vegas trip report

i've missed two weeks of blogging but for good reason. i spent the first few days of march getting ready for my vegas trip and didn't really have all that much time to play. then it was off to vegas for 5 nights and since i've come home i've only played sparingly. on the vegas trip i ended up down $200 on the trip playing a mixture of 1/2 and 1/3 no-limit. losing $200 is obviously not the end of the world but it felt like a real kick in the nuts when considering how soft the games were. it was truly mind boggling how bad people play and watching them drag pot after pot and build up huge stacks was a bit demoralizing. oh well, it didn't ruin my trip and i had a blast. i played most of my poker at planet hollywood with other sessions coming at the mirage, venetian and ceasars. here's all the memorable hands:


- first night there, 1/2 w/ $200 effective stacks, 3 limpers to me and i raise it up to $15 from the button w/ KcQc. aggro swedish player to my right is the only one that calls. flop comes T96 with two clubs giving me a pretty strong draw. aggro swede checks, i bet $30, he min-raises to $60 and i 3-bet shove. he snap calls w/ 66 and i don't get there.


- 2nd day, 1/2 with deep stacks. i'm sitting on $450ish and a player gets moved to my table w/ over 2k!!!!! (max buy-in is $200) the chatter around the table was that he had been getting extremely lucky at another table hitting all kinds of crazy hands post flop. he limps utg, 3 more limpers and i limp in the CO w/ JTo. 7 way flop, T83 rainbow, checks to him, he bets like $20 which is weird so i call and decide to re-evaluate on the turn, one of the blinds calls. 3-way to the turn and its a Jack giving me top two. blind checks, big stack looks through me and bets $35. i don't think too long and raise to $85. at the time i liked the small raise, i think it entices him to either call with Tx or maybe do something stupid like re-ship. the blind didn't have much money behind so i wasn't really worried about him. blind folds, big stack instantly goes all-in and i snap call. he rolls over Q9o for a turned straight and fades my 4 outer for a $900+ pot. i made the cardinal sin of going broke in a limped pot although i didn't think there was a way in hell he was betting a gut shot on the flop into 7 people. if this hand would have happened an hour or so later there is no way i go broke on the hand. he played very passively limping preflop almost every hand and check/calling 90% of the time. leading out this hand was one of the only times he ever did it. i think i just call/call if the hand happened later on or even just muck it on the flop.


- couple hands before this happened i made a nice fold holding K7o (bb special) on a KT837 board after the hand was checked through 4 ways on the flop, sb bet out on the turn and i called and a tight player to my left called, on the river sb checked, i bet out and tight player shipped, sb folded and i figured it had to be J9 so i mucked and tight player showed me J9. soul reader.


- sit down at a brand new table at the venetian. 1/2 w/ $300 buy-in. about 5 hands in i decipher that the table is fairly bad and a young guy on my right is horrible and the guy on my left calls raises very light. about two orbits in i've lost a few small pots and have been fairly active, bad young guy open limps the CO, i raise AA on the button, blinds fold and he calls and we take the flop heads-up. flop comes down KQ5r which is not a great flop for aces. he checks, i bet out fairly large and he calls pretty quickly. turn is a 9x which is even crappier card since JT gets there and he insta shoves for like a $130. online i probably just fold this but this guy had been playing all kinds of big little hands and chasing the ass end of open ended straight draws with J5 on a 6789 board and hammering the pot so i snap call him. the river is an 8 and he shows K8s to drag the pot. the best part is he asks me if i had him before the river.


- about an orbit after this hand i've reloaded to about $270 and open JTcc from mp and get the usual 5 callers including buddy on my left that calls every raise. flop comes down a beauty J9x with two clubs giving me top pair + a flush draw. checks to me and i bet out fairly large again (can't remember pot sizes or bet sizes but most my bets were close to pot on the flop) and get called by buddy on my left, all else fold. now buddy on my left had previously called a raise before w/ QTo and raised a c-bet and cold call w/ top pair on a Ten high board and folded to a 3-bet so i'm a little perplexed by his call but really have no idea of his range other than i doubt he has a top pair beat. the turn is a club giving me my flush so i bet out just a little bit more than half pot since i don't really know what he has but i don't want to scare him off his precious middle pair. he thinks and calls. now im a little gun shy and start to worry that i'm gettnig stacked again by a bigger flush. the river is another 9 and for some reason i got a sick feeling that it improved him. probably just gun shy from the previous hand but i checked and he immediately cut out $100 and annonced it as his bet. i made a quick call because im never folding and he tables J9o for the rivered boat. puke! (i should bet/calling this river 100% of the time i think)

- 1/2 back at planet hollywood, im hammered and talking it up with the table and this friendly older lady beside me. i raise up limpers w/ AKo from the bb and older lady calls from utg and one other guy calls. flop is Ace high w/ two spades and i have no spades. i bet out like $40 into $50, older lady snap calls and other dude folds. pot is now $130ish and she has about a $100 behind so i'm going with it no matter what since she was kinda bad and has a wide range. turn is a spade, i put her in and she calls quickly with a sheepish "i got u fucked up" look. we flip before the river to be friendly and she's got A2o w/ no spades for just top pair but the deuce rolls off on the end. whaaaaaaaaaa.

- last day in vegas, playing 1/2 at the mirage. i've been very active mostly getting good hands and raising limpers. i've already made a big 3-bet squeeze with AK and took it down pre-flop. villain in this hand is an active young guy that i thought was decent until i saw him c/c flops twice in raised pots w/ bare overcards. he's also 3-bet once before and when the hand went to showdown he mucked claiming to have overcards to the J hi board. i open to $7 in ep w/ AKo and he 3-bets from mp to $30 and it folds back to me. most times i would just call here but this guy seemed aggro/donkish enough to be playing back at me with a large range. i decide to make it a $100 straight committing myself to it. he goes all-in and im worried and call. he's got KK and although i flop a flush draw and turn a gutter ball i don't get there. he does a big fist pump and yells when the river bricks like a true champ.

- last session of the trip, i sit down with the mindset that if i get stacked im probably just going to call it a night and maybe go bet sports or dick around in the pit. limped pot and i check my option in the bb w/ 66. probably 6 way action to the flop of Q64cc. i lead out for $10, all fold to button who calls. turn is another 4 filling me up so now i bet out $30 because i don't think he's folding a Queen and live players never fold flush draws. he calls. the river is another 4 making the board Q6444. this is a gin card for me if he has a Queen as there is no way he's ever folding a boat. he open shoves for like a $130 and i jokingly say well i hope you don't have a four as i call. he tables J4o for runner runner perfect. weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

after that hand i reload to a full stack and start getting bitched at by some lady because i took like $55 in chips off the table and rebought for a full $200 just to make it easier for the dealer and also so i can just reload my stack out of pocket when i get down a little after posting blinds and what not. she goes off on me and the dealer for about 10 minutes basically acusing me of "going south" before finally the dealer tells her he has no idea how to explain it to her other than the simplistic way he already has. the best part about it is she had like $23 in front of her!

anyways, before i could cash out i flopped like 5 sets and ran up like a $800 stack. i guess all the big hands i posted are hands i lost but all the big hands i won were pretty basic and not very interesting. also, a lot of the time i never get to see the losing hand since im usually betting the river and flipping my hand over first so i have no real "he called me with Jack hi" stories. here's one hand where i sucked out and won a big pot against my buddy.

1/2, effective stacks are about $250. buddy raises in ep and i call right behind w/ T9hh. everyone else folds and we take a flop of K52 rainbow with no hearts so i flop complete air. he bets out and 90% of the time he is full of complete shit raising absolute trash like J5o and bluffing tons. so i decide to flat call and take it away on the turn. the turn is an offsuit 9 which now gives me what could be the best hand. he bets out again and i decide against raising since he will often two or three barrel with air. so i elect to just call and the river comes a Ten giving me two pair. he checks and i figure he is check/folding a lot but bet out big just in case he does have a hand. he snap calls and shows me AA. when i showed the T9 i thought he was going to throw up. i then asked him how he liked the flop call because i didn't think he realized i floated complete air. he called me a fucking idiot the rest of the trip and i laughed for about 10 mins straight.

some other random funny shit i heard/saw was this one guy took about 3 minutes on a river decision when he was first to act and had been check/calling the whole way down. after about two minutes the dealer asked him if he was aware that the action was on him which he said yes. so after a while he bets out and me and the other guy in the pot both fold. he rakes the pot in and apologizes for taking so long saying "sorry, im not very fast at calculating my odds yet". same guy about an hour later and a few bud lights, folds in ep and everyone else limps. it's like a 6 way pot and the flop comes out 632. on the flop it's checked to lp when he pipes up and says "damn, i woulda had two pair". the table erupts in laughter and the dealer asks him not to talk during hands he's not involved in and he replies with "well you keep dealing me 62". i couldn't stop laughing for literally 10 minutes. apparently the fella had not tipped the dealers or the waitresses all night (which is a big no no in vegas) so about an hour later my buddy gets it all-in pre-flop w/ JJ vs the idiot's QQ, the dealer puts the flop out and the door card is the Jack. the dealer looks straight at the idoit and says "thats how i roll". it might have been the funniest two hours of my life.

anyways, it was a good time and i look forward to going back in the future. overall im not entirely happy with my play. i was very anxious a lot of the time and impatient at other times. i think i might have forced things a little too much but i did gain a lot of experience playing live. i've always been nervous sitting down in a live game no matter what the stakes because i think i'm afraid to screw up or look stupid. i think i shed a lot of that during this trip. if i had to rate my play i would say it was maybe a 7/10. i don't think i thought out decisions like i should have in some spots and other spots i think i played too spewy pre-flop. one thing that i didn't realize about live play is the need to portray yourself as an action player. a lot of the stuff that you read in supersystem about garnering a gamblers image at the table is really true even when playing with casual players. they want to sit with people who will splash around with them, not some shark waiting to pounce on them with the nuts. i found one good way of giving off this illusion was putting the live straddle on whenever i had been inactive for a few hands or even just limp some trashy hand for the sake of showing them im in there.

way too long of a post, i'll make a seperate one with online results so far this month.

tg