A Night at the Flamingo

Since Nick Gale (cokeboy99 on twitter) is visiting I got the chance to go out and meet him in person instead of just through twitter interactions.

Now, I knew that he was going to end up being my arch nemesis at the tables from the moment he told me that he works for Coke (hey, he could just be an addict with a taste for overindulgence) being that I bleed Mountain Dew and all.  

Overall it was a good meeting, we had some brief discussions on random crap and as always it was good too meet someone whom I would never have gotten the chance to meet if it wasn't for this little blog of mine.

That being said, he did have the unfortunate timing of being the guy who doubled me up so that I could actually leave with some profit.

Now, before I continue (notice I'm using extra spaces to make up for Coach's lack of spacing) I want to point out that I absolutely detest playing at The Flamingo.  I hate it.  I loathe it.  If I were to make a list of places that I want to play, The Flamingo would not even be considered.  If I had to make a list of places that I wish got destroyed instead of O'Shaes, The Flamingo would be numero uno on that list.
The Flamingo is an evil cursed place where I have tried to play on a bunch of different occasions for different reasons and every single time, EVERY SINGLE FUCKING TIME I have failed to show a profit.  In fact, I have gotten stacked there in quite a few unique ways thanks to the randomly bad play by whoever was sitting at the table with me.
I made a post on twitter about this and got a reply from Poker Dealer (@pkrdlr) that he has NEVER registered a winning session there in over 8 years or something now.  So, this is proof that the place is cursed.

I do not know these 3 chicks and the one dood, but they were not waiting for me at The Flamingo

The session started without much fan fair as we both got seated at different tables.  I put in for a table change and played the waiting game.  After I was down about $6 a seat opened and I moved over.
I got involved in a few pots, had a few big draws and missed most everything and at one point was down about $90 on the session.  However I kept grinding and kept getting back up to being down only $50.  Nick and I kept tangling because every time I raised he had hands worth calling and every time he raised I had hands worth calling.
As (bad) luck would have it I got the best of him in the last 3 hands that we tangled in starting with calling a raise with JJ and winning a few bucks off of him.  A few hands later he raised and I had QQ and decided to just call as I was to his immediate left and almost nobody at the table was playing to raises at that point.
One other guy came along and the flop came out Q high to give me BINGO.
He bet and I called and I believe we strung a 3rd guy along.  The turn was nothing scary and he bet again, I debated between mini raising or pushing and decided that my best bet was a push.  A mini raise would result in him either putting me all in or us getting our money in on the river.  A push gave him the best chance to get away from his hand with me showing strength.  However, he decided that calling my push was his best option and I got to double through as he was drawing dead at that point.

This hand put me up a bit over half a buy in and right around here is where I ordered my 3rd and final beer.  I knew the session was coming to an end soon so I set my limit on how low my stack could get for an immediate pick up.  However, the last orbit that I played I managed to add another $40 to my stack (give or take) and left up $148 on the evening.
My first EVER winning session at The Flamingo.  Will I go back there and play again?  Probably, but only if someone who is visiting wants to meet up and play there (Rob, you listening - this is your chance to set up where we should play because this casino puts me at my most stackable!!!)  So, Happy to leave with a profit but kind of annoyed that it had to come at the expense of the very person I set out to meet that evening.
So Nick, it was great to meet you and hopefully next time you happen into town we can do it again.

I do feel, however, that pretty soon I am due to start spewing money to people who I am meeting up with.  Nick is #3 on my list of people who happened to be sitting in the wrong seat at the wrong time against me.  Lucki Duck was 1st and Rob was 2nd.  Who will be #4? Will it be me?

So, this $148 victory gives me a HUGE boost to my live poker bankroll and puts me up to $360 currently.  While I won't be playing with my entire roll again (1/2 NL is still a way off from being my regular game) I'm happy that I don't have to wait a while to save up and go again.  Then again, that's the power of having a job and only playing for fun.  I don't have to worry about going broke and ending up homeless.  I've got another paycheck just around the corner.

I also got my rakeback set up on BlackChipPoker after numerous emails back and forth and received my first Dollar!!!  Oh I can feel the profits rolling in now.