Harrahs Joliet with Lightning36

Saturday, April 18th, was my wedding anniversary.  6 years my wife and I have been married.  I spent the day traveling approximately 2 miles to Harrah's in Joliet, to play poker with Lightning36.  For the record, he wasn't aware that it was my anniversary.  Also for the record, my wife was out of town, unable to celebrate with me, so i had her blessing to do as I wanted.  She was in Wisconsin at her parents' house.  Her sister was getting married the following weekend, and she was spending the week up there to help out with final preparations. 

I had originally booked a room at Harrahs about 8 weeks earlier.  Even though it's only a 2 hour drive, if I stay late, I don't really want to drive home.  While checking the rates, I found that I could get a free room every night in April except for 3.  One of the 3 nights that a comped room wasn't offered was April 18th, of course.  I kept checking the rates and a few weeks later the rate had dropped about $50.  I called to cancel my original reservation so that I could rebook at the lower rate.  As i continued checking the rates, about 2 weeks before my stay I found the room was now offered at no cost!  I called again to cancel, and booked my comped room.  I was using the total rewards visa card to reserve the room.  One of the few remaining perks of the card is it's use in building reward credits.  You get 1 reward credit for every dollar you spend, with 2 reward credits per dollar spent for all purchases on gas, airlines, and groceries, and 5x reward credits per dollar spent at all caesars casinos and resorts.  Even though I had canceled each of my reservations, the reward credits had already posted to my account for each reservation.  Therefore, I had accumulated more reward credits than usual on my total rewards card.

I got to Harrah's in Joliet around 2:30, got checked in, and found that they had a room ready and waiting for me.  While checking in, I noticed a sign that said they now charge an "Amenity Fee" of $10 per night.  This fee covers valet parking, wifi in the room, and access to the workout center, all of which had previously been free for all guests.  The fees could be waived for diamond status or higher guests.  Typical Caesar's BS, trying to squeeze every extra penny out of their guests.  I got settled into the room, and was feeling rather uncomfortable after my drive.  I went into the bathroom and dropped a load, so to speak.  Upon finishing, I found that the toilet was backed up.  It didn't overflow, but it swirled up and nothing solid ever made it out of the bowl.  I also noticed that the mini fridge, which is part of the regular room, was hot and not working.  I was in a hurry to get down to the poker room and get checked in before my hour was up after calling ahead to get on the list, and ignored the issues for the time being.  I got down to the poker room and got seated around 3:00pm.

The poker was basically uneventful.  I had a mix of great starting hands, occasional decent pots, and stratches of being card dead.  I stayed at my table awhile, and then moved to the same table as Lightning.  I made a huge mistake there against a calling station....no, I made 2 big mistakes.  First was slow playing trip aces on a flop with a flush draw, and then paying off when the flush hit on the turn.  Granted, I had outs to a full house or quads, and my stack wasn't particularly deep at the time, but I still played the hand badly.  I also played a junk suited hand, and stacked off with an 8 high flopped flush when he flopped a 10 high flush.  There was 1, maybe 2 overcards on the board and I did at least push all in and make him think, rather than calling off my stack.  It was a spot where he could have had a set or 2 pair, but I should have known he wasn't folding regardless and also never should have been in the hand to being with.  I finished the first session before dinner down 2 buy ins, and after dinner I finished up about $8.  SPeaking of dinner, I treated Lightning to dinner at Flavors buffet with my many comps, seeing as how he had taken the time to go out of his way and visit Harrah's to play while I was there.

On the positive side, I was dealt pocket Aces 7 times, seeing a flop 6 times, and never lost with them.  This includes once when I limped UTG to mix it up, and saw a flop of 337, 4-handed.  BB bet out, I called, the others folded.  The turn was an A, and we got to showdown, and I was berated for not raising preflop, told how I should have lost, etc.  He never showed, but I suspect he had a 3.  I also cracked Aces twice, both times with suited hands.  The first time I 3c5c and the flop came 335....Yahtze!  The 2nd time I had Qh9h, stubbornly called a rather large raise preflop, and flopped a flush draw with a gutshot straight draw as well.  The turn paired my 9, we got it all in, and the river was the Ah, completing my flush while giving my opponent a set of Aces.....ouch!  I also bluffed a player when i was holding 44 on a board of 9-2-3-5, and showed the bluff....while I had outs, I was sure the player had the 9.  He looked rather annoyed when he saw my hand.  This was the 2nd hand at the table with Lightning, and he just looked at me and shook his head.  He also fell victim to my love of suited hands when I called his raise preflop with 7c9c, flopped a straight and flush draw, and rivered the flush.  The table I was at late in the evening (actually around 2am Sunday) broke, and rather than sit down at a different table, I decided to check the Blackjack tables.  I won $200 before calling it a night and heading back to my room.

I got back to my room and didn't want to bother calling the front desk about my clogged toilet, especially since I didn't want to be there when they saw the mess in it...So, I turned on the water in the bathtub and took a leak there!!  lol  I got up early the next morning, having to get back home by noon to work my part-time job.  I did play a little more blackjack before leaving, managing to win another $200, mainly by hitting the side bet bonus in the 21+3 blackjack game.  Overall I ended my stay even, I found out about the "Amenity Fee" at Harrah's in Joliet, and had a fun night....just wish I could stop the yo-yo poker sessions!!