Silver Star Slot & Blackjack Tournaments plus some Hold-Em

I wasn't sure if I should put this here or in Non-Vegas chat but I am sure it will get moved if it is in the wrong spot so here is the story. The Baboo and I went up to Pearl River Resort last Friday so that we could play a slot tournament (her) and a blackjack tournament (me). By the time I could escape from school and get up there, she had already played her one and only round in the tournament. She scored a respectable 5,400 which put her in the top 50 (of about 450-500) but unfortunately it took 6,900 to be in the top 5 which is all the spots that they paid. At least they had a bar set up in the tournament room and all tournament participants got 3 free drinks. Even better, they were using cups that were at least twice as big as the ones they usually use out on the floor. She had just gotten her third Cuba Libra and it was pretty evident that they had not skimped on the rum in the first two. Between the Cuba Libras and the fact that she had won $400 on a helpful slot machine just before the tournament, she was in fine spirits.

Desiring to catch up just a bit, I suggested we play a little Video Poker at the nearby VP bar. She agreed and we quickly found a couple of seats. My chosen machine would not take my card so I moved over one and The Baboo took my balky machine. Of course her card worked fine. Getting my first beer of the trip, I began that Royal quest. She did the same. It wasn't long before she had hit 3 full houses and was comfortably ahead on her machine. (you know-the one I sat down at first) Meanwhile, I had burned thru my first 20 (we were playing quarters) and was feeding a fresh one into my machine. We just rocked on for a while as I gulped down a couple of beers. Then she punched me in the arm and proudly showed her quad deuces. This was especially nice because she was playing double bonus instead of the JOB I was on. This VP bar has progressive jackpots for a Royal, non-royal straight flush, 4OAK (A-4), and non A-4 4OAKs. It was kinda neat seeing the progressive meters on the wall reset and knowing who had won it. With that, she was about $160-70 ahead. We played a little longer but nothing else happened and we went to check into the hotel.

Checking in took all of about 5 minutes and soon we were up in the room. The Baboo prefers the rooms in the Silver Star casino while I prefer the ones over in the Golden Moon casino. We were up here on her offers so we were in the Silver Star. Their rooms are nice with big bathrooms and deep soaking tubs. They have always had some very comfortable beds and this room kept that tradition alive. We had one of the rooms that overlook the atrium. That view is not nearly as nice as it was due to the de-nuding of all the greenery on the faux trees. They are pretty much bare trunks now. Hopefully, the looks of the atrium will improve when they move the poker room back to this side of the street and the floor is not so empty. BTW- the poker room people expected to be back on the Silver Star side within a week.

Leaving the room, we made our way across the street via the elevated people-mover to the Golden Moon so that I could get registered for my blackjack tournament. One thing we noticed is that they have
flip-flopped the game room/arcade and the Reel Deals gift shop. Now Reel Deals is in the much larger room that the arcade used to occupy. That means that the arcade is now much smaller than it was previously. That is fine with me because the Real Deals shop is my most frequent shopping option in the entire property. You really can find some real deals in there, especially on collegiate items. Once on the Golden Moon side, I scooted over to the cage and got registered for the blackjack tournament. ($50.00 for anyone curious - first place pays 5K of a total prize pool of 10K)

The Baboo's slot tournament invite came with two free buffets so we decided now was a good time to eat. Friday nights the buffet is a seafood buffet. My only concession to that was getting some fried shrimp (regular & popcorn) and fried crawfish tails with about 5 hushpuppies to accompany them. There were many people with HUGE piles of crab legs sitting around us but neither of us are really into them so we passed on that item. If you eat there, my big thumbs up go to their mac & cheese (mmmmgood to a carbohydrate starved person like me), their hushpuppies (literally the best I have run across), and their pecan pie. Thumbs down to their cornbread (dry & cold) and their popcorn shrimp (just bland). Oh yeah, their baked beans are good too.

After we ate, we split up with me going to the poker room and her going to the slot floor. I was able to get a seat of a 4-8 limit hold-em table as soon as I walked in. This was about 7 PM Friday night and they had 8-10 tables open. I didn't recognize a single person on the table and that is the way I like it. I play pretty straightforward in a limit game and people who have played a lot with me often remember that. Not having any familar faces lessened my need to be tricky. I didn't even see a flop for over a complete round of the table. When I finally did have a playable hand, it was a good one (A-A). I pushed it fairly hard and several people stayed with me all the way to the river. With nothing really threatning on the board, I felt pretty good and the aces did hold up, winning me a good sized pot. Turning over aces on the first pot I had played probably had them pegging me as super-tight. Not much happened for me for a round or two as I kept seeing bad to mediocre cards. Eventually, I played a hand with A-9 suited from the button and watched the flop come A-5-9 with two spades. It got bet and of course I raised when it got to me. 5 people stayed in the hand. The turn was the ace of spades which could have completed any of those spade flushes people had been drawing to. Unfortunately for them, it also completed my full house. Everyone checked to me so I bet and got 2 callers. The King of Spades showed up on the river putting four to a flush on the board. It was a certainty I was up against one and possibly two flushes. Good for me, bad for them. The first guy checked, the second guy bet and I raised. The first guy folded and the second guy re-raised me. I then re-raised him. That must have raised a red flag because he just called me. He flipped up the Queen of spades for the nut flush and had to groan in dismay when he saw my full house. This pot was really huge. It took me a while just to get it stacked up. Those were the two memorable hands that made this a winning session but there were some other smaller and less dramatic pots I won. Somewhere along the line, I lost a good pot but could have lost a lot more. I had an A-K and the board wound up 6-7-A-J-A. Something about the way the guy next to me played the hand made me a little wary so I did not raise his bets the entire way. As it turned out, I was behind the entire hand. He held a A-6 and eventually improved his two pair into a full house on the river. I lost this hand but I could have lost a lot more without the read on him. I wound up filling up 3 and a half racks when I cashed out. (about a $250 profit)

By now it was a quarter till 9 and my blackjack tournament started at 9 so I had to make my departure. The first round was full with 7 people on all 10 tables. I did what I usaully do in BJ tournaments and played conservatively the first 10 (of 20) hands. The dealer was busting and I increase my chip stack which was good news. The bad news was that the other players had been betting more and had increased their stacks even more. As I counted up my opponents chips, it was obvious that several of them were more than a max bet ($200) ahead of me. I had some ground to make up. It is too bad that this is when the deck went cold on me. Making my largest bets of the round (100-200), I ran into a string of teen hands and wound up with a $0 bankroll when my final hand busted out on hand 20. The guy who won my table was a young guy who looked even younger than he was and who was playing his first blackjack tournament. Maybe that old saying about beginners luck is accurate.

I got in the rebuy line and paid my $50 to play in the rebuy round. I had about 25 minutes until the rebuy round so I went over to Zenon to play a little VP. After feeding that second twenty into that earlier VP machine that afternoon, I had gotten a few cards and cashed out with a $46 ticket. I fed that into this Zenon machine and gave it a whirl. Before I even needed to be back in the tournament area, I had turned that $46 into a big fat ZERO. Oh well, that is how it sometimes goes.

The rebuy round was a repeat of my first round. Caught cards while betting small, got 14,13,16,16 when I started betting big. I busted out this round on hand 16. Now I had to wait on a wild card. The good news is that the rebuy round only had 6 tables going so there would be 4 more wild cards added to the normal 4 that they always drew. With 8 chances, surely I will get one. As it turned out, there was no wild card for me and my tournament was officially over. Actually, they draw one more Super-wildcard just before the final table but that one didn't have my name on it either.

Back to the poker room I went. Again I was able to get a 4-8 seat as soon as I walked in. By now, it was after midnight. This table was a little harder than my earlier table. I got tied up in a hand in which I was betting my flush and got beat by a higher flush. That cost me a pretty big pot. Within an hour or so, I had lost my first buy-in of a rack ($100) and and to get re-loaded. I played for over 3 hours without having any really noteworthy hands. It was just a win a little, lose a little kind of session. Fortunately, there were a few more win a little hands and I was able to win back that rack I had lost earlier plus about $50 more. The one thing I would complain about is the cocktail service in the poker room as the night wore on. While the service before midnight had been prompt and efficient, it got slower and slower as the hours passed. Finally about 2:30, it became non-existent. After sitting there looking at my empty beer bottle with a terribly dry mouth, I decided to just go up to the Waterfalls bar and get my own. As I approached I saw the girl who had been waiting on the poker room earlier standing there talking to 3 other cocktails. None of them had a drink on their tray and none of them seemed inclined to change that. They were just standing around shooting the bull with one another. I bellied up to the bar and tried to get the bartenders attention . Well,that was a lot more difficult than I thought it would be. There was a group of about 15 young (21-26) tribal members further around the circular bar. The Choctaw bartender was waaaay more interested in talking to the girls in that group than he was in serving the people on my end of the bar. After standing there about 10-15 minutes trying to catch his eye, I decided that it wasn't worth my time anymore. I went to my poker table, told the dealer that I don't like to play poker when I am thirsting to death and started racking my chips. It took a little over 2 and a half racks so I had about a fifty dollar profit from this session. That was good enough for me.

Once up in the room, I looked at that digital readout of 4:48 and realized that not getting another beer was probably a good thing and went to bed, just glad to be there.