retiring from the Red Rock poker room

Thats it. I'm officially over Red Rock. I have never played in a poker room that is full of so many "local professionals" that are just plain awful poker players. The kind of players that call half their stacks with a lower pocket pair than any card on the board and hitting their miracle card on the river and not even betting it. I'll explain the 2 hands that I had the priveledge of playing this morning as part of their 10am tourney. Today was the nail in the coffin. I will no longer play there as I just can't take the LACK OF POKER SKILL that is in the room. I would rather quit playing poker than ever play there again.

We start with $7500 in chips with 30 minute blinds. Today we had 40 players to start which is the max. The payouts would be over 2k for first. not bad for a 4-5hr tourney. The blinds start at 25-50. Now I know I should have known the day wasn't going to start good because we didn't even get dealt our first hand until over 4 mins had already ticked off the clock before our dealer finally distributed all of the chips and washed the decks. You know, the kinds of things you normally do as all 10 damn players are just sitting there waiting for the tourney to begin. Note to the tournament director, why not have the dealers in the box before 5 seconds that you start the tournament clock. Amateurs.

So, back to the 3 hands I was able to play. I was in late position and had pocket 2's. At this point the blinds are 50-100. Thats right, didn't play a single hand the first level. UTG raises it to $400 and there is one caller in front of me. I decide to call the raise and see if I get lucky. the BB calls as well. So we go 4 to the flop of A J Q. BB checks and UTG bets out 800. Folds to me and I quickly fold my deuces. The BB calls. A 6 on the turn and they both check. The 2h falls on the river. Damn. Why couldn't they have checked the flop. They both Check. WTF? doesn't anyone know how to play poker anymore? UTG shows A K and rakes the pot as BB shows A 10. Next hand I play is when I'm in the BB. Blinds are still the same 50-100. 4 people limp when I look and find Qc Jh. I check. I'll take a cheap look at the flop. I check in the dark which draws 2 WTF's from the table. Yes, I checked without seeing the flop first assholes! The flop comes Q 10 6 with 2 clubs. Everyone checks. The turn brings a Js. I check and it comes around to the guy in front of the button. He bets out $500. I raise it to $2000. That should be enough to get any draw seekers to fold. Everyone folds except for ol' donkey in seat 3 who initially raised. I figure maybe he is on a flush draw or maybe A Q. Either way I need a harmless card so I know my 2 pair holds up. The 9h falls on the river. I didn't like that card since K Q now beats me. I check and ol donkey in seat 3 checks. He tables pocket 9's for his rivered trips. I just shake my head and say how lucky he was. And of course he retorts with "i was open ended and had a pocket pair, what did you want me to do? I don't know, fold since you were about a 3 to 1 dog on the turn? to which he responds, I had a lot of outs. To which I respond, you are correct sir, enough outs to make you a 3 to 1 underdog and that was that. Nice catch. enjoy my chips.

3 hands later I basically dump the rest of my chips because I was just frustrated at this point with the lack of poker actually being played. I raise from late position to $400 with As Js. UTG calls the $400 and we go to the flop heads up. The flop comes 6 10 2. He checks and I bet out $800. He calls. The turn comes 7d which now brings 2 diamonds on the board. He checks and I mean to go all in but just dump the chips in front of me in the pot and forgot about the $25 chip on my cards. The bet was for $3250. You know, more than whats in the pot. He counts out and calls. doesn't put me all in, just calls. Whatever douche. The river is the 2d. he checks and I put in my last $25 as I'm ready to leave. he calls. He says he missed and I table my A J and he tables Jd 9d. I say nice slow roll. you hit your damn flush jackass. Oh, did I, I didn't realize I had 2 diamonds. You didn't??? The table at this point is all calling the guy a lucky donkey. I say to him, you called $3250 with nothing. To which he replies, "Nothing, I was open ended with a flush draw!" to which I respond, I thought you didn't know you had a flush draw? and you weren't open ended donk, you were drawing to a gutshot. You needed the 8. Even with the turn giving him a flush draw, I was still at 66% to win the hand.

How do these idiots always win? Why can't I just have my hands hold up? I'm not asking for much. I'm just asking for poker skill to actually win out for once. I wan't these idiots to call me. I really do, JUST QUIT PAYING THESE FOOLS OFF!!! It makes them think they are poker players.

From now on, I'll just stick to playing the Venetian in the future. I just can't handle the bad beats anymore. I'm done with Red Rock forever. Nothing against the hotel and casino, I just can't stand the players that play and I'm not that favorable of the dealers as half of them are just assholes or are just incompetent at their jobs. Losen up. You look at your phone and you get the third reich called on you as if you were using it to communicate with the auto shuffler so you know what cards are coming next. If me looking at my phone slows down play, fine, say something, but when I'm not even in the hand, what is me checking my email doing to you? FUCK OFF!!!

sorry this is so negative. Just having a shitty 2 weeks and today didn't help. Getting layed off from the job that you worked at for 7 years will do that to you. The job that I was moving over to ended up just becoming a part time gig for about 2 weeks and that was it as the client I was going to work for ended up falling through. So I'm back to the drawing board. Being 31 and out of work is no fun. Working like I did for the past 7 years to have it flushed down the drain like it did was a drop kick to the abdomen.

I figure everything happens for a reason and that things will work out. So far in my 31 years on this Earth they usually have. Lets just hope that things do.

the daily 10am at Red Rock

I decide to go and play the 10am daily tourney at the Red Rock today. Hadn't played a tourney since the Venetian DeepStack. We started with 30 people. A little smaller than I had expected for the weekend. It pays out about 4 people depending on if there were any rebuys. I forget what we start with but I believe it was around 6k or something. The blinds are 30 minutes long so it makes for a relatively quick tourney and first place is usually over 1k. If you can get past all the chop propositions that start when it gets down to 6 people.

Play starts and I limp around for the first 15 minutes or so with nothing big to talk about. The play is pretty standard. normal 3x the BB raises, being the Red Rock the 10am is usually a bunch of locals so it makes for good tourney play. The blinds are 25-50 at this point and I'm in the BB. The guy who plays every pot limps as do 4 other people. I look down and find AKos. I raise it to $300. The guy who plays every pot calls and then the next guy re-raises to $1200. The other limpers fold and I decide that I don't want to flat the call, which is what I should have probably done, but with the other guy behind, if I flat it I know he is calling so I push all in. I have them both covered by about $1200 so I could still play if I don't catch. The guy folds and the raiser insta calls. I figured he probably had 10's or something like that so I was willing to race. He turns over QQ. surprised he just limped for the 50 pre-flop as there hadn't been much raising going on. The board runs out and I don't catch an A or a K and I get crippled.

I use the small stack to my advantage and take down several pots with all in pushes and chip up to over 3k. Here is where I get lucky and end up having 2 people tell me how bad I play. I'm in the SB and a guy in early position raises to $300. the blinds are 50-100 at this point. 3 players call and I look down at 6h7h. I like playing suited connectors and I like the 4-1 odds I'm getting. If I hit the flop I'm golden if I don't I can get away. The flop comes down 9 10 2 with 2 hearts. I check and the original raiser bets out $500. One person calls and I just flat the $500. Figure I'm probably the only one on a heart draw at this point and if I hit an 8 I might be good. The turn is an 8c. I check it here and the original better bets out 1k. the other guy calls and I move in for an additional 1200. Both guys call. The Q hits the river and at this point, I believe I'm dead. A jack has me beat here. The original raiser moves all in which makes me think that is what he had and the other guy folds. He turns over Q 10 and I turn over my bottom end of the straight and rake in my pot. At which point both guys in the pot start in saying how I should have never been in the pot etc... I just stack my chips and don't say anything. I know I didn't play it wrong and if I did, so be it. No use in getting into an argument here.

Play continues and moves relatively slow. We are down to a little under 20 people. We are now at 200/400 blinds and I'm UTG and here is where I get lucky. I meant to raise it to 1200 but accidentally grabbed two orange chips and dropped 2200. The guy next to me moves all in for a little over 4k. One other guy moves all in for less than the 4k. I start smiling and say I guess I got caught but I can't fold for 2k more. I had 7s 5s. I call and I know I'm dominated. The first guy shows pocket 10s and the other guy has A Q. The flop comes 4 6 8 rainbow. I just sink into my chair and I dodge any type of runner runner catastrophe and my straight holds up. I take down the pot and everybody just kind of sits there stunned that I won. One guy says how could you call the all in? Instead of being silent I tell him that it was 2k to call into a 10k pot and I already had 2200 invested. I had enough left that calling the 2k wasn't going to cripple my stack. I said that had I bet the 1200 I had intended to bet, I might have folded. But I was priced in and got lucky. I didn't slap my hands or yell or any of that crap that most idiots do when they suck out. I've learned that when I get lucky like on this hand I don't react or jump up. I just stack my chips and be quiet. No use in twisting the dagger that was just thrust into someone. I just wish that more people would do this.

After that hand I got moved to the other table where the chip leader resides. he has probably about 60% of chips in play at the moment. We are now down to 14 players and I limp a couple of pots and mostly fold. Right as we are breaking down to 1 table, I get involved in the last pot for the table. I think the blinds are still 400/800 with a 50 ante. I make it $1700 with 2c2s. the guy next to me shoves all in for 6k total. Everyone else folds and I decide that the guy had something like A Q or A J and was trying to buy it. I call. I know its about a 50/50 flip but I was willing to race at this point. He turns over A Q and in the window is an A as the flop comes A 10 4 all clubs. Neither of us have a club so I'm looking for a 2. The turn is the 7c. Now I need a 2 to win or a club to chop. The guy is starting to stack his chips back as the dealer throws down a 2 and immediately apologizes to the guy. I don't understand that. Aren't there 2 people in the hand here? I didn't see you apologize to me when you dealt an Ace on the flop. I was the favorite pre-flop. HE got lucky on me. Yes I sucked out here, but I was the favorite and ahead when all the money was in the middle. So the best hand won after all. plain and simple. I racked my chips and moved to the final table. Now I've played this tourney 3 times now and have made the final table all 3 times. the 2 previous times I managed to cash 4th for a min cash and get my buy in back both times. With the previous knock out we are down to 8 people.

I limp a couple of times and don't hit or get re-raised and have to fold. I end up being around 12k when the fatal hand was dealt. I'm in the SB and 2 people limp. we are still at 400/800. I just call as I have 7 7 os. The BB pushes all in. Everyone folds and I know I'm ahead again but do I want to race again. considering I've lost 4 races and sucked out the river on the other. I count out my chips and find that I'll have a little over 5k if I lose. I call. I turn over 7 7 and he turns over A Q. The dreaded A Q. And of course an A in the window with 3 spades. I'm drawing dead to a 7 as he has the Q of spades. I stack my chips and give them to him before the river as I know a 7 isn't coming and of course it doesn't. Sucks. hate making the right calls and my hands not holding up. But its poker.

I end up down to my last 3k when i'm in the BB and there is one raise and one caller. I look down at 7 10 of spades and figure now is as good as ever. I move all in and the original raiser moves all in and the other guy snap calls. the raiser shows 7 7 and the snap caller showed A Q. I don't understand that. you have 2 all ins and you snap call with A J or A Q. The fact that some people are willing to risk their tourney life on non made hands is just laughable. They see that and can't fold it. The flop comes A 4 9. The turn is Q which brings 2 spades so I'm drawing dead to a spade. Can it fall and I get real lucky here? Survey says........NO!! So the A Q wins again and I'm shown the door. I should have finished higher in this tourney but the poker gods decided to humble me I guess.

Live to play another day I guess. Back to the grindstone and looking forward to next weekend as its mine and the wife's 4 year anniversary. We are goind down to the Flamingo for the weekend. Should be fun. Looking forward to relaxing at the pool and sleeping in a hotel room. for some reason I always sleep better when we stay in hotels.

Until next time....