I was looking for somewhere to gamble last Friday and of the choices I Twittered about, Gadzooks recommended hitting the Horseshoe Casino in Hammond. It is a huge boat or barge or something. All I know is it isn't 'land based'. But it is huge for something that floats, including 3000 slot machines, 8 craps tables, and a 34 table poker room. I arrived around 8PM. The parking garage was packed.
The Horseshoe looks like a 3/4 scale Las Vegas casino. The poker room is in the far back of the casino and seems to be very well run. I put my name on the list for 1/2NL and 3/6 limit and they gave me a pager. I spent the next hour and a half playing a little video poker and then some craps. They had 5 $10 min. tables and 3 $15 tables at 8:30 on a Friday night. One thing I noticed while playing video poker is most of the $0.25 machines had a 10 coin 'max bet' instead of the normal 5 coins. So it didn't pay out the royal flush bonus unless you played ten coins. I liked their craps tables, I'd go back just for them.
Eventually I was seated at a 1/2 NL table. Normally I am a little uneasy playing live NL, but I didn't get that feeling. I think all of the passive play helped. I think I saw one preflop re-raise all night. Lots of preflop limping as well. I only had one really good hand all night, was dealt JTs under the gun and raised to $8 guy on the button was the only caller. Flop was A8Q 3 suited and I tossed out $25 as a semi-bluff and the other guy called. The turn was a K and I opened for $50. The other guy pushed and I quickly called with my straight. He flipped over KK. The river was a blank & I made around $150. It was a very nice feeling.
One crazy thing happened at the table. The Horseshoe has a royal flush bonus, and around the time I was thinking about leaving, someone at the table got a royal flush. He got a $500 bonus and the rest of us were in line for $100 bonuses. All we had to do was give the room manager our player cards. The thing was the guy to my right didn't want to. He was a little odd, he was hoarding water bottles under the table and seemed a little paranoid. When the room manager got around to him, the guy refused the money. This floored everyone at the table and we started asking him why he was giving up the money. He grumbled something about 'nothing is free' and within 5 minutes the guy took off. The only disappointing thing is I lost around $100 waiting for the free $100.
I ended up winning $190, so I have to go back this weekend :).
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