Just got back from another Reno trip, and I made it to a couple of places I hadnt yet been to.

We were just there a couple of nights for my Birthday, so I didnt play much but have a little to report

El Dorado- I played there on a tuesday night, there were like 6 full tables, 4 3/6 tables and 2 NL ( 1/2 blinds). Had to wait about 45 min. to get a seat at a NL table- while I was waiting I saw a dude with way more chips I would expect to see at a game with 1/2 blinds and a 300$ max buy in- he had to have at least $2500 in front of him! Anyways, I bought in for $100 ($30 min, 300 max) and quickly realized this was pretty short stacked for the table, so I immediately bought another $100 worth. I also quickly realized the table was very loose , lot of limpers, lots of OOP calling, 1 guy was overbetting many pots like a maniac. I decided to stay tight and wait for a hand- I limped a few speculative hands behind several limpers, and remember raising QQ strong in late position, taking down the pot preflop with the usual 6 limpers. After about an hour and a half of play I flopped big behind , naturally several limpers. I have Q9o on the button and limp into a 7 or 8 way pot. Flop comes 9 T Q rainbow , UTG bets 20 into a pot of 16 or so, 2 callers, I think for a few moments and push in my remaining 185 or so, deciding to protect my 2p , UTG of course turns over JK for the nuts and he holds... sigh- I was stunned, not a good start to this trip poker wise! I decided I was finished with poker for the night...

Harrah's- Next night, after the wife and I had a great dinner at Silver Legacy ( where we were staying) I played a $60 FO at Harrah's. I had been scouting out the tourney scene for that night earlier in the day and decided Harrah's looked like the best bet. For $60 ( $55 + a $5 add on at the start ( which is basically a tax that pays the dealers for the night) you get 3000 chips, blinds at 25/50 for half hour, then move up every 20 minutes. Seemed like a decent structure compared to most online tourneys and even the live small buy in tourneys I have played. The beauty of live tourneys is that the buy in doesnt really correspond to skill level at all ( even less than online I think!). There were MANY totally inexperienced players who had no idea how to play a tournament, it was really remarkable- and its so much easier to read these types live!! You can see in their faces, mannerisms, not to mention betting, how bad they are. I wish online poker was like this sometimes!! lol... anyways there were 22 players total I think for this - a 2 table SnG basically, they had 2 tables 11 handed to start.

On one of the 1st hands a young guy pushes his whole stack early position, older dude calls, everyone else folds. Olded dude turns over Aces, younger guy QKo!!! That kind of sums up what I am talking about. I stayed pretty card dead throughout most of the night, for the 1st half hour I think I played maybe 2 hands. I did make one move in the 1st hour, flopped the nut flush draw from the Blind, fired into it 3 handed, took it down. By the end of the hour blinds were up to 100/200, I did play AK, 1 or 2 limpers, I push.... took it down.

after break we are soon 9 handed on the FT, I double when I get AT on SB, CO raises, I put him on a steal and push over, he turns over KK! Then proceed to spike the A on flop and that is that. It gets down to 6 and I am one of 3 short stacks- top 3 pay which knd of sucks IMO. Guy to my right starts asking if everyone agrees to giving 4th place the buy-in back out of the prize pool- I'm like: yeah, thats a good idea..lol. At this point the players are all decent, I hold on to my little stack, stealing blinds when I can and make it into the final 4... So I am ITM (kinda) and then the blinds go up to 1000/2000 and I look down at Q7o and my little stack of 6000 or so, UTG..what else can I do? I open push, and monster stack calls me with QJ of course! he holds.. and I am done. Fun tourney though, I would definitely play it again, and recommend to anyone looking for pretty sweet little tourney!