It had completely slipped my mind that I never wrote up a report for my trip to Reno at the end of July.
I was in town to go see a bunch of my old grade school friends to have a year delayed celebration of our 50th birthdays. One of the friends has a cabin in South Lake Tahoe, so we were all going to gather and commiserate over the weekend. The forest fire smoke was threatening, but the forecast was looking pretty good. It turned out, the sky was blue and clear for us - but you don't care about that! You're here for poker!
I showed up 3 days before I was due at the cabin and went to the Peppermill in Reno, where my plan was to hang out and play mostly cash game poker.
Why all the sudden cash games? Truth be told, I have been itching to play cash for over a year now. I've really been inspired by all the great cash game poker vlogs on YouTube. It's weird to say I've fallen in love with cash game poker while not playing any - but it's the truth.
Be sure to check out Andrew Neeme, Brad Owen, Rampage Poker (Ethan Yau) or Ben Deach by searching their names on YouTube. These are the vloggers I love. Their video journals focus on poker hands and their narration and production values are truly great.
But why not play cash in LA Chris? Two reasons.
One, the rake for low stakes is absolutely HORRIBLE. They drag $5 out of every pot regardless of size (for the most part) plus typically $2 more for their jackpots and promotions. Absolutely absurd and entirely unbeatable at a stake where they also require you to buy in short.
Two, masks. Hate them. Not wearing them at the poker table. Blech.
The Peppermill on the other hand, according to Ben Deach's videos, has a half hour time rake of $5 at their single $2 blind game. An amazing value. Also, the buy-in is match the stack, so no need to buy in for 50 big blinds or some other stupidly low amount.
And of course, in July Nevada was entirely mask free. Easy decision!
Perhaps best of all as well, my friend Michele whom I met on our weekly poker nights on zoom, playing with some of the same guys who would be at the cabin - would be in town to play poker at the Peppermill as well, so I would have someone to chat with at the table. Always much better and more enjoyable to have a friend to socialize with. Even better, Michele knew just about everyone there, so she was chatty and friendly with them and they in turn were chatty and friendly with me.
I have to say, there's hardly anything that I'm grateful for that happened in the pandemic - but meeting a new friend, actually several new friends, was one thing that I am indeed happy about.
Day 1 was a Tuesday and I arrived late in the afternoon. Michele had been playing for most of the day. I put in for a seat at the single $2 No Limit Hold-Em game, and of the 3 tables running, I got to sit down 2 seats to the left of Michele. Good times. She had a mountain of chips and was having a good old time.
I had bought in for $400, which was 200 big blinds - a nice comfortable stack where I would have room to maneuver post-flop. MUCH better than Southern California.
After a couple of hours of splashing around, I realized I was stuck $200. All my twitter feed says is that it was a couple of hands where I should've known better. But when it dawned on me that I was down two barrels of red birds, I reached into my wallet and topped back off to $400 total. I was happy as a clam, chatting it up with Michele and helping myself to the free soda fountain just 10 steps from my table.
A word about the Peppermill poker room. Super clean, smoke free, very friendly floor, top notch gear (chips, chairs, tables) and a reasonable rake. Best of all even though the room is loaded with 'regulars' they are primarily older and softer players. If I lived in Reno, this place would be my second home. I HIGHLY recommend it!
Less than a half hour later I got lucky when I rivered the nut flush and stacked an opponent who had turned the king high flush. I was glad that I went for it on the river with an overbet - I figured I had a decent chance of getting paid if he had a 10 or better flush - lucky for me it was the second nuts!
After than nice score I misplayed 99 and lost $80 to a thin value bet on the river. The very next hand I won it all back by riveting 2 pair with AK and getting paid.
I chipped back down quite a bit again, kind of death by a thousand cuts type stuff - but then this hand happened...
I opened to $7 in MP with K10 sooted. CO called. The button, who had been active, 3 bet to $20. I defended and so did the CO. I was really looking to smash the flop or give up here.
Flop was 2K2. I check called the buttons $25 C-Bet and so did the Cutoff. Now the pot was bloated and the turn was a brick. It checked through.
The river was a queen, not the greatest card. I checked, CO checked, Button bet $50. I called and the CO let it go. Button showed 1010 and I was good. Nice to drag a sizable pot playing passively, it doesn't always work out well with this kind of line! Now I was up over $500, which meant I was only stuck $100 on the night.
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I had played for nearly 6 hours - for sure my longest cash session early. It had been a ton of fun, not only because Michele was good to hang with, but because the table was also friendly and poker is FUN!!!
This hand happened just before I racked up...
I flatted with 67 of hearts on the button after MP opened for $7. Flop was 4c5h4h - gin flop for sure.
The big blind had defended the open as well and he lead out into the $21 pot for an absurd $75 with about a hundred behind in his stack.
The button also had about 200 behind, I had him well covered also. I jammed all in. Button folded, big blind tanked (and tanked and tanked) and finally folded saying he had queens. Well raise pre-flop then my man! Jeez...
Yeah, there were a lot of trappy seniors at the Mill during my 3 days there. Can't tell you how many times I ran into KK or AA in a multi-way limped pot. Thankfully I don't think I suffered any big hits from these landmines, at least I don't remember it happening. I do remember, many times, the big hands getting cracked - and of course the codgers who slow-played them groaning and moaning about their bad luck.
So after dragging that lovely $100+ pot I finished the night at $556 after being in for $600. Definitely felt like a win!
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