The only news I’ve heard on the match between Andy Beal and Todd Brunson is that the Flop, on the first hand, was 7-7-7. Appropriate. And that Todd made quad 10’s at one point and the pot was big, apparently Andy had a hand with enough value to be there to the River. They were Playing $50K-100K limit. Today the game was supposed to crank at 10:30 AM – Jennifer Harman and Andy.

On the poker arena from my side of it: While playing a $4-8 H game on Monday night, Sharon Gilbert came in to deal. I’ve posted about Sharon before and she can be pretty hard to deal with (no pun intended). This particular game, she didn’t say anything other than specific game phrases…nice! But at one point, she saved me from my own stupidity and laxness. The game was quite loose with a lot of new players and they all wanted to play. One of them lost two $100 buy-ins within the first half hour I was in the game.

When I entered a pot, I expected them to turn over ANYTHING, so when I raised with K-K, I never knew where I was in the hand with three other people calling every bet.

The board came small – two spades. Two players checked to me, I bet, one behind me called, the first two players called. Repeat on the Turn. The River brought another spade and three wheel cards. The first two players checked, me too, the last player bet. The first two players called. As I called, I said to the 9s, “I can’t believe I’m over calling with this hand,” as I held the K-K where the 7 and 9s could see it.

The bettor turned up a black Ace and a black three. It was the Ace of Spades and I could have sworn it was the trey of Spades. Well…that was what I expected to see…a flush. I dropped my hand, right in front of me, face down. The other two players were turning their hands up as Sharon started with the Bettor’s hand, “A pair of Threes.”

She moved to the first checker, “A pair of fives.”

And as she went to the second checker, “A pair of sevens,” it registered. Kee-rist, Mon! I had the best hand. I grabbed the Kings and turned them up in front of me. The Bettor said, over and over, “I thought I made a straight when the three came.”

I couldn’t be more thankful that Sharon did her job, exactly the way she was supposed to do it. She started with the person that initiated action and called their hand, moving to the next player in turn. Yes…I took care of her.

Later in that same game play, a youngster named Willie King from Sioux Falls, South Dakota, joined our table. He took the 10s. He is deaf but not poker shy. I had a great time with him. For some reason we hit it off and managed to communicate to a degree that I believe he felt comfortable in the game. I was shocked that the outgoing dealer never relayed the information to the incoming dealer though. Several times during game play, new dealers would say something to Willie and he obviously didn’t know they were talking to him. Come on, kids, communication is a great tool. Just do it!

Friday and Saturday of last week were spent running errands, finalizing my move out of the old house, cleaning up last minute things, and I took some of the stuff that didn’t go at the garage sale and just set it out in the yard with a big sign that read ‘FREE’. When I returned on Monday, most of it was gone. One of my neighbors, a few houses down, was having a garage sale and I couldn’t help but wonder if some of the ‘free’ stuff ended up over there. 🙂

Sunday I went to The Palms. I’ve been promising/threatening Wayne that I would be in to play for about a year. Truthfully I’ve been like a turtle with my head in the Aruba Sand (Remember? ‘Get up you lazy Turtles…’ If you don’t remember, go read the Aruba reports). I’ve played exclusively at Bellagio for almost two years now, other than the IP during the Blogger’s Tournament and one stint at the Gold Coast with Wayne, a year ago. Time to start moving around town and finding on what’s going on out there.

The Palms has two sections, separated by a hallway that ends in bathrooms. How nice to have bathrooms immediately at the poker room instead of having to trip across the casino. One section is high limit – I believe they will spread anything two people want to play – that generally consists of NLH, $10-20 being the highest on most days.

The low limit side is $2-4 and $4-8 H. When Viv and I arrived, there were two $2-4’s and two $4-8’s going. We were on the list. A game started within a few minutes and we planted our butts in the chairs along with eight other players. I knew one of the other players, Stan, but hadn’t seen him in quite a few years…there are a lot of rooms in Vegas and people pick up other ‘haints’ around town. Stan loosened up after he won his first pot and appeared to have a fairly good time at the table. We jabbered. I asked if I could take his picture…”Yes!”

My favorite dealer (even though he’d never dealt to me before other than one of the Saturday night games with the Pan crew at my house) was buzzing around, saying ‘hello’ and in and out behind Viv and me. BTW, the very first hand dealt, Viv picked up A-A and won the pot. WTG!

This is the low limit side, where we were playing, and the ‘cracked’ person in the middle of the picture was playing in the 2s, on my right. He managed to bounce up and down every few minutes, friendly, talkative (and I’ve dealt to him at Bellagio) and he never eased up on the cocktail waitress…she was a cutie and just kept smiling…and smiling…and smiling. But back to ‘cracked’, he managed to skip right into the picture I was trying to shoot and I didn’t want to use the flash because I didn’t want security down on my head about the camera thing. Rather than just have ‘cracked’ as a strange blur in the middle of the picture, I felt he deserved to appear slightly ‘cracked’.

I sat forever without picking up a playable hand. Enter Wayne. He managed to deal me a hand, nice sized pot, and then I went back to card dead for quite awhile…oh yeah, it was the K-10C, I was on the Button, raised it pre-flop, flopped top pair with two clubs and got paid off, even after I made the flush on the Turn. The dealer extraordinaire:

When Wayne left the box, I asked him to take a picture of the lovely Ms. Vivienne and me. I’m the kid with the WPBT hat on…in case you couldn’t tell.

After I’d been out of the room for a moment or so, returned packing my camera, Stan asked me to take a picture of his wife, Jeanne, continuing with the fact that it was her birthday. She was playing at a table next to us. Check out that gorgeous smile…and don’t forget the tattoo that’s peeking out of her shirt. Stan…can you handle this woman???

Viv lost a couple of big hands and opted to quit. She sat behind me for a bit while I played a few more rounds. I won one gi-hugeous pot with Q-J. The Flop brought K-10-3, one player held K-3, the other held K-10. Small raising war developed on the Flop with five-way action. A beautiful Ace popped off on the Turn putting two diamonds on board. The K-10 bet, the K-3 called, I raised, K-10 raised, K-3 called, I raised, K-10 called, K-3 folded. K-10 paid me off on the River. K-3 kept talking about how he’d flopped two pair…yeah, baby!

I played for about two and half hours, booked a nice win, visited with my buds – Viv and Wayne – and hit the door. The Palms has some great bennies for players, make sure you get a player’s card at The Club and clock in and out while you are playing poker. The card works for everything, including machines, poker, etc. They have a ‘diamond flush’ bonus…ask about it if you make one and make sure you have your Palm’s Player’s Card with you. The room is non-smoking until graveyard…I believe. I won’t be playing on graveyard due to that fact but I think if you visit the room, you’ll like the action, the ‘bennies’, the staff and the overall lay of the Palms. I give the room an A+.

But if you’re hanging around cyberspace, go give Titan Poker a whirl – bonuses, tournaments, and special deals due to PokerWorks promos. C U there!