Vegas Baby (Part 2) - Nov '07

Wife-Amy had another week's training in Vegas again this year - and once again, I just had to go along...

We stayed at the Luxor and I played solely at the Luxor and Mandalay Bay. These were the only casinos that I found that were offering $1/$2 NL - nearly every other casino I went to had $1/$3 NL. Given the choice, I'd rather play for a dollar discount.

I played 8-10 hours each of the first 2 days there, and I think I discovered that that is about my limit for coherent thought – 2 solid days of play. How do I know this? Because I played like a donkey on the 3rd day and made several stupid (and costly) mistakes. I played good and tight for the first 2 days and had winning sessions on both (up $300 on the first day and up another $250 on the second [plus $250 more for a high-hand bonus]), but by the 3rd day, I think that I had seen too many hands and was getting too lax in my play - and I gave back $400 of my winnings that day.

I decided not to play at all on my last solo-day there (4th day) as my head (obviously) wasn't where it was supposed to be. A couple of hands that stand out...

1) Day 1 - I was in seat 6 and had been playing at MB for a couple of hours and only shown 2 hands down in that time (and won both) so I assume that most of my opponents have me pegged as a rock, when seat 1 moves in for his last $14 from early position - he was a loose player who was in nearly every hand, so I wasn't giving his raise any respect. It's folded to seat 5 and he pops it to $50 - now he hadn't played much in the past hour, so I was ready to chuck my cards in... But I look down at QQ and start thinking - if he had AA or KK, I imagine he might smooth-call or min-raise it to try to induce a weaker hand to come along. Instead I read the ~3½-times raise as either JJ, TT, or 99 and he was trying to isolate without getting pot committed. So I move in for $146 total and it's back to seat 5. He ponders for a few and mutters... "you got AK?" (sorry, I don't push-in with AK unless it's a tournament) - and he calls, and flips over JJ. I show the QQ and seat 1 flips over Qc6c (see what I mean about not respecting his raises?) Flop was harmless, and the case Q on the Turn gave me a set and a nice pot.

2) Day 1 - Not that I was involved in this in any way, but I saw something that I'd never heard of happening before... A guy playing at another table in Luxor (with Ward – yes, he was there for training too) got a Royal - about an hour later, he got another friggin' Royal (same damn guy)!

3) Day 2 - ~9AM at MB and I realized that the guys there were all still playing from the night before, so I figure I can take advantage of their lack of sleep. From middle position (seat 2) I limp with AcJd – seat 3 calls and the BB in seat 7 checks. Flop is 8c, 4d, 9c for a whole lot of nothing, but I take a stab at it for $5, and both call – hmmm. Turn is the 3c and my hand looks a little better, so I bet $10 and they both call again – double hmmm. River is the Tc and I fill my ace-high flush – so I check. Huh? I check because I notice that the BB has glanced at his chips and is starting to play with them – so I figure to do a nice check-raise when he bets. Seat 3 checks and BB ponders and plays with a stack of 20 – and finally checks, crap. BB flips over the Kc, I show the Ac, and seat 3 flips over QcJc for the friggin’ straight flush! WTF?!?! I laugh and say, “nice hand – why no bet?” He tells me that he was aware of the Mandalay’s high-hand bonus and was afraid that if he bet and everyone folded, he’d lose out. Turns out he was mistaken (you can still win even if everyone folds as long as there’s $20 in the pot). I was very glad that he was mistaken because I totally missed that straight-flush card (all I saw was that it completed my flush) – so I might have (hell, would have) called his all-in if he had made a move… Who’s the sleepy-one here?

4) Day 2 - At the end of the day, I was in the SB and pick up KcKh – so I raise it to $10. The BB and the 2 late position limpers all call. Flop is an amazing 6s, Ks, Kd for flopped quads! I check hoping the guy behind me (who’d been a bit of a maniac all day) would bet out, but it gets checked around, bummer. So the Turn is a red 8, and I bet out $10 – only the BB calls. River is the Ac and I check, he bets $10 and I raise to $40 (hoping he has an ace and wants to get crazy) – but he folds, and I show the quads for a $250 high-hand bonus from the good folks at Mandalay.

5) Day 3 - One of the first hands of the day (which I should have realized was an indicator of how my day was going to go, and just gone back to bed…) I was in the SB and there’s 4 limpers when I look down at AdTc and decide to try and thin the field. So I raise it to $12. The BB folds, but everyone else calls. Crap. $60 in the pot before the flop and I’m out of position… Flop is Ah, 4d, 5d giving me top-pair/iffy-kicker and a backdoor flush. I want to protect my top-pair, so I move in for $85 more. It gets folded around to a drunk guy (who’s been drinking and playing all night and into the morning) – who hems & haws and decides to call – and flips over Kc2d !! What?!?! You’re all in with a gutshot? Sweet! I’m already counting the money as mine when the Turn brings the 3c – filling his gutshot and killing my flush possibility. He starts laughing and pointing at me and I just look away and curse the fickle poker gods. Anyway, I’m left with ~$15 after this and I just try not to tilt too far – I look over at him and say, “nice hand” and plot how to get my money back…

6) Day 3 - Remember what I said in hand 1 above about not pushing in with AK unless it’s a tournament? Well, I think that play cost me a bunch of money… I was in seat 7 on the button when the UTG player raised to $15, seat 2 called, seat 4 called, seat 6 called, and I looked down at AK, and tried to decide whether to raise or just call. Like a donkey I just call – I’m taking AK against 4 opponents in a raised pot. Hee-haw! Flop is K82 rainbow and seat 1 moves in for $69 more, seat 2 just calls, and it’s folded to me. Again, like a donk, I call. Turn is another 2 and seat 2 puts me in for my last ~$50 – and just like a friggin’ donkey, I call. River is a T and seat 2 shows pocket 8’s for a boat, and seat 1 and I just muck our hands… Maybe seat 1 had Aces, maybe AK, hell, maybe QQ or KQs. Had I moved in pre-flop, I probably could have gotten seat 2 to fold and maybe had a better shot at winning… I also seriously needed to re-evaluate my standing after the flop against “all-in” and “call” with just top-pair/top-kicker – but instead, I just called off all my chips… Hee-Haw!!!

7) Day 3 - I was in Luxor at the end of the day and it’s all folded around to me on the button – I look down at KK and raise it to $10 – both blinds call. Flop is Q66 – I bet $15, seat 3 moves in for $50 more, and seat 4 calls. Crap. After hands 5 and 6 earlier in the day, I was a bit gun-shy of playing a lone pair for all my money (Phil Gordon makes a point of saying “never go broke with 1-pair” – good advice that I obviously need to keep in the back of my head more often). Anyway, I hem & haw and finally decide that 1 (or both) of them could have a 6 in their hand – after all, they were the blinds. So I announce “fold” and throw my cards down face-up on the table. They both stare at me like I’m crazy as seat 3 turns over QJ and seat 4 turns over AQ. Man, talk about overplaying your cards… Probably a bad laydown on my part but I felt a lot better when an Ace came on the river giving seat 4 aces-up.

I have to note (with some pleasure) that my medium-high pocket pairs were catching some amazingly good flops (8, 5, 2 when I would have pocket T's; or T, 6, 3 when I had pocket J's; etc.) and I was nearly always able to take these pots with a 2/3rds to 3/4ths pot-sized bet after the flop - which is OK with me. I’d rather force hands like AK or AQ (hands that will call my pre-flop raise but were missing these flops) to either fold or make a mistake by calling a largish post-flop bet for which they’re not getting the correct odds to chase.

I’ve been reading a very good poker book (that I got for free by cashing in some of my frequent player points at pokerstars) called “The Poker Mindset”, and it’s really helped me to handle bad beats and be able to move on. This book is probably the reason I didn’t reach across the table and punch the drunk guy in hand 5, above. ;-)

Poker drawer at $1,600