Vegas Trip Part 2

Monday started off with breakfast at the buffet at Paris, and then I headed over to the Aria.  I was planning on playing the 1pm tourney, and figured I’d play a little cash before.  However, they only had a couple of games going and a list, so I figured I’d head to Planet Hollywood for awhile before the tournament.  I sat down, played about an hour, and cashed out up $130.  I was up over $250 at one point, and got it all in against a player with about $100.  We were all in preflop, my AA vs his KK, and he spiked a K on the flop.  I also won a splash pot (only $25 for the splash pot) when someone raised it to $13, I called with 7h8h, the flop was Q-8-Q, he bet, I raised, and he folded AK.

I got to the Aria just as the tournament was starting, and got seated.  I lasted until just before the break, as I was card dead pretty much the entire time.  I’d get AK, and the flop would be all small.  I’d have small pocket pairs, and it was all overcards on the flop, and someone was betting every time. With 10BB left, and less than 5 minutes until break, I see QQ UTG and shove.  It folds to the BB, who calls.  He tables AK, and hit a 4 card flush on me to knock me out.

I get my name on the list for the $1/3 PLO, and am seated a short time later.  I buy in for $300, and my cards have not improved, even tho I am getting twice as many at once…lol  I make a few hands, and run my stack up to $600, including making quad 5’s again, with 2 in my hand and 2 on the board.  At this point, I start missing flops again, and missing a few monster draws, leading to a point where I get felted after nearly 3 hours at the PLO.  I leave and head to MGM.

I start out by grabbing dinner at the buffet, using a coupon for a free buffet courtesy of MyVegas.  I enjoyed it, there was a good selection of food, and the service was good.  I left and headed over to the poker room, where I get seated immediately.  I get decent starting hands, but end up with 2^nd best hands often.  I play until 2am, ending down 2 buy-ins after being unable to get my hands to hold.  Straights losing to flushes, 2 pair losing to sets, flush over flush once.  I had 1 ticket for the midnight drawing and wasn’t called.  I left and went back to my room, hoping Tuesday would be a better day.

Tuesday I woke up and headed down to the food court at Bally’s.  I made some sports bets, ate breakfast, and found an email from my new employer.  They had sent me a form that I needed to print out, fill out, and send back to them.  Hmmmmm, how on earth do I do this?  I have no computer with me, no printer or scanner, and no way of getting it done at Bally’s.  I do some research on the internet, and find that there is a UPS store at the Riviera that can do it all for me.  I get on the monorail and head to the Riviera, getting the document printed out, filling it out, and getting it scanned and emailed to me.  I then email it to my employer and that situation is done.  I notice on the business cards they have that there are locations closer, including at Caesar’s as well as Harrah’s, to name a couple….lesson learned for next time.  It was nice being able to visit the Riviera before they close however.  I walked around a little, but didn’t gamble any.  I head back to Bally’s, catch the shuttle to the Rio, and explore there awhile.  They have no games going except a tournament, and very little WSOP merchandise in the gift shop.  I catch the shuttle back to Bally’s, and decide to eat dinner at Toby Keith’s at Harrah’s before heading to the Wynn for the first time.

After dinner, I get to the Wynn shortly after Grrouchie.  He is seated, and I am called for a seat a bit later.  I request a change to his table, and after playing 1 hand, am called for the table change.  I get seated at his table and the night commences.  I start off quickly, with many big hands.  In one hand I get QQ in the BB, and see a raise to $16 and 1 caller ahead of me.  I raise to $50, and the player who called the initial raise is the only caller.  The flop is 2-3-5, rainbow.  I bet $80, and he folds.

I see AA in late position, and again there is a raise before it gets to me, this time to $13.  I raise to $45, and the raiser calls.  The flop is Qc-Jx-3c.  We both check, the turn is 7s, we both check, and the river is a blank, and I win.  I should have bet there somewhere, but felt I might only get called by a better hand.  I get AA again, and this time I am the initial raiser, making it $16.  There are 2 callers, and we see a flop of 6h-7h-6c.  I bet $30, the next player goes all in for $90, and I make the crying call.  Turn is Qc, river is 7x, and my AA is good.

Grrouchie gets it all in preflop against another player.  He has KK, and the first card out is a K, followed by an A.  The other player, who has been loose and aggressive, shows AA!  What a sick beat…

I have accumulated a decent stack, and one of the players who has a larger stack straddles.  I call with 6h7h from the button, and the straddler makes it $21.  I call.  We see the flop with 5 players in the hand.  The flop is Qs-9h-3h.  The straddler bets $45, it folds to me, and I raise to $115.  This is a move I rarely make, betting the draw, but felt that with this player, he would likely put me on a draw if I just called, and thought I could represent a bigger hand by raising.  He calls the raise.  The turn is Qc.  He checks, and I bet $150, hoping to continue the story I was telling.  He thinks for about a minute, and reluctantly folds.  I show my hand, hoping that I can show that I don’t always have a solid hand when I bet.  I know that by doing this I shouldn’t bluff anymore, as it’s likely what they’ll be remembering.  He says I had outs, and I suspect he had a decent pair, 10-10 or JJ most likely.  After the hand I am up to $675.

Another big hand is played when I see 10-10.  Seat 3 raises to $15, and I reraise to $45.  I don’t always 3-bet 10-10, but I felt this was a good spot for it.  He hesitates and calls, and we are heads up to the flop of K-9-2, rainbow.  It goes check check.  I felt he may have AK, and wanted to proceed cautiously.  The turn is a 6.  He bets $55, and I couldn’t tell if it was a confident bet, or him just taking a stab at the pot after I had checked the flop, so I called.  The river was a pretty 10.  He bets $150.  While I am beat only by KK or QJ, I decide to just call, rather than raise.  I really don’t see him calling with a hand that I can beat if I raise.  After I make the call, he shows 99, and I scoop the pot, beating a flopped set of 9’s on the river for the 2^nd time this trip!

Michelle arrives and everything goes downhill.  This was not her fault, just the way the events happened.  I started missing flops, getting outflopped, and Michelle was having troubles as well, getting felted by a player who called a raise with 10d3d and chased his flush draw to the river where he caught it.  I wasn’t sure she would want to leave after the trouble she had to go through to get there, and after being felted already, so rather than ask I kept playing.  I ended up giving back all the profit plus the initial $300.  At that point, I decided I was done.  I again wasn’t playing well, and rather than ask Michelle if she wanted to leave, I just kept playing in a situation that was bad for both of us.  I felt fortunate to only be out the 1 buy-in and walked back to bally’s, trying to clear my head in preparation for the next day, my last full day in Vegas.

Part 3 will detail that day, plus Thursday morning before the flight....