As the Tournament Tourns

Started out strongly this morning with a couple of quads on Bonus Poker while I had a couple of coffees. Its funny how anal some video poker players are - there were people lined up to register for the tournament at the Four Queens a full hour ahead. Just standing there in front of the elevator that goes up to the so called Royal Pavillion.

The R.P. is in fact, a huge rec room above the casino. We were herded in there in small groups, one elevator load at a time. Once upstairs we picked up our playing times and the tournament gift - a safari shirt. I am going to look very spiffy in this as I go hunting in the Canadian savannah for... what, bargains at Costco?

They fed us 'breakfast' as part of the registration process. It was, well, on par with a cheap buffet I guess. Great if you like donuts, but the hot dishes were... not so.

I choked down an hour old omelette and a couple of salty sausages, and some taters with peppers in. Skipped the donuts.

I planned out my tournament strategy and got there a bit early. I watched one of the player's screens and rehearsed in my mind what I would hold. Soon it was my turn, along with 11 other folks. You play Double Double Bonus as fast as you can for 10 minutes. The machine adds up how many credits you win. It doesn't count up like usual, it just beeps once for a win.

I thought I played pretty well. Made a few obvious mistakes but I hit quad 3s pretty early on for 400 points, and 2/3 the way through hit quad 4s with a kicker for 800. Didn't even get a sniff at the Aces. To win this tournament you pretty much have to pop a royal or hit the aces with kicker a couple of times.

My score was good - surprisingly good, at 1805 points. I checked around and the nearest to me in my group got 1500. I was easily the top score in my group. I watched the next group of 12 and my score beat all of theirs as well. So I figure I am probably in not in the top 3 - but in the second tier. Maybe in the top 20 or so out of 250?

You need to be in the top 12 to cash in this tournament, so I need to have a really good run tomorrow. If I hit the Aces with kicker, I probably have a chance to get some cash out of this. If I hit a royal tomorrow, I could win it. And top prize is nothing to sneeze at - $4500!!

Was super jazzed from the adrenalin of the tournament so I used that as an excuse to hit the DDB at the bar. I hit quad Kings from two for $62. Had a nice conversation with an elderly woman who has still got it. She was playing deuces and had all kinds of interesting stories to tell. Like when they used to drive to Vegas from California, they'd stop at Victorville where the Hacienda had some girls in a convertible, promoting the casino and handing out coupons. You'd take the coupon in and they'd give you $10 for the room for one night. They gave it in cash!

Took a walk to the ElCo and played $25 in freeplay. Got nothing out of it though. Bought in for 20 at the $3 craps table, hit a run, and tripled my stake. Nice to finally cash out something positive instead of winning and playing it all back.

Was hungry and had my free meat coupon, so I hit the Fitz and ordered the 25 minute fried chicken. While it was frying in delicious grease that would minutes later coagulate in my heart and arteries, I played some Bonus Poker. Dropped 40 bucks there.

My free chicken.

After getting killed the day before I was taking it a bit easier, trying to preserve my stake, which I had pegged at $300 for the day, and not a penny more.

Tried Bonus Deluxe for 20, no $100 quads today.

Tried the NSUD Deuces and played for a long while and... cashed out even! Sort of a win! Well, more like not a loss.

Took a rest and went back down to try BP in which I made $20. Then back to the Jack Daniels, I mean the DDB at the bar. Weirdly, I hit quad 6s twice in 3 minutes for $62 each.

I played for about 5 Jacks on the rocks (1 hour) and actually cashed a winning ticket out. At this point I was only down $100 for the day.

Bought in at the craps table for a hundy. Limit was $5. The table was weird. I'd go down, I'd go up, I'd go down again... never down enough to quit, never up enough to quit a winner. After an hour or so things took a turn and I quit with $30 left, so a $-70 excursion.

By this time it was gettin' late. Bought in at Jacks for $10 and hit quad 4s from 3 for $31. Where were those 4s when I was on DDB??? Tried to parlay it up by playing 50 cent Jacks and played it out.

Played my last 20 on Bonus Poker, got nothing. Decided to quit while I was not beaten too badly. Grabbed chicken fried steak and eggs at Magnolia's and retired, down $195 for the day.

Not too bad for a full day's entertainment, but not what I wanted, obviously. I was pretty chuffed about the tournament though, and maybe I can pull it off tomorrow.

Went to sleep up $1005 on the trip. My lead is quickly eroding and I really want to take home some cash from all my hits earlier this week.