This is one of the sickest poker hands you'll ever see. Comments are welcome!

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Went away camping in the mountains with a few other dads and their daughters. After the kids went to sleep we decided to play some $1/2 NL. There was a guy there that used to prop at the Commerce in some $100/200 and $200/400 stud games. He was good and had a great run of cards for the first few hours and was dominating. But he was also getting drunk. I was card dead and could not play back at him. I finally got 55 and pushed against his 3 bet. He had 77 and I hit a 5! I then flopped a straight and he pushed at me on the turn and I won that. A few hours later I had jx with two clubs and bet on a board of AJx with two clubs. He called. On the turn there was another A (I don’t think he has an A) and I bet again and he calls. On the river the flush comes and I bet again and he calls with K2 of clubs! I had him all the way up until the river. I hate when this happens -- you actually had the best hand the entire time, but you are rooting to make your draw. You then make your draw and it was your downfall -- careful what you wish for!

About 3:30am I had a good draw. Middle pair, flush draw, gut shot straight. If I was facing a TPTK hand, which I assumed I was facing, I had 15+ outs. I was first to act and should have pushed the turn but checked; hey it was late! He bets a little more than half my stack. I knew he would call my push because he clearly had something and was priced in to call. I felt I had about the right odds, maybe not exactly, but close, even if he called and I was dying to go to sleep so I push, he calls and I hit my flush. Poker can be fun sometimes!

I visited Vegas last week and played in the new room at Casears for the first time and really enjoyed it -- see my review at here.

I played the $2/5 game with no max buy-in. Because of this the game played much higher than a typical $2/5 game. Most of the players had several thousand dollars behind them. What was very unusual was that most of the players were inexperienced. They weren't timid though. They were gamblers. One guy saw 100% of the flops and this was for 5 hours. He even called 3 bets PF when the pot was raised to $75-100 and he didn't have anything. It didn't matter, he wanted to see flops. Because of his loose play most of the table loosened up too. One time a guy 3 bet to $100 and 3 other players called with nothing. What’s even better is that two of them had the bottom end of a four card straight on the river and they called a $250 bet when there was also a 4 card flush. They beat the guy who bet – he had top pair only!

I started with $500 and played fairly tight at first, but did manage to win one nice pot. I had KQ and called a raise with position. The flop came KJ7 with three hearts. The guy bets $50 and I called – I pegged him as the one good player at the table, but he had been playing a bit too many pots so I felt that I could be good. The flop was a blank and he bet out $125. At this point I was a bit concerned but now felt that he was a bit scared of me so either he had a two pair type hand and I was beat but he was scared of the hearts, or he had the A of hearts. I called and was hoping that he would slow down on the river and I could likely take it away. Sure enough a fourth card fell, he checked and I bet $250 and he folded. I didn’t have a heart.

An hour or so later a young guy who was pretty good raised to $20 and I made it $60 with AKs. The loose player (who plays 100% of the pots) called and the initial raiser folded. The flop came 46K rainbow and it’s checked to me so I make it $150. The loose player called. The turn came a 7, and it’s checked to me again and I now push and he folds.

I picked up a bunch of other hands during the session by simply raising from position and continually firing away when it was checked to me. Most of the guys at the table were very loose AND passive. They never seemed to put pressure on me when they didn’t have a hand and they usually bet when they had a hand. In fact, during the entire session I NEVER showed down a hand that was not the best hand. NEVER. I also hit trips once and stacked a guy who had TPTK but that was only for $200 or so. I ended the session with $1550 in chips. I was sorry that I had to leave but we were catching a plane back to LA. It was a really fun and stress-free session.