Arizona trip report - Part 6 of 8

Arizone Trip Report - Day 6

I woke up in the morning and shook the sleep out of my eyes. It was about 11a when I was ready to hit the road again. After having been to all of the casinos in the Phoenix area, I decided that playing the afternoon at Wild Horse Pass would be the best choice. It was the best poker room closest to the airport and I had to pick up Viv at around 3:00p. I went over and sat down at a $4-$8 lhe table. As soon as I got a chance, I ordered a Breakfast Burrito from the waitress (big, tasty and cheap!) and got to work. It didn't take long for me to make a huge pot. There had been some action from a Crazian player in the 6 seat (I was in the 2 seat). I had bought in for $100 and chipped up to about $150 at this point when, for the first time in my life, I managed to more than double up in a single hand, in a LIMIT game, in heads up play. You know how they always say that you can raise unlimited times in heads up play? Well, it finally happened to me.

I had 66 UTG and limped in. A few callers and it came to Mr. Crazian who raised to $8. A few more callers, myself included, and the flop came 6♣4♣6♦. DQB!!!! I can lose to a straight flush (bring on the bad beat jackpot!) or running overcards for higher quads (Mo' bad beat, mo' bad beat!). In other words, I couldn't lose in this pot in any way, shape or form. I was first to act and checked. It checked to Crazian who bet out (overpair much?). I think one person called and I called. Turn was the T♥. Again, I check, Crazian bets, other person folds. I call. Turn is the most perfect A♣. If he was on a flush draw, he got there. I lead out, he raises. I re-raise. He says, "Keep going." I re-raise by stacking more chips. He makes a circular motion with his hand saying, "More". OMG! It dawns on me that he's got Aces full! He's not going anywhere and, what's more, he's acting so quickly now that he's not thinking. I stop stacking chips and just say "raise" every time he does. In a few seconds, we both stop stacking and we just keep making verbal declarations back and forth to each other like some demented tennis match. Luckily, no one at the table says a word, which is good because it was obvious by the 5th raise to everyone except the Crazian what I held. After about a dozen back and forth raises I asked the dealer, "Am I all in yet?" The dealer just sighed and said, "yes". Crazian tables AA like he won the Olympic Gold medal. The gold medal of bravado and stupidity maybe. The color drains from his face when I show my quads. I don't say a word but my hands are shaking with adrenaline as I stack my chips to be matched up, in a LIMIT GAME! W00t!

I played for another hour or so, maintaining my stack for the most part before I had to pick up and go to the airport. I got to the airport and ran into Chris, who had landed and gotten off the plane from New York just before Viv. Viv joined us from her separate flight only a few minutes after that and I drove all of us to the Harrah's hotel where we had a comped room waiting for us. I put the poker options out to the girls and we decided that Wild Horse Pass was the best option for the day. I figured if they weren't running a NLHE game for the girls than we could go on to Casino Arizona where they definitely would be. But there was indeed a $1-$2 game running. The girls took their seats and I found another $4-$8 game where I played for two hours, giving back all the winnings I made that afternoon (D'oh!). Terrible session. I switched to $4-$8 O/8 after that but couldn't get any traction going and ended up even. The three of us had a lovely dinner at the asian restaurant inside the casino and Chris was getting tired after having traveled all day so we went back to Harrah's and dropped her off at the room. Viv and I were still jazzed to play but there was only the $3-$6 game going. Viv was game to play in her first limit hold'em session, even for small stakes, and we had a good time playing until 3:00a. We left after the last SplashPot promotion, both of us dropping a little on the game. Freddy, the guy with the girlfriend issue, was there and he was cleaning house. Too bad I couldn't get some of that money.

It had been a nice day with the girls in a new city. Friday would bring more adventure and some bad laydowns on my part.

More to come...