thursday 10/7/99
living out of a suitcase and the trunk of my car is not what might be called the lap of luxury. but what the hey.....
i have a late breakfast at "jerry's j-boy" 24-hour diner, just off interstate 64 in clarksville, indiana. the theme of this place is "oldies", and right there....staring me in the face, are life-sized statues of jake and elwood blues! (trivia note: dan ackroyd *never* takes off his shades during the entire movie). as i walk in, the radio is blaring, o/` like a rubber ball, i'll come bouncing back to you... the walls of the place are festooned with advertisements for '55 chevys, nascar heroes, and posters of marilyn, james dean, and, of course, elvis. my breakfast arrives to the twanging guitar of duane eddy's "rebel rouser" (more trivia: did you know that duane eddy is from new york state??). and i pay my bill as john fred and the playboy band break into "judy in disguise"!
ok! today will be caesar's indiana "glory of rome" riverboat, located in new albany, indiana. well, it's about ten miles south of town, on state route 111. soon after i leave downtown new albany, i pass "two mile lane." ok. this lane is two miles long, right? couple miles later i pass "five mile lane." and when i get to "seven mile lane" i've finally figured out what's going on here.
the dock is across the river from some kind of power plant, which is belching dirty gray smoke. ugh. i park the car, and take a shuttle bus to the main building. once again, there's a $5 admission fee. this time, the clerk thinks that my zip code (10014) is in philadelphia..... ::::sigh::::
the poker room on this boat is located on the second floor (you board on the fourth floor). it's adjacent to a number of pit games and a bank of slot machines. yup. the noise is enough to drive you nuts! but i'm advised that they plan to build (at least) a partial wall in the near future to limit the sound. the room has nine tables, most of which are for stud. when i arrive, they've got one 5/10 stud game in progress, and they soon crank up a 5/10 hold 'em game. structures are standard. once again, here (like at the victoria grand) the rake is 10% to a maximum of $5. damn! that's tough to beat! cash doesn't play. seats next to the dealers are *not* no-smoking. unlike the victoria grand, dealers here do call possible straights and flushes on 6th street.
the poker room does not have a rulebook available for players. :(
the floorpeople and supervisors all see me taking notes. they all want to know if i am going to open my own cardroom. lol! i'm seated at the 5/10 stud game. one of the supervisors keeps looking at me. after about an hour, she taps me on the shoulder. we step away from the table for a few minutes, and it turns out that holly, a delightful blonde, used to work in las vegas. yeah....she must have recognized my mustache! and it turns out that she's mostly a lurker here at rgp, and has pulled some stuff off the newsgroup to use in improving the poker room! and when i mention barge, holly blows me away by recalling that funny game with the three flops! yup! she was talking about good, old fashioned, major league, thermonuclear chowaha!!! all right, holly!
after a few hours of play, i take a late lunch break. i see caesar and calpurnia strolling through the casino, proceeded by a vigilant centurion. there's a no-smoking casino on the third floor. this riverboat really does cruise for about an hour during each two-hour session.
last night, i got e-mail from "jimmy" - he's a dealer at caesar's, and brand new to rgp. he said in his mail that he's the best dealer in the room (yeahrightsure). i wrote back and told him that i would look for him. some time after 7 o'clock, a new dealer sits down in the box. jeez....he's fast. jeez....he's good. yup. it's jimmy. yup. he is, by a lot, the best dealer i saw in the room. and he's a good guy, too! :) welcome to rgp, jimmy!!
the dealers in the room pool their tips. at the max, there were two 5/10 stud games, one 10/20 stud, one 5/10 hold 'em and one 10/20 hold 'em. jeez, that 10% $5 rake is tough to beat. although my table fan was in constant use at the 5/10 stud game, when i moved to the 10/20 stud game, i never turned on the fan at all!
here are some highlights of the 10/20 game:
(1) there are several maniacs at the table. huge pots are won by very small hands. i get stuck a couple stacks and things cool off very quickly. :(
(2) i haven't been rolled up for 35 hours. i'm rolled up three times in 45 minutes at this game.
(3) i bring it in with a deuce. i've got an ace and a three in the hole. there are five limpers. i make an ace on fourth street and bet out. there are three callers and a raiser. i re-raise. one of the callers and the raiser stay. i make a three on fifth street, and bet the hand all the way. they both call. on the river, i peek at the seventh card - don't help - and bet. they both call. i turn over hand and announce, "aces up!" ...... except that trey in the hole wasn't a trey, after all. it was a five. queens up wins the pot. ack!!! i haven't done that in **years**!!
i had a good time today!! i'm going back to caesar's for more tomorrow!!
stay tuned!
10/8/99 friday
looks like you folks are enjoying my trip! :) keep those cards and e-mail coming in!
no lengthy report today - just two stories.
1. i was supposed to meet rgp'er frank brabec (screenname "nutz") yesterday, but for reasons beyond his control, he never made it to the boat. but i've spoken with him by telephone, and we arrange to meet on the dock for the 1:00 pm cruise (which actually departs at 1:30). i'll be wearing my green satin tropicana poker club jacket and a "tiger beer" baseball cap.
i'm there by 12:30. i'm still there at 12:45. i'm still there at 1:00. at 1:15, i decide that frank got hung up, again, and i get on the boat. i'm immediately seated at a 5/10 stud game. two minutes later, someone taps me on the shoulder. i turn around. i've never seen this man before. "hiya, frank!" :)
2. i'm playing 10/20 stud. new rgp'er jimmy allen is in the box. he pitches downcards to all eight players. as he begins to deal the upcards, he accidentally pitches #1's card off the table. (under local rule, this card plays - and unlike atlantic city, there is no necessity to call the floor to "thoroughly examine" the card.) the woman in #1 picks up the card and puts it on the table. it's the king of spades. without hesitation, jimmy says, "when i dealt that card, it was a deuce!"
:)frank has graciously invited me to stay at his sister's and brother-in-law's house in louisville. they're all big fans of horses and racing, and today is the season opener at keeneland. hope the rain doesn't wash everything out!
10/9/99 saturday
frank and his family are off to the season's opener at keeneland. it rained all day. mitch "bfb" firestone has forwarded my accumulated mail by fed ex, and i spent several hours taking care of (ugh) business. i did some shopping for sundries, and snatched a bottle of good ol' elijah craig kentucky bourbon off the shelf of the local liquor store. dewar's scotch may be my everyday brand, but i can't get elijah craig in new york.....
10/10/99 sunday
once again at caesar's glory of rome. a few closing thoughts: it's a nice room. and considering the fact that they haven't done any advertising, it's a pretty busy room. the caliber of play? well, as i've told some of you by e-mail, to call the average player in this room "terrible" would be to compliment them!
late in the session, i ordered a can of miller genuine draft beer. i was charged $2.50 for the drink. dunno if they charge for other alcoholic beverages.
there are a couple problems in the room. with the exception of new rgp'er jimmy allen, there aren't any good dealers. many of them are okay. but more than a few dealers need more instruction in dealing procedures and basic rules of poker. although the local house rule provides that dealers announce possible straights and flushes on 6th street in 7-card stud, several dealers didn't know this. and one dealer actually told me that, although possible straights must be announced, **dealers didn't have to announce a possible inside straight**!!! several dealers didn't bother to scramble the deck after each deal. i watched this occur: a player bet on the river, and wasn't called. the dealer carefully collected the other player's hand, and carefully placed it on the bottom of the deck. she awarded the pot to the bettor, and carefully collected the bettor's hand, face down. she then carefully placed the bettor's hand on the bottom of the deck, and placed the cut card at the very bottom. she then rotated the deck 90 degrees towards her, removed the cut card, and squared the deck to begin her shuffle. she never realized that, after she removed the cut card, and before the deck was squared, any player sitting in the #4 or #5 seat was able to see the cards from the bettor's hand!!!
however, i must note that poker supervisor holly (screenname: hollysdew) is very much aware of such things, and has instituted an intensive program of dealer retraining. the problems described above will soon be solved.
i dunno how they're gonna solve the smoke problem, though. cigars are allowed in the room, and when the place is full, there's the usual smoky haze that exists in so many other cardrooms.
i look forward to see how this room progresses. holly clearly intends to do what she can to make caesar's indiana glory of rome poker room glorious!
stay tuned.
tiger
[ tiger escapes to the Casino Aztar in Evansville, IN ]
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Kenneth R. Churilla