Hollywood Casino

My brother and his family moved up to Cincinnati late last year and we scheduled a visit to coincide with a Spring wine festival for Stacie and Laura to attend. Friday afternoon, We took a quick flight up to the Cincinnati airport, which is actually in northern Kentucky and headed to their new house.

I had already mentioned to my brother that I would like to spend some time at Hollywood Casino and check out their WPT branded poker room. He and I headed out for a bite to eat and then made our way across town and in to Indiana on the other side of the river. The place was packed and we ended up parking on the top level of the parking deck. Real fun with the cold rain falling all night. I did a quick tour of the place and headed downstairs to the non-smoking section where the poker room was located. This place has recently been renamed and remodeled and I was very pleased with the look of it all. I was not impressed with actually getting a seat in a game. The staff at the check in desk weren't the friendliest or accommodating. It is a big room but half of the tables were empty. This wouldn't be a big deal, but there was a pretty long wait list and they weren't setting up any new tables. I guess it was because they were running sit-n-gos in the adjoining ballroom and that took up some of the dealers. We waited about 30-40 minutes and were both seated at a 1/2 table.

I don't think my brother had ever played 1/2 cash and after dropping a little less than $100 he decided to go play some 3 card poker and blackjack instead. When he left I was up a little and at one point had almost doubled my buy-in. As usual, I can spend 3-4 hours making money, but give away the night's profit and a chunk of my original buy-in with one hand. I still haven't decided if I made a mistake or not at the time, but either way, it didn't work out. I eventually pissed away the rest of my stack in the next hour or so. Lessons learned and I will definitely be back the next time I visit.

Another advantage of visiting Cincy was the opportunity to hang with Iggy for the second weekend in a row. Saturday night, my brother and I dropped our wives off at the wine festival downtown and met up with him for dinner at The Senate Pub. I ate the most expensive grilled cheese I have ever had but man was this sandwich tasty. Fortunately for me, they were out of the meat that normally goes on the sandwich and substituted spare or short rib meat. Personally I think this is how they should always serve it compared to the more fatty meat that it normally contains. After dinner and conversation we all headed to a Bengal's bar for some drinks and a few rounds of pool. This gave me a good couple of hours to get to know the Blogfather a little better. As many of you know, he is a great guy and easy company. Unfortunately we had to make the evening shorter than I wanted because we had to pick up the girls from the convention center. We headed back to the house and jetted out the next afternoon.

Mastodon Weekend Recap

If you plan it, they will come. Here are some flashes of activites from the weekend:

Showed up in time to see the next card game craze, Big Duece, courtesy of Dr. Pauly.

Got busted in the 2nd level of the awesome tournament by the sex offender that looked like Charlie from Lost. Congrats to Otis and BadBlood for going heads up.

Won a buyin at the cash game. I had to swap stacks with CK to do it. I have never played so aggressive in my life, but she can push you to do it. I look forward to some Venetian time with her in late July.

Just my luck, I had to sit next to Nikki in the tournament and later in the cash game. Damn, this young lady is hot! Unfortunately for some of us, she knew how to play poker as well. Not only was she obviously smokin' but she was as sweet as can be. She and her husband, Jeff, really treated us well with their Bustout Poker gear, catering, and cash addition to the prize pool.

I played my first ever round of frolf. G-Rob, Drizz, TripJax, 23Skidoo, Bobby Bracelet, and Pauly were the lucky witnesses to my fantastic disc throwing abilities. Apparently, my throws are calibrated to the 20-30 footers that I do with my dog in the back yard. Beyond that, they shoot way left and quickly seek the ground. I got more distances on rolls and bounces than I did on the actual flight of the disc. We bruised many a tree that day. Somehow, Trip managed to start behind the tee.....twice! Pauly was able to do the exact same shot 3 time in a row on one hole. He'd throw it and it would hit a tree, bounce off and roll straight in to the creek. When he conceded the hole, Bobby threw his disc back to him and it went right off of his fingers to end up back in the creek. 4 times on the same hole, that's gotta be a record. Here is Pauly's video:



Prop bets won: 1 with CK. I went 4 for 4 on blind picking out each person's bill when the waitress laid a stack of them on the table.

Prop bets lost: 2. Paid off Pauly for his frolf win. Paid off Bobby Bracelet for his 3 shot run in pool. Well done.

Shared a slice with CK while taking a break from the trivia / pub crawl. Major highlight.

Watched Bobby Bracelet in action with the ladies. His opening? Boldly retelling how he had been so drunk last time, the he boned a chick for 2 days and didn't realize how ugly she was until he finally started to sober up. If that's not convincing enough to the ladies, he described in detail her lack of grooming standards. The descriptive terms "thigh stubble," "huge 70's jungle bush," and something about a basketball star "in a headlock down there" were used. But, he maintains "she had nice tits."

Shared a room with TripJax and 23Skidoo. These 2 were either wasted or hungover the entire time I saw them.

Made plans to have a beer with Iggy this Friday while I'm in his hood.

Put a smiling face to a name for some bloggers that I have played against or read about for years. In addition, I met some awesome new folks. Shout outs to: The Mark, Teresa, Lee, CaityCaity, Pebbles and Bam Bam, Curtis, Boy Genius, Tim, Dr Chako, Heather, StB, Wes, Mrs. BadBlood and her drunk ass friend, and of course the man of the hour and the reason we took the field, Al.

How can I not make this a yearly stop on the blogger tour? It's so close and the company can't be beat. I'm thinking the Chicago folks need to get something going as well.