Long Overdue Trip Report Post

I've had a very busy weekend, so I haven't had a chance to get to this yet, but I believe the Grand Victoria jinx has finally been lifted.

After going deep in the FullTilt 17k on Thursday night, I talked to FCPer mb5322 who had railed me for a bit, and he mentioned that he's from Dayton, OH and he and a friend were going to Grand Victoria Friday night. I'd been considering taking a casino trip anyway, so I agreed to join them. I got there around 10 pm and got into a very good 10/20 game very quickly. This was the biggest game I'd ever played in, but mb5322 assured me that it was a very beatable game and I decided to take a shot. My very first hand I posted in the CO and was dealt AhKh. It was raised in front of me and I 3-bet and something like 5 players saw a flop of JTx with 2 hearts. I bet my strong draw on both the flop and the turn and hit my heart on the river and picked up another big bet from 2 players. I netted about $250 in that first pot. Then, when it got around to my big blind I picked up Jd5d in an unraised pot and managed to pick up a flop of 234 with 2 diamonds, that draw came in as well eventually giving me a flush and I was up over $400 on the night. The game was wild with a lot of pre-flop raising and I wasn't able to play many hands, but I still made it up over $1000 (doubling my buy-in), before I lost some of it back when I flopped top pair with KQ, but lost to K7 who hit 2 pair. I also lost with JJ and QQ, but still ended up +$275 when the game finally broke after I'd been playing for around 3 hours. I have to admit, I'd love to play in that 10/20 game more often.

After that, I moved down to 5/10, but it just wasn't the same. With the stakes lower and the game a bit less wild, I started to get bored and not play right. At one point I decied to defend my BB in the dark and I played the hand to the turn without looking at my cards. I then looked down to find that my 63 had made 2 pair on the turn, with a K and an A also on board. I then proceeded to re-raise and bet the river with my two pair, and one of the biggest donkeys at the table almost laid down K6 to me. He finally called and pwned my two pair with his better two pair, but he really had to think about it. After that I won a little back with QQ, but I was still stuck about $100 at the 5/10 game and just said fuck it and went to try my hand at some table games with mb5322. He introduced me to a new and addictive game. I'd never played 3-card poker, but I have a feeling that I have a new leak. I bought in for $80 and was up and down in small increments for a little bit, before getting down almost to the felt. Then, I hit a small rush hitting a couple of flushes and I think maybe a straight. But, none of them paid as well as when I caught trip 6's for a 30-1 payout on my $10 bet. The best part about it was that since correct strategy says that you stay with QTx or better, I'd basically starting looking at only 1 card at a time to keep suspense up, if I had an Ace or King I'd stay automatically and wait to find out my other 2 until the dealer flipped them up, but if I had anything else I'd look at 1 more to see if my hand could qualify on only 2 cards. So, I'd looked at only 2 and knew I had a pair of 6's, but didn't know what the 3rd card was. Imagine my excitement when the dealer turned over my hand and showed my trips, I couldn't believe it. At that point I'd reached a high of having around $500 on the table, but I gave some back before finally quitting with $400 on the table or up $320 from 3-card poker. I know the game is -EV, but it sure was fun.

All in all, I had a great time and ended the night up about $450. And I proved to myself that I'm capable of playing higher than the low stakes I currently frequent.