Longball (Ken Sr. for those of you out of the nick name loop), Ryan and myself went down to Tunica, Mississippi for a little sun, golf and gambling trip. Tunica is a fun place to go to if you are looking for big casinos without heading out to Vegas. Plus Tunica is not nearly as expensive as Vegas (gambling not included) and the comps are almost a joke they are so easy to come by.
We stayed at the Horseshoe Casino in Tunica Mississippi. The rooms were as nice if not nicer than any room I have stayed at in Las Vegas or any hotel for that matter. Ryan and I split a room with two queen size beds, a sitting area, and the largest bathroom I have ever stayed in. The bathroom made the room. Big shower, great water pressure, and a TV in the bathroom…there isn’t much more you can ask for than a TV in the bathroom. There are a few great golf courses and if you use some savvy internet shopping you can play for under $30 during the week. There is not much night life to speak of, but all the drinks are free, so that more than makes up for it. Plus there is a TV in the bathroom!
Enough about the bathroom and more about the poker room. The poker room at the Horseshoe in Tunica is on the casino floor, has a half wall to keep out the rif raff and is next the the American Grill (an all night restaurant). The location is easy to find, and in a good area, the restaurant right next to it can get a little loud with the drunks ordering their free food, but the convenience of the poker players getting food quickly is a good trade off. Each night at the Horseshoe there was always a $1-$3 game going ($300 max buy in). Other nights there were $4-$8 Holdem, $2-$5 NLH, $4-$8 Omaha H/L, $1-$5 Stud, and once during the day there was a $20-$40 game.
Day 1
The games in the poker room were a little slow, had more regulars that you would imagine for a resort style casino poker room, and the average age was much higher than any room I have been to in other casino vacation spots. The first table I played at on Monday night I was the youngest guy there, and I was the youngest by 30 years. There could not have been one player under 60 (except for me) at the first table. Now I got into the game on Monday night early in the evening, say around 8pm, and there was not any other young players until around 11pm or midnight. I enjoyed playing with the older guys, lots of Vietnam stories, there was lots of nice hand kid (and I was never offended by that comment, everyone was definitely old enough to call me kid with out question), and generally the game was fun. It was however the slowest game I have ever played in my life. Everything took longer. The calls took longer, checking your cards took longer, getting the chips into the pot took longer, even getting up to the bathroom took longer (and there was lots of bathroom breaks). The first night I was there the poker room was not crazy busy, only about three tables going, but there was enough action in the room to keep most normal players happy. I on the other hand like a little faster game and the slow play did set me on tilt a little bit. I also caught more AK suited that night then I normally do in two or three sessions. The problem was that I would flop top pair with the nut flush draw and bet it the whole way to get rivered by two pair while missing my flush. The last hand of my night, I had two black Aces. Raised to $25. Got four callers. Flop is ten high. Check, check, check to me. I push all in for my last $100 and get called by Q10 (flopped top pair). Turn is a Queen and River is a Queen for the villain to fill up and for me to go to bed. Thank you very much mr. turn and river.
DAY 2
After playing golf all day I was excited to get back to playing poker and trying to win my money back from the night before. I sat down at the $1-$3 NLH game and bought in for the table max. Again I got great cards, and great flops (top pair and nut flush draw, open ended flush draws, and flopping two pairs) but none of them held up. I rarely hit any of my flush or straight draws, and more than once my two pair was counterfeited by the river, or board turned or riverd straight and flush cards. My last hand of the night was just a cooler. After going broke on my top pair nut flush draw turned into top two (guy flopped a set of deuces), I bought in for $200 and got dealt QQ. There was a raise from middle position and I re raised to $50. Everyone folded where the bad guy in the hand (the original raiser) started his speech of how this happened to him yesterday and he went broke, but he called anyways. The board comes 9 high. He checks I bet $75 and he insta shoves all in. I know at this point I am beat, but I am pissed an I have most of my money in there anyways, and I’m hoping that one time I could suck out on the guy with a bigger pair. Turn and River bring no help to me, and the bad guy shows KK. Bed time for me.
Day 3
$110 double deepstack tournament ($20,000 starting chips). The tournament structure was not great, but I figure for the hundred bucks, I might be able to get close to even if I make a nice finish at the final table. So I buy in and sit down to play. I mostly fold until I get AQ suited. I raise and get three or four callers. The flop is A28 with two of my suit. Everyone checks to me, I bet the pot, and get raised three times my bet. Im thinking I just ran into two pair, but its a double deepstack maybe I can turn my flush. I call. The turn is a Q. He shoves all in and I call and turn up my two pair. He yells for a minute or two with the how do you call on the flop business and I just look at the first big pot I have won since arriving in Tunica. After the first break I sit down to my first hand (I was away from the poker room and missed the first two minutes of the tournament after the break) I get dealt AA. Sweet! I raise to $1500 as the blinds are now $200-$400 and the wildman next to me looks over at my chips, gets himself a quick count and announces that he is all in. One other player calls his all in, and I push my chips into the pot and roll over my aces. The bad guy rolls over KQ off and the random guy in the hand flips over his JJ. Now the fun part is that I started the hand with 30k in chips, bad guy has close to 60k in chips, and the guy with the jacks has less than 7k. So the side pot for me and the guy with KQ is bigger than the main pot. Long bad beat story short…Flop comes J52…turn is a Q…and river is a K. So I loose the main pot to a set of Jacks, and the side pot to runner runner two pair. Awesome. After crying in the bathroom for 15 minutes or so I decided that poker was not lucky for me, and I should try other games based solely on luck rather than skill or the appearance of skill.
Day 4
I finally get to play in a omaha game. Now its $4-$8 Omaha H/L game with a half kill, not a PLO game, but I will take what I can get. I was finally catching some hands, and getting paid off on them. UNTIL. KK32 for me. I raise the Kill pot to $12 pre flop and everyone calls. The flop comes AK8 with my flush cards out there. Someone in early position bets the flop and everyone calls to me where I raise to $12, and the original better three bets it to $18. I figure no reason to go crazy here and I just call. So after the flop there is five players with three bets out there each. The turn is an 8. Not really what I wanted as I am sure someone has AA but I cannot fold at this point the pot is too big. The river is a freaking 3 (kills my low hand, so now I just have the high hand of KKK88). After check calling the guy from early position, he shows his pocket Aces, the only other player in the hand was drawing to a low hand with a bunch of low cards and an Ace. So long story short I got coolered for a big big pot to loose a big chuck of my money. A little later in the night I get KKQ10 double suited and check my big blind. I flop a flush draw and a straight draw, check the flop and call the turn, and then fold to one bet on the river. The flop contained an Ace and a Jack, and I assumed with four people in the hand till the river that there was no way my Kings were good. Guy in middle position bets on the river and it gets folded around and he shows a pair of fives. I say set of fives, he says no just a five. I kick myself in the backside, and then get up from the table. Well I came back to loose to a few more hands where my opponents beat my high hand and got the low river. Seriously one guy would river a bigger two pair, and the other guy would just be playing the nut low and I would get nothing. So I left mumbling to myself how terrible I am and how unlucky I am and how much I hate poker.
All in all the poker room at the Horseshoe in Tunica is great. Great action, a wide variety of games, and tons of very reasonable tournaments. Plus it is so easy to get comped at the tables. Free food, Free drinks, and both rooms we stayed in for a total of four nights cost us less than $100. That is with the $15 a day internet fee I had to pay because I got absolutely no signal on my wireless card. With all the free stuff Tunica is willing to give you, there is very little reason not to take a little poker vacation at the Horseshoe in Tunica. Unless you count the fact that I lost almost every time I played (poker or table game) and the Canadian won every single session. There is just no justice in the game of poker.
If you would like to hear more about Tunica or how bad I am at poker please feel free to email me at Ken@chicagocharitablegames.com
This blog was written by Ken Kaulen Jr. President and Co-founder of Chicago Charitable Games.
