Really -- no sets?

I played a marathon poker session last Saturday at the nearest poker room -- the Par-A-Dice Casino in East Peoria, IL. I have played there enough to recognize some of the locals, but I generally keep to myself when there unless meeting up with Cokeboy99.

I was lured to the casino that day due to a slot promotion that I received (11x points from 5:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.). Knowing that there are a couple of Willie Wonka slots there, how could I refuse? Plus, my wife had two things going on that day and wouldn't be around, thus giving me even more reason to go.

Fellow blogger Pete P. Peters loves to post pictures of his casino ventures, usually including the shot of his filet and/or cabernet from the fine steakhouse at whichever casino he is visiting. Well, I generally do not eat dinner when I play poker in East Peoria. I load up on a meal before I play, then don't eat until I am ready to head home. But, in the Triple P tradition, I hereby post pictures of my exquisite meal before driving to East Peoria:

Perhaps I should have just eaten some of the curry chicken I got my daughter at the local Chinese restaurant?

The poker that night was, to say the least, brutal. I caught some cards at the beginning (which included seeing the dreaded pocket kings and queens get pwned on the flop) and was able to chip up on a table that had players with weaknesses just ready to be exploited. Then ... nothing. I was card dead for hours. My cards were so bad that I couldn't even limp into any pots if I had the chance. Those chances became even more rare as a reg who I had usually seen play pretty tight went on tilt and started raising every pot. I estimate that I saw him rebuy to the tune of about $1,500 over a relatively short period of time. A couple of times he lost his rebuy within a few hands. Pretty sad. Sadder still, I was unable to take advantage of the situation. Fold. Fold. Fold. Yuck.

I decided to take a break from poker after over six hours so that I could earn some bonus points playing some sweet, sweet video poker and some slots. Unfortunately, the video poker machines in East Peoria seem incredibly tight. Nothing. Nada. How does Pete Peters find dem good machines that give him quad Aces so frequently?

After an hour of donking some slots and after the promotion ended, I went back to the poker room, only to be two-outed on a big hand and suffer other poker indignities that I shudder to remember. In both sessions, which totaled 12 hours, I did not hit even one set. I felt pretty confident against the other players, but the cards certainly did not cooperate that night.

You know you are running bad when you depend on slot play to make up for poker losses. I hit up Wonka for one last time before leaving the boat and got a nice bonus, which at least cut my losses to a level where I didn't tweet that I wanted to kill everybody.

I grabbed a shitty Italian sub from the snack bar and began the lonely drive home, making it into my bed before the sun came up. Just another frigging day in Par-A-Dice.