More poker/personalities at the casino.......

I sat down to play some poker for 3 1/2 hours on Saturday night at the local casino. The place was quite full. There were a lot of very bad players at the table just begging people to take their money. The problem is that you can't take the bad players money without a good hand. You can't bluff these type of players in a limit game because they will call no matter what.

I really got no great pocket pairs the entire night (my best starting pocket pair all night was 99, which I got twice). I did manage to get a good starting hands like AK, AQ, AJ, etc. that really did well for me. My only tough hand was when I called a raise with AK and I flopped two pair. I ended up investing about $25 in that hand only to see my opponent flip over AA for three aces. The dealer even said 'ouch' when I flipped it over.

I had a couple of monster hands where players called and raised where they had no business doing so. I got in one hand where I had AJ and got AA4 on the flop. Another guy raised and reraised me throughout the hand. He finally flipped over A3 and I won a big pot. He really should have know that there was the possibility that I had a better kicker, but he was hemorrhaging money all night, so I shouldn't be surprised I suppose.

I also hit a monster pot when I had K5 of clubs in the big blind. 7 people were in the hand and I hit two clubs on the flop and a club on the river to rake in about $90 on that hand.

The players were a lot of fun. One guy was a regular I've seen before. His name is Leon and he owns a chain of grocery stores in the area. Really nice retired guy that will play just about any two cards. He loves to talk and joke around and his favorite hand is 32 suited. He won twice with that hand on Saturday while I was at the table.

I also sat with a guy from Nebraska. He was a nuclear power plant operator. I asked him if he had the same job as Homer Simpson where he sat at a large control panel with all the bells and whistles and ran the plant. He said he used to have that job but now has a different one. He was a very quiet guy, but very nice when you could get him talking. I steered clear of the pot when he was involved in a hand. He usually had a good hand when he was betting or raising.

I was involved in another hand where I called with QJ. There were three other players in the hand. The flop was 942. Everyone checked around. The turn was a queen. The guy next to me bet and I called. The others folded. The river was another queen, giving me three queens. The guy to my right bet and I raised. He looked at me funny, like he didn't believe me. I just kept looking back and threw in a smile. I told him to throw his hand away. He just smiled and kept looking at me. I told him I'd show him my hand if he folded. He threw away his hand and I showed him my queen. I asked him if he would have called if I didn't say that I would show my card. He said he would have called, so I lost $6 by showing him my card. I told him that it was no big deal and that I was there to make friends, not money. He chuckled and stuck out his hand, saying 'Hi, my name is Keon!'. I shook his hand and told him I was Lime. Instant friendship and good conversation for the last hour I was there. Honestly, that was probably a good friendship to have. He's a regular and very knowledgeable about the other players. He'll be a good ally if I happen to see him at the tables again.

A guy who is a crazy loose regular showed up right when I was about to leave. I wanted to hang around and see if I could make some money off him, but I was already up $150 and needed to get home as Mrs. Lime was off work in about an hour. Overall, a good win and a few good hours of entertainment.