Vegas Trip!

Vegas during the week in December is about as dead as Vegas can get. Until the fight crowd got in on Thursday, the strip was pretty dead. However that didn't mean there wasn't some interesting pots.

The first night we decided to get pretty hammered at the Flamingo playing 1/2 NL hold'em. I discovered that my playing ability comes in waves as I drink. The first few drinks I'm fine, then as I get my buzz on I play really stupid and bad, then as I'm pretty tanked I actually start to play very, very good. The only hand i actually remember from that session was a $650 dollar pot when I got it all in with the nut flush vs the second nuts and coolered a young man from LA.

Wednesday we were off to the Venetian to play in their 8PM tournament. For a $190 fee (including employee's bonus add-on and $50 instant rebuy) you got T4500, 30 minute levels and the ideal blind progression starting at 25/50. I generally stay away from the low-buy in tournaments in vegas as most of them are crapshoots with no deepstack play whatsoever, but this tournament was very nice! A great table draw and excellent format favoring skill wasn't enough for me to survive much past the first break, however.

My arch nemesis, a local low-level semi-pro named Jake gave me the first of three beats very early on. I had built my chipstack to about T6500 a few minutes into the game when he opened the pot all-in for about 3200 chips. I looked down at TT and make the call. He tables 88 and I'm way ahead, but the flop of 8 7 3 doubles him up and puts me on the short stack.

I steal a few blinds, won a nice pot when I flopped the nut strait and I'm back to about 7000 coming back from the first break. During the break, we walked a few feet over to watch Allen Cunningham defeat David Singer in the Las Vegas Open final table occurring right next to the Poker Room. A few hands after break, Jake once again opens the pot all-in with around 5500 chips and I push instantly with KK. He tables 99 and I'm in position to have a great chip lead over the table with this pot. The flop of QQT and another T on the turn looked to send Jake packing, but a 9 on the river kills me and puts me with right around 2500 chips with the blinds at 200/400/25. Under the gun, I push all in with AQ and Jake is in there once again with 99 and it holds up. I lost three pots the entire tournament to the same guy...what a bummer!

Thursday night came and I sat down at probably the juiciest 1/2 table in the history of 1/2 NL hold'em. A rich maniac from LA was raising every pot to 26 preflop, and the ensuing action put around 5-6k on the table approaching midnight. Mr. LA obviously had a disdain for money but he managed to build a stack of around 1K even though he was stuck a little more than that. I ended up cashing out for 800 feeling like I won the minimum at the table considering how much action was going on. Only two hands come to mind, one I won and one I lost. Early on, I flop full house with 33 on a 3 5 5 8 J board and my all-in on the river was called by a novice with J 3. He insta-called and tabled his cards, counted out his chips and announced that he had 85 dollars more and looked to me expecting me to match his stack and give him the pot. He seemed rather confused when I told him i flopped the full house and he was drawing dead on the turn. He continued to be bewildered when the dealer shipped his chips and the $400 dollar pot my way and I still think he left the table not knowing why he lost.

The second hand was probably the poorest hand I've played in quite a while. The maniac raised it to $26 UTG+1 without looked at his cards (most people didn't notice this fact). A weak/tight player called from middle position and i called with ATo looking to flop an ace and trap him for his stack, knowing the maniac was going to push some chips in the pot regardless of what happened. The flop was wonderful....A J 8. He bets 60, middle position calls and I call. The turn is a Q and he makes it around 140. The middle position player calls and then I chicken out. I was completely convinced that the middle position player was in completely love with his hand and I was 100% sure he had me beat. I end up folding on the turn knowing MP was going all the way. The river is a 2 and the maniac pushes all in, MP instacalls and tables Q7 off for just middle pair and its good! he wins a pot over 800 dollars as the maniac had him covered, but at that point i had the maniac covered so I would have nearly tripled up had I not made a bad read. I was sure MP loved his hand and indeed he did, he knew he was good against the maniac and pretty much ignored my presence in the hand all together. I overestimated how much value he would put on me smooth calling both bets in position, so basically i played the hand like a chump and it cost me over a grand! I get some of my chips back from that guy after the maniac left down nearly 1.5K and cash out for a decent $650 profit on my $200 investment, but what could have been!

Some notes: The Luxor is a new favorite of mine to play, only a 4 dollar drop max on every pot and every hour they give away $150 to the highest hand of the hour. That's a pretty decent +EV boost. The Flamingo has gone to a $5/$1 drop now for a max $6 rake on pots which is pretty ridiculous IMHO for 1/2. It seems to me like the low-limit preferences may be shifting as some poker rooms are making pretty stupid decisions in order to boost revenue. Some new hot places to play with good action, decent comps and low rake are Hooters and Luxor to go with some traditional hot spots like the Venetian ($2+/hour comp makes it one of the highest comps on the strip) and Planet Hollywood. Harrah's properties are starting to fall behind.

See you at the tables!