06-28-2002, 01:23 AM
With three weeks between ending one job and beginning a new one, the wife and i along with my father in law made a peaceful driving trip to las vegas. We arrived about 6 pm on sunday the 16th at the Sahara. After check in we went over to the Rio intending to go to the buffet there. Due to long lines, we ended up having a good italian meal at a new restaurant in the Carnival section of the casino. Afterwards, we decided to wait around for the free show and while waiting my father in law fed $2 into a quarter slot machine and hit a $40 jackpot. A great beginning to the trip!
SUNDAY NIGHT POKER-A SEAT FOR THE BIG FIGHT/NO LIMIT ACTION
Getting back to the Sahara about 9pm, I decided to see if any 1-4-8-8 games had started after their sunday night tournament. The Sahara is not one of my main rooms when i come to las vegas but i try and support the casino's with room and always give a little play to the casino i am at. The Sahara runs three no limit tournaments and one is on Sunday. They were down to one table when i got there. I got into the 1-4-8-8 game right away. To my suprise, there was a live no limit game going on at the next table. I am not sure of the blinds, but i believe one of the dealers said most everyone was buying in for $1000. I was just settling into play when the "ambiance" of the room was broken by a sudden and loud "LET'S TAKE IT OUTSIDE MOTHERF***ER!" I looked up to see one of the tourney players being restrained by the room manager. He continued to challenge a much smaller player in the same vein until security came and walked him out of the casino. Here's what apparently happened: When the tournament got down to three players, the chip leader offered a deal to end it there. Apparently, he was the chip leader by a huge majority. One player commented that he had 75% of the chips left between the three. One of the players offered the deal quickly refused. The apparently totally steamed the chip leader and he blew off every one of his chips going out of the tourney in 3rd place. He no sooner busted out when the player who had refused the deal looked at the remaining player and said "You wanna chop it?" He did and the former chip leader went ballistic. Oh well, back to the humdrum of the game. AND WHAT A JUICY GAME! Here's a word to the wise. The Sahara has the easiest bad beat jackpot in town. Any aces full beaten is a winner. When the jackpot hits about $10,000, it appeared to me that a group of regulars gather to play and try to hit it. And believe me, they play for the jackpot. It quickly became obvious that everyone was playing any hand that could possibly make a jackpot. I loosened my game just a bit and racheted up the agressiveness. Getting some good hands did not hurt. With 3-7offsuit in the big blind and with no one rasing i got a flop of 3-7-7. A turn flush paid me off handsomely. Following closely on this was a 7-7-rag flop with me holding a pair of sevens. Aces and sevens paying of nicely at the river. Tired from the long drive, i was nearly unconsious when i quit $110 ahead after three hours. The one downer for the whole night was my room at the Sahara. We turned the AC on full blast when we got to the room. Three hours later when we returned it had cooled down a whooping 2 degrees from 78 to 76 in the room. A call to maitenance and we were assured they would be right up. We left the room to play and when we returned, it was no cooler and we were not sure they had ever arrived.
MONDAY MORNING AT MANDALY - THE CEO'S GAME.
My father in law and I played the monday 10am tourney at Mandalay Bay. It was a great experience for him as he had never played holdem before and got a table full of fellow retirees who helped him with the game. We both busted out about the same time but he enjoyed it so much that he went back tuesday and played both at Mandaly and Luxor. I sat down in the 4-8 1/2 kill game afterwards. Only a few minutes into the game, I realized that my competition included the CEO of Krispy Kreme donuts and two other retired CEO's of major corporations. Being a downsized MBA i quickly started calculating how little i could drop and get on these guys good side before i hit them up for a job. Not to worry. These guys were tough! Tight and agressive with a good card sense, I left jobless and less $16 after an hour and a half.
MONDAY AFTERNOON - MORE FUN AT SAHARA
I decided to see how the afternoon action was at the Sahara and was not disappointed. Though my cards did not run as well as the night before, I still managed to take $70 out in three and a half hours of play.
MONDAY NIGHT- MANDALAY BAY & THE 'SIGHTS' FROM THE RUMJUNGLE
I decided to try the 4-8 1/2 kill game at Mandaly Bay again that night. The lineup was not near as tough. I was sitting with my back to the casino floor but i noticed my competition was occasionally becomming distracted and having to be prodded by the dealer. After a chair switch to get a loose player to my left i understood why. The Mandalay has a trendy nightclub called the Rumjungle just around the corner from the poker room. Interpret trendy as follows: numerous 21-30 year old Britney wannabes half dressed and running around the casino. About 11:30 a well dressed player and his stunning red headed girlfriend drifted into the room. She took a seat at an empty table while he got into a 1-5 stud game. For all purposes, the action in the holdem game died the 30 minutes she was there. At one point, the redhead took of her spike heels and was rubbing her feet. The dealer offered to cut the table high card for who got to go and offer her a foot massage. I commented as long as low card got to go explain to the boyfriend that we were just a group of degenerate poker players and not trying to hit on the g.f. i was ok with it. Long story short I won about $40 and felt everyone of my 40 years as I walked back by the club to my untrendy Dodge caravan parked with a lexus on one side and porsche on the other just outside the entrance near the club.
The room situation at the Sahara was no better. We requested a room move that day and were accomadated. Our new room was about 1/2 a degree cooler than the old one and got no cooler. I finally figured, "OK, I'm paying $29 a night, its and old hotel and 107 outside. this may be the best it gets."
Tuesday PM: MIRAGE AND THE MOVE UP TO 6-12
After a day of sight seeing, including a most impressive Freemont Street Experience, I decided to hit the Mirage. My game of choice was to be 6-12. I usually play no higher than 4-8 as the limits jump to 10-20 across the south and there are no 'bridge' games between. Here was my thinking: I was running and playing well, had a an adequate bankroll and my confidence was high. 4 hours later i was down $111. I never really got a great read on the game or any of the players and, really made some bad mistakes. In retrospect, I was getting tired from an unrestful sleep in the hot room, my inner clock was getting screwed up from the time change after two days (I started playing at 1am home time-2 hours post my usual bedtime) and my concentration was off. To add insult to injury, one of the Sahara dealers was in the game and told me that the jackpot had been hit literally less than an hour after i left. The players share was $850. As an interesting side note, the winner ($5000 after taxes) gave him a whole $10 tip! After some comments from the table, he increased it to $20! I will never say a bad thing about dealers again.
WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON : BELLAGIO & THE BIG TOURNEMANT IN TOWN. My experience with the 4-8 games at Bellagio have not been the best. The three or four times I have played, I found them to be tight and agressive games. However, there was a big tournemant going on and I figured maybe there would be a lot of tourist in town making for jucier games. Righto! I got seated in a loose passive 4-8 game.(Warning BAD BEAT STORY COMMING) After about 30 minutes, I finally looked down to see a pair of aces UTG. I opened raised and kept 4 customers. Flop was 8s-6h-2d. A bet got it down to heads up with a nice middle aged oriental lady in late position. Turn was a qs. I bet she calls. River is a 9c. Rag right? I bet and she raises! Oh s**t! She was calling all the way with sixes. Wrong. She was calling all the way with 10-7offsuit. 10-7 OFFSUIT! But i didn't tilt. Honestly I didn't. I stayed with good cards and played them agressively when I thought i should. As a result, I was down to $32 of my $100 buy in an 45 minutes later. About this time, the Asian lady left having lost all her winnings, (she was up about $75 at one point and about 2/3 her buy in) One of the regulars commented that she did that daily. She was a dealer at the Mirage and came in every day to blow her earnings. I am proud to say that I stayed tight and agressive and built myself up from -$68 at one point to about $48 ahead at another. I am not proud to say that I did not quit here even though i was getting tired. I tried to press on and when my trip 10's got cracked by another inside straight draw on the river (damn 9 again on a 7-8-10-rag board straightening out a pair of jacks) I threw the towel in down $54. As a treat for us low limit players who follow the big action, the room was full of top players: Scotty Ngyuen, Huck Seed, Diego Cardovez, Puggy Pearson, Mike Matuzow, and Phyllis Myers all walked by our table at times.
WEDNESDAY NIGHT: MIRAGE 3-6
Ok. There is simply no question that i should have quit right here. I would have still booked a nice small win and felt good about my trip. I might have even felt like trying the games in New Mexico on the way back as planned. BUT NO! Here's where the emotion took over. The little red shoulder devil said "This may be your last trip to Vegas for a while with the new job. You don't get to the cardrooms at home very often. You need to squeeze all the play in you can." And I listened. I went back to the Mirage and got into an average 3-6 game. The kind i should be able to beat in my sleep. Check that. I tried. I was actually asleep most of the last two hours I played. Apparently I had a nightmare that I did something I never (i thought) do anymore and tired-tilted off a whole rack.
SUMMARY:
1) The best kept secret for low limit players in Las Vegas: the 1-4-8-8 game at the Sahara. Call and check on the jackpot. If it is $10,000 or higher, the game will be a good one.
2) And while I am at it, here's a plug for the Sahara's room. The no limit events draw a good crowd, are well run, and if they can keep the no limit live game going this has some potential to grow into a nice little room.
3) The Mandalay Bay room is a nice alternative to the 'big' rooms in town.
4) If I were 10 years younger, 60 pounds lighter, single, had money, a nice car, my hair,a personality,and an impressive job, i would live at the Rumjungle.
5) The Main Street Station Buffet is the best value in Las Vegas. The Rio Carinvale buffet has slid considerably. i would not take a starving homeless person to the Sahara Buffet.
6) The Freemont Street experience has turned downtown into a place worthy of visiting again.
7) Never play when you are tired.
And finally, when I went up to my father in law's room to help him with his luggage leaving Thursday morning it was friggin cold in his room! He's 73 and wears a sweater when it's 90 and he gets the cold room! I'm guessing the lack of sleep in the hot room cost me at least $100 bucks this trip. The sahara owes me!
SUNDAY NIGHT POKER-A SEAT FOR THE BIG FIGHT/NO LIMIT ACTION
Getting back to the Sahara about 9pm, I decided to see if any 1-4-8-8 games had started after their sunday night tournament. The Sahara is not one of my main rooms when i come to las vegas but i try and support the casino's with room and always give a little play to the casino i am at. The Sahara runs three no limit tournaments and one is on Sunday. They were down to one table when i got there. I got into the 1-4-8-8 game right away. To my suprise, there was a live no limit game going on at the next table. I am not sure of the blinds, but i believe one of the dealers said most everyone was buying in for $1000. I was just settling into play when the "ambiance" of the room was broken by a sudden and loud "LET'S TAKE IT OUTSIDE MOTHERF***ER!" I looked up to see one of the tourney players being restrained by the room manager. He continued to challenge a much smaller player in the same vein until security came and walked him out of the casino. Here's what apparently happened: When the tournament got down to three players, the chip leader offered a deal to end it there. Apparently, he was the chip leader by a huge majority. One player commented that he had 75% of the chips left between the three. One of the players offered the deal quickly refused. The apparently totally steamed the chip leader and he blew off every one of his chips going out of the tourney in 3rd place. He no sooner busted out when the player who had refused the deal looked at the remaining player and said "You wanna chop it?" He did and the former chip leader went ballistic. Oh well, back to the humdrum of the game. AND WHAT A JUICY GAME! Here's a word to the wise. The Sahara has the easiest bad beat jackpot in town. Any aces full beaten is a winner. When the jackpot hits about $10,000, it appeared to me that a group of regulars gather to play and try to hit it. And believe me, they play for the jackpot. It quickly became obvious that everyone was playing any hand that could possibly make a jackpot. I loosened my game just a bit and racheted up the agressiveness. Getting some good hands did not hurt. With 3-7offsuit in the big blind and with no one rasing i got a flop of 3-7-7. A turn flush paid me off handsomely. Following closely on this was a 7-7-rag flop with me holding a pair of sevens. Aces and sevens paying of nicely at the river. Tired from the long drive, i was nearly unconsious when i quit $110 ahead after three hours. The one downer for the whole night was my room at the Sahara. We turned the AC on full blast when we got to the room. Three hours later when we returned it had cooled down a whooping 2 degrees from 78 to 76 in the room. A call to maitenance and we were assured they would be right up. We left the room to play and when we returned, it was no cooler and we were not sure they had ever arrived.
MONDAY MORNING AT MANDALY - THE CEO'S GAME.
My father in law and I played the monday 10am tourney at Mandalay Bay. It was a great experience for him as he had never played holdem before and got a table full of fellow retirees who helped him with the game. We both busted out about the same time but he enjoyed it so much that he went back tuesday and played both at Mandaly and Luxor. I sat down in the 4-8 1/2 kill game afterwards. Only a few minutes into the game, I realized that my competition included the CEO of Krispy Kreme donuts and two other retired CEO's of major corporations. Being a downsized MBA i quickly started calculating how little i could drop and get on these guys good side before i hit them up for a job. Not to worry. These guys were tough! Tight and agressive with a good card sense, I left jobless and less $16 after an hour and a half.
MONDAY AFTERNOON - MORE FUN AT SAHARA
I decided to see how the afternoon action was at the Sahara and was not disappointed. Though my cards did not run as well as the night before, I still managed to take $70 out in three and a half hours of play.
MONDAY NIGHT- MANDALAY BAY & THE 'SIGHTS' FROM THE RUMJUNGLE
I decided to try the 4-8 1/2 kill game at Mandaly Bay again that night. The lineup was not near as tough. I was sitting with my back to the casino floor but i noticed my competition was occasionally becomming distracted and having to be prodded by the dealer. After a chair switch to get a loose player to my left i understood why. The Mandalay has a trendy nightclub called the Rumjungle just around the corner from the poker room. Interpret trendy as follows: numerous 21-30 year old Britney wannabes half dressed and running around the casino. About 11:30 a well dressed player and his stunning red headed girlfriend drifted into the room. She took a seat at an empty table while he got into a 1-5 stud game. For all purposes, the action in the holdem game died the 30 minutes she was there. At one point, the redhead took of her spike heels and was rubbing her feet. The dealer offered to cut the table high card for who got to go and offer her a foot massage. I commented as long as low card got to go explain to the boyfriend that we were just a group of degenerate poker players and not trying to hit on the g.f. i was ok with it. Long story short I won about $40 and felt everyone of my 40 years as I walked back by the club to my untrendy Dodge caravan parked with a lexus on one side and porsche on the other just outside the entrance near the club.
The room situation at the Sahara was no better. We requested a room move that day and were accomadated. Our new room was about 1/2 a degree cooler than the old one and got no cooler. I finally figured, "OK, I'm paying $29 a night, its and old hotel and 107 outside. this may be the best it gets."
Tuesday PM: MIRAGE AND THE MOVE UP TO 6-12
After a day of sight seeing, including a most impressive Freemont Street Experience, I decided to hit the Mirage. My game of choice was to be 6-12. I usually play no higher than 4-8 as the limits jump to 10-20 across the south and there are no 'bridge' games between. Here was my thinking: I was running and playing well, had a an adequate bankroll and my confidence was high. 4 hours later i was down $111. I never really got a great read on the game or any of the players and, really made some bad mistakes. In retrospect, I was getting tired from an unrestful sleep in the hot room, my inner clock was getting screwed up from the time change after two days (I started playing at 1am home time-2 hours post my usual bedtime) and my concentration was off. To add insult to injury, one of the Sahara dealers was in the game and told me that the jackpot had been hit literally less than an hour after i left. The players share was $850. As an interesting side note, the winner ($5000 after taxes) gave him a whole $10 tip! After some comments from the table, he increased it to $20! I will never say a bad thing about dealers again.
WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON : BELLAGIO & THE BIG TOURNEMANT IN TOWN. My experience with the 4-8 games at Bellagio have not been the best. The three or four times I have played, I found them to be tight and agressive games. However, there was a big tournemant going on and I figured maybe there would be a lot of tourist in town making for jucier games. Righto! I got seated in a loose passive 4-8 game.(Warning BAD BEAT STORY COMMING) After about 30 minutes, I finally looked down to see a pair of aces UTG. I opened raised and kept 4 customers. Flop was 8s-6h-2d. A bet got it down to heads up with a nice middle aged oriental lady in late position. Turn was a qs. I bet she calls. River is a 9c. Rag right? I bet and she raises! Oh s**t! She was calling all the way with sixes. Wrong. She was calling all the way with 10-7offsuit. 10-7 OFFSUIT! But i didn't tilt. Honestly I didn't. I stayed with good cards and played them agressively when I thought i should. As a result, I was down to $32 of my $100 buy in an 45 minutes later. About this time, the Asian lady left having lost all her winnings, (she was up about $75 at one point and about 2/3 her buy in) One of the regulars commented that she did that daily. She was a dealer at the Mirage and came in every day to blow her earnings. I am proud to say that I stayed tight and agressive and built myself up from -$68 at one point to about $48 ahead at another. I am not proud to say that I did not quit here even though i was getting tired. I tried to press on and when my trip 10's got cracked by another inside straight draw on the river (damn 9 again on a 7-8-10-rag board straightening out a pair of jacks) I threw the towel in down $54. As a treat for us low limit players who follow the big action, the room was full of top players: Scotty Ngyuen, Huck Seed, Diego Cardovez, Puggy Pearson, Mike Matuzow, and Phyllis Myers all walked by our table at times.
WEDNESDAY NIGHT: MIRAGE 3-6
Ok. There is simply no question that i should have quit right here. I would have still booked a nice small win and felt good about my trip. I might have even felt like trying the games in New Mexico on the way back as planned. BUT NO! Here's where the emotion took over. The little red shoulder devil said "This may be your last trip to Vegas for a while with the new job. You don't get to the cardrooms at home very often. You need to squeeze all the play in you can." And I listened. I went back to the Mirage and got into an average 3-6 game. The kind i should be able to beat in my sleep. Check that. I tried. I was actually asleep most of the last two hours I played. Apparently I had a nightmare that I did something I never (i thought) do anymore and tired-tilted off a whole rack.
SUMMARY:
1) The best kept secret for low limit players in Las Vegas: the 1-4-8-8 game at the Sahara. Call and check on the jackpot. If it is $10,000 or higher, the game will be a good one.
2) And while I am at it, here's a plug for the Sahara's room. The no limit events draw a good crowd, are well run, and if they can keep the no limit live game going this has some potential to grow into a nice little room.
3) The Mandalay Bay room is a nice alternative to the 'big' rooms in town.
4) If I were 10 years younger, 60 pounds lighter, single, had money, a nice car, my hair,a personality,and an impressive job, i would live at the Rumjungle.
5) The Main Street Station Buffet is the best value in Las Vegas. The Rio Carinvale buffet has slid considerably. i would not take a starving homeless person to the Sahara Buffet.
6) The Freemont Street experience has turned downtown into a place worthy of visiting again.
7) Never play when you are tired.
And finally, when I went up to my father in law's room to help him with his luggage leaving Thursday morning it was friggin cold in his room! He's 73 and wears a sweater when it's 90 and he gets the cold room! I'm guessing the lack of sleep in the hot room cost me at least $100 bucks this trip. The sahara owes me!