Agua Caliente

Just got back from the road trip. Wife and I decided to take the family to Palm Springs in honor of our 10 year anniversary. Thursday night, I got out to Oceans-11 after work, and booked a 50 big bet win in about 4 hours in the 20/40 game, with the majority of it coming in the last 90 minutes or so.

Friday, drive out to Palm Springs, actually Desert Hot Springs, but close enough to Palms Springs for me. We have been to this hotel before, it's the same one we went to last year.

I got out to Agua Caliente casino Friday night. Poker room was full, but the biggest limit game they had was 4/8, and the mid-stakes no-limit had a long list. So I ended up playing blackjack in the Primrose room, or something like that, in their high-limit salon.

I was playing with two Chinese gambolholics and some Armenian/Russian/Ukranian gun-runner/mobster or at least it seemed like that. The Chinese player with big gambool was betting table limit on two spots, and doubling down in all kinds of spots where he wasn't supposed to. For example, A2 against a dealer 3, double down! 53 against a dealer 4, double down! The other Chinese player, I nicknamed him little gambool, for 2 reasons. One he was flat betting $200 a hand, and he was making mistakes the other way. For example, start with A4 against a dealer 9? Hit, brick a ten, hit again get an ace, and then he would stay? Huh? Whatever.

At least the Armenian/Russian/Ukranian mobster was playing mathematically correct. He was betting table limit as well in two spots as well. So each round of play, there was at least $83000 or more in play against the house. The Chinese gambolholic probably had $25,000 or so in chips, while the gun-runner had at least $60,000 or so at one point.

In any case, I got buried early, made a spectacular comeback and booked a $1125 win at about 3:30 am, and got my ass back to the hotel room.

Wouldn't be surprised to hear the next time I go back there, that the house eventually busted the gambolholics and the gun-runner. They looked like they were in it for the long-haul. Sometimes you can just look into a gambooler's eyes and see it. Yes, they are there until they are busto, or have busted the table and have every chip under the dealers control.

See, I'm not like that, usually. I just wanted to get back to even, book a small win, and get the hell out of there.

Mission Accomplished.