Screwed by Dealers Three Times in One Night

Yesterday I made a short road trip to play some poker at the nearest room, the Par-A-Dice riverboat casino in East Peoria, IL. It was a very different trip.

Sadly, my friend Willy Wonka was not attentive to my needs. However, another favorite slot machine at the boat,, Cash Illusions, was.

There isn't anything quite as fun as donking a little cashola in slot machines for a little relaxation. And when you win ... so much better!

I was seated immediately upon entering the poker room. The game was progressing slowly as I received little in the way of cards. Then, however, things rapidly changed when one of the better local players sat down at the table. I knew him well enough to know that he tries to blow people off hand by betting really big after the flop or turn. I had pocket 5's and flopped a set on the turn. A set of 5's used to be called "Presto!" in the old poker blogger world, and I felt like shouting it out. The good thing was, I knew exactly how to play this guy. I showed weakness after the flop, and he jacked up his bet after the turn. There were straight possibilities out there, but I was betting that I was way ahead, so I shoved my whole stack. He tanked for a bit, than apparently decided that I was using his strategy. He called. I never found out what he had, but I took everything he had except for $7. He walked away from the table to take a loooong break. Yowsa!

Eventually several players started leaving, so I decided to take a break while comfortably ahead. I returned to the room a bit later and was seated at the same table. There were several new players and the action was loose and hard. I was hoping for some decent cards, but switched tables when they were not forthcoming. A while later, cokeboy99 came to the boat and was able to eventually get seated at my table. It sure was nice to have at least one compadre in the room.

As for the title of this post ... three different times by three different dealers, I was on the crappy end of their errors.

#1: Female dealer who also messed up a pot by not counting out chips from a player's all in somehow misdealed our hands. I looked down to see ... A-A. Wonderful.

#2: Male dealer who is apparently very new exposed the river card before the final player in a hand had a chance to call a bet. The card would have given me the nut flush and won me a nice pot. However, the river card was instead shuffled back into the deck, and the new river was not a Heart, meaning I had nothing. That hand really cost me. Grrrrr.

3#: Male dealer (probably the best or one of the best in the room) somehow misdeals. I look down to see ... A-A! Do you believe it! I know there could be an assumption that it the cards were dealt properly, I might not have gotten both A-A hands. However, I am not sure what caused the misdeals -- bad flips to the last couple of players? In any event, you should be able to understand why I felt frustrated last night.

Toward the end of the evening, a rather annoying player sat down and kept running his yap the rest of the evening. He was a lucksack supreme, and I only hope that I get to play with him again in the future when the poker gods might be a little more favorable to me.

All in all, despite some good play on my part, I took a slight loss on the evening. It was nice, however, so get away for part of the day since work has been taking its toll on me lately.