One Third-Life Crisis Road Travel Poker Extravaganza

[trias_e]

Good luck man. I'd seriously come out and buy you dinner in Wendover tomorrow, but I have to be up in Park City for a stupid party with my in-laws.

I'm guessing you would have rather been in wendover  .  I ran very well last night.  Playing very underrolled for 2/5NL, ended up +2 buyins which represents a huge boost to my bankroll.  Cheers!  Now to camp for a few days in great basin national park.  A few of my friends are actually managing to get down there which will be some welcome company.

[trias_e]

In my experience live poker in indian reservation casinos is pretty fun but the live poker tables i've played in Vegas and Reno semed to be taken over by the tight fisted local retired types who fold any hand that isn't an insta winner right after they ante up (milking the free drinks I guess).  Maybe the tables I was playing were too low end but it sure made for some boring ass poker sessions.

There's two options with these kind of players.  Either show them a bunch of bluffs and try to get them to open up a bit, or just slowly plink away at their stacks and fold if they ever do anything whatsoever and you don't have the absolute nuts.  While boring, the latter route is probably the most profitable.  You can make alot of money just cbetting nits.

[Hoax]

I can try to meet up in SF, I'm in the middle of a move to Santa Cruz this week but keep us posted on the when/where of it.

[NiX]

Keep us posted so I know when you hit the East.

[Samwise]

I can try to meet up in SF

Seconded.

[trias_e]

In Reno now.  Relaxing after an awesome 4 days hiking/camping in great basin natl park. Drove the loneliest road in America!  Gonna be in SF from friday to tuesday roughly.  Let me know when/where you guys want to meet up!

[Hoax]

I can try to meet up in SF

Seconded.

Should we try for Thirsty Bear on Saturday or perhaps some sort of outside drinking then wandering around the park?  I can try to make either of those on Saturday but I've got a bachelor party tonight and I've got to be back in Santa Cruz Saturday evening.  Check your PM's.

[Samwise]

I'm going to be at a memorial on Saturday afternoon, but I should be around in the evening.  My Sunday is pretty much free.  Where are you gonna be staying, Trias?

[Teleku]

Alas, your coming and going at the exact same times a hot French chick is flying in to visit, so I shall not be able to attend any SF meetup 

[trias_e]

Damn, I ended up coming in much later than I expected.  Arrived in S.F.  Late on Saturday and crashed at a friends place.  Sorry Hoax!  I had to get unstuck in Reno before I left and played poker for an absurd amount of time straight before leaving.  So as far as where I'm staying goes, I've got my friends couches which they have gloriously and graciously offered me.  I'll probably be here until thursday at this point.

Samwise, let me know if you'd like to grab a beer tonight or anytime until thursday.

Alas, your coming and going at the exact same times a hot French chick is flying in to visit, so I shall not be able to attend any SF meetup  cry

Aw come on.  Bring her along.  We won't hurt her. 

... 

[Hoax]

Ah that sucks, wondered why I didn't hear anything, probably for the best though I was a worthless shambling zombie Saturday running on 4 hours of sleep (we closed down a strip club, ugh, wtfux).  If you pass back through though let me know.

[Samwise]

Looks like I've got Wednesday night to myself.  No car, so I'll be BARTing into the city from work somewhere around 7:30.  Lemme know if you wanna grab a drink or food or what -- my treat, since you're a visitor to our fair city and it sounds like you're on a budget.  PM me with where you're staying and we'll come up with a plan.

[Samwise]

FYI for lurkers: Zeitgeist, 7pm-ish.

[trias_e]

Epic props to Samwise for showing me a great time around mission district.  Ridiculously huge stuffed lengua burrito plus bourbon/cornflake ice cream(!!) plus good beers.  Awesome!

[Murgos]

How's the poker part of the trip going?

[trias_e]

Thankfully I have been running very well as far as that goes.  I haven't played much, but I've won consistently online and live.  I feel like my live game is vastly improved over a few months ago.    I stayed at the Grand Sierra Resort in Reno and played exclusively there to the tune of about 30 hours.  I actually lost every day there, but I like the way I played.  The final day I made a pretty epic comeback to the tune of about 500 bucks in a 1/2 NL game.  Very happy I stayed late that evening.

Here in the bay area I've played at the oaks card room a couple times and made a very nice profit doing so.  This has been funding my S.F. debauchery, which continues raging still (tonight up to north beach and la trappe/some expensive but good food).

Online I have been running great in the small amount of time I have put into it.  It's been tough to find time to play online.  Especially because I don't like playing on my friends computers due to not having database software.

So good so far!  *prays to the poker gods for more run good*

[Amarr HM]

I would say you did the right thing to fold that 79 in Rio, bad implied odds out of position & with a weak hand. Best EV I could see there would be to bet the pot on the river, other than that I'm check folding that all the way. Awesome blog btw glad I found it, do you use Poker tracker for the online play?

[Teleku]

Haha, I live exactly 2 blocks away from the Oaks Card club.  Some day I'm going to be brave enough to go in there.  How long are you in the Bay Area for?  We should really have some sort of a wider F13 meet.  Hot French chick and other obligations are gone, so I'm free now  .

[Samwise]

I think he was taking off today. 

Sorry I missed Toronado btw, we had a little Oktoberfest celebration at work and I was feeling kinda wiped out after that.

[trias_e]

I actually will be leaving on sunday now.  Gonna take it easy today and sort of plan the rest of my trip north.  If anyone has suggestions for cool stuff to see driving up from SF to Portland let me know.  Right now I plan on something like this: 

  Stopping at navarro campground to sleep, casinos in petulama and trinidad, breweries in petaluma, santa rosa, fort bragg...looks fun.   

NP on the toronado miss samwise.  Man, it's an awesome place, but my god was it packed.  We were sardines.

[Teleku]

Ah, that's a beautiful drive.  Fare warning though, it'll take a long time because the highway is very curvy, two lane, and there are lots of slow moving cars hauling trailers.  But definitely do it, its a very nice trip.

You seem to have beer covered pretty well (and I love Lost Coast, they make great beer, definitely stop by their place in Fort Bragg).  Make sure you stop and hike around Redwood National Park a bit, its really beautiful.   It's also where they filmed Endor for Return of the Jedi:


There are a lot of long trails to hike, but if your in a hurry, I think there are some shorter ones.  At the very least, you can walk around the Lady Bird Johnson grove, which is only a mile long loop and takes you by some nice scenery.

I'd also say make sure you stop by Fern Canyon (also located in Redwood national park).  That is a beautiful hike (and not to long either).  So make sure you stop by if you can:


I believe they filmed parts of Jurrasic Park 2 here (it's creek where the guy gets killed by all the tiny little dinosaurs).  You kind of have to take an odd road to get to it (its just out of Orick), but you do get to drive by a field that usually has some huge Elk hanging out in it.  The bottom of this page has directions if your interested:

http://redwoods.info/showrecord.asp?id=476

[Samwise]

I'd feel remiss if I didn't recommend a stop at Muir Woods.  Actually, I might just follow Highway 1 all the way to Pt Reyes, then cut over to Petaluma from there if that's the first casino on the trip.  It'd definitely take longer than going straight up 101, but that's a much more scenic drive.  101 is kinda boring.

Once you're further north, Sebastopol is easily my favorite town up that way, being home of California Carnivores and Mom's Apple Pie.  It's also got a handful of wineries and at least one brewery.

[Ralence]

Let me know when you hit up Foxwoods in CT, as I'm fairly certain Mohegan Sun does not have a poker room  (Or at least last I heard it did not, something about drugs and hookers and it being shut down)

Be forewarned that attempting to stay overnight at either casino is likely to run you upwards of $500/night, and that's during the week, so don't be surprised when you get here. 

Let me know and I"ll meet up and buy you some beers and dinner!

[trias_e]

A quick update in case anyone is interested.  I spent a few days in northern cali, which was beautiful and very fun to drive through.  Slept amongst redwoods.  Did Muir Woods/Stinton Beach.  Stayed in a terrible motel in crescent city.

I then stayed 4 days in Eugene, OR with a friend.  I don't like Eugene much.  Afterwards, I decided to cut off Seattle/Vancouver from my trip as it's getting late in the year and I would like to continue camping as much as possible.  Drove to Priest River, ID which is a bit north of Coeur D'Alene (the most beautiful city in America that I've seen).  Had a refreshing stay at my grandmas place up there and actually ate well for a change.  Which was awesome.

After a few days in northern Idaho, I drove to Billings, which was a pretty awesome drive.  Especially beautiful is western Montana on the 90... Missoula would be a cool place to live no doubt.  I would have gone to Glacier National Park but the temperatures are insanely low right now.  Like 17/-7.  Ouch.  After Billings (which sucked compared to the rest of Montana) I drove through a pretty gnarly viciously cold snowstorm in Wyoming, and eventually arrived in Deadwood, where I am now.  This place is gorgeous and badass.  I love it.  I'm staying here for the weekend until it gets warmer.  Then I am going to go camping in the black hills and check out Mt. Rushmore.

Poker has been mediocre.  But I am hoping I will have a good run in my few days here in Deadwood.

[WayAbvPar]

Don't play cards with your back to the door there.

[Murgos]

Don't play cards with your back to the door there.

I hear that bad things happen when you are holding aces and eights anywhere within the border.  Frankly, I would just toss any ace-eight hand right into the muck ASAP.

[trias_e]

I did play with my back to the wall, quite successfully!  And one of the places I played at actually paid out $3000 if you finished a hand with black aces, black eights and the nine of diamonds.

So yeah, times have changed ; )

Camping fell through due to weather, so I'm looking at two days in Minneapolis/St Paul coming up.  Hopefully it should be a fun stay.

[CmdrSlack]

I did play with my back to the wall, quite successfully!  And one of the places I played at actually paid out $3000 if you finished a hand with black aces, black eights and the nine of diamonds.

So yeah, times have changed ; )

Camping fell through due to weather, so I'm looking at two days in Minneapolis/St Paul coming up.  Hopefully it should be a fun stay.

And great for camping! 

[Le0]

This sound like a very fun trip to do. Looks like you're enjoying it ;)
I'll come back for more news!