Recap of my Texas trip... (Apologize for the length as I would not be able to read all of this if I were you)
Damn there are A LOT of cars and traffic in Texas.
The hotel was amazing, I highly recommend if you need to stay around there, it was very clean and the lobby bar and staff was very nice with good drinks and food.
We went to The HUB for a team dinner/party the first night. Pretty cool concept but it was raining for some of the night so didn't get the full experience.
Friday morning I took an uber to the Texas Card House. Never being to a "card house" it def seemed somewhat sketchy being in a strip mall but who am I to complain, I love playing poker and can adapt. I was able to sit right down at a $1/2 NLH table at 10:25am. Bunch of characters at that hour I must say, definitely more gamblers than poker players for sure. I proceeded to watch people burn through $300-$500 quicker than I have ever seen and of course nothing really coming my way. Nobody had any concept of pot odds or betting strategy....here are a few hands I remember (even have some time stamps because I was texting a buddy about the hands)
10:36am - One of the first hands i witness is a 4 bet all in preflop where a guy to my right folds his A 10 preflop. The board runs out A J 10 10 x and he's mumbling to himself that he would've won but I keep telling him that one guy had JJ and Jacks full beats his 10's full. He then lit the rest of his $300 on fire in less than 15 minutes on tilt even though he had nothing to be on tilt about.
10:48am -$10 straddle, someone makes it $30, BB calls and straddler calls. Flop 10 9 4 all clubs. Raiser bets $60 and BB rips it in and they turn over KK and 10 4 and neither of them have a club. 10 4 wins a $700 pot.
10:53 - Mr. 10 4 calls an all in on a flush draw and hits to stack his second victim.
11:00 - I have 56 spades in a 5 way pot. Two spades flop and there's crazy action so I fold. Ends up being a 3 way all in where two of the guys also had flush draws both higher than mine and a straight flush hits scooping.
11:08 - The mumbler to my right loses a preflop all in to 10 10 and guy hits quads. (So I've seen a straight flush and quads in under 45 minutes)
11:50 - There is $9 in the pot with a flop of 44A. small bet and call so pot is maybe $30-$40. Turn is a brick. Mr. 10 4 bets $40 and someone ships for $300 and guy snap calls with AQ, the shipper had Q4 and doubles.
12:03 - Younger guy (lunatic) who has been at the table for less than 30 minutes and has been up or down from $0 - $1200 straddles to $10. Everyone at the table calls the $10 and Mr 10 4 makes it $60. The straddler makes it $120 and they go to a flop of 3 5 J rainbow. Mr. 10 4 just ships his $1500 which covers the straddler, the straddler snap calls for over $600 and says you don't have shit and turns over K 10, K high with no straight or flush draw. Mr 10 4 turns over 6 4 for an open ender and binks his 2 and wins another massive pot. Holy Shit!!!
12:30 - $10 straddle with a $30 raise with 4 players in pot. Flop A 6 3 with two clubs. Raiser bets $50, next guy makes it $100, next guy jams for $550. The reraiser who is same guy that had K 10 calls. The run out is 3 and 8 of clubs so I'm assuming one of them has a flush. Nope one has A 6 and the other A 7. A 6 wins a huge pot.
1:30 - Guy who has gone to the ATM 5 times gets involved in a hand with me where I have KQ on a K high board and he ends up having AA but I lose the min bc a flush hits the turn and I have the K of clubs and lead and we check check the river.
1:45 - I have J 10 clubs in a $10 straddled pot but only 3 people in the hand. Flop 10 10 8. I check bc there hasn't been one flop checked but of course they both check. turn is a 4 and I lead $15, guy mumbles that he knew someone was slowplaying the 10 but calls me anyway. In my head I'm like please have 97 and please J come on the river bc that's the only way I'm getting paid here. Sure enough BOOM J on the river and I overbet like $65 bc I know only a straight is calling me and he proceeds to raise to $200. I ship and he snap calls and says he has a straight and turns over J 9 and and is super confused when then send the pot my way. After the hand he's convinced he had a straight even though the player in between us is telling him he just had Jacks & 10's and my boat beats him regardless.
1:54pm - Older guy to my right who has been playing somewhat tight lost a hand and is on tilt because someone rivered him is in a pot. There is about $80 in the pot preflp and the flop is K 10 7 all spades. He is first to act and just rips it for $350. The guy who called me with his "straight" also goes all in for less and the K 10 high guy who covers them both calls. K 10 guy is the only one to turn over his cards and they are 8 4 of spades for a flopped small flush, as the turn and river come he's saying no spade, no spade but a 4th spade comes anyway and we all think he got rivered by a higher flush because how do one of the other guys not have the A of spades right??? Wrong, the initial shipper turns over K8 with no spade, just top pair 8 kicker. Mr "fake straight" mucks his hand and the 8 spades takes down a $900 pot.
2:28pm - i win a big pot with AK vs A4 as I just let him do all the betting and shove the river with broadway and he calls.
So I'm in for $500 and have over $900 in front of me and its time to leave. I ask the dealer how much time I have left and she says 3 minutes and I'm like great I'll play two more hands and leave. First hand I look a JJ (two red Jacks) and raise to $15 and get 3 callers. Flop is K J 6 with K and 6 of spades. I lead out $35 and Mr. K 10 raises me to $100. I've been waiting 4 hours to get in a hand with this guy because he will over bet top pair and never fold to any bet I make and all I'm seeing is that I need to avoid a flush or straight and my $900 will be $1800 and I go home. Then a new guy to his left just snap shoves $530. So now I'm in the predicament of I 100% know none of them have KK and I'm up against a flush draw, straight draw, or both which I never win in these situations. So do I give up my $50, fold and leave up $400, or am I reshoving to isolate and pray the guy has 66 or AK and is drawing to 1 out or runner runner. Well momma didn't raise no bitch so I shove. Mr. K 10 who make it $100 folds KQ with Qspades face up. Dealer doesn't even ask us if we want to run it twice and I can't even get the words out fast enough as she turns over the 7 diamonds. So now I'm like okay if he has a flush draw the Q was folded, the J gives me quads and the 7 gives me a boat. As fast as I'm thinking all that BOOM the 3 of spades hits the river and he turns over the nut flush and I feel like I want to vomit all over the place.
So thanks a lot Texas!
But seriously, if anyone wants to make a living playing poker play there.
The football game was AWESOME!!! We ended up winning 14-10 after being down 10-0 at halftime with 6-8 terrible calls by the refs all going against us. All I know is everyone that has every played high school football not in Texas should pray to have their second life playing high school football in Texas. Truly amazing! I can't even imagine how good the top 10 teams in Texas are if this team is as good as they are.