Turning Stone - March Madness

I'll be heading to Turning Stone to play in the 1st 2 events of their March Madness poker event.

Tuesday March 1st 11am, $185, 15K stack, 30 min blinds
Wednesday March 2nd 11am, $240, 15K stack, 30 min blinds

I'll be arriving Monday evening and try to play some $1/$2 cash game and will play cash game after tournament on Tuesday.

Send me a PM if you might be there too and want to meet up.

I'll be the bearded guy with the CardsChat hat & shirt

TID! Hope you have a great time.


(23 days 'til I leave for Vegas March Madness)

GL Jilly.
I know the cash games are soft at TS as even I was able to book wins there!

Jilly, I haven't been there in a while, are they serving liquor yet and if yes is it free? I hate sober poker rooms, super serious miserable men

Checked in last night and played some $1/$2 for a small win. Registered in the $185 tournament which begins shortly. Updates after the tournament ends. Ship me some Run Good folks!! Oh and drinks are still not free

Good luck, looking forward to the updates.

No run gooD for me. 136 players, busted around 60th. Csard dead and no action when I did play. Was AI 7 times in the last hour, with hands like Q7s, T9o w/o a call. Finally I shove ATs and a big stack calls with KQo and flops KK6r. Gonna relax a bit and then hit the $1/$2 tables again.

Booked a $250 win at the cash tables but it took 7 hours, had to grind back from being $270 down. Thankfully my big hands started holding up and the table got some very loose players willing to spew their stacks. Now for some sleep and then the $240 tournament tomorrow.

GL Jilly...... lots of rungooottt... sending your way.

Best of cards, skill and luck today, Jilly!!! You can do it...you've got what it takes.

Color up break in the $240, 76 players started 37 left, I have 38K and average is 30K

Dinner break, 18 left, avg is 63K, I have 87K which is probably about 4th place right now.

Eat your Wheaties and kick some Donkey. Sending much luck up the Pike.

Just got home and only have time to write this up. More to come tomorrow.

Setup - Tournament started at 11am, 30 min blind levels, 15K starting stack
Villain is a 20ish from Albany playing with a number of his buddies from the Albany Poker League. He cashed the night before in the $185 tournament. My read is that he's laggy and dangerous because his opening range is pretty wide, all pairs, suited As, connectors and broadway and he is not afraid to bet on dangerous boards or make thin calls. But he also will call big bets on the river as he seems to think people are bluffing him a lot.

About 3pm I had doubled up thru him with AxKh on a 4 heart board versus his QxQh. I had flatted his open (over 2 limpers) on the BTN, we checked the 3 heart flop, turn gave me a gutshot to the wheel and I had called his 1/2 pot bet, figuring any heart, any A, any K and the gutty would get me there. If he had had the Ah he would have bet the flop. River was a heart and my shove over his 1/2 pot bet was just 1K more than the size of the pot and he had called. He had built back up and had laid down opens twice to my 3-bets then was crippled again when he had called an AI as his 2P were beat by a straight. He had then built back up again by flopping 2P when AI with K4 and going runner runner straight with T7s on the way to about T$95K.

6:30pm
I had T$77K to start the hand as I had been card dead and not able to keep up with the blinds. We are down to 15 players left, 10 cash, our table has 8 players. Blinds are 1200/2400/400. Villain opens for 6700 from the HJ and it folds to me in the BB and I 3-bet to 22000 with AQo. Villain calls, flop comes AK7r with the 7d. So pot is 48400 and I have T$55000 left. I think a bit and decide that while AK, A7, 77 are in his range that AA/KK are out as he would have shoved over me preflop. Since his range here preflop was so large and he had the habit of making bad calls in spots I shove for value. Villain hems and haws a bit and we do a little stare down, he says "This will be a sick call if I make it.", he thinks a bit more and finally says "I think yur full of shit, I call." and flips over Kd6d.

Turn is a blank but the river is the 6c and I'm out in 15th. FML

ugh, bad way to go out. Hope you had fun though.

U headed to vegas again this year? didn't see much of you last time.

No I won't get to Vegas this year.

OK some random notes and etc. From Turning Stone (TS)

You have to pay $2/day to play in the poker room, cards good till 6am. Course there are plenty of discarded cards laying around that you don't really have to pay

You can't clock in on your rewards card when playing in the tournaments

Usual collection of games, Stud, $2/$4 & $3/$6 LHE, $1/$2 & $2/$5 NL

Rake on $1/$2 NL was $5 max, $4 for rake, $1 for jackpot. Bad beat jackpot is quads over quads in a >$12 pot with both players needing to play both hole cards. $100 royal bonus, must use both hole cards.

Tournament played in the poker room, looks like it would take 250+ players to be moved out into a separate room.

Alcoholic drinks had to be purchased, water, soda, coffee, etc. was free.

No free snacks available (Some rooms have your typical bar mix snacks available)

Poker room is non-smoking (thankgoodness) unlike other parts of TS

Poker room is smack dab in the middle of the casino.

Poker Room rate was $80+taxes/night and clerk just clocked it in and I didn't have to get a slip from the Poker Room supervisor. King bed w/ lots of pillows in a clean room with flat screen TV, table+2 chairs, leather chair, tiled bathroom (man was that floor cold ), coffee maker, room safe. Also free valet parking comes with the room.

Sit down restaurants looked expensive, steak house had $46 for a porterhouse, course I'd expect comps would dent that bill. Other quick food areas were more reasonable, never paid more than $11 for any meal. I had chicken salad sandwiches, pulled pork sandwich and pizza among my meals and there were additional choices. Think of your local mall food court and that was the dining area right outside the poker room.

Staff was always pleasant, course there was the odd cranky waitress in the poker room (doesn't every poker room have at least one cranky, bitter waitress )

Dealers were unexceptional either way which is always great. No over talkative ones catching up on gossip with the regulars and no bumblers messing up the deal every other orbit. Chops done quickly and the games kept moving.

Tournament payouts were with chips that you had to take to the cashier. (Probably standard practice but I've not played tournaments in other rooms.)

Bizarre event while I was playing in Wed tournament.

On the $2/$5 table, 2 guys with ~$700 each were involved in a hand that goes to the river. Guy #1 goes AI, Guy #2 calls and wins the hand. Guy #1 stands up, starts stuffing his $5 chips into his coat pockets and says 'This is bullshit, I'm not f-ing paying you anything!!' Guy #2 stands up and starts yelling 'FLOOR, FLOOR !!!', Security goons magically appear in 5 seconds and take both guys away. Neither of them return to the poker room.

The goons should have busted his knee caps right there and then take him to the back room.

That's why the dealer is supposed to make sure the pot is right before he turns the next (or last) card. Can't reach into the middle and stuff them into your pockets so easy!

It was a boom-boom type hand, AI - snap call. After the river was dealt, I never saw any dealer drag in the bets on any heads-up AI before asking for the hands to be shown the whole time I was there. Plus these 2 guys were on the end in the 2 & 4 seats so the pot would have been in front of them anyway. Don't see the dealer having much 'blame' here.

Poker rooms are always great places to people watch. I'd bet every room has guys like this.

Happy Bob (HB)

HB is a late 40's short dumpy guy that probably owns/runs some kind of small business, say parts supply, office supply, furniture rental, etc. Not quite blue collar but not executive either, he can mix with either crowd though. Today he's wearing a golf shirt and slacks but he's a lotta rumpled and it appears he never combed his hair after getting out of bed and has day old stubble.

HB comes to the poker room with his buddies and they are joking about a last-longer bet for the tournament. HB suggests that the 1st out should buy everyone dinner and then he laughs that it'll be him and all his buddies laugh along too. You just know that you want HB on your table and the poker gods are kind and sit him in the 1 seat with you in the 9.

HB is a non-stop talker, playing almost every hand, asking everyone what they had after a hand, bemoaning the fact that he didn't play his 74o from UTG when the board flops 774 on the one time he did fold preflop. HB's hitting a few nice river cards to rescue a few hands but also paying off some obvious value bets saying he just wanted to see what you have as he knew he was beat. HB gets a nice run and chips up to an above average stack. All this is in the 1st hour and a half. Then the big hand happens, UTG+2 opens for a minraise, HB 3-bets from the BTN, UTG+2 minraises again and HB happily over shoves his 50K stack into a ~6K pot. You can hear the sonic boom as UTG+2 snap calls his 45K showing AA and HB has KQs. HB laughs and says 'Oops'. An orbit later someone else takes HB out and HB laughs over to his buddies saying 'Yep, I'm buying dinner.'

Later that afternoon/early evening, guess who strolls back into the poker room, yep HB, only now he's Even Happier Bob as he's spent the afternoon getting loaded. The poker gods smile on you once again, HB sits at your $200NL table, buys in for $100 and drops that within 2 orbits of which we get just a small piece. HB rebuys for $60, wins a hand and then another. HB starts chattering away about how he's never won 3 hands in a row but says what the hell I'll blind call from UTG and wins this 3rd hand. Now HB can't be stopped, he's bouncing in his chair and going a mile a minute (kinda like Donkey in Shrek). HB proceeds to win 6 more hands and
chips up to about $425, yep 9 hands in a row, he's completely bonkers now. HB is now on the BTN and announces that if anyone raises him he's likely to just shove since he can't be beat. Yep you guessed it, someone does raise and HB happily shoves and again is snap called by AA and loses his entire stack (unfortunately it wasn't to us). HB laughs, stands up, says 'Guess I need to have a few more drinks.' and that's the last we see of HB for the night.


Tomorrow, the story of Steaming Stan.

Jilly, I totally understand and even agree in many instances of not pulling the bets in. But this type of incident is why the bets are supposed to be pulled in. Normally I tend to leave the bets in front of the players. Quite a few times the pot is split and they simply take their bets back. Leaving the chips in front of the players helps to keep the game moving. But if also allows this type of incident to occur. Had the dealer pulled in the bets, the idiot that stated he wasn't paying probably wouldn't have even attempted it, just steamd about the bullshit hand as he put it. Would have kept him out of trouble.

Total trip cost = ~$505

Hotel+food $250
Poker room fees, drinks, tips $20
Tournaments $425
Travel $65

Cash game winnings $255

Absolutely loved the story about Happy Bob and looking foward with bated breath to hear about Steaming Stan! And you're right Jilly, I felt like I've played with HB more than several times.