Day 2:

I busted out of the Harrah's Saturday Night tourney for $125, but then played limit 3/6 and made $200 after grinding for 3 hours. People were playing extremely tight post-flop, but would call raises pre-flop. I also was probably 25 years younger than he next oldest player at the table. While I'm making money, on Sunday, I decided to play 2/5 NL.

Sunday AM I go to Lumiere and enter the $35 tourney. After entering, I'm thinking that even if I win the whole thing, I'll probably only take in $300. Probably not a great investment of my time, but it still beats sitting in the Holiday inn icebox which has now actually gotten COLDER! I didn't need water, I just snapped an icicle off the door hinge before leaving and sucked on it for awhile. While waiting for the tourney, I go to Burger Bar and get an Angus burger with a bunch of stuff on it and I order two beers. The burger takes about 40 minutes, so I CHUG MY FINAL BEER, WOLF DOWN A BURGER i REALLY SHOULD HAVE SAVORED (DAMN GOOD!), and head to the poker room 10 minutes late. About 10 hands in, I pick up QQ in early position and limp in. Button raises 3X and I re-raise 700. Flop comes 8-3-2 and he bets all-in. I call. He has AA. Bang. I stumble in a carb-loaded haze to the desk and get on the 2/5 list. I'm the only guy on it. WTF? So, I sit down at 1/3. Four hands in, I get Big Slick - spades. Button raises to $50, I call. Flop is A-A-2, I check. Button raises $100. I push my remaining stack (I bought in for $300), and call. He said, "Ha! gotcha!" and flips over A-5. I roll Big Slick (I wasn't going to show until after the hand, but whatever) and he looks pissed. I saw people playing ace rag a lot.

One of the dealers, Darin, seemed like a pretty cool guy. The dealers were all talkative, which might get on some people's nerves, but i like the game to stay jovial, so when I win, I can act contrite and smile.

Anyway, I don't play a hand for about an hour when I get 9-10h and limp in. Flop comes 6s-7s-8c so I have the straight and figure I'm up against a spade draw. I lead out $25 and get raised $100. He only has $75 behind it, so I re-raise all in and he flips over 4-5. YES!

I play for about 20 more minutes and call it a day. Final tally: -35 for the tourney, +620 for cash. Up $75 from Harrah's the night before. Up almost a grand total and I have 3 days left! I'm not playing particularly well, but I'm getting away from hands when I think I'm beat and so far, I've been right. I've also been lucky. One hand I had KhQh and it was raised twice behind me. I fold and the flop comes Ah-9h-8h. I would have had the nut flush and it would have ended up third best hand as on guy had Aces and another nines, and an 8 came on the river.

I think about taking a taxi, but it is still light out and I'm not wearing a pastel blue polo anymore. I can take any bum trying to knife me under the freeeway. I get back to the hotel and put my parka on.

So far, so good.

lol at "ha, gotcha"

If this were me, the turn and river would have been 9 10 for a split.

Day 3 - Monday:

I have a convention to attend, so I get the bright idea of going to the Lumiere just to play Blackjack for an hour. Goodbye $200. Even staying warm has a cost it looks like. Maybe the Lumiere pays the Holiday Inn to keep their rooms at an Arctic level to get people to vacate. I dunno. So, I head to the convention, then go to dinner at a place called Wasabi and wolf down some sushi. I also guzzle three beers and get the bright idea to play poker.

Again I go to Lumiere and find that there are exactly zero 2/5 games going. WTF, again? So I sit at a 1/3, buy-in for $200 and play from 8 to 12AM and look at my stack and it is at $205. Tim is there again, and he sits to my right and plays like a rock, but even though he's only playing top pairs or suited paint, he's winning. I like guys with that kind of patience who still talk and keep things fun. That's how I try to be. However, I think to myself, "I should leave since I have to be up at 8AM", but no, I stay. Three hands later, I pick up AhQh and the flop comes Qd-4d-2s. Button raises to $50 and I call. Turn is 7h. I know I'm good here and figure the flush draw is what he's looking for. I raise $100 and button calls. Turn is 3d. I check and so does the button. He turns over a 10 high flush and thought I was drawing, too. Still, my stack is micro now. I double up with two pair about 15 minutes later and then triple up with a set of 7's about 30 minutes later. My stack is now at $275 and it is 2AM. Time to go? Nope, the donkey stays!

In the next 15 minutes, I play ace-rag twice, which I never do when alert and my stack get down to $110. It is time to go because the table breaks. Time to head to Antarctica with less cash in my pocket to keep me warm, especially after I taxi it back.

Day 3 result: Down $90 in poker, $200 in BJ, but up $775 for the trip.

Day 4 to follow...

Day 4 - Tuesday

By now, I see that playing 2/5 at the Lumiere is a game of waiting forever, so I head out to Harrah's. I enter their 7PM $60 tourney and get a table at the 1/2, as they don't have any 2/5 open and the wait list is a perfectly long 5 people.

Having 90 minutes to kill before the tourney, I sit hoping to play like a rock and just maintain. Two hands in, I rethink that strategy. I pick up Kh10h and limp in from 2nd position and nobody raises. There are 3 callers. Flop comes down Kd-10d-4s. Top two pair will sometimes kill. I check, Button raises to $40, BB calls, and I raise to $100 hoping to flush out those looking for a flush or a straight. Both guys call. Turn is a 6c and I push all-in (Ionly could buy-in for $200). Both guys call. River is a 3 and I flip over two pair and the other guys muck. My stack is just under $600. I pretty much go card dead, and bluff at a uncoordinated board about 15 minutes later and pick up a small pot, maintaining my stack. I get up to $650 and cash out to play in the tourney. I last until just after the break, and am pissed that they have ante's in the tourney. It makes it a shove-fest. I tell myself to go to Ameristar the next day, and kick myself for not going sooner. It just a light tap since I'm doing pretty well at 1/2. I also think maybe that is my sweet spot for this trip and playing 2/5 is a lost cause. That part stays true.

After the tourney, I buy-in for $200 again at a 1/2 table. A guy in Seat 1 is hitting two pairs of 6-4, 7-3, and 9-2 and I'm trying to get to a hand I can isolate him on. Never happens. I recognize another guy at the table as one I played with the night before at the Lumiere and want to isolate him too. I get QQ and he raises to $17. I repop to $45 and he calls. Me and him heads-up. Flop comes with a 10 high, and I bet $100. He calls. Next card is a low card. If this were seat 1, I'd be worried, but I check, knowing if he bets, I'll push all-in. Would normally be an overplay of Queens, but I think I'm way ahead and I only want to avoid the ace. He bets, I push the rest of my stack and he calls. River bricks and he shows A-7. I can't tell if St. Louis has a lot of guys using bad judgement on starting hands, or if I'm reading people well. Results oriented poker isn't my tool for evaluation, but I'm seeing a lot of loose players and luckily, I'm not getting sucked out on. It seems like most of the mistakes I've made have been in the tourneys. I play for about 2 more hours and after 4 straight days, I look at my stack and think it might be a good time to call it a night and finally get some rest. I've also checked out of the Holiday Inn Icebox and am at a Courtyard near Earth City. I felt like I was at a Four Seasons in comparison.

I get to the room and count out the cash for the trip - The nights tally - -60 tourney buy-in. +630 from the two 1/2 sessions. Up $570 for the day and a little over $1300 for the trip.

One more day left.....

Day 5 - Wednesday - Final Day

Between the convention, moving hotels and playing poker into the wee hours of the AM, I'm getting burned out, but I've realized I haven't made it over to Ameristar yet and everyone talked glowingly about it. I decide to play in their 10AM tourney since I have a 5PM flight out. The first thing that struck me is that there were no games playing when I got to the room at 9AM. None. The tourney started at 10:15 with about 25-30 players and I busted out after my queens went up against the Aces of an old dude wearing a suit. In a way, it was better for me, since it was a heck of a lot more comfortable to exit the table in my t-shirt and shorts instead of having to unbutton my blazer or crinkle my vest

So I asked if a 2/5 game was going and the standard answer of the week was "No.". Fine. No 2/5 for me, I'll take the 1/3. After playing 1/3, I wonder why I kept asking for 2/5. I was winning and shouldn't have wanted to upset the apple cart. During the first orbit, I get Kings and raise to $40 pre-flop, (a re-raise over a $25 bet). I get the original raiser to come with me. Flop comes 10-10-6. I bet $50 and he stays. Next card is a 7 and he bets $100. I call with no intention to bet on the river unless a King comes up, and I'm hoping he doesn't have a 10. River is a 3 and we both check. He had a flush and straight draw that didn't come in. Stack is already up a healthy amount. For the next hour, I'm kicking around a few bets and scooping small pots and figure that the action is getting tight, so I rack up and leave. I go to Downtown St. Charles and get a fantastic pork tenderloin sandwich, head to the airport in plenty of time and fly off up over a grand for the week and happy with both the quality of the casinos and the outcome.

Summary of casinos:
Lumiere: Very nice place to play - dealers were very good and friendly. Room was cold and banking at the cashier was a bit of a hassle instead of in the room, but overall, a very nice place to play and a place where the players seemed to be the friendliest. Made for an enjoyable time.

Harrah's: Had the most action going on. Don't know if it was because of the high bad beat jackpot as I heard other on this thread talk about how that drives traffic. If so, it was true here. Room was in the worst shape out of the three I played at, but only by a marginal amount. Dealers were less friendly and the players tended to be a bit more surly and lacking in hygiene, but not a bad place to play.

Ameristar: The nicest of the rooms in terms of size and looks and they had a separate high limit room. I wish I had gone in the evening to see what kind of action was there and table selection. There wasn't much to choose from in the AM and the tourney didn't get that much play.

all in all, I give St. Louis high marks. I was there about 4 years ago and only played at the President, and I swore hat I wouldn't go back. Luckily, the other places are top notch and seemed to be well run. I'll be back.

Great trip report. I play mostly at the Lumiere downtown, but I've been thinking about heading out to Harrah's/Ameristar for some of the tournaments. What is the payout structure on those?

The payouts seem to be bottom loaded so that 1st doesn't get a huge share, and the lower placing spots get higher than normal. Then again, I didn't pay too much attention, so I could be wrong.

I liked the description of the Ameristar tourneys best since they seemed to be of the deeper stacked variety. Harrah's had antes, which really blows and makes the later rounds complete shove-fests.

less than top 10% usually cash in those tournies which is good cuz theres usually only 60 pleayers max, so itz always about top 5 or 6 pay, but its really not that bottomloeaded.

Quick questions:
Does Harrah's STL allow iPod/MP3 usage during either/both tournaments and cash games? Thanks.

Anyone here play with nelly?

The best place to play poker in STL, hands down, for many years (2003-2006 in particular) was always the Prez. All the internet geeks hated on it because it was so "scary" to play at... but lumiere's in the same place pratically! Absloutely the worst, softest live games you could find.

I don't live too close to stl anymore, but the best were the worst players, like [removed], and crazy old people...

Went to lumiere a few weeks back and saw all the same old suckers and BBJP players from the prez there!

What ever happened to Leroy, the former boxer turned poker room manager?

I played with Leroy at Harrahs a few months ago. I"m a big guy and he looked at me, gave me a double take and asked, "Have u ever boxed? You look like you could have been a great heavyweight"

Harrahs does allow ipod/mp3 players during cash games. They just started allowing them a couple months ago. I would assume they allow them for tourneys too, but I haven't played a tourney in ages so I can be sure of that.

WOW ! What a statement. I don't know what to say.

Just more proof that some of the people at Harrah's North Kansas City are idiots. One of the big shots (GM or something like that) came into the poker room and I flat asked him. He said it was AGAINST THE RULES in all of Missouri (despite every other poker room in Missouri allowing it). He tried to puff himself up by saying how great he was that he didn't turn in the other rooms for doing it, but he could.

I much more admire someone who says "I don't know but I'll find out" than someone who gives a flat out wrong answer (aka LIE).

It was a state gaming violation to have any electronic device at the tables until that was relaxed a bit just recently.

is there still an interest for a LHE game bigger than 3/6? I'm down for 5/10 or 6/12 (that's as high as I can go right now) pretty much any weekend. Preferably at Ameristar but am willing to go to any of the 3 local rooms.

Quick Rant - Last night at Lumiere I believe I saw the douchiest guy I've ever seen...typically, people in the STL casinos are semi-nice, rarely is someone a total ass unless they're really drunk. Essentially this guy decided to berate every player at his table for any and every reason. He made the mistake of showing his hand while another player was still in the hand, and decide to yell at the poor woman for about 15 minutes because she was covering her hand...I was not at the table, but the last thing you do is yell at someone for your own mistake. Especially when the woman looked as if she didn't play a lot of poker. I'm sure people who play Lumiere regularly know who I am talking about...he looks like the typical high school nerd, very pale, and wore a hat backwards that said "Ship It!!" on it. Essentially a huge loser who's only pleasure in life was pretending he's better than everyone at poker. I didn't play with him, don't know if he's any good...but he's a huge douche in life.

His name is Brian and he is not a typical pale high school nerd type. He is in his 40's but looks and dresses like he is in his 20's.
This is a typical response to the way he acts but he creates action and most players want to bust him to shut him up.

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/spo...9?OpenDocument

Did anyone else read this? This guy is out of his mind. Here are a few of my favorite quotes from Mike Eise:

"I've always said I think I'm one of the best poker players around."

"Eise hesitates before he says he would teach his strategies to his own family, let alone anyone else. He has studied the game diligently, and he and his brother-in-law used to spend hours dealing out hands for heads-up and full tables, in order to get a better sense of how the cards would fall."

"He's been hearing rumors of sponsorship offers, and he's already thought about the possibility of writing an instructional book of his own down the road."

"The two of them started watching instructional videos from Howard Lederer on how to play poker."

I'm happy for the guy and all but give me a break! Sonsorship for a prelim donkfest? The best player in the area? (is he talking about on his street?) Writing an instructional book?

Is his last name pronounced 'Easy' by chance?

I made my first trip down to Lumiere last night and have to say I was fairly impressed. The dealers were all good and personable, no one was short buying and the waitress we had was smoking hot. There was a nice mix of solid regs and people there to dump some chips. One dude sat down at our table completely drunk and dropped about 1000 in less than an hour played some weird ass hands (He called an AI for 300 with just 2 overcards and no pair, with both flush and 4 to a str8 on the board he called an AI with 2 pair and he tried bluffing in some terrible spots). I ended up running kind of bad there, lost 2 races with 77 vs K9 and AK vs 66, and then got rivered bad a couple of times, Had a boat with 69 and a guy caught a king on the river for a better boat, then I had KJ vs K8 with a board of AKK4 and got it AI on the turn only to have a river 8. All in all though it wasn't a bad experience, and the room was nice with very friendly players. I will say that there are more than a fair share of nits there but most are regs and other regs identify them quickly.

The only time I played in STL was at Harrah's. The dealer was so bad that, once or twice, I could see a card he was dealing to other player as they were in the air. This aided me in bluffing on an Axxx board when I saw one player get dealt an A and then fold pf. Interesting experience...this ever happened to anybody else? In retrospect, it might have been good form to speak up, but it was my first time playing in a casino.

/thread hijack

Brian is the best player in STL, just ask him!

I've played 5.10 NL with this guy at AMeristar. He's absolutely horrible. Even a blind squirrel finds an acorn every now and then.

The one hand I saw him play was him calling a UTG raise for 75. Mike was on the button with K3. He basically raised all in on a blank flop (2, 5, 8 rainbow) for $1500. His opponent shockingly had aces and insta called. What a player.

I'm thinking of going down to stl next weekend. What are the chances they will be running a 5/10nl game somewhere? Min/Max buyin of the game and do they play real nitty?