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.