Did the luck run out?

Part 1 of this story can be found here.  Friday morning, I awoke after 4 hours of sleep.  I have mentioned before that I have a difficult time sleeping while in Vegas, for many reasons.  I headed to the sportsbook to place a few college basketball wagers and get the NFL sheets for the weekend's games, as well as the MLB futures sheet.  After placing my NCAAB wagers and getting ready, my wife and I decided on lunch at Johnny Rockets inside of Bally's.  Having never eaten there before, I enjoyed the food, and the service was great.  We sat at the counter and our server was very polite, energetic, and attentive.  He deserved a good tip and got 33%.

After lunch, we headed out to do some sight-seeing.  We waled down to M&M World and the Coca-Cola Store.  Both of those are favorites of ours.  We were planning on going downtown Friday night, so we decided to head back to Bally's so my wife could rest up a little.  I headed down to play the 3pm tournament.  It ended up getting 28 runners.  I started out well, playing tight and slowly chipping up.  I only played 2 hands in the first 2 orbits but won both.  As we progressed, we hit the final table just as re-entries were no longer allowed.  This was after the 1st break, which comes after the first level.  I was 2nd in chips with 9 players left.  The chip leader was nowhere to be found for a good 15 minutes after the break.  We lost 1 player, then another.  The chip leader came back and was very aggressive.  I had starting seeing fewer good hands, and was slowly losing chips.  We got down to 5-handed, and someone suggested a bubble save.  The tournament was a $55 entry and paying 3 places.  I and one other person agreed we didn't want to pay the bubble due to the circumstances.  I knocked out the 5th place player.  3 people agreed to a 4-way chop that would have paid 2nd place money, but the chipleader refused, even though the stacks were very short relative to the blinds at this point.  I was 2nd in chips but totally card dead from this point on.  I couldn't even find a hand to shove with, and the ones that were borderline found me facing a shove ahead of me.  The shorter stacks were all-in multiple times and kept surviving.  The chipleader finally lost a hand that took him down to 2 BBs.  The very next hand he shoved with 9c2c and caught a flush.  He shoved again and got no callers.  He mentioned agreeing to a chop now, as we were all at or less than 10bbs.  Someone else refused, saying after the initial suggestion he was no longer interested in the chop.  At this point, I was down to 4bbs.  Former chipleader shoved again, and in the BB I looked down at Qh8h and called.  I was against A4.  I flopped a flush draw but couldn't hit a pair or a heart and I was out as the bubble boy.  Frustrating for sure!!  However, I took solace in knowing I had played well.  I should have shoved sooner but there were very few spots that were good.  The chipleader had been calling all ins light and there were often shoves ahead of me.

I headed back to the room and my wife and I went to Hexx at Paris for dinner.  It was good food, and not too pricey.  I would go back.  We headed downtown.  We checked out the Fremont Street Experience, including the laser light show.  We went inside a few casinos, including Mermaid's, and had some fried oreos.  I played a little blackjack, and broke even.  My wife played some slots, and won $80 on a wonder woman slot machine.  She was happy, as she doesn't win often.  It was busy, but there weren't as many street performers as I expected, possibly due to the colder temperatures.  We saw the Heart Attack Grill, and went toward Container Park, stopping before we actually entered it.  We headed back to the strip.  My wife decided to head back to the room, having enjoyed downtown and not wanting to give back any of her small win.  Chris and I went down to the Linq to play some poker.  This was the last I'd see of him, as he had to work early Sunday morning and wouldn't be out Saturday night.  That game is always interesting, as the smaller play sometimes gives me problems.  This night was no exception.  I didn't play well, eventually losing 2 $100 buy-ins.  The 2nd one was lost when I lost to a gut-shot straight draw that Chris hit on the turn.  I stormed out, not saying a word said goodbye and wished him luck.

I decided to try my hand at the Flamingo.  It has been good to me when I've played there on recent trips.  I played for a couple of hours, running into another crazy aggro player.  He had lost 2k earlier, won 4k at the blackjack table, and came back.  He was having fun, raising to $15-25 preflop nearly every hand.  The first time he did it he bet someone out of the hand, and then showed 2-3o.  I was playing well and getting good cards again.  I slowly chipped up my $200 starting stack. The first interesting hand was when a new player sat down.  He wasn't just new to the table, he was new to the game of poker.  He bought in for $100.  He thought he had to wait for the chip runner to get back to the table with his chips before he could play, and held up the game for a few moments.  His first hand was as the BB, and he only had $5 chips.  He tried to reach into his neighbor's stack and make change.  The dealer explained that we would give him change.  My crazy aggro made it $15, and 4 players saw the flop, including myself with 77.  The flop was 2d-3d-3x.  It checked to Mr Aggro who led out for $20, new player called, I called.  The turn was 7d.  I almost cried tears of joy.  New player checked, I checked, Mr Aggro checked.  The river was a non diamond K.  The new player bet $25, leaving about $40 behind.  I raised to $70, hoping to get Mr Aggro to call, but he folded.  The new player called, and showed J-8 offsuit....Yes, he called off his remaining chips with J high on a paired board with a possible flush out there!!  I also won when I called a flop bet with 55 on a 3-6-7 rainbow board, turning the straight.  There was another hand that was 3-way all in preflop, between myself, Mr Aggro, and another player.  We all ended up with AK.  I had few other memorable hands, and ended up cashing out +420.

I headed back to Bally's, and decided to play some blackjack.  I played a shoe and a half, and won $130.  I then headed back to the room to get some sleep.

Part 3 will detail Saturday's adventures....