FINALLY, my VEGAS BLOG

I'm too tired to proof read. I'll look over it later.

WED the 6th – Excalibur

I arrived around noon and met Dude at the Mandalay Bay for lunch. After lunch we met up with Thomas Falkenstrom from Poker Room and he bought us a few rounds of drinks. Soon other members of Poker Room joined us, Kim and Vanessa to be exact. We had more drinks. They headed to the ballroom to prepare for the banquet and Dude and I hit the Excalibur for cards.

We only had 2 hours to play and I hadn’t been at a live table since my battle with Mississippi last May.

The game was $1-3 NL with a $100-200 buy-in. Last year the maximum buy-in was $100 so I decided to buy on the low end and it wasn’t the right strategy. After dropping $50 I bought the full amount, lost another $100 and we were soon late to the reception in Madalay Bay.

The banquet put on by Poker Room was great. Free food and drink and they had a nice band playing on the stage. Shamefully, most of the WSOP team left early and the band played to an empty house. Dude and I sat and talked for quite a while, but finally left with nice gift bags from Poker Room that included a deck of cards, mousepad with poker odds and a cap.

RESULT -- -$150

THU the 7th – The Wynn

After sleeping off the numerous complimentary drinks we woke in time for lunch, that meal you eat 6 hours after the sun rises. We went to the Wynn, a new hotel that is about as fancy as you’ll find. We ate their lunch buffet and it was a little pricey even for lunch buffets in Vegas. We paid right around $20, but worth it.

We sat down at the $1-2 NL game. In this particular game there was no maximum buy in. I bought $200 worth of clay and Dude bought the same I think. Other guys had bigger stacks. I even saw a fella buy in for $350.

The first key hand I played was QQ on the button. Under the gun guy raised to $10 and there were three callers behind him. QQ is not a hand you want to play with 5 players so I re-raised to $50 getting 2 people to drop before the third player went all-in. The all-in move confused me. Did he have better than QQ? If he did why didn’t he re-raise after the two players in front of him. If he had AA or KK he would be better off playing one of those guys heads up. Anyway, I decided that he must have AK because of his earlier action. I called the all-in and we built a $450-$500 pot. I flopped a Q for trip queens and his hand never caught up. What did he have? AA. It turned out that he was trying to slowplay the AA and I got lucky on the flop.

The second key hand of the day was the button raising to $12 and I called in the big blind with AQs. The flop came AQQ. I slowplayed all the way to the river checking the flop and calling. We both checked the turn. A third flush card came on the river, but I figured him for an under pair and bet $10 on the river hoping that he’d bluff with a re-raise. He did indeed come over the top with $70 which was a big overbet to the pot of about $50. I decided to go all-in. He did have the flush and decided to call. It was worth another $150-200.

This was a pretty tough game overall. I won those two hands but pretty much broke even on the rest of the day. Dude sat in seat 1. A decent player sat in seat 2. He seemed to get run over a lot though. Seat 3 was a guy who bought in for $300 and lost it all playing way too aggressive. He’d make big re-raises on every action him and it worked at first, but he eventually got called and lost some big ones. The guy in seat 4 grew a tremendous bankroll despite my beating his AA. He was playing any two cards and frequently squeaking out two pair. The guy I beat with the full house was in seat 6. Seat 7 held an older man that would call down his second pair so often it was like interest in a bank. Seat 8 was a guy from Seattle that was here with his sons who he said win thousands every week online. I sat in seat 9 and Dude sat in seat 1.

Result +$373

FRI the 8th - Mirage

We began playing around 1pm and I finally quit at 3am. Dude played until at least 5am. I had won about 60% of my final take in the first two hours and then see-sawed the rest of the night.

My first key hand was raising with AK and seeing a flop of KQx. I bet the flop and got one caller. I bet again on the turn and ran into a big raise. The raiser looked just like Horatio Sanz from Saturday Night Live. I had been sitting for such a short time that I couldn’t take the chance that he was a loose player. I gave him credit for two pair or a set and laid it down. This was a key hand because in the past I had trouble laying down decent hands that I knew were beat.

The second hand also involved Sanz. I was sitting in seat 5 and Dude in seat 4. I raised on the button with 99 and got two callers in seat number 8 and Sanz in seat 9. The flop came QT9. That was a bitter sweet flop. Yes I had a set and probably the best hand, but someone might have already made a straight. Seat 8 bet $40, seat 9 raised to $80 and I decided to go all-in. They both called and I hit runner runner KK for a full house. Seat 8 JJ that was a great straight draw until the second K came on the river. Sanz held QT for top two pair. He must have thought I had KK or AA and he had me with that flop. It allowed me to triple up.

Looking back, there were a lot of cards that could have destroyed me. If the T or Q paired I lose to a bigger full house. If the king comes without the second king, I lose to a straight. I had to avoid a KQT8, or roughly 12 cards were harmful, though the kings and 8s were less harmful if they came together as they eventually did. Thankfully I didn't have any flush worries. As it played out, I was a plurality favorite after the flop, roughly 45% to 35% to 20%, an 82 %, 11 % to 7% underdog when the king came. If I had played slowly and waited for action on the turn, the king most likely would have forced my fold. It was one of those cases where I got my money in with the best hand and still needed a lucky river to win.

The third key hand regrettably involved Dude and we vowed to stay away from each other the best we could. I played 55 from the little blind to a raise by seat #2. Dude smooth called with his QQ. The flop came 5 Td Jd. Seat number two bet $70 in a $30-40 pot. He was always overbetting pots. Dude called which surprised me. I was planning to slowplay my set of fives, but with Dude in there I had no choice but to go all-in. First, slowplaying now would only cost Dude more money and there weren’t too many cards I wanted to see on the turn. Luckily for me they both folded.

RESULT +$350

SAT the 9th

It was another somewhat early day. After breakfast at Treasure Island, which neither of us thought was worth the money, (it didn’t even seem as good as the Luxor) we headed back to the magic at the Mirage. This time we were put on a waiting list and got our pick of seats at the brand new table. Dude sat in seat 4 and I sat in seat 5 just as the day before. It’s great fun sitting together and we enjoyed a few beers and sparkling waters as the day began. The player in seat 7 was pretty aggressive. The player in seat 6 never knew when he was beat.

Seat 8 and 9 were a husband and wife team that were more charitable with their money than Jerry Lewis. The difference was the husband thought he could play and the wife knew she couldn't. The wife kept running into the same problem. She would get great starting hands and not push them hard enough, wind up with too much competition and get drawn out on. She had more big pockets pairs in a two-hour stretch than I had seen in two days (No Kidding!). The funny thing was the wife didn't know how to evaluate her hand so you could never read anything on her. Her QQ looked the same as her A7. A blind man could have read the husband just by listening to him bet.

The others are hazy now that I have waited weeks to write this. Some of the highlights I remember are busting out seat 6 when my set of 5s beat his big pocket pair. He just couldn’t lay it down. Dude and I would chat between hands and Dude later told me that he would stare at us every time like he was hoping to hear something we might be saying.

One of my favorite plays of the day was against the aggressive guy in seat 7. He was someone that would bet out every top pair regardless of kicker. He would also tend to overbet pots in the neighborhood of 120%. As I watched him play I figured I’d get a chance against him when I had two pair or a better kicker, but after about 3 hours I fell into a situation that we even better. I held absolutely nothing but called a $12 raise against him just for kicks. My hand was something like 86o. The flop came KQT and two hearts. I checked and he bet $20 and I called again with nothing. The turn came the third heart. I checked again and he bet $35 and I raised it to $70 representing the hearts. He called. The river was a blank. There was about $200 in the pot so I bet $50 to make it look like I didn’t mind a call. He folded figuring I must have it. He admitted to having KJ giving him top pair and a straight draw that he was glad he missed because of my flush. I'm sure he was telling the truth or he would have had no reason to call the raise on the turn.

The texture of this Mirage game was the best I had ever seen in a casino. It was like money in the bank from Noon – 6pm everyday. At one point I turned to Dude and I asked if he had noticed that no one at the table would play back at us. It was true. It didn’t take long on any given day for people to fear our play. They stopped betting their hands for value if we’d call the flop and hardly ever did they take the chance to raise us unless they had a monster. You could bet scare cards and get folds. It just seemed like a bunch of online players that were intimidated to play at a casino.

I’ve always felt that I am better in a casino, not because I read people necessarily, but because I have a good feeling for the texture of the game and I seem to have good instincts on how to play hands against faces I’ve seen play for a couple of hours. Whereas online, people come and go all the time, this Mirage game that began at noon did not lose a single player in the first four hours. I’m not the kind of poker player that can tell you what a person’s body language means in words, but I have a decent instinct as to when to make plays against guys I’ve been watching play.

One of the most surprising things is that I don’t think I was caught in a bluff the whole week, despite the fact that I was making plays at a far greater rate than any pro would suggest. I did sort of get called once, but the guy who called me was so anxious to show his hand, I was able to muck mine pretending that he had me out kicked. I think he was so happy to win that he didn’t realize he had the right to see my hand. In fact, any player at the table could have demanded to see my hand and no one said anything.

Maybe the most interesting thing about my Friday and Saturday was that I went 18 hours without seeing AA or KK. In fact, I saw only QQ once during that time period and still found a way to win money.

I did learn an important lesson on Saturday that cost me money, but one that I will never forget. Like I said, the texture of the game was awesome all afternoon, but as the evening approached and new players joined the table I failed to adjust my game back down to a more conservative nature. The result was a $300 + profit ended the Saturday Mirage session as a $200 loss. It’s hard to say how it really happened. The weak players left and I got stuck with a few decent hands that weren’t quite good enough. In short, I let it dwindle away by not being aware of the situation. It's true that winning at poker is much easier than holding onto the winnings.

I ran into a hand that was almost identical to the one at THE WYNN. I held QQ one off the button. Under the gun raised $12 and he got three callers. I raised to $50 to get heads up. Unexpected result is that the button (a new player to the game) goes all-in. He gets the early raiser on a short stack. The guy in seat 2 (Craig in the next story) lays down a hand he wants to play. Remembering my luck running into AA last time I decided to fold. The scrub turns over AJo, which meant that I gave him too much credit. Lucky again for me, I accidently made the right play. An ace came on the flop and he took a decent sized pot. Craig was very unhappy to have laid down AQ.

My biggest mistake came against the aforementioned Craig who sat down around 6pm. He was playing pretty loose going all-in with top pair and no kicker and when he tried it against my top two pair, he revealed a set that cost me big. I should have gotten off the hand when the board paired on the end, but couldn’t make myself do it. Had it paired one of my cards instead of the oddball, I would have had a big day, because there was no way he was getting off the set. The guy who beat me there turned out to be Craig Swick from the lonely town of Big Sky, Montana. He’s also known for finishing 92 in last year’s main event at the WSOP earning $20,000. Dude and I ate dinner with him later at the Carnegie Deli where the corned beef was piled on so high that I don't know what. Anyway, Craig had made it to Day 2 of this year’s event with around $40,000 in chips. He told us that he would make the final table because he had a system. We saw him the next day during a break and he told us of a tough beat that cost him some chips. Later on, we no longer saw him at his seat, nor ever saw him again. Most likely a victim of day 2.

After eating at the Carnegie, I implored Dude that we move to another casino, because the karma of having lost the $200 when I was up over $300 would make the Mirage bad luck. I knew playing at the same place would give me the tendency to chase. We settled on playing at Harrah’s across the street. Harrah's is a total dump. I have no idea why a casino with that name recognition on the strip would let itself look like a run-down arcade in an old out-of fashion mall.

They had a $120 buy-in no limit $1-2 game. I sat down next to an Asian kid that played poker like shooting dice. He told me stories of how much partying he does in Vegas to the point that I am surprised that he ever has a chance to play cards. On the third hand after sitting down I found 99 on the button. Under the gun guy bets $15, and another guy called in front of me. I called and the flop came 943. My karma was back that quickly. Under the gun bet $50. The guy in front me of went all-in. I shoved all-in as did the original better. Under the gun had KK, the next guy had AA and my set of nines held up for a triple up.

The big blind guy was a fat moose of a man with a Boston accent. He was one of those guys who obviously never had a decent girlfriend and a chip on his shoulder to prove it. He started dogging the guy with AA that he should have re-raised and it would have knocked me out with my 99. I defended the AA saying that he had position on the guy and it was a decent slowplay. It was more likely that he’d get all of the original raiser’s chips if he let the guy bet them himself. Chip Boston said the original bettor would have called a big bet with his KK anyway. That’s so, but the AA didn’t know the other guy had KK. What if he had TT or JJ? A re-raise might have driven him from the hand entirely. Chip Boston was a guy I grew to despise as I sat there for the next hour or so. His loud know-it-all mouth was too much to take. Eventually I moved to Dude’s table where rocks abounded and I didn’t see a decent hand for an hour.

MIRAGE -$200
HARRAHS +$200

EVEN FOR THE DAY

SUN the 10th

We’d been playing so much poker we decided to head back to the RIO for buffet and maybe watch some WSOP action. We met up with Thomas Falkenstrom again and hung around his room at the RIO chatting and drinking beer. Hanging around with Thomas makes me want to win entry to play for Team Poker Room at the Bellagio event in December so Dude and I can hang out with Thomas again.

We saw Howard Lederrer, Mike Matusow, Greg Raymer, Phil Ivey and others. Dude entered a $175 sattelite for entry into Monday’s $1500 tourney, but finished third when the cards dried up. I didn’t feel I had the bankroll to play. There were some NL ring games, but they were first come, first serve with no list so I read all the free poker magazines that we collected while Dude played.

We also had a chance to eat the RIO buffet. It was the longest wait and the longest buffet I had ever seen. Dude filled his plate halfway through and by the time I made it back to the table after seeing everything, Dude was finished with plate 1.

Once it was officially night time we headed back to the Luxor room and Dude was nonplussed that his swag from the Poker Room party had been thrown away. We had a phone call minutes after arriving and a door visitor shortly after that. The maid had noted that no one had slept in this room for a few days. It was a manager at our door to get to the bottom of it.

Most hotels wouldn't care about such a thing, but I surmised that a casino wants to make sure the rooms are full of players. Our absence meant the absence of real revenue for them downstairs. If we were really gone then they would open the room for a player. Vanessa had the same problem reserving rooms for people who weren't coming into until later in the tourney. I told the guy at the door that we had been playing some marathon sessions around town and sometimes didn't make it back to the room to sleep. I then made a complete wreck of the bed sheets and the towels in the bathroom so that it would look lived-in. We had already decided to stay at TI for the rest of my leg because our stuff was there and it was close to the MIRAGE.

Although it was late we decided to check out the Luxor poker room and the no-limit there was a $50 buy-in. Since we had already whetted our lips on bigger games, we headed over to the Mandalay Bay to play in their $2-4 NL game $200 buy-in.

Since I had seen so few big pairs during the week, I was excited to get AA on the button within the first half hour. I raised $20, which was more than the amount of the pot, but I guess not enough, because 3 players called. With the blinds and raises the pot was nearing $100. The flop was a bunch of rags. T32 if I remember right. Under the gun man bet $35 which I recognized as the obvious probe bet. The second guy called and the third guy raised to $70. I put the raiser on a pair of tens, he probably had AT or JT. Anyway, I decided I wouldn’t fool around and I went all-in. The probe bet guy folded, but surprisingly number two man called and I knew I was beat. The original raiser called too. He must have been clueless. Number two man had flopped a set of deuces and I was broke. My big mistake was ignoring the caller, because I had the probe bet and raiser read right.

I decided to buy in for another $200 and grind the money back. I called a raise with KQ and the flop came KQ3. I checked and the pre-flop raiser said to me, you mean that king didn’t hit you? I looked right at him and said, suspicious isn’t it? He checked behind me. A blank hit the turn and I said, “Okay, $20 then.” The preflop raiser called. The river was another blank and I knew two things about this guy. 1. He would fold if I bet. 2. He loved to go all-in. I decided to check and sure enough he went all-in. I called and won about $80 of my money back.

I had to crack foxy to get the rest of it back. I was sitting in number 6 and called a preflop raise from seat 1 with QJ. The flop came KTx. He bet and I called. The ace hit the turn and he studied it for a moment. Meanwhile, sitting here with the nuts it dawned on me that I tended to move my chips off my cards to fold way before the action got around to me. I decided that I would do the same this time to see if anyone would read it as weakness. Seat #1 bet $15. I made a face like that was a decent price to pay. I nodded my head and called. The river was a blank. He bets $50 for some reason. It turned out that he had a very weak ace and I think he was worried that I had him out-kicked. I decided that no time like the present to get my money back and I went all-in hoping he had two pair or a set. He called for some reason with his weak ace. I couldn’t figure the play at all. He seemed to be playing decent all night. He had $400-500 in chips. It could have been my readiness to fold on the turn convinced him that all-in was a play I was making. It might just have been the fact that his $50 bet committed him to the pot psychologically. Either way, I got out of there that night with a small profit after digging myself a hole.

+$40

MON the 11th

This was my last full day in Vegas and I was up early in anticipation. Dude was sleeping and I left a note, ate a balance bar and headed for the Mirage. The two day hiatus from there and decent play since would negate the karma I thought and it seemed to be true. Again I sat down at a brand new table in seat 5 around noon.

This time I was playing with a firefighter on my left from Michigan. He was a decent guy and we chatted quite a bit. We didn’t really get into any hands. When I called his preflop raise with TT and flopped AT6, he didn’t have the decency to have an ace.

The guy in seat 8 was a decent player and I tried not to tangle with him. The first hand we wound up in together I had KJ and flopped a king. I bet, he raise, I called and we checked the turn and he bet the river and I called again. We both had KJ.

Sometime within the next hour I had AJ against him and flopped a J and top pair. We went through the same drill again where I called his bets down and again we had the same hand. Since he had seen me play conservative with two decent hands, I was able to make a play on him later with absolutely nothing. He raised pre-flop and I called. The flop came two face cards and he bet and I made a decent size raise and he laid whatever he had down. I’m sure he had an actual hand, but he gave me all kinds of credit since he saw what I had played against him in the past.

The player in seat 9 was a late twenties WSOP bustout. I felt bad for his wife, who not only sat behind him trying to not to look bored, she also had to endure his constant losing. He was the prime example of someone who had played all of his cards online and didn't know how to respond to the live action. He said that he played with Shannon Elizabeth at the World Series. I said, "I would tell you that I was impressed if your wife wasn't sitting behind you." The wife laughed. I was happy when he finally went broke and left to do something fun with the wife. It's not easy to play when you know someone is bored and waiting on you. That's why we make these trips guys only.

The guy on my left was named Kevin. He was from outside Birmingham, England and owned an ice cream shop with his wife. He should have owned a liquor store with the way he put away Bicardi and diet coke with no ice. He had won his way into the WSOP and had already busted out. It was a gift from the good lord that i was allowed to sit on his left. He was such a gambler. Twice in 30 minutes an old guy to his right had AA, and twice Kevin from England busted the guy out getting him all-in preflop and drawing out. At one point the Brit turned to me and said, “People say that poker isn’t a gambling game, but I say it is.” It sure was the way he played it.

I had a couple of interesting hands against Birmingham Kevin. The first very telling hand was my $12 raise with AQ on the button. He re-raised me to $30 and I called. The ace came and he bet it down all the way and I called raking a decent sized pot when he turned over AJ.

My favorite hand of the day was AJs. I raised $15 with it. I got the perfect flop with an ace and two of my suit. Surprisingly, Kevin bet $25 on the flop representing the ace, I guess. I called. The turn was a blank. Kevin checked. I decided to throw $40 at it. Kevin called, I guess hoping to make a play on me. The river was the third of my suit and gave me the nuts. Kevin who loved to bet scare cards bet $70. My lucky day. I should have hesitated or tried some sort of subterfuge, because I went all-in a little too quickly and it convinced him to fold. Maybe he didn’t have anything, but he certainly believed me.

By this time Dude had joined another table and he had made a few hundred and I was up nearly $400 and it was nearing dinner time. Dude and I went for steak and enjoyed the rest of the night with whiskey and cigars.

All three days at the Mirage we played with an old Baptist minister named Charlie who said his children consider him a hypocrite for living in Vegas and playing poker everyday. He sat to my left on Friday for about 8 hours and we talked about everything.

He told me stories of how Gus Hanson was into Doyle Brunson and Chip Reese for a million dollars. He said that Gus is famous for winning the TV tourneys, but the really good pros consider him a lucky amatuer who either wins big or loses big, though they stroke his ego as they win his money. Charlie said he mostly counsels, pimps, hookers and loan sharks. Some of the nicest people you'd ever meet, he says.

Charlie also said he plays in this NL game downtown where guys buy-in for more than $10,000 and he's allowed to buy only $100. He said that he can many times triple up when he gets aces, because the big stacks ignore him and call his bets to play the others.

Charlie was a rock who never bluffed and always cringed when he was in a pot with Dude and I. When he was seated to the right of us on Saturday he asked for a seat change to the other side of the table. He complimented our play quite a bit. He told me on Monday that he spoke about us to his girlfriend. He told her that we were really nice guys. His girlfriend said, "Sure Charlie, but you say the pimps and loan sharks are nice people."

$350+

TUE the 12th

I drank a bunch of water before going to bed so that I would wake up in the middle of the night and get to play one more session before my plane left at 10am.

I sat down at around 3:30am with a bunch of players who were tired but had big stacks. The little stacks had all gone to bed. This wasn’t really the situation I wanted to enter into. There were 3 guys at the table I feared. Anyone of them was better than a whole table of guys I had played there the day before.

Luckily the guy to my right was too aggressive and I got him a couple of times early and my stack grew to over $300. I checked T9 in the big blind with four players and flopped A99. I bet $15 and got two callers. The turn was a 7. I bet $25 and got two callers. The river was the magic T. I bet $25 again and got one caller and then the aggressive guy to my right went all-in. I had him covered and decided to call. The lucky bastard flopped a full house holding A9.

Nothing spectacular happened the rest of the session. I decided to go see the Venycian hotel because Tricia said it was her favorite. That caused a little humor. The canal area is also a mall that doesn’t open until 7am. I told the security guard who was blocking entry that I was catching a plane early and had to see the canal or my wife would think me a terrible bum. He took pity and let me in. It must have been quite breach of protocol because halfway through the areas another security guard went nuts when he saw me, yelling from the other side of the canal to halt. He ran to where I was and demanded to know why I was there. I explained that the other guard had let me in. He told me it was against the rules and tried to usher me out. I suggested that he call the other security guard. In his most official voice he contacted the other guy who confirmed my story. I didn’t get anything like an apology for his abrupt behavior. In fact, he looked at me like the guy who pulled a fast one. No idea why it was a big deal. The stores were all locked. Was he worried because there was no lifeguard on duty . . .ha ha.

Dude took me to the airport and we lamented that week was so short and I had to return early. He got to stay through Saturday. Unlike last year’s trip that was shorter and seemed longer, I could have stayed the rest of the week the way my play had been going. Who knows, any longer and I may have run into poor luck. But with closing the house and getting this one ready for rental, I had no choice but to bolt. Hopefully one of us makes the WSOP next year and we can do it all over again.

-$200 on the day

+$750 or so up for the trip