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Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Poker Play and Skiing in CO (Again) Late December 2011

Pictures and Video at the Bottom

As I am visiting the United States I thought I would do some sightseeing and play a little live poker. It seems that there are casinos in every state in not every city, most offering live poker.

I never really enjoyed live poker, the quality of players is a little better then the players you find on-line. It seems since the United States Department of Justice shut down on-line Poker for U.S. Player. The live games have loosened up. Remember when playing poker you do not have to be a good poker player you only have to be better then the other players at your table.

I started in Atlantic City and drove West to Colorado, I was able to find a casino or poker room in every state I crossed. I won enough money to fund my trip plus have a little left over that should carry me until I return to Botswana. I had one very exciting hand, it happened at a poker room in a small town in Kansas it was a Harrah's Casino. The only issue was the tables were some what over my budget. The blinds were $5, $10, I usually play $1,$2 when playing live poker. I normally would not have played, but there was one player at the table that was a huge fish. I felt if I played tight enough I could win a lot of money form this guy.

I bought in for $1,000 which was about what I had won over the last few days driving across the country. My very first hand I was dealt a pair of 7's. I was the big blind, 7 players were in the pot so I checked. The pot was roughly $70.00.

The Flop: 7, 10, 5 I had hit a set of 7's (3 sevens). Unless someone had a pair of 10's in their hand I had the best hand. The guy that was first to act (the fish) bet $70.00 everybody folded to me. I knew he would call my raise as he had been doing that for all the hands I had watched. So I made a raise to $400.00. He says, "You better not have a Set!" and he pushed all in just under $1,000. I thought for a minute. I did not think he would have limped in with a pair of 10's so I knew I had the best hand. I called him, he turned over 10, 7, he had two pair. The turn was a 5, I now had a full house. The river was a blank and I won about $1,000 in one hand. The guy that lost threw down his chip rack and walked off. I took my winnings and went off to do some more skiing. Free skiing now that I won that hand.

When I arrived at my brothers they had a few guests. Larry and his son Big Banger, you may remember Larry I first met Larry on my trip to the Grand Tetonsat the time Larry was traveling with Eddie, and I thought and still think they were a couple (on the other team). It seems that Larry and Eddie adopted a son who is now 19. Big Banger, Big Banger is an up and coming tennis sensation and got his name because he hits his balls so hard, when playing tennis that is. Larry had contacted my brother about some skiing and that is that. Also at the house was Big Ed. You may remember Big Ed did some skiing with me last year for his birthday.

There has been very little snow and the conditions are even worse then they were a few weeks ago when I was out with Mad and Lauren.

Day one we skied Copper Mountain. It was fine, Larry, and Big Banger thought it was great, since they are east coast skiers. They thought all the ice and dirt was normal skiing. Though the conditions were awful we had fun.

Day two we skied Winter Park, the conditions on Day 2 made day ones conditions look great, 80 Mile Per Hour winds with Ice or hard packed snow. Big Banger was getting a little frustrated with his skiing. So we decided to get private lessons from Gary (Ziggy) Ziegler). We are not sure what was worse Ziggy's lessons or the conditions. The lessons may have been bad because of the conditions. The one and only benefit of the lessons was we got to go to the front of the lift lines. With the high winds they shut down all but 2 of the ski lifts so the lines were an hour or so long, but not for us, we went right to the front with Ziggy.

Day three was back to Copper Mountain, they had gotten about 2 inches of snow and the winds had died down so we had a great day of skiing. One thing I found interesting was how Larry compensates for the changing ski conditions. You may remember last year when I skied with Jack Daniel he would change his skis to adjust for his added weight after lunch. I had suggested he just take a duce to lower the weight. That is exactly what Larry does as the conditions change he will either eat to add weight of take a dump to reduce weight. I think Larry spent more time in the head then he did on the ski slopes.

We had dinner at a great restaurant in Evergreen called Kitchen on the Creek.

After 3 days of god awful skiing and a bunch of fun, Larry and Big Ed decided to do some ski shopping at Foot Hills Ski and Bike. The owner John is the coach for both Lindsey Vonn and Bode Miller, 4 hours and several thousand dollars later Big Ed and Larry had skis that could take them on the Olympic skiing circuit.

Tonight is New Years Eve in Evergreen Colorado. The town puts on a great fireworks show from the frozen town lake. We all trekked out to the middle of the lake in 25 degree temperatures to watch the fireworks.

Now the issue is what to do with Larry and Big Ed's old ski boots. More on that Later.

Cheers,

DUG



















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