Vegas: Day Five

Monday
This was our last day in Vegas. We checked out of the Plaza (hopefully for the last time ever) and headed back to the Luxor. Everyone headed to the 1/2NL cash game except me and the Crazy Asian (CA).

We put our names on the 4/8 list and sat at the 2/4 table. There wasn't enough interest yet for the 4/8 game so we played 2/4 for about an hour and a half. No real notable happenings here. I saw a few flops and missed. I bought in for a rack and was down about $30, when I called 2 bets from the CA with JTo. Flop was Jxx rainbow. CA bet, I raised and he called. Turn x, he checked, I bet, he called. River T, he checks, I bet, he calls and shows AJ.

Shortly after this they finally had enough interest to start the 4/8 game. I sat in with 200 next to the CA. The table was pretty solid with the exception of two players. They saw and/or raised every flop. One of the guys said he had a plane to catch in an hour. The other guy (OG) had played in the same game a day earlier and blew through 200 in less than an hour. Today would be no exception.

Early on, CA raises, I make it 3 bets with AA and OG calls and CA caps it. We both call. Flop is Qxx rainbow. CA checks, I bet and both call. Same on the turn and river. I show my AA, OG flips over 99 and the CA flashes KK. Wow, AA actually held up and I am off to a nice start. The very next hand CA raises again preflop and is called by 2 people. Flop is K high and CA gets action from only one other player. There are some raises on the flop and turn and with a Q on the river it goes 3 bets. CA turns over AA while the other guy has KQ for a rivered two pair. CA took a walk after that hand and eventually finished out the day playing the 1/2NL game.

Up about 80 I should have just left the day up for a change, but I stayed in and then this hand comes up:

In the BB with K5o I check my option (4 players see a flop) Flop is K 5 9. I bet, middle pos. guy calls and SB check-raises. I call as does the other guy. Turn is a K. SB bets, I raise, other guy folds. SB caps, I call. River is T ( K 5 9 K T). Once again it goes capped again and he turns over KT. Ouch, I played the hand poorly I think, because there is not much I beat on the river. I could have saved some bets on this hand I think, but was too impulsive.

This put a serious dent in my stack. I also lost another pot when I held KK against another guys AA. I was down to about $60 and then went on a nice little run and brought it back to $159 when we had to quit to head to the airport. Even though I had a losing session, I felt good in that I didn't tilt at all and over all played OK.

Poker results for the day -41 net
Poker results for the trip -213 net

Vegas: Day Four

Sunday
We fell out of bed around 10:30am and headed down to the poker room. I played a $35 SNG with Carol and made it down to 3 players (2 spots pay). The blinds were already 400/800. I had exactly 800 in the SB. The button folded and I went all in with K2c and the BB called with Q6c and hit the Qd on the river to bust me out on the bubble.

Before anymore poker, I went over to the sportsbook and put down $20 on a 3-team NFL parlay. I chose the Giants, Seahawks, and Steelers.

I then jumped into a $25 SNG with my wife and made it down to the final four (along with my wife). With blinds at 200/400, I found AA in the SB and raised to 1,000. The BB immediately went all-in and I insta-called. He had KQs, flopped two spades and rivered the 10s to knock me out of the tournament as we both had the same exact amount of chips. My wife ended up heads up but was outchipped 4-1 and couldn't mount a comeback. About the only good thing that happened, is that all 3 of my teams covered so I won $135.

After swearing to never play another SNG at the Plaza, and going to the sportsbook to collect my winnings, we drove back down to the Luxor for cash games. I decided to play 2/4 limit instead of the normal 1/2 NL game. My friend the Crazy Asian talked me into getting on the list to play in the 4/8 game. I have never played much limit, and never played 4/8 so I was a little nervous. I played for about 20 minutes in the 2/4 game before my name was called for the 4/8 game. The table was 9-handed, and I wasn't finding much to play at all. I may have come into 2 pots out of the blinds the entire time I was there. I lost about $40 just going through the blinds and playing those two pots. The table broke about 45 minutes after I sat in, so me and the Crazy Asian headed back to a 2/4 game.

I ran very poorly in this game. One hand of interest: I raise in the cutoff with AKo and am called by 3 players including the BB. Flop is A A 4, two diamonds. BB bets, I raise, button calls and the BB re-raises, and I cap. The turn in the 7s and the BB bets again, I raise, button calls and the BB calls. The river is the 3d, and the BB bets once again, I just call as does the button and the BB turns over J5d. This is pretty much how my entire session at the 2/4 table goes. After losing a rack there, I surrender and head to a 1/2 NL table.

I play break-even poker at the 1/2 table and around 10:45pm we quit and head back down to the Plaza to register for the Midnight tournament ($98).

I draw the same table as my wife. My friends Henry and Jim are seated at the same tables as Tanya. I hovered with my original starting stack, until the blinds reached 50/100. On the button with AA I raised to 350. The SB re-raised to 800 and I move all-in. He calls with KK and flops a K and I have to rebuy. After one orbit and with about 1200 in chips, I get QQ on the button and raise to 400 and get called by the BB and a MP player. The flop is 7 7 4 with two clubs. Both players check and I move all-in. The BB insta-calls and I know I am done, while the MP player folds. The BB turns over 97 and IGHN. I didn't even make it to the first break !!

I go upstairs to the room and play and win a $10 SNG on Pokerstars ! Feeling less like a DonkFish, I go back downstairs and sweat the others still in the tournament. My buddy Jim makes the final table with Tanya, but loses out with QJ vs. 66 in a big pot when J comes on the flop and a 6 on the turn. This guy ended up winning the tournament, while Tanya chopped 2nd and 3rd.

We stayed up to about 4am as this was to be our last night in Vegas. We played some Blackjack, Craps and I extended my winning streak in Roulette (2-2) and won $20.

Poker results for the day -308 net
Poker results for the trip -172 net

Vegas: Day Three

Saturday
Around 10:30am, we made our way to the Plaza poker room and got on the lists for the daily SNGs. Jim and I sat together in the $25 winner take all single table tournament. Shortstacked with just 3 players left this hand came up...
Blinds 400/800, I am in the BB with just 800 left after posting the blind. The button is by far the chipleader (he had approx. 6,400 of the 10,000 chips in play) and goes all-in. The SB has about 2,000 chips and goes all-in as well. I call in the dark as there now is so much in the pot, I have half my chips committed to the pot already and the tournament only pays one spot. The button has 33, SB has 96o and I end up having 75o. The button turns a 3 to take us both out and win the tournament. Afterwards one of my friends says my hand was an easy fold, but because of what I mentioned earlier I think you call. Thoughts ?

Needless to say this would be an omen of things to come for me for the day as well as the rest of the trip. Black Saturday !

We stopped by the Sports Book and placed some bets on college football. One of my buddies back in Austin called and asked me to put $300 on Texas Tech (playing Texas A&M, line was only 6.5). I placed his bet then place a small 3 team parlay and a little on Texas Tech as well. I had Texas Tech, Virginia Tech and UCLA for my parlay.

After the SNGs and sports betting, we drove over to the Wynn to do some site seeing. What an awesome place ! So many pretty people, fancy decor, Ferrari dealership and a nice looking poker room. The poker room was packed and the list was long so we headed over to MGM for more site seeing. The poker area there looks nice. The marble racetrack around the poker tables is kinda weird looking though. We didn't play here either as we had to meet our friends over at the Luxor.

When we got to the Luxor some headed straight to the poker room, while a few us went and ate at the Luxor buffet (around $20). Afterwards we went to join the others in the poker room. There were at least three 1/2 NL cash games going so we were able to spread out a bit and only have 1-2 friends at each table.

The table I sat in at had two huge stacks to my immediate right (at least $400 each). Both guys had been drinking and were raising $25 preflop every few hands. One guy would scream at the top of his lungs "Captain Caveman!" and then push all-in preflop. He was nonstop chatter the whole time. I rebought twice as I took a stand with AK and lost to 77 and then had 88 and lost to AK. After an hour or so, I moved to another table and lost two buyins when I took 88 up against AK and TT against AK. After the TT hand I figured dropping $200 on coinflips was enough for me for one night and hit the rail and watched the others finish up.

We played there for almost 8 hours that night and some of my friends did very well (+300 or more in some cases). I was very disappointed to have lost that much in that game, especially with the others running so well, but felt I still played well and never went on tilt. We also kept an eye on the football games we had bet on as well. Texas Tech easily covered after an early scare, but my parlay was killed by UCLA and Virginia Tech who got smoked.

We headed back downtown and I played some Roulette for the first time in my life and won about $40. Headed to bed I couldn't believe how quickly I had begun to run so poorly. I told myself tomorrow would be another day and quickly went to sleep.

Poker results for the day -225 net
Poker results for the trip +136 net

Vegas: Day Two

Friday
Crawled out of bed and we made it downstairs around 11am. From 10am - 5pm Plaza runs SNGs ($25/$35). We put ourselves on the list for both the $25 and $35 SNG. My wife ended up playing another $35 SNG with a couple of the other friends that made the trip with us. I played one with my friend Jim.

The structures of the SNG are actually pretty fast (bad). Each player starts with only 1000 chips and go up every 15 minutes. The blind structure is:

25/50
50/100
200/400
400/800
600/1200

I never have seen one make it to the 600/1200 level. By the time you get to 400/800 its a crapshoot. Each SNG pays out 2 spots - 1st - $225, 2nd - $75)

Anyway, I started the SNG with Jim and was the first one knocked out when I couldn't get my KK past T9o. I then signed up to play another $35 SNG with Carol. Down to the felt early, I made a nice (lucky) comeback and made it to the final two. I offered up a chop, but since he had 2-1 chips he kindly refused. After winning a couple set of blinds then doubling up by going all in with QJ and getting called by T2, we chopped it evenly for $150 each.

After the SNG ended, most of us jumped in the rental and drove down to the Luxor. Of course there were 6 of us who wanted to go to the Luxor and only one rental car - a small Saturn Ion. So someone had the bright idea of having someone sit on a lap and then cram the rest of the people in the backseat. So with me driving and my wife in the passenger seat, Carol sat on Henry's lap while Scott and Jim squeezed in the back with them. Needless to say this was a site to see.

We drove down the strip to the Luxor so that Scott could see the sights since this was his first trip out to Vegas. As expected, at stoplights we saw fingerpointing and hysterical laughing at the Saturn clown car driving down the strip. Eventually we made it to the Luxor and everyone piled out and made their way to the poker room.

I got on the list for the 1/2 NL game and then sat in a 2/4 limit game, while the others spread out over three 1/2 NL tables. I won one pot and then was called to a new 1/2 NL game. The buy-in for the 1/2 game is an exact $50. Once you post the blinds and fall below $50 you can buy in immediately for another $50. Since we were just starting the table and were shorthanded, I just stayed with my original $50. Play was tight as we were shorthanded, but as soon as the table filled, the action heated up. There weren't too many notable hands other than one time in a 5-way limped pot I checked my option in the BB with KJo. The flop was KJ4 with 2 hearts. I bet $8 and was called by two players, one who had just sat down. The turn brought the 7h and I bet out $15 and was only called by the new player. The river was the Js and I bet out $25, and he called immediately and turned over his AA. With that pot and a few smaller ones, and in addition to the $20 I made in the 2/4 limit game, I finished the night up $160.

We piled into the clown car and drove back to the Plaza and hit the sack.

Poker results for the day +172 net
Poker results for the trip +361 net

UPDATE: I forgot to mention I played in the 7pm tournament again and finished 11 out of 34 players. My friend Henry chopped 2nd and 3rd for about $325. I am updating my poker results to include the $68 buy-in.

Vegas: Day One

Thursday
Seven of the group of nine, went to the airport to fly out at 3pm Austin time. The other two, flew out later that night. On the plane, we had a $5 HU tourney (round-robin). Everyone else must have thought we were pretty weird, playing poker and switching seats every 15 minutes or so. Carol ended up going undefeated and started the trip off up $30.

We arrived in Vegas at 4pm local time. Our package deal through Southwest included a rental car from Alamo. Biggest mistake of my life ! It has never taken us that long to get a rental car. Long story short, we didn't get to the Plaza until 6:15pm.

We checked into the "lovely" Plaza and immediately bought into the 7pm tournament. The buyin was $48, which gave you 2,000 starting chips. There was also one rebuy for $20 and that gave you another 1,500 chips. There were 37 players and I was at the same table as my wife and Rico.

I started off strong, doubling up early with AKh when I turned a K and then rivered a flush. Got AKc next hand and JJ right after that and had around 6k in chips. Clara took a tough beat, when she flopped top set with JJ and was up against a guy who flopped a straight with 97h. By the time we were down to two tables I was still hovering around 6k and becoming a short stack.

I made it to the final table as the 2nd shortest stack. It was so bad, that I finally pushed all in blind with 1,500 chips when the blinds were 800/1600 w/200 ante. I luckily doubled up that hand and then went on a mini rush. Before you knew it, I was in the money ! I ended up going out 4th and took $195.

Later on I played a little 2/4 limit and won $62. Rico is up $500 playing Blackjack

The plan for Friday is to play some SNG at the Plaza, then drive to the Luxor and play there 1/2 NL cash game and eat the buffet there and then come back to the Plaza to play in the 7pm tournament again.
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Poker results for the day +189 net
Poker results for the trip +189 net