop with the car packed as I could see the car from where I ate. There are two of these in this area. I am not certain how much of a chain this place it, but I wish we had one in Albany. It made for a fine midday meal after the long ride with just a bit of snacking. Key to my staying fresh for driving is to eat very little and drink coffee.
Policemen came in and I asked one about an oil change place. He sent me a mile away to a Fast Lube and they did a quick and easy job so I am good to go. I should have had that done in Tampa, but this was easy as I might not get into the hotel early and I was feeling pretty tired.
They did say something about a refrigerator but none arrived in my room. I'll keep my humira on ice today in the cooler. I am happy to have that small insulated ice pack also. My television does not work and I got in too late to ask about it. Other than that I am very comfortable. The room safe accomodates my laptop as well as other valuables. It does not read the four digit code the first time, and that was a bit disconcerting, but I may have the key to that which is pushing the door a bit in to line up with something. The bed is just wonderful and it is very quiet here and dark as well. I look out on what may someday be Margarittaville, but is now just a shell deserted of workmen. All construction is on hold due to the financial crisis.
It is fine to have the computer with me. I feel so fortunate. And it is so nice to have the room safe. I'd rather have that than television. I am very glad to have saved all my notes as word documents and not left them in the cloud. I have access without Internet. I could get Internet here for a price.
*************************************************************
I decided to use my time to check out some of the plays.
VP
I am not really the one to check on VP as the details easily slip out of my mind. I wrote some things down, but when I got to my car, I did not have the notes. Since I don't intend to play any VP this trip, surveying the paytables is a bit of a time waster. Beau Rivage and the Hardrock. I saw 7/5 JOB and 9/6 DB. I checked at both desks and there are no benefits. At the Hardrock you can earn points at the same rate as a slot player, except the VP points are not good for the freeplay offered eventually. I went round and round frustrating the counter girl trying to figure this one out. She kept telling me that yes I would earn the points, but could not tell me of what value they would be except to give me a higher status card. There is a food comp. This is a “percentage” but no one knows what equals even a breakfast buffet. It is a mystery and I was sorry to have stayed in line to ask any questions as there were not answers.
At the Beau the answer was the same sort of thing except the line was longer. There the girl “thought” the freeplay could be earned as VP as $5 earned a point for VP while $3 earned it for slots. Again the few machines I checked were ridiculous.
I actually thing that information on cashback ( which does not exist except as freeplay) might more easily be gathered by calling the promotions rooms than standing in line to have people “think” they might know the answer. At the Beau the food comp was also a mystery. However, here the person talking to me laughed with me at that joke rather than getting annoyed with me asking so many questions.
LIVE POKER
HARD ROCK
For poker play no cards are required at the Hard Rock or the Beau or at the Isle of Capri. The Hard Rock awarded food vouchers at the rate of $5 every two hours. That seemed generous. However, games were a spread limit of 1-4 and 1-8 and the tables were not full. They had a small bad beat and I later found that the huge bad beat at the Isle had attracted all the local players. The Hard Rock poker floor told me they were thinking of going more to smaller, daily awards and getting away from the bad beat jackpots that got bigger and bigger but did not pay too many. I prefer those.
The rakes are nuts. They get 5 and 1. The floor said that they were talking about going to 4 and 2 when the new payouts are developed.
Oh, the Hard Rock here is not connected to the Hard Rock in Vegas. To earn nothing but empty points on low paying VP here, you have to be planning on coming back to Biloxi. Otherwise you just lose the nothing you have earned.
BEAU RIVAGE
This was a better attended venue. They had a 4-8 game and the tables seemed to include players who were not all poker faced and well practiced. Here the rake was 5 and 2. It is hard to win even when you win at those rates. They would give some food comps there if you managed to ask at the right shift changes. I hate those dysfunctional comps. I don't come to the casino to keep track of anything but my own game. I certainly don't need to keep track of the time of shift changes to get fed.
The NL here has no maximum. None. Minimum buy in is $100 but there “is not maximum on any of our games here.” Hmmmm. I wish I had thousands to risk on high limit games. I could play here and always be high chipped. What a contrast to the $100 maximum games in Florida. Since low funded players need not apply, I decided to play limit only here as I probably will most of my trip.
I was thinking of just not playing and heading out to the Jefferson Davis House this morning, but I decided to try one more casino. That was a good choice. The Isle of Capri (soon to become just the Isle) poker room was packed. Still I was greeted well and easily by a woman who did know what I was asking. The rake here was 4 and 2, but the bad beat was some ridiculously high number that would pay be thousands were I just at the table when it hit. This meant that the casino was full of fairly good but tight players. The 4-8 was a tough game, but few were really aggressive. I saw only one check raise the entire night of play. The blind structure here in all the games is 1-2 so it is possible to see some flops for just 2 and possible to push people out with a mid position raise because the raise makes it 6. I like this for playing high pairs and it did help me with some pots. I can't however build pots with button raises on draw hands and be certain I'll get enough callers to make the bet advantageous over time.
Still I stayed to play and left at eleven thirty. The game woke me up and I got some good cards. I played well. It was a predictable game for the most part. It was hard to raise on the river and get called as everyone seemed to believe me. I was not in many spots where I wanted to bluff, but that might have worked against some players. One fellow was in too many hands, but just seemed to have full houses glued to him.
These players were all from the South and it was fun to hear the interaction. I did not feel anyone ganging up on me as I had been warned on one board, but I think if that happens, it happens only in no limit games. I think they thought I was from Florida anyway.
I had a fine evening playing and wishing the bad beat would hit with the rest of the players. As that conversation became the perseverated topic of the night, I did feel some ennui, but I also fully enjoyed the good humor and easy nature of these fellows and their quiet jokes. However, I left down $42 as the game started to break up. I have my free breakfast comp and will play this morning for the cracked aces award as well. The Isle buffet is on sale and I expect I'll eat there. The Beau buffet was twice the price. I had read the food was very good there, but I am not trying to overeat so it matters very little if they have tons more choices. Crab legs were encluded in the special buffet prices at the Isle and the buffet is directly across from the poker room.
In fact, it may have been a mistake to take the breakfast buffet rather than a larger comp as the comps are good for three days. I just knew that I was coming to breakfast. Food comps have to be claimed the day of play, but they are food for three days.
Buffet comps were awarded with a card swipe instead of some other dysfunctional system so the change of floor did not affect the record of my play. I think they asked for five hours but gave comps out for less.
I am not much good at evaluating sleeping or poker rooms, but the Isle had two disadvantages. There were no automatic shufflers. The seats were too low and sometimes uncomfortable. Otherwise I was content there.
Overall I just liked the friendliness of this room. However, the heat got oppressive so I'll dress light today in case the air conditioning is on the fritz. The floor messed with it once, but that did not seem to do the trick.
I figure the one dollar lower rake as compared with the Beau meant my losses were 50% lower by the end of the evening. Still, these are tough rakes to beat and some of the other players commented on this. One casino in Bay ST Louis advertises $3 rakes and I will play there one day on my way to see Danny.
I did not feel up to an early morning walk along the beach this morning, but I guess I could find plenty of places to pull off and be right near the water. The old remains of piers are very quaint until I remember they were taken out by hurricane and not just aged over time.
MEMORABLE HANDS
I caught inside straights. That may mean I was too lose. One was after I played 2-7 in the small blind. I caught the A-5. I lost a fine straight to one a bit higher.
No flushes all night except for one I chased with the ace of hearts and caught for no more river money.
No full houses all night.
I won on pocket aces twice. My one experience of trips was with pocket queens and I could not do more than call as straights were all over. The guy betting out had 5-7 for two pair. I was relieved to get that pot.
The only steal was when I bet out on a flopped seven in early position when my pair of sevens was second on the board. My kicker was an ace so I was just over betting to see what might happen and I managed that small steal.
Generally, the game was predictable, fairly tight except for seeing the flop, and folks believed me.
I liked the game. If the bad beat holds I won't try other places today or tomorrow. I am going to play early today and get back for a nap and to ice down my humira once again. I was sorry to be falling behind in money, but my losses were equal to one pot and I played for four hours.
I liked these fellows and enjoyed watching one very pretty dealer as the young fellow next to her flirted with her. She was good humored and fun to watch. No women played here. I saw them at the Beau but here were just men of mixed ages, half old fellows like me.
I would have preferred a bit better position, to the left of the one loose better as he would have allowed me to make many head to head games with a reraise. There were few such plays. I think some of these guys were there to lose as little as possible while they waited for the bad beat. I like that sort of a game because there is less pushing with poor hands. Also, the lower blinds allows for many more flops as raising kills many good hands even when the raise is in late position. No free card tricks here. Still I best like to see flops and I would play some cards just because of all the callers and the lowered odds of raises after me. I had not thought about it, but this game structure means that late raises with aces or ace king are also good as push out rag raises. I'll have to try that this morning, especially with the aces cracked spinning wheel awards.
FINAL TALLY
minus 42 in poker
minus 20 in one two quarter slot to keep my points up to date at Harrah's so I save my $12 in comps. I'll use those up in Tunica. That will be most of my slot play for this trip.
I won't be good at keeping accurate tabs on food, but today I spent about $9 on food and coffee. I filled the tank for $1.87. I got over 20 MPG for the trip.
BILOXI MARCH 3-4
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.
NEAR BILOXI - JEFFERSON DAVIS HOME
March 4
I went up to see Beauvoir, the home in which Jefferson Davis spent the last years of his life. Much of it had been destroyed by Katrina, right down to the dishes and other such pieces. Much had been lost.
Some of what was in the main building survived although the roof was torn off and rain ruined things. A portion of the documents survived because they were on the second floor of the library building and so were no damaged.
This affects how much of the rooms of the house are furnished anywhere like the original. Unlike the Carl Sandburg house where things were left just as if he went out for a stroll and even the places he had bookmarked for reference in his library were still bookmarked and the goat farm his wife ran still had goats descended from hers, most of the pieces in this museum were simply period pieces, interesting, but things that had nothing to do with the Davis family.
One ironic twist is the the hurricane revealed that the colors on the walls and ceilings had yellowed so much overtime with sun and wind and tobacco that little of what was originally painted existed in previous renovations. After Katrina they went back and painted it exactly as had the painter Mallard for the first owners, the James Brown family. So that was pretty exciting. I can see how that much have interested the artist mind of Nancy who said she enjoyed the tour.
The Browns sold and the house was sold again to come in to the hands of a woman who at first rented one of the small cottages to Jefferson Davis as a place to write his memoirs. These two cottages were originally built by James Brown, one to serve as a school house for his 13 children and the other to be used by itinerant Methodist ministers. One of these Davis used as a study library and later that attracted him and he bought the whole place as his retirement home.
After his death, his wife and daughter Winnie moved away to New York City. They had little money in those days. A classmate of Winnie's bought the place and kept it from falling into total disrepair, finally arranging for the Sons of the Confederacy to buy it for a veterans home for Confederate soldiers and their wives and then as a memorial to Jefferson Davis and the confederacy.
So it is today.
At first I thought that my people were totally on the other side, but I remembered that my grandmother's people included a Southern Belle who encountered a Yankee soldier during the war. She pelted him with apples from an apple tree where she had climbed and one thing led to another. They fell in love and decided to marry. Her father disowned her.
Winnie had a Yankee lover as well and was to marry, but the strain of it was to be so hard on her father that she called it off. Perhaps the fellow was Wendell Phillips. Neither of them ever married. So much is lost in taking sides.
In the cemetery behind the house are all the graves of those old confederate soldiers who ended their lives in this old folks home. Some were black. One featured in the video had been captured by the union and then fought on that side. To hear it told this old fellow claimed never to have fought for the Yankees except under duress.
One 76 year old woman married a 94 year old man in the home. He was her eighth husband.
“If God is going to continue to take them then so will I,” she announced.
It made it even sadder that Winnie had not married.
One of Davis' daughters dies at 34 of an intestinal disease picked up in Egypt. We saw the fine tapestry she brought back from that trip and enjoyed for three years after. So many seemed to sicken by going traveling abroad in those days that it is amazing they risked it. However, I don't suppose they really understood the risk. Most of illness was left to the decision of God in those days. It wasn't like people could do anything about it.
The video was great showing footage of the old confederacy reunion in 1930 when all the old boys got to wear their uniforms, march, ride their horses and carry the reb flag and just have a grand old time remembering the war and dancing with women in old Southern belle huge skirts.
How much we want always to hold on to the old days even after failure.
They quoted Davis as hoping that everyone would unite as one country. He was never allowed to be a citizen again and died a man without a country. For three years after the was he was in prison and for part of that was shackled.
But I guess in this grand house he had a fine old age except for feeling perhaps a failure.
I was interested to learn that the beach which is being rebuilt after Katrina was not built at all until the 1950's. Before that the trees went all the way to the water. I'll bet having a beach does not help protect from future hurricanes.
Old Jeff and me had a bit of lunch together before the house tour. I had Sami's wrap with cheese. I don't know what Jeff had. Maybe peabread.
James Brown built this house for his wife and thirteen children. One the small cottages was used as a school for the kids. The other was used by itinerant methodist ministers. Davis first got interested in the house because he rented one of these cottages to write his memoirs.
Pieces in side were interesting but this is not historical in the sense that the rooms looked like this when Jeff Davis owned and used the house. So much was destroyed by the hurricane that period pieces fill in where most originals may have been.
this was a ceiling detail. The hurricane actually helped them restore the walls and ceiling to the original. They studied the paint and did it just as it was when first painted. Time had changed the colors of the walls as they were viewed before the hurricane.
This lamp is an original of the Davis household
This rocker was built fro twins and has nothing to do with the Davis household. It was donated the they all thought it was very interesting.
This was Winnie's doll. It is original
I went up to see Beauvoir, the home in which Jefferson Davis spent the last years of his life. Much of it had been destroyed by Katrina, right down to the dishes and other such pieces. Much had been lost.
Some of what was in the main building survived although the roof was torn off and rain ruined things. A portion of the documents survived because they were on the second floor of the library building and so were no damaged.
This affects how much of the rooms of the house are furnished anywhere like the original. Unlike the Carl Sandburg house where things were left just as if he went out for a stroll and even the places he had bookmarked for reference in his library were still bookmarked and the goat farm his wife ran still had goats descended from hers, most of the pieces in this museum were simply period pieces, interesting, but things that had nothing to do with the Davis family.
One ironic twist is the the hurricane revealed that the colors on the walls and ceilings had yellowed so much overtime with sun and wind and tobacco that little of what was originally painted existed in previous renovations. After Katrina they went back and painted it exactly as had the painter Mallard for the first owners, the James Brown family. So that was pretty exciting. I can see how that much have interested the artist mind of Nancy who said she enjoyed the tour.
The Browns sold and the house was sold again to come in to the hands of a woman who at first rented one of the small cottages to Jefferson Davis as a place to write his memoirs. These two cottages were originally built by James Brown, one to serve as a school house for his 13 children and the other to be used by itinerant Methodist ministers. One of these Davis used as a study library and later that attracted him and he bought the whole place as his retirement home.
After his death, his wife and daughter Winnie moved away to New York City. They had little money in those days. A classmate of Winnie's bought the place and kept it from falling into total disrepair, finally arranging for the Sons of the Confederacy to buy it for a veterans home for Confederate soldiers and their wives and then as a memorial to Jefferson Davis and the confederacy.
So it is today.
At first I thought that my people were totally on the other side, but I remembered that my grandmother's people included a Southern Belle who encountered a Yankee soldier during the war. She pelted him with apples from an apple tree where she had climbed and one thing led to another. They fell in love and decided to marry. Her father disowned her.
Winnie had a Yankee lover as well and was to marry, but the strain of it was to be so hard on her father that she called it off. Perhaps the fellow was Wendell Phillips. Neither of them ever married. So much is lost in taking sides.
In the cemetery behind the house are all the graves of those old confederate soldiers who ended their lives in this old folks home. Some were black. One featured in the video had been captured by the union and then fought on that side. To hear it told this old fellow claimed never to have fought for the Yankees except under duress.
One 76 year old woman married a 94 year old man in the home. He was her eighth husband.
“If God is going to continue to take them then so will I,” she announced.
It made it even sadder that Winnie had not married.
One of Davis' daughters dies at 34 of an intestinal disease picked up in Egypt. We saw the fine tapestry she brought back from that trip and enjoyed for three years after. So many seemed to sicken by going traveling abroad in those days that it is amazing they risked it. However, I don't suppose they really understood the risk. Most of illness was left to the decision of God in those days. It wasn't like people could do anything about it.
The video was great showing footage of the old confederacy reunion in 1930 when all the old boys got to wear their uniforms, march, ride their horses and carry the reb flag and just have a grand old time remembering the war and dancing with women in old Southern belle huge skirts.
How much we want always to hold on to the old days even after failure.
They quoted Davis as hoping that everyone would unite as one country. He was never allowed to be a citizen again and died a man without a country. For three years after the was he was in prison and for part of that was shackled.
But I guess in this grand house he had a fine old age except for feeling perhaps a failure.
I was interested to learn that the beach which is being rebuilt after Katrina was not built at all until the 1950's. Before that the trees went all the way to the water. I'll bet having a beach does not help protect from future hurricanes.
Old Jeff and me had a bit of lunch together before the house tour. I had Sami's wrap with cheese. I don't know what Jeff had. Maybe peabread.
James Brown built this house for his wife and thirteen children. One the small cottages was used as a school for the kids. The other was used by itinerant methodist ministers. Davis first got interested in the house because he rented one of these cottages to write his memoirs.
Pieces in side were interesting but this is not historical in the sense that the rooms looked like this when Jeff Davis owned and used the house. So much was destroyed by the hurricane that period pieces fill in where most originals may have been.
this was a ceiling detail. The hurricane actually helped them restore the walls and ceiling to the original. They studied the paint and did it just as it was when first painted. Time had changed the colors of the walls as they were viewed before the hurricane.
This lamp is an original of the Davis household
This rocker was built fro twins and has nothing to do with the Davis household. It was donated the they all thought it was very interesting.
This was Winnie's doll. It is original
Behind the house is a cemetery of old verterans and their widows who spent their last days at the soldier's home.
Every war tried to grieve the unidentified. Here is a grave of the unknown soldier.
Also every war wants to glorify the soldiers and their cause. This is such an ironic glorification with racism built right in the first part and incredible refusal to feel any moral guilt in the second.
I want to add
"Let those of you without sin........"
just to put war in the right moral perspective which is at best a necessary evil.
I want to add
"Let those of you without sin........"
just to put war in the right moral perspective which is at best a necessary evil.
BILOXI - MARCH 5
March 5 thursday 3 Am
I am up so late because I overslept my nap.
Well I lost tonight pretty bad.
Boomtown had no game.
The Hard Rock had the same spread limit game, but no one treated it much like a spread limit and more like a four-eight. Also, they were wildly loose. So I lost. Jennifer, a funny cute dealer was the loosest and drove the pots up. She could have been beaten easily, but I had not cards. Once I folded an inside straight draw on the turn only to see the ten come on the river and that would have brought me even for the night.
Finally, I gave the bad beat another chance and ran into a table full of dealers. I did poorly here also and lost again.
So I am down sixty seven now for the trip.
It is very quiet here and that is part of the problem. There are no loose players on vacation. All these folks play often in one way or another and they are hard to beat especially against the high rake.
The Isle would not reduce the rake after two am, so I left and the game broke up.
At the Hard Rock I had a wild experience. The restrooms shared the sink area. So when I walked into the HIS section I needed to see a small sign on yet another door. Instead I turned into the sinks and started looking for urinals. Finding no urinals I exited to find that I had actually been on the women's side. This was very bizarre. It is so easy to get confused I will bet it happens to others also.
I am up so late because I overslept my nap.
Well I lost tonight pretty bad.
Boomtown had no game.
The Hard Rock had the same spread limit game, but no one treated it much like a spread limit and more like a four-eight. Also, they were wildly loose. So I lost. Jennifer, a funny cute dealer was the loosest and drove the pots up. She could have been beaten easily, but I had not cards. Once I folded an inside straight draw on the turn only to see the ten come on the river and that would have brought me even for the night.
Finally, I gave the bad beat another chance and ran into a table full of dealers. I did poorly here also and lost again.
So I am down sixty seven now for the trip.
It is very quiet here and that is part of the problem. There are no loose players on vacation. All these folks play often in one way or another and they are hard to beat especially against the high rake.
The Isle would not reduce the rake after two am, so I left and the game broke up.
At the Hard Rock I had a wild experience. The restrooms shared the sink area. So when I walked into the HIS section I needed to see a small sign on yet another door. Instead I turned into the sinks and started looking for urinals. Finding no urinals I exited to find that I had actually been on the women's side. This was very bizarre. It is so easy to get confused I will bet it happens to others also.
BILOXI TO SILVER SLIPPER
The shoreline still shows signes of hurricane devestation. Workman gradually replace sand. It is a great beach if you'd like to walk on a deserted beach.
Here is a remnant of an old pier.
This is boomtown. I liked this small casino. But like most of the casinos on this trip there were not enough players to sustain games.
I loved this casino setting. It is really out in the middle of nowhere but right on the gulf. The road suns directly along side the water and in some places there is no beach. You can literally fish from the road.
SILVER SLIPPER
My GPS took me on a winding route through little neighborhoods of houses beat up by the hurricane. The GPS routes are certainly ways I would never experience with a map and directions. In fact, with a map and directions I doubt I would have located this little casino.
As it was the GPS said I had reached my destination and all I could see was deserted waterfront and the remnants of an old waterslide.
So I called the Silverslipper.
"Well, you are right near us, can't you see us."
"Do you have a large balloon like bubble over the top of the casino?"
"No, not really. Look just take that road along the gulf to the end and you will get to us."
So I did. Turns out they do have such a bubble but it is not part of the casino but a storage tank set back from the casino.
This route along the water is like no other road to any casino I have visited. There were some beaches and then I could be driving inches from deep Gulf water. I could have fished right off the side of the road.
Facing the water would be a stretch of wiped out house and then some workman rebuilding and then some finished beauty of a house all new and shiny and then some older place that somehow had missed damage.
The casino itself was right on the water. They did not need any fake pools at this place and the water was much more accessible than at Biloxi. You could walk from the casino parking lot to the shore and feel like you were off on a deserted island.
I came because they offered a great sign up bonus and advertised $3 rake for live poker. $3 is the best in that neck of the woods and beats all the rakes from Lake Charles, LA and up the Mississippi River to Caruthersville, Missouri.
The first free deal was free brignets and coffee in a little cafe. They were just as good as anything I had in the French Quarter of New Orleans. So I munched a while, and then headed over to the little poker room.
Well, I was too early. Not enough players for a game. They did have some little promotions. I beleive they had aces cracked at certain times. But the good rake would go away soon.The poker room person told me they just did not make up in more people what they lost in revenue on a reduced rake. Too bad. You'd think that poker players would get the math of this, get it that it can mean up to $20 in their pocket every time they play. No, no, but they will all flock to the bingo bonus bad beat where instead of getting a buckor two back each winning hand as you do with a $3 rake, they hand over a buck for a lottery like bet. A dollar and a dream. Just the poker is not enough for folks, they gotta have the big win in their fantasy lives.
Well, the casino was delightful. There was no good VP under the dollar level, but the place was friendly and small and I entertained myself with the freeplay while I waited for the buffet to open.
A reduced price buffet was also part of the free signup bonus. I expected something small and average like those small buffets in Vegas, but this was delightful with finely prepared dishes including some of the better catfish I have eaten. That made the trip.
They don't yet have a hotel which is ironic because they have to be far from any other hotel as well. I could see myself wandering back here to play poker and fish and just be by the water. I suppose in good weather more folks gather on the beaches than the handful I saw, but even so it would be a delightful spot.
For my signup I got a fine black Silver Slipper T shirt. The poker boys here in the Albany NY won't have one like that.
And then I needed to head out to Lake Charles and meet up with Louisiana Mudgiff Aligator Dan, the Silver Striking man, for a lesson in the correct way to peel boiled crawfish. But that is another story.
As it was the GPS said I had reached my destination and all I could see was deserted waterfront and the remnants of an old waterslide.
So I called the Silverslipper.
"Well, you are right near us, can't you see us."
"Do you have a large balloon like bubble over the top of the casino?"
"No, not really. Look just take that road along the gulf to the end and you will get to us."
So I did. Turns out they do have such a bubble but it is not part of the casino but a storage tank set back from the casino.
This route along the water is like no other road to any casino I have visited. There were some beaches and then I could be driving inches from deep Gulf water. I could have fished right off the side of the road.
Facing the water would be a stretch of wiped out house and then some workman rebuilding and then some finished beauty of a house all new and shiny and then some older place that somehow had missed damage.
The casino itself was right on the water. They did not need any fake pools at this place and the water was much more accessible than at Biloxi. You could walk from the casino parking lot to the shore and feel like you were off on a deserted island.
I came because they offered a great sign up bonus and advertised $3 rake for live poker. $3 is the best in that neck of the woods and beats all the rakes from Lake Charles, LA and up the Mississippi River to Caruthersville, Missouri.
The first free deal was free brignets and coffee in a little cafe. They were just as good as anything I had in the French Quarter of New Orleans. So I munched a while, and then headed over to the little poker room.
Well, I was too early. Not enough players for a game. They did have some little promotions. I beleive they had aces cracked at certain times. But the good rake would go away soon.The poker room person told me they just did not make up in more people what they lost in revenue on a reduced rake. Too bad. You'd think that poker players would get the math of this, get it that it can mean up to $20 in their pocket every time they play. No, no, but they will all flock to the bingo bonus bad beat where instead of getting a buckor two back each winning hand as you do with a $3 rake, they hand over a buck for a lottery like bet. A dollar and a dream. Just the poker is not enough for folks, they gotta have the big win in their fantasy lives.
Well, the casino was delightful. There was no good VP under the dollar level, but the place was friendly and small and I entertained myself with the freeplay while I waited for the buffet to open.
A reduced price buffet was also part of the free signup bonus. I expected something small and average like those small buffets in Vegas, but this was delightful with finely prepared dishes including some of the better catfish I have eaten. That made the trip.
They don't yet have a hotel which is ironic because they have to be far from any other hotel as well. I could see myself wandering back here to play poker and fish and just be by the water. I suppose in good weather more folks gather on the beaches than the handful I saw, but even so it would be a delightful spot.
For my signup I got a fine black Silver Slipper T shirt. The poker boys here in the Albany NY won't have one like that.
And then I needed to head out to Lake Charles and meet up with Louisiana Mudgiff Aligator Dan, the Silver Striking man, for a lesson in the correct way to peel boiled crawfish. But that is another story.
LAKE CHARLES LOUISIANA WITH DAN
Finding some free wifi at the Hollywood Diner in Tunica, I decided to go back and post some of my saved and organized photos.
No cheesy rides when you visit Dan. I was chaufered all over Lake Charles and Westlake in this fine 1994 Fleetwood Caddie. A real Vegas type experience.
Dan took me to the Sam Houstan park and showed me a fine cypress swamp. The water was low and we could see how the trunks of the trees bulge below water level. This is a fine building wood but it was overcut.
Here is Dan
These geese were very loud and territorial. They were a good bit of fun, but I did not get too close.
Here is some wall detail at Steamboat Billy's where we went so Dan could teach me what real crawfish taste like and how they are eaten. This variety was called hot and spicy and it was really good. The spice was close to the Phillips spice, but I liked it whereas I don't like the Phillips that is used on crab and such up North.
Dna and the crawfish
Dan also took me to the Cajun Kitchen for a taste of the local Cajun food. This is a very relaxed and interesting place built in an old warehouse with the inner structure left for decoration.
No cheesy rides when you visit Dan. I was chaufered all over Lake Charles and Westlake in this fine 1994 Fleetwood Caddie. A real Vegas type experience.
Here is Dan
These geese were very loud and territorial. They were a good bit of fun, but I did not get too close.
Here is some wall detail at Steamboat Billy's where we went so Dan could teach me what real crawfish taste like and how they are eaten. This variety was called hot and spicy and it was really good. The spice was close to the Phillips spice, but I liked it whereas I don't like the Phillips that is used on crab and such up North.
Dna and the crawfish
Dan also took me to the Cajun Kitchen for a taste of the local Cajun food. This is a very relaxed and interesting place built in an old warehouse with the inner structure left for decoration.
From the L'Auberge parking garage we could see across to where Dan once worked to keep the roads clear and graveled. An oil tanker was just down the water.
MARDI GRAS CASINO WITH DAN
Dan took me to a museum of mardi gras costumes and although the full museum was closed for the day, much of the displays were available to us and we got to take some fun photos as well
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