The Nacogdoches/Shreveport trip was worth it just for the drive down Friday morning. I left Ennis at about 9:45 a.m. and for half of the three-hour drive I listened to 1310 The Ticket’s Norm talk about the Mavericks and Cowboys. The scenery was beautiful and I decided to take the longer, more scenic route to Nacogdoches, which was definitely the right decision. East Texas is a beautiful piece of countryside that is overshadowed by the dry, barren half of West Texas in the minds of the national public.
After arriving in Nacogdoches at 1 p.m. I drove around the city to look at my old house where I have countless great memories of the good times I had in college. I made my way to Peking and savored my favorite dish. General Sao’s Chicken is still as good as I remembered it. Following lunch I went to the campus and walked around a bit. They are making a lot of changes, particularly in parking. I saw two new parking garages on campus, my dorm was torn down to build new apartment-style dorms and the University Center is being remodeled. I bought two SFA shirts and a hat. I also saw my favorite professor from the journalism department, who I think had a small for of turrets syndrome or was just a kooky old man that loved his job. He was across campus and I didn’t get a chance to talk to him, but I doubt he would have remembered me anyway so it was for the best.
After the shopping and campus tour I played a round of Frisbee golf. I shot a –2 for the course, which is pretty great since I haven’t played the course in years and I haven’t played Frisbee golf in several months. I was bogey free until hole 16 where I missed a 10-foot putt that cost me par. It was even more defeating because I was so close to going the entire game without a bogey and it occurred on a hole I usually birdie.
Once I finished my game I took a little more time to see the town and what had changed (a few new restaurants and some businesses had closed down). I finally hit the road for Shreveport.
Once I arrived in Shreveport, instead of finding a place to spend the night I immediately made my way to El Dorado (formerly Hollywood Casino) to begin my poker comeback. I played for seven hours and finished with a profit of $189. I had to put in a $160 add-on to keep going, but it was worth it in the end.
I lost with pocket queens... again. This seems to be the hand of my demise lately. The only good thing to come out of losing with the queens was I stopped putting money into the pot once I knew I was beat. I raised pre-flop and got two callers. The flop came out with three lower cards than my queens. I bet about two-thirds of the pot and received one player. The turn was an ace and he checked to me again. I checked behind him and the river was insignificant. He checked again and I flipped up my hand. He showed his A-J and won the pot. He had nothing on the flop but decided to call with his overs. Oh well, that is what I want in the long run.
The second session came Saturday when I played at the Horseshoe Casino. I won $135 at this game, but it was just as bad as WinStar, except I wasn’t surrounded by 19-year-olds.
One guy at the game raised pre-flop to $55 on several occasions with nobody yet voluntarily entering the pot. By the way, I was playing in a $1-2 no-limit game, not a $2-5. After frustrating the table with his bets he started to get action but unlucky for us he hit the hands he needed. He was raising with K-J and Q-9 and would either hit and win a big pot or miss and bet all in forcing the other players out. He left with a profit of about $450 and we were all glad to see him leave. Actually, he did tone it down a little for a while, only making it $20-25 pre-flop but eventually made his way back up to the $45 range near the end.
I also played against the most annoying player I have ever been around at this session. He was a loud-mouthed, cocky, ignorant, jobless man from Arkansas who only talked about how we were a bunch of donkeys who he was going to roll up, felt or ride back to Arkansas. I was only given one opportunity to double up through him when I semi-bluffed the turn with a straight draw and flush draw. I hit the straight on the river and bet $35 (with the pot sitting at about $55). He thought long and hard about raising and finally folded. He said he folded top pair and was going to raise me but he couldn’t pull the trigger. I told him he should have because I missed my flush and only had ace high.
A big hand for me came when I elected to speculate a flop with 6-7 suited and flopped a straight. A player with Kings raised pre-flop and after the limpers got out of the way and another player called I decided to see what happened. If I didn’t hit two pair or better I was gone. When I flopped my straight both myself and the other caller checked. The raiser went all in for $30 more (with about $40 in the pot). The first player called the bet and I thought long and hard about what I wanted to do. There were two diamonds on board (which was not my suit) and I elected to raise another $60. I figured if the caller had a draw he would let it go and if he hit something decent he might hang in there. The caller folded and I flipped up my hand. The river would have made a higher straight for the caller so it is good I did what I did. By the way, the table proceeded to discuss how bad I was because I played junk hands like 6-7 suited in a raised pot. Eh, maybe they are right, but I stand by my decision. I would certainly complain about losing to 6-7 suited when I had pocket kings.
Overall the trip was great and I had a really good time. For anyone going to Shreveport anytime soon I recommend El Dorado’s card room over the Horseshoe’s room. It is more spacious and the game is not as wild. My bankroll was bumped up to $1,748 after my two winning sessions and I will be making my return to Choctaw soon.
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