the one about the casino

jeco, jim and i went to casino filipino last night to play some poker. it was my first time to go to a casino and to play a real big stakes money game. not the usual small buy-ins. this one's real big.

it was a 20/40 no limit table, no antes, with a 1000-5000 peso limit buy-in. jeco and i had a 3000 peso buy-in, while jim had 4000. man. just the thought of that, playing with that much of your own money would choke you. and admittedly, it scared the heck out of me at first.

we waited a little for the other people to sit-in and to play with us. not that i want to make them look sleazy or anything because theyre really not and they actually nice people, but the people playing there are real stereotype gamblers. old chinese geezers, old foreingers that look like dirty old men, mistresses, GI's, and drivers of rich dignitaries. we waited till the table was about 6-7 people sitting in, enough to make a short-handed game and we started.

jeco and jim advised me to play tightly when you go against these kind of people in these kind of situations. money was nothing to them. in some hands, they'd easily bet about 1-3k of their stack. yaiks.

so following their advice, i played ultra tight, playing mostly with premium hands, mixing up with a few marginal hands so that they would think that im a passive tight type of player.

i had my first real hand early on, cowboys to be exact and raised 300. everybody else folded except for one guy who called. in the turn, he pushed me with huge bet that'll take a huge chunk of my stack if i called and losed and i folded because i was worrying about him making a full house as there was a pair in the board. first bad move of the night.

there were also a number of bad moves that i made that made me lose all my stack and had to re-buy another 2000 to get back in the game. at one time jeco and i (stupidly enough) went heads up. i dunno if it was stupidity or a show of sexual tension or sumthin but we went heads up, instead of checking the board all of the way till the river. anywho my pocket snowmen got beaten by a sneakier full that made itself in the river. after that i was short stacked.

made my final stand late in the evening and i decided to go all in with a big hand. at small blinds i caught another pair of cowboys and decided to go all in. two other people called. at the flop, an ace came and the other guy made a huge bet that forced the third player to fold so it was heads up between us. turns out that my guess was right, no way would he call my all in if he had an ace. i was dreading that. got badly beaten by an AK. at least it bought me some time to reassess myself (i choked terribly) and get a snack at the carrels.

after my much need break i got back into the game and rebuyed with a 2000 stack to stay in the game. 2000 isnt much, you'll easilly get pushed around. a good stack to play with is about 4000-5000. played tight again until i pushed all in to double up. we left at around 1:30 in the morning after i played my last hand, hooks, that took another 400 or so from the guy to my right.

in the end i ended up with 4k+ (thats actually quite good if you consider me being a terrible poker player), while jim was down with about a thousand and jeco, up by more than three thousand, just enough to repay the money both of them lent to me, and learned a few lessons:

1. bring a good amount of money when you wanna play poker in the casino.
2. have a bankroll just for playing. dont use your own money.
3. never, and i mean NEVER think that it's real money that you're playing. it'll make you choke instantly and i guarantee that you'll lose.
4. play tight in these situations. i initially played tight, waiting for premium hands and tried position playing and realized it would goddamn matter to them. they're jackals and they wouldnt matter to them if you had rags or rockets to raise with. they would've called the same just to see the flop. outplaying them? its pretty much useless. it's better to fish for a card and limping in.
5. just check the cards till the end like what you do in online tables if you're going heads-up with a friend. hear that jeco? heheh.
6. its kinda fun and i want to try it again some time if i get to have a bankroll that can back me up. commissioned works anyone?

i'm thinking about practising some more (actually a lot more. haven't fully regained my poker esteem since my long absence from playing at online tables) and try tournament style next time. the playing there is entirely different and hopefully filipinos here wont act like smart alecs and blurt out poker stuff that they'd only heard about in the WPT. feeling. goddamnit that really fucking annoys me.