They call donkeys in Arizona Burros

But by any other name, a donkey is still a donkey. That is what I have been running into here in the casinos of Arizona. This reminds me so much of playing with the clueless tourists in Vegas exactly one year ago. There, as well as here, I am seeing the stupidest poker being played and winning because I can not buy a hand. I know that if I stay patient that a rush will come and there is so much money going into these pots and they don't seem to care who bets how much that when it hits, it will be huge. It took me 3 days to get that rush in Vegas. I don't think I have that long here, but we'll see.

About the card rooms – Arizona Casino

I started at the Arizona Casino (AC) last night. Actually, I started at the casino and not the poker room (ACPR). It seems that the AC has a casino very close to my hotel here in Phoenix, but they have their poker room about 10 miles north at Indian Bend. It is a very nice casino, but I care nothing for the -EV games offered in a casino. I hit the ACPR about 10 minutes later and was fairly impressed. The room was huge and filled with nothing (that I saw) but poker tables. They had some huge TVs on one wall that looked like a sports book. It might have been. I didn't go over that way.

I got seated at a table in the corner (#45 I think) next to a guy that absolutely would not shut up. He ran his mouth non-stop for 4 hours. I didn't realize until it was too late how much that threw my game. Maybe that was his plan, but if that is so, he sure made it look easy and expensive as he lost more than I did. The desk had a bad habit of not looking over in our corner so the table had a hard time staying close to full. It is a weakness in my game that I don’t get up sooner in a short handed game. I’m going to work on that.

The seats were comfortable and the staff was pleasant; two musts for any poker room. I had a chicken ceasar salad and it was fine, a bit better than what I would expect. They also ran a drawing for the numbers on the MNF game. I had good numbers for most of the 4th quarter, but the Steeler's screwed it up by scoring and winning the game. It was not my night.

The low limit game at the ACPR is $3-6 with a full kill. I'm starting to hate that game. It hurts me every time I play it. I hit a good hand early and I think that was it for the night. Meanwhile, I'm seeing guys make flushes and full houses with junk out of position. It was bazaar. The rake is pretty stiff. The dealer takes the $1 small blind and $1 from the pot to put in the jackpot, then they take 10% up to $3 for the house rake, so that is $5 from a $30 pot. Ouch.

Fort McDowell Casino

Tonight, the super-donkeys were at the Fort McDowell Casino (FMC). This room was not as nice as the ACPR, but nice just the same. The game and the rake were similar to AC, FMC had some interesting side action going. They have a $20 buy in tourney that gives extra chips for extra buy in, for member’s cards, and allows rebuys and an addon. The ring games had a bad beat, a small beat, and a high hand spin the wheel jackpot. Tuesday and Wednesday’s are triple bonus nights meaning that anyone spinning the wheel gets 3x the amount on the wheel. A fellow playing at my table hit quad 5s for a spin that hit $30 for an extra $90 payoff. Not too bad.

The tables had a nice system for tracking players and open seats. It was a series of 10 buttons and a card swiper next to the dealer. The dealer could swipe the players ‘Winner Circle’ card and track the players time at the table. I was told but did not confirm that players get $10 credit for signing up and $1 per hour of play. They did a very good job of filling empty seats when there were players available.

I saw some good hands like the quads mentioned above. I saw one questionable catch of an outside straight for a huge pot. Questionable because the pot was capped pre-flop and the guy had 910o on the button. But I also saw some of the junkiest hands ever played. I saw the table idiot raise with 74o into a table that had not folded to a raiser all night and hit a boat on the turn. I saw my two pair (As and Ks) get thumped by a flopped boat (As full of 3s) and my KK with A kicker get beat by the only AA I saw all night. I took down a total of two hands in three hours and only lost $38. I’m telling the donkeys right now, when I hit, it is going to be bloody. Maybe tomorrow. :)