Poker in the Northwoods of Wisconsin
About 5 hours north of Chicago, my dad has a house on Lake Kawaguesaga in Minocqua, Wisconsin. It is beautiful here, old American Indian land. Up here for the 4th of July and I practically forced my brother to go with me this Wednesday to the local Indian casino, Lake of the Torches in nearby Lac Du Flambeau. Before we went I checked their website, which had no information except that they had a poker room. So I googled for more information and found a single blog entry by some random person. Unfortunately it still had little information so I had no choice but to check for myself. So, as my service to the Northwoods traveller, here’s the poker situation at Lake of the Torches as of today:
They have a small, non-smoking poker room with 3 tables. They deal $1/2 NL every Thursday through Sunday evening. The dealers say that if you can find enough people who want to play any game they will deal it. But they pretty much play Hold ‘Em. You can call ahead (extension 6777) to get on the waiting list for the tables starting at 3PM. I believe the tables open up at 5 PM, but who plays poker that early anyway? I’ll tell you who: Dan, Greg, Larry, Phyllis, Lynn, Stephanie, Howard, Scott and a few others. I’d bet if you go there there’s a very good chance these are the people you’ll be playing. Apart from Stephanie (who is a young pretty well-groomed blond in her 30s) the rest are white-haired retired or semi-retired people who either live in the area or visit for a couple weeks every month. They all know each other and each others’ games pretty well.
The game there is tight. Very tight. An $8 pre-flop bet is mostly respected. Everyone plays a mostly straight-forward game, with some bluffing, but mostly playing good hands. It was a friendly game and even though these guys come to win, they play relaxed and slowly (as you might expect retired people to play). They will deal games until 2PM, even 3PM if they have a full table. The dealers are slow and won’t be impressing anyone any time soon, but they get the job done.
Every Thursday at 6PM (get there early to sign up) they have a $50+5 tournament with a max of 40 people. I played that with my brother and brother-in-law. There were 4 tables set up in their conference center. This time the tournament was full. The play was mostly weak with some decent players strewn about. Strangely enough my brother, my brother-in-law and I ended up seated at the same table. Unfortunately for me, they were my undoing. When my brother was short stacked I raised to 3X the BB in middle position with 99 and he re-raised all-in for about 9X the BB which was about 3/5 my stack. I called and he flipped 77. I consider my brother to be the luckiest person I know. I know I’m supposed to know that poker isn’t about luck, but my brother is the one exception to that rule. He caught a 7 on the turn and I was short-stacked. I made a bad call pre-flop with A7s and backed-down to an all-in bet. Then I lost my final hand when I went all-in with 22 and had 3 callers including my brother-in-law. Another player at the table had 22 as well and my brother-in-law’s 66 held up to win and knock 2 of us out (me in 27th place). I headed over to the cash table to play for the next couple hours.
At the cash tables I put the table max of $200 down. At one point I was almost doubled up mostly thanks to my first 2 hands. I sat down at the table with a hamburger and was hardly paying attention. First hand, UTG I had AJ and bet out $8. I had one caller. The flop came a 3 card rainbow 10-high. I bet out a $10 continuation bet and scooped the pot. The next hand in the BB I had Jd Jh. There were several limpers and I checked. The flop came Js 3s 3h. I figured that the last hand had me looking like a maniac so I bet out $15. Two callers. The turn card was a blank and I bet out $30 and had one caller. The river was a spade. I hoped that someone had completed the flush and bet out $40 and my caller went all in and I called. He had the nut flush and pushed his chips my way.
Then came my nemesis hand. I got dealt KK in late position. Several limpers. I bet out $16 to chase out the limpers. I had one caller. The flop came 7-high with 2 spades on it. Unless my friend flopped a set, I expected my hand was good. I didn’t want him drawing to a flush so I bet out $35. He called. The next card was a blank and I bet out $50 and he called. The last card was a spade. I hoped that he wasn’t chasing but I did feel like he had. I checked and he bet out $75. I made the crying call and he rolled over As Qs. I hate chasers. I was just above even for the night. I tightened up for the next 15 hands or so as I fought off the tilt. I won a few more hands and ended up +$40 for the night and went to see if either of the guys was still playing.
I got there just in time to see my brother-in-law go all in with K5s against AT and miss entirely to bust out of the tournament in 3rd place. The payout structure is: 50%, 25%, 15%, 10%. He won $300. He’d never played poker outside of a home game before.
To be sure, Northwoods poker is pretty sweet and I fully intend to play there again often.
