My brother-in-law and I took a trip to the Harrah's Indian casino down toward San Diego. It's about an hour away, easier than the 3-4 hour trip to Vegas. We didn't intentionally go on 7/7/7, but it was the only day that really worked for us. From the Harrah's Total Rewards, I had a $20 cash voucher and a $15 food voucher for this specific casino.

My brother had yet to try casino poker. He had played in some home games a few years ago, but didn't feel experienced enough to sit down at a casino. Well, dropping $150 in black jack in about 20 minutes, combined with the fact that just about every machine in the joint was taken, brought us to the poker room. I had been telling him that I thought he could get into playing low limit. He agreed to sit down at the lowest they were running, $3-$6. We put our name on the list, which was pretty long. Luckily, there were enough that they opened a new table within about 5 minutes. This was great because we were able to sit next to each other and I could help him with the etiquette stuff. Most of the table appeared to be locals, and all were at least 50. My brother and I are about 30, and it was pretty obvious that this was his first live poker. I was curious to see how the table would treat him/us.

On to the cards. On the 2nd or 3rd hand, I look down at KK. I raise and get 1 caller. Unremarkable flop, except for 2 hearts. He checks, I bet, he calls. Turn brings the 3rd heart. Check, bet, call. The river is an A. He bets. I think for a minute and fold face up. Being the youngest guy at a table full of locals, I wanted to show that I could make the right play. Thankfully, the other guy showed his Ah.

We ended up playing for about 2 hours. My brother made some good plays and some bad plays. He got pretty unlucky a few times, including when his flopped straight got rivered by a flush. The only other remarkable hand was when I was in the CO with KK and a couple of limpers. I raised. My brother on the button called as well as about 3 others. The flop comes Axx. It’s checked around to me and I bet. My brother raises. I almost folded at this point, but there was a nice pot growing so I called. The turn is another rag. Checked around, I bet, everyone calls. River is essentially another rag, and we check it down. No one is interested in showing, which I figure is a good sign, so I flip my kings. My brother then flips his kings! The SB flips queens. And finally a guy in EP shows his A6 for top pair and takes it down. At the end of the session, I was down about $20 and my brother was down about $80. He was happy to lose at a slower rate than black jack!

We took a break, had dinner, tried to find some more black jack or video poker, but everything was crowded. We almost headed home at that point, but my brother wanted to give poker another try. We put our names on the 3/6 list again. Since I figured we likely wouldn’t get to sit at the same table again, I put my name on the 2/3 NL, which is the game that I prefer. I get called to that seat after about 5 minutes. I buy in for the max $200. Within about 20 minutes, I’ve run that up to almost $500! The one hand of note was KsJs in the BB. EP raises to $10, 1 call, then I call. Flop comes K high. I check, original raiser bets $30. Other caller folds. I think about raising, as this is an old guy who has literally fallen asleep at the table a couple of times and has generally folded to pressure. I just call. The turn is another K. I check. The old timer bets out $100. I worry about AK, but the back to back pot sized bets feel like he doesn’t have a K. I raise it to $200. He thinks about it for about 10 seconds and folds.

About 5 minutes after I sat down, my brother got called to the 3/6 game. I checked on him a few times and he was good. He cashed out up about $45.

The dealers and management were all very good that I saw. The drink service was a little slow, but she kept refilling my soda without me needing to ask. I imagine the delays were due to how busy the whole casino was.

So, I’m happy that I finished ahead for the day and that I think I finally have a real poker buddy. I think we might hit up the San Manuel Indian casino soon, which is only about 20 minutes away.