Friday - Oaks Day
We made the long drive to Churchill Downs from our hotel in Corydon, IN, as I had already handicapped the first few races we decided to get there for the first post at 11am. After arriving, we had to get tickets for Paul and Mark, since Sonny and I already had grandstand tickets that I purchase every year. Doug was arriving by plane later, so he was planning on picking up a ticket on the way in. We found a couple of people selling tickets outside, and asked one guy about his tickets that were a few sections over from ours. We asked how much and he said $100 apiece (face value of $47). We said "No thanks" and walked away. Next he asked how much did we want to pay, and Paul said "$100 for both." He said "No" and we started to walk away. He immediately accepted our offer and we were on our way with the tickets. Doug ended up arriving late on his flight, and just hung out at the guys house where we traditionally park.
The day started off pretty nice weather-wise, despite a rainy forecast. I started off losing, despite having the winner or top 2 or 3 in each race pegged (through poor bet selection). Around the 4th race, the rain started, and everyone congregated in the grandstand betting area. As the track got more crowded, this area became ridiculously busy, and made most of Oaks day relatively unpleasant. Late in the day, we found a spot to stand outside and watch the races but not get wet, so that made things more tolerable. Around the 8th or 9th race of the day, Sonny hit a nice superfecta with the longest shot on the board in 1st. It paid him about 4K, so that got his weekend off to a very nice start. I hit a few small bets, but never anything good and probably lost about 600 (far more than I planned on betting on horses that day). The Oaks was a pretty competitive race on paper, even though Eight Belles was scratched to be able to run in the Derby (more on her later). In the end, Proud Spell, the favorite and Eight Belle's stablemate won in an impressive performance. I already liked Eight Belle's chances in the Derby, and this race by Proud Spell confirmed my feelings that she stood a good chance in the big race.
After the Oaks, we made the long drive back to the hotel, changed clothes, and then drove back to Caesars Indiana in what has become pretty much a tradition. Doug accompanied Sonny and I, while Paul and Mark stayed back at the hotel in what would be a theme for the weekend. Both Sonny and I planned on playing some poker and drink. After we arrived, we went to the poker room to get our names on the lists. Unfortunately the main room is being renovated, so the room was much smaller, and we had to wait about 30-40 minutes to play. Finally Sonny and I got into the same 2/5 NL table. They allow you to buy in pretty deep, up to $1K. I started at $500. For the first hour or two I played somewhat tight, never really getting anything going. The table was kind of tough for Caesars, but there was one maniac who turned more and more maniacal as the night went on. As has been the case lately when I play with Sonny, he gets big hands very early on, and runs into players intent on throwing him their chips. Sonny and the maniac also tangled several times in big pots with marginal hands, mostly exchanging blows.
I got moved into the main game a short while later, and this is where things started to get fun. Most of the players were fairly deepstacked. I started picking up some pots, mostly out of brute force as I was running pretty cold decked (never flopped a set, never made a straight, never made a flush, had KK once, and my next best hand was TT). Eventually Sonny and the maniac got moved over to our table. The maniac also started buying everyone at the table drinks, and despite the fact that I drove, and had already been drinking heavily, I didn't miss a single drink that he ordered.
Some brief background info on the maniac. He was playing very loose and very aggressive. He wasn't afraid to bet with nothing, or call large bets with very marginal hands. Earlier in the night, he showed Sonny credit card receipts from the previous few days showing over 100K in losses. Occasionally he would raise to $100 from 5, and he even once made it $500 to go from a bet of $5. One of the times he made it $100 to go, he showed AA.
Eventually I made a few hands and was up about $500, when the following hand came up. Somehow I got into a pot with 65, and the flop came A75, but unfortunately I don't remember any of the preflop action as I was pretty hammered. The blind led out 15 or so, and for some reason I raised to 50 and he called. The turn was a K, and he checked. I decided to fire out $125 and he called again. The river came a K, and after he checked, I decided that I had to take a shot at the pot, and fired out $275. He debated for a while, and I actually thought he was going to fold. Eventually he called and said "AK is good" and flipped over 77. I was shocked that he was that strong, as 77 was nowhere near my radar for him on that particular hand. At that point, I was pretty frustrated for bluffing off nearly $500, but felt I played the hand well given my holdings and his range for holdings. He just happened to be way stronger than I believed (one of the bad things about drinking is that you believe you can make anyone fold, although one of the good things is that you tend to play fearless at the same time). I didn't have to be angry for long though, a few hands later, I raised AQ in early position to $25 (and got 2-3 callers, standard in this game). The flop came QQ6. I led out 45ish, getting a call from one of the blinds, who had me covered. The turn was a 7, and he check called a bet of 125 from me. At this point I was pretty sure he had a Q, and was hoping for the river to be a low non-pairing card. The dealer obliged with a 2 or a 4 (in other words a blank). He checked and I debated my options, and finally decided to make a small overbet and moved in for $380. He said something about me probably having AQ and he called. I showed my hand and he showed me a Q. I said "QJ" and he nodded. Tough break for him to make trips with a lower kicker, but at least I extracted full value on the hand by playing it fast.
Shortly after that hand, we decided it was time to go. There was some drama with Doug and security, but I'm not sure whether it was going to get into arrest territory. In any case, I hurriedly got to the front and made sure to diffuse the situation. At that point, we decided that we needed to take a taxi (despite the near $100 fare) back to the hotel and leave my car there, despite the fact that it was 4:15am, and we had to leave for Churchill Downs at 8:30ish. We left Doug the instructions to inform Paul and Mark that we needed a ride to the track on Saturday morning, and then following the Derby the subsequent ride to the casino to get my car.
I ended up +600ish at the casino, Sonny around the same, and Doug +2K.
Saturday - Derby Day
I woke up Saturday at about 8:30am. I immediately called Paul and found out him and Mark were already at Churchill Downs. Obviously Doug didn't do his job very well. Following that I went downstairs to see if I could score us a ride to the Derby. After finding no takers, it became apparent we would have to call a taxi. The taxi showed up and said he could do it for $70, which felt like a bargain compared to the ride the previous night. We got to the track in time for race 2 (and I won a bet that I had Paul place on Race 1). We entered through the main gate which had a much shorter line (since we weren't carrying any chairs). Most of my party immediately started drinking, but I was pretty hung over from the night before, so I took it easy on the drinking and betting front. Over the course of Derby Day the lines began getting progressively longer, slower, and more annoying. It got bad enough that I made all of my Derby bets an hour and a half before the race. I ended up splitting a big Trifecta ticket with Paul and Doug (cost $200), and then put win and place bets on Gayego and Z Fortune, and a bet on the Filly for Victory.
Sonny and I decided to put together a large superfecta ticket. In the end we came up with a ticket that cost $1440....it consisted of something like 5 horses in 1st and 2nd, and then 10 horses in 3rd, and 12 horses in 4th. I didn't have a lot of money to blow, so I bought in for 10% of the ticket as did Doug, while Sonny had the last 80% of it. As the race entered the stretch, I knew it was Big Brown (the favorite) in the front, and I was pretty sure it was the filly in 2nd, but I had no clue who was 3rd and 4th. When the race finished, we pretty much had no idea if we won or lost, though I knew we had a decent chance given that those 2 horses were all over both of our tickets. Once we heard who the 3rd (Denis of Cork) and 4th (Tale of Ekati) place finishers were, I looked at my ticket and knew I had the tri. Sonny wasn't sure if we had the super, but I was positive as I had both of those horses on my tri ticket, and the Super ticket nearly mirrored my tri ticket. As I looked at the board, I pondered the potential payoffs. I figured the tri would be somewhere in the 1K range...or lower, given that it was the favorite and 4th favorite in 1st and 2nd....but I wasn't sure what the 3rd and 4th place horses would do to those payoffs. Both horses were longshots, but so was most of the field, so it all depended on the sometimes fickle tri and super pools. When the payoffs came up, the Super was the first thing I saw....$58K for a $2 bet!!!! Our ticket was only for $1, but this was WAY beyond anything I was expecting. Too bad I only had 10% of it. At that point Sonny came up yelling "Yahtzee" as he had seen the payout at the windows. At that time it occurred to me to check the Tri payout, which was a much more reasonable $3400 on a $2 ticket. Still more than I expected.
It was at that point that I heard the sad news about Eight Belles, the filly, breaking both ankles galloping out at the end of the race, and being euthanized on the track. Very sad story for horse racing, but it is one of the risks of the sport. It's absurd that a nutjob group like PETA is getting involved in this, blaming the jockey. She just finished 2nd in the Kentucky Derby...there is no way she had an injury during the race and was able to run on it. It happened in the gallop following the race, and was a totally fluky occurrence.
The tragedy aside, it was a phenomenal result for the Derby for almost all of us, except for Paul and Mark who made the wise decision to turn down grabbing a piece of our tickets. Our enthusiasm was tempered significantly upon the realization that IRS was taking 9K off of our tickets from the top. Instead of 29K, we pulled 20K, bringing my share of the Super score down to 2K, and Sonny's down to 16K. It's frustrating how many times a single dollar can get taxed by our government, but that's a story for another day entirely. My share of the tri was just a little over 550, meaning I turned a profit of about 2200 on the Derby. In the end after all of my expenses, my profit for the trip was about 1800....in other words a damn nice way to spend a weekend.
After arriving back at Mark's car, we bought some beer from the guys whose house we park at and proceeded to have a "Jimmie Johnson" festival, spraying cans of beer all over each other. These were promised if anyone hit a race that they had to sign for that also put them in the black for the weekend. Sonny hit 3 signers on his own, along with the 4th that he split. I was a part of 2 signers myself.
Following the Derby, we had to make the trek back to Caesars Indiana, to pick up my car. While we were there we grabbed dinner and drinks at the main restaurant in the casino. I had a pretty good NY Strip, with a pretty stingy baked potato. All in all a good meal following a long Derby day. We wanted to celebrate our win but we were all just really tired.
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