The Dreaded Reno Update

Well, clearly I didn't win in Reno, or I would have busted my butt trying to get something written here. So, it's been over a week since I've written...and I've just finished reading April's blog---and well, sounds like they had much more fun than I did. I should have stayed home.

Well, actually, besides the tournament--the trip was good.

The Reno Hilton is actually quite nice. I got my Hilton Honors upgrade--so the room was quite large. The tournament had a rate of $44 per night, and I was sharing with another woman from Austin--you can't do much better than that, unless one is fully comped!

I am a nickel slot player. I looooooooooooooove those silly video slots with the silly elusive bonuses. But it seems like penny slots have taken over the casino. No problem. I have allotted $200 for my slot playing....once it's gone...it's gone! And well, after about 4 hours of bebopping around, I was down to about $40. So I took myself back to the Star Wars penny slot machine and began hitting the "bet" buttons at random (9 lines--20 bet is max). And I start winning! Woohooo! Then I got the elusive bonus---all the way through---and won $100! I am very happy, and end up cashing out at $200.

I go looking for my friends, and find another favorite machine, "Tailgate Party." It seems like whereever I find this machine---I win! This was no exception....and I got my money up to $400.

I cashed out, and played at a new game, "Bingo," (I am a sucker for anything BINGO) and proceeded to lose the money down to about $120. So I started playing the variable bets...and I started winning....My biggest win was 15000 pennies. Cooooooool! A strange man comes and sits next to me and begins telling me his life story....and I feel a little uncomfortable with so much money in the machine, and on my person. So when it was at $275, I cash out and go to my room. And I keep looking over my shoulders to make sure he doesn't follow me.

I had no idea that it was 3:30am....I had planned to be in bed by 11pm. Afterall, there is a two hour time difference. And more importantly, I wanted to be fully rested for the tournament.
Thank goodness it wasn't starting until 2pm.

So we go register at 12pm, and I am assigned table 7, seat 1. I think to myself that that is a great sign........I go to the steam room for some relaxation and meditation time.

I'm too nervous to eat.....so I skip lunch...and get to my table about 5 minutes early. We are only starting with $1000 in chips, and the blinds are going to be 25/25 for the first half hour.

We get started....very first hand, I have JJ. I'm happy that I am in the blind, and I have JJ. The woman in seat 6 raises to $300, pre-flop. "FUUUUUUUUUUU....K!" I yell. Inside my head of course. One woman has already called her, and since it is the first hand, I'm thinking AA or KK. I fold. After the flop, there was an Ace on the board, she raises another $300....and the other woman folds. No problem....I only lost $25. And again, I figured she must have had the highest possible pairs, since in the first hand, she was willing to put 60% of her money in the pot.

I fold the second hand. The same woman raises to $200. There are 3 callers this time. Doesn't go to the river. She wins by betting everyone out again. I am wondering if the other tables are going like this.

Third hand, I get pocket 7's. Cool....I have my fingers crossed (figuratively, of course) that people are going to play reasonably. When it gets to me, it is still $75, so I call. Big blind raises to $400 (pre-flop). I fold...and I am pissed. I am ready to ask the women at the table if we are playing poker or buy the pot. She gets one caller. After the flop, they both check. On the turn, the raiser bets $500. The other woman folds.

Three hands, and we haven't seen what anyone was playing. We actually went through 9 hands without seeing anyone's cards. The first cards we got to see were because a woman went all in and another woman called her. The all-in had KJ, and the caller had AK---and neither one of them had anything by the river. Me---I would have had a full house...and an extra $2000+ in chips.

Several more hands go by, and I get pocket 7's again. I raise to $150. I get one caller---who actually raises me another $100. The caller is the woman who had the AK above. So since I am down to only $325 left....I decide to go all in. I am frustrated and pissed off at all of the bullies at the table. Remember the blinds are $25/$25.

My 7's held up until the river---when the lady got a Jack. So I had the honor of being the 2nd woman off of our table. At least I wasn't the first one out of the tournament!

Shit! I think it took longer for me to recount the experience than it did for me to get knocked out! I was out of the tournament in less than 14 minutes. I went and told two of the other women from Austin, and told myself that I needed to go to the room and watch a movie---rather than lose any more money.

But......being the adrenaline, slot addicted person that I am....I took myself to the slot area and thanks to Craig's List Guy, I felt like maybe I had some inside help on how to play the video poker machines. They have never made sense to me...yet it seems like everyone I know wins THOUSANDS on them. I decide I better play pennies until I get the hang of it. And I do pretty well.....I only put $5.00 in the machine, and I get it up to $25. I then see another one with more bells and whistles....it's kind of like tic-tac-toe....20 possible lines to win. So I take my $25 over to that machine. And it is more fun!!!!!!!!!! I get a 4 of a kind on the center line....which means that I have 3 lines of four of a kind----3000 pennies! Wooooohoooo! I also get a Royal Flush--but because I am playing pennies....and I didn't have the max bet...alas, I did not win thousands. That win gets me to $125, and I donate $50 back to the casino. At that point, I am starting to get bored....and I feel the BINGO machine calling me. No one has been playing it...and I feel it trying to tell me to come play.

I take my $75 (made from $5, remember) and put my ticket in the BINGO machine....again with the skillful random betting, I start hitting big and small....my largest jackpot was 22000 pennies. The highest I had the machine up to was $400, and I cashed out at $339. So.....thanks to the penny machines....I got my buy-in back for the tournament....and I was completely even with my money.

I go to the players' club booth and find out I have $51 in comps available also. I take $30 and go have sushi ($19.99 eat all you can eat!!!!!!! and it was AWESOME!!!!!!!), and then go to the room and watch a movie.

What I learned from this poker tournament is that from now on, before I decide to go play somewhere, I am going to find out how much I get in starting chips. And....unless I've got pocket Aces, I am not going to play any hands until I get a feel for the players at the table.

My friends said that they didn't have bullies like that at their tables....I must have had them all. And the farthest that anyone got was 19, and the money started at 18. Darn.

So that is the Reno update in all its glory. The Hilton doesn't even have a poker room....it was right in the middle of the casino, roped off section and smoke all around. Yuck!

BTW, this tournament was part of the World Poker Open.