VEGAS RECAP

Here it is, my first post in five months. Methinks a trip to the Holy City, and a winning won at that, is worthy of a new post. It started with my wife asking me what I wanted for my 40th birthday. I don't know, nothing much. I was content to ask for something I thought I had the chance to receive: the best steak dinner in town. Wife decided to fly in my best bud, Tom, from Orlando and surprise me. My other best bud, Steve, tagged along to double the effect. All my local friends were there as well, and the steak was imported in the form of tri-tip, catered by Wood Ranch. All in all, a perfect birthday.

But it didn't end there. Tom and I were scheduled to fly out of LAX Sunday night and arrive in Vegas for 44 glorious hours of poker, sleep and buffet. There would be time for nothing else. The poker began at the Mirage around 930P Sunday. We played until after 2A and neither of us did well. Tom, I think, lost only $17 but I fared much worse. My original $200 buy-in disappeared when the loosest player at the table flopped a set against my top two pair.

I bought in for another $200 and over time I got back to even. I was ready to quit around 1A but Tom was down over $100 at that point, so I ordered another Anchor Steam and got back to work. Over the next hour, I endured punishment like never before from the vagaries of chance. It started with K-K, which I lost to my good pal Tom and his J-J. The next hand, I had Q-Q and lost to A-J. I then turned the nut flush with Ad-Td and lost to a rivered full house. I kept getting big hands which all went down in flames, losing with A-K, A-K suited, A-A, and trip sevens. When the carnage was over, I was down $530, all from that final hour.

I had only taken $1k with me for the trip, but I felt I was playing fine so I needed a boost to the bankroll in case I got into a juicy game. I visited the ATM and pulled out another $500, intent to transform those twenties into hundreds over the next two days.

We started Monday by fueling up at the Wynn buffet, then we entered the noon tournament at the Venetian for $150. The first hand I entered was with old reliable, K-K, which went on to lose half my stack to Q-9. I got back to even but never much further until I busted out in level five. I hung around the poker room emailing via BlackBerry until Tom busted. We went to put in more hours at Mirage so that we could earn our $15 comp after eight hours of play.

Tom and I played at different tables. There's really no details to report other than the cards fell as they're supposed to during this session and I won $530, exactly the amount I had lost the night before. I was now down only the cost of the earlier tournament. When we hit the eight-hour mark, we cashed out, got our comp, and headed back to the Venetian for the evening tourney.

This time the entry was $120. Tom busted out hours before me and I went on to make the final table and finish 7th for $366. Only nine places were paid but the final table assembled the final ten, so we all contributed $15 to ensure busting tenth was good for at least repayment of the buy-in. I had been card dead for ages and finally got desperate enough that I was going to play the next hand no matter what. It turned out to be 9-9 which was an automatic all-in. I ran into queens and it was curtains at 1230A. The walk back to Treasure Island was great as it was pouring yet warm, a nice Vegas treat - lots of drunk girls splashing through puddles and such. Tom had another miserable day and he was crashed by the time I got back to the room.

Tuesday began at Cravings, the Mirage buffet. Our comps were good for $15 so we only had to pay a few bucks each for enough fuel for the day. We played $1/2 NL at the Venetian until 5P when we had to catch a cab to the airport. Tom had another miserable session but I was able to bank $633 while having a great time socializing with our tablemates. I doubled up as the chips were still on order, with K-K vs Q-Q. Finally, the kings won a pot. I would see them four more times and would win them all.

I lost with A-A but not as much as I should have after the board four-flushed on the turn. He had kings and would gladly have gone all-in preflop if I had chosen to play it fast. One of my biggest losses was an excellent river bluff raise early on, feigning flush, against a player who couldn't lay down aces up. I figured he might not be able to get away from it, but it was such a perfect spot, I had to make the attempt. Hours later, I felted the guy with a set of nines over his set of deuces, so the chips were merely on loan.

The other biggest loss was when I held a disguised overpair to the board and doubled up a lady with the dreaded ten-deuce, who had flopped two pair. I had no idea what she had because I never expected she would play junk, so I paid her off on the river hoping she'd show jacks. I was on the winning end of a monster pot when I had Q-T and another lady had T-8. We both flopped two pair and the river was a ten, giving us both the full house. It's easy money when you're on the correct side of that situation.

So, I finished with about $700 in poker winnings, minus the $400 cost of the room and flight. The whirlwind trip only could have been better if Tom had won too. It was good to get my poker mojo out of mothballs and get away for awhile. I look forward to my next Vegas sojourn whenever I can drum up a pal to join me.