I finally managed to sneak out of the office a bit early (4pm) to try my luck at the nearby CNE Charity Casino. As I suspected, the list was much shorter than my last attempt, so I was seated at one of the 11-seated 5/10 tables within 15 minutes with my $300 buy-in.
A few hands in I had identified about half the table as players I should look out for and a few others who I knew I wanted to be in hands with. Unfortunately, my luck was not too good as my AK ran into KK on a K-high board and my own pocket kings went down in flames when someone hit their flush on the river. Combined with the fact that none of my draws hit (and with 7-9 people regularly seeing the flop, there were always odds to draw) and some pretty unspectacular cards, this was enough to ensure an unprofitable evening.
Five and half hours at the table for -18BB. Not a great showing, but I felt pretty confident that it was a game I could beat. Now if only I’d been smart enough to stick around a bit longer as many new players were coming into the game at 10pm, when I assume many of the players that had been there since noon were calling it a day. This new influx of players were probably mostly the home game heroes looking for some action after work, so there was likely money to be made. Then again, there was no way to win a pot without the goods with all the calling going on, so the situation wasn’t going to be much different than it had been. The only time I should have known better was when I was in there against the KK. I just hadn’t seen a good hand all night, so I didn’t expect my TPTK to be up against a flopped set, even though every indication was there.