continued reno trip report of how difficult it is to win when all u play is NL holdem

 

i have not been getting anywhere at all here in Reno (since i won that jackpot) and am down to $34900. i have only a bit less than half of the jackpot left. i wonder if part of the issue is that i am tired of only playing NL holdem (the elderly womans game) instead of PLO (a mans game) because reno just doesnt offer hardly any PLO. the only reason ive stuck around reno is because i still havent had to pay for a hotel room yet, and until i have to start paying for hotels, its kind of hard to leave. and of course i dont want to fly to texas until i can pick up the free $500 slot play for september at the hardrock in tahoe. 

the games often break in the middle of the night and some rooms arent 24 hours for poker every day of the week. i went to 3 different rooms tonight for poker, and the 3rd one flat out lied on bravo that there was a game going. when i arrived, a game was still showing on bravo, and the poker room had been dark for over 30 minutes with all the employees gone. 

and i think im playing bad. especially when i get ahead. i get dealt hands like 10 10 preflop (when my $40 buyin is now a little over $500). a guy raises a guy shoves allin for about $85 and i fold, and the raiser has AQ and the shover has 66 and i wouldve tripled the money. 

i worry the ONLY thing i can do once i get ahead is lose all the money back so all i want to do is go to a new casino and buy back in for the minimum, regardless of whether its smart to spend $10 on uber to sit with $100 elsewhere 

maybe if i didnt feel my bankroll is so small i wouldnt worry, but all id have to do is lose over $300 100 times and id be totally broke and out of action so i feel like my roll is nothing. (and cannot be ever put at risk). (but i sure dont feel that way when im playing blackjack so why do i feel this way)

or i get a hand like KJ suited and instead of shove the straddle of $6 only limp on the button with an $80 stack. and then i get beat by K5 on a king high flop. im scared to shove preflop because i feel like someone with a pair or an ace will call and ill be getting my stack in with the worst of it, but once the hands over its never the case. 

or ill have AQ, call a raise on the button, flop comes AQ8 and 8 on the turn. im ahead and i win the hand, but win far less than i could if i dont fear the worst. 

reno actually has a 24 hour grocery store but without a microwave its hard to buy food. especially since i have to move at least every 5 days, sometimes every 2 days. though i usually have a fridge minus a freezer. its called winco. 

also for those with a ton of Uber rewards points, u need to start using those up fast. im using up all of mine, i had about 10,000 points and its ending in october. 

also the customer service is really bad at places around town, but i cant say anything when im not paying for rooms. such as the problem i have at times getting them to make fresh coffee when it tastes horrible and is the same coffee been there all day, and then theres rooms i lose over $2500 on slots and never ever get comps (rooms i mean). and then theres rooms i think are cheating me on double deck BJ and i think its why they let me play and is why i hate shoes. the waitress wouldnt bring a coffee the entire 30-45 minutes i was at the table. and about 5-6 hands of a big bet (i lost over $2000) the dealer turned over 15 or 16, and drew 20 or 21. every single time. didnt bust once. so i think theyre holding out the cards they need which they cant do with a shoe. especially when the pit boss is older and the dealer. old mafia people. most all my bj bans are in reno because of all the single and double deck here. no one ever bans people if theyre counting in a shoe game, or even notices. thats why all the shoe games went to 6-5. so counters couldnt sit. 

i also found out ive got $400 free slot play for august i didnt know about so that $900 (including sept $500) in free play i need to pick up at the hard rock in tahoe. but i dont want to pay a big fee going there for it. 

also maybe the titles wrong. almost everything ive lost (over 5k since hitting the jackpot discussed in the previous blog) was all lost on video bj, or live blackjack. wasnt lost at NL. although NL is a much tougher game than PLO because everyone is an expert in it and the wins are much smaller. 

reno trip report all advantage players should read it.

 okay i know a lot of people are waiting to read this blog, since i posted some good news on twitter the other day and it hasnt been updated since i left Vegas. however, the good news u seen on twitter is about the ONLY good news. 

to start with, my airplane was delayed on the tarmac 45 minutes due to mechanical issues and when i was finally in reno, my airport casino shuttle broke down and overheated enroute to the casino and had to pull off the highway and we had to wait for another bus. (the other people in the shuttle). by the time i finally got to my hotel and checked in for my free nights at the first place i was going to be staying at, i was dead tired and i also went and got some food because there was a fridge in the room, which surprised me. 

then i found out later the toilet wouldnt flush and it took forever for them to have maintenance fix it. also i found out i was in a room with connecting doors (which i always fear because i think people can pick the lock next door) and also there wasnt an in room safe like most rooms have. 

this is why, after i won that jackpot, i immediately got a safe deposit box behind the cage and locked up my money there except for a few thousand to carry on me. i wouldve been a lot better locking up everything but a few hundred. 

i havent had any luck at all in poker. the first day (before i won the jackpot) i lost $224. then i went to a different casino the other day and lost there too. i only remember 1 or 2 winning sessions of poker and they were both small. and then i spent $100 on a massage for 40 minutes plus the tip. its why i was down (includes the $100) $459 when i left the poker room and eventually lost $3100 that night trying to get even. most of the losses were on video poker and 6-5 blackjack on the machine. i am an idiot. because im actually ahead on the trip for live blackjack, won a little over $200 twice playing live blackjack. 

i dont much care at all for live blackjack in reno because i cant find a good shoe game at a room im not banned from playing blackjack in (about 4 places in reno). although they dont have any objections to me playing either machines or poker. and the few places i can play live blackjack in  i have lot of room comps offers. i only know 1 decent blackjack game with a 6 deck shoe in reno that i can win at and like. 

in vegas, theres multiple good blackjack games. circa, the D, the golden gate, the Palms, the stratosphere, etc. all of which have a low $10 or $15 minimum and pay 3-2 on the 8 or 6 deck shoes. 

so i found myself playing double deck blackjack tonight, which of course i have zero experience in, despite the fact i supported myself the last 30 years by counting cards and playing poker. my eyesight for small print is much worse than it used to be, and i remember over 20 yrs ago when i had better than 20-20 vision. 

so i couldnt hardly read the sign, so i walked to the side of the table next to some rich guy betting 3-4 black chips and i was trying to see if it paid 3-2 and the rules were for doubling down, surrender, etc. and the guy told me the minimum was $50 and i said that wasnt what i was trying to see and shouldnt be what he cared about seeing either. it took a minute or so to read the sign because i was turned sideways, and he grabbed his phone off an empty chair and didnt like me standing that close to him. im sure he thought i had no money and would leave with the high minimum. 

now u all know how i (and Jesus) feels about rich people. and how the Bible says theyre obligated to take care of the widow and the fatherless and the poor, instead of having the government do it for them. 

so i in the 3 hands noticed it was double deck (i first assumed it was single) and i also noticed since it was double instead of single there was no sign banning mid shoe entry. and id also noticed the count seemed to be pretty good as many low cards were coming out and i thought maybe this is why the guys betting big. i had seen 3 hands, but didnt notice his bet on the first 2 hands. 

so i jumped in, mid shoe and laid down a few hundred bucks and some odd bills and bought in $179 with a stack of $100s underneath. i put out 2 spots of $75 and the dealer immediately told me if i played 2 hands i had to bet $100 each, so i broke another $100 and bet 2 hands of $100 each. 

i half expected he would demand i wait til the shuffle. but maybe he really wasnt counting. 

and there was also one more player there too, in first base, and i was in second base and he was in third. 

so with a true count of plus 4 or higher, (at least for the few cards i seen) with a running count of plus 8 or more i ended up winning both hands and left the bet out one more time in the hopes i could also win a second hand and have back all id lost in poker. 

i lost the second hand and said i shouldve quit when up. then the dealer shuffled. since the whole table won on the first hand when the dealer busted (and its a good thing, i had 12 and 13) i commented to the guys how me coming in gave the dealer a 4, and had him bust. 

on the first hand of the new shoe i again bet 2 hands of $100, because im paranoid the staff will know im counting if i do anything funny on a double deck. so they dont suspect if u keep the same big bet out on the first hand of a new shuffle. 

luckily i won the hand and the count this time was hugely negative. so i said this time im not going to make the same mistake, will quit while im up and be out of their hair. and the guy didnt look happy i was leaving after one hand, so maybe he was counting and didnt want to play out a heavily negative deck.

so that recovers $200 of the nights poker loss, but not enough to get me even. this is why i should play live blackjack and not 6-5 on the machine just to earn points and play a lot smaller stakes to be able to martingale. 

and the floor of course had no idea i was counting. ive given back a lot of the jackpot i won the other day by playing other games instead of live blackjack. 

the jackpot, which was for $9146, was won on a game called fu dai boost with bags of jewels, and i only played because someone left it with 2 bags full. ive never ever hit the major on it all the times i played it so it was really weird i hit the grand without ever hitting the major. 

im pissed i had my 30k back to 40k after hitting the jackpot and now im only at $35900. i waste money like crazy with lousy luck at poker and terrible discipline in playing the wrong games. a ton of money was lost on big split poker too. and thats what made me over $2500 the previous trip to reno. still im better off than i was when i left vegas.