STUDENT PRINCE CAFE in Springfield.
I stopped for lunch on the way down and was not disappointed. I had a large pretzel that was very good and sauerbraten which was good but not as strong as I remember from years ago in Buffalo.
I took away plenty of food and kept it the refrigerator.
The Ramada Hotel I depend upon for these trips has gone downhill.
No elevator. A hassle getting the door key to work. I had to keep going to the desk for a reboot.
So two room changes, one to put me on the first floor because the elevator was broken, and then another to get a room lock that a key would open. Sometimes the back door key did not work. They blamed me for putting it close to other electronic keys, but I kept it in a separate pocket.
The guy at the desk is very nice, and the rooms are clean, but the place is in disrepair. The TV worked to give me a TCM movie one night. The AC kept up pretty well with very hot and humid weather.
Breakfast was good. I suspect that is because attendance at the hotel is down.
I did manage waffles, but the timer on that was broken so it was just a guess. One time it was a bit underdone.
THE POKER
My biggest disappointment was the downgrading of the video poker machine at the little bar that served Sam Adams Just the haze in frosted cups. I did play a bit on another full pay, but there was no points and no drink service there in Sky Casino and it was a longer walk.
So, I did not play just at Mohegan as usual. I drove over to Foxwoods where they had a high hand and a larger bad beat and some limit games were I to lose too much to keep playing no limit. I liked Foxwoods better and when I go again, I'll check out hotels in the Foxwoods area and do most of my play there. They have poor VP, but plenty of poker, and I liked the way the floor treated me to get me a middle seat so I could see better.
The floor at Mohegan was okay, but part of the time he was complaining that over the next weekend it would get too busy and he'd have a good bit of work. Then he stopped by our table and told us Foxwoods had a nice high hand and was full of players. Rather disloyal. He convinced me to drive to Foxwoods that day.
I liked the tables. They were very mixed with people of all sorts and even a couple women playing. There were very good players and very poor players.
For a while we had a guy who bought in for $100, bet on nothing, went all in if he had $50 left, and was easy to beat. One hand he folded without showing and then realized he would have beat me had he stayed. Very poor player.
Ironically, my favorite hand was one that I lost. A very good Asian fellow and I both flopped 3 Aces. He got his full house with a 9 on the turn. But he did not bet. I got my full house with a 3 on the river. We bet. I was very surprised and I thought it all was very funny. Neither of us had bet on the other rounds, thinking I suspect that the table fish would make a bet as he usually did. The hand should have annoyed me, but I just got a good laugh out it. It was so odd. And the fellow had played it so well.
There were plenty of other enjoyable hands and a good bit of enjoyable banter, some in an Asian language between hands. People were friendly and easy to kid with.
On Wednesday I was going to play a couple hours in the morning, but I did not sleep well. So, I just packed out and drove home. I was happy because the 3 hour trip took me more than 4 hours with construction road delays. And my phone Gps was not working all the time, so I had to pull over and reboot.
I was very relieved to get home. And very tired.
