leon
02-28-2005, 01:05 AM
Ahh, Vegas. More precisely, ahh well-deserved vacation in Vegas. I'm thinking I'll structure this differently than my previous trip reports. Here goes...
The Mirage-
As Tommy said recently, I'm a Mirage kind of guy. I like the room, I like the people, I like the atmosphere. I went straight there after getting in last sun to try and make the tournament. Alas, I had arrived too late and decided to play a little 20/40. Key West Mike, one of pokerbabe's friends was there. She had intro'd us the last time I was out in Vegas, a really cool guy. So we chit chat for a bit then my seat opens up. I play well and run well in a good game for a 2100$ win. I love starting things off with a bang.
I came back both Mon (to see if the babe was there) and Tues (to play in the tournament). Monday I find out the babe isn't coming back until Wed, which I think she told me beforehand but I had forgotten. Oh well. Tuesday, was, well annoying and I'll describe further below. I did get to play quite a bit with Clarkmeister over the week in the 40/80 game. We had met over 2 yrs ago but haven't gotten to chill since then. It was good playing with and seeing you again, BTW Clark. I had good runs at the 40/80 as well, including a 3-4 handed session where I took down 1500$ in an hr. Plus I got to kill Clark so all was well /images/graemlins/grin.gif Seriously, he just couldn't win a hand against me for whatever reason, not that we got into too many confrontations. My final session with Clark/40 was when the game got short handed, we're playing 3 handed, and I realize I have little, if not no edge in this game. So I roll.
20/40 the rest of the time was lucrative. Small losses mixed with big wins. I finally get to see the babe again who looks good as always, and we got to play Wed and Sat together. I stayed out way too late every night and thus was unable to hang out with the babe much for which I apologize. We'll have to grab food next time. I sweat pokerbabe on Sat which is the last time I will get to play with her since she doesn't play on Sundays. My fiance and my friend who is technically my boss (senior faculty physician) are playing in the same 3/6 game. I get into babe's 20 game, and she turns a 500$ or so loss into a very small loss. I win 950$ in an hr. Life is good. Oh, and I finally get to meet Vince Lepore. Life is very good. I'm a Mirage kind of guy.
Tournaments-
I've been playing in more tournaments over the last year or so, obviously b/c of the craze and the huge prize pools/overlays, but also just to further develop my game. Bad idea this time. I think I lost more money playing tournies than at craps, which is really saying something for me. Mon night limit tourney at the Mirage was a wash, 130$ buyin plus 100$ rebuy plus 100$ add on = no fun. Caught no cards, made no hands. Made no money. Boo. Tues night NL tourney was a nightmare by comparison. 130$ entry fee plus THREE REBUYS plus add on = 530$ outlay for sheer pain. God, it was awful. Flopped 3 sets in the first hr and lost them all. After my second rebuy I look down at AA. UTG opens for 250$, blinds of 15/30. She has an 800$ stack. UTG +1 cold calls with 500 behind. I start openly laughing. I couldn't help it. In my defense I tried to make it a carefree, friendly type of laughter. The table had just seen me rebuy twice with a lot of flair so I think they knew I was in a good mood, just getting destroyed. I laughed b/c I couldn't think of any hand either of them could have that they were playing correctly with their stack sizes/blinds. Anyway, I move in for 500$ and both call as expected. I'm expecting to see at least one other high pocket pair. Nope, KQ off for the lady, and AJ off for the guy. Jesus, I play well. Or they play bad. One or the other. Anyways, flop comes KKQ and I start counting my outs. Oh yeah, one. It doesn't come, the table groans, and I yell for the 3rd time in 20 min, "rebuy!"
Second hand after the break. I'm a fairly short stack with 1000, and about the best I can say is that the rebuy period is over so I won't lose any more money /images/graemlins/grin.gif Blinds 25/50, I pick up AJ sooted and make it 200. All fold to the sb who calls. He has me covered. Flop comes AKQ one of my suit. I'm scared but bet 250$ after he checks. He thinks and check raises me all in. So of course I immediately start thinking I'm behind. What could he call with out of the sb, that can CR that flop, that I can beat? Then I think, hey, to win this I'm going to have to get lucky anyways, and if I fold this will really cripple me. Plus I have a backdoor flush draw, a gutterball, AND there's a slim chance I have the best hand. Or he could have KQ and I have more outs against that. So all this is going thru my head but the final decision point was when I looked at him, and my thought was "look at this mope". LOL. He really did look like some overweight college kid who first got into poker via the Travel Channel. Once that went thru my head the thought I could have the best hand went up and I called. He says, "do you have an ace?". I'm like, huh? I call your all in bet and you ask me if I have an ace? So we turn over our cards and he proudly displays A6o. I play good. WHAM next card is a 6 of clubs. Ok, I picked up a lot of outs. Any club, 10, or J for the win, any Q or K for the chop. Of course I start immediately berating the dealer, telling him he wasn't doing his job properly, that the proper move was to put the 6 on the river to torture me some more. He did it too early. I think the dealer knew I was joking which was good. River is a blank, table groans, I get up and say, "you play real good sir" which is my standard parting line when I want to whine. No more tournies for me that trip.
Friends/food-
I was there from Sun to Sun. Sun to Wed night by myself, when the aforementioned boss came in. He's one of the senior docs in my program but a really cool guy. I'm actually really lucky to belong to such an awesome place, where I can be on a first name basis with some pretty famous guys, and they STAY WITH ME IN VEGAS. Sweet. We stayed up until 5am minimum shooting the [censored], drinking, etc. My fiance got into town Fri which just made things even cooler. Played a lot at the Mandalay which is my favorite place for low limit, have-fun poker. Plus I can play with my friends/fiance whose limits are more that sort of range. I actually LOST for once at the Mandalay, go figure open raising with 27 sooted, and 23o. Sheesh. They got lucky. Whenever I play there I play like a wild man preflop, but I try to play well postflop. I stuck to this plan every night but one and it did show. However, a good time was had by all and I only put 2 or 3 grouchy old men on tilt which is far below my usual average. "Is he dark raising again? Why does he straddle every time? How the hell can he get so lucky, over and over? Jesus kid, just a matter of time before we take all your money" etc etc. LOL. I love being able to say I was just learning, or had just watched the travel channel, etc and then call their hands before they turned them over and generally be right/close. Good stuff. They did take my money this time though (net).
CPK- good in a pinch. New Deli at the Mirage- too expensive. Cravings at the Mirage- decent. Lots of room. I told you I was a Mirage kind of guy. I ate a lot of meals by myself that first half of the week which was kind of lonely.
Got to see Mystere with the woman on Sat which was awesome. We actually went bed before 6am too so I'm reasonably well rested to take care of patients tomorrow.
Craps-
I love this game. Those of you who know me know I love this game. Here is my usual MO-
5$ passline bets, max odds (50$, at the stratosphere), plus come bets/max odds. I will generally have 3 numbers working unless the table is heating up in which case there's no stopping me, or I'm really stuck in which case I get only 2 numbers going, until said heat up occurs. Once I start feeling frisky I make 10$ passline bets, 100$ odds, with come bets. This can get expensive in a hurry. Usually I'll accept an 800$ or so loss at craps betting this way. That being said, I OWN the stratosphere. Everytime I play there I win, at least net. I have had down days just like everyone but I've probably taken 5K from that place over the last year or so. This trip was no exception- booked wins of 300, 400 and 400$ respectively with an 800$ loss in there in the middle. And today I made the best decision of my entire trip- I went to the Mandalay with the girl to play low limit poker rather than play craps, even though I hadn't played since Wed night. Booked a small win there, but hey, it could have been a huge loss at the dice tables. I play good.
Other random stuff-
Played twice at the Bellagio, 30/60 and 10/20 NL. God I hate that room. What a zoo. It's even worse now that the tables are out in the middle for all to see since they're renovating the room. 30/60 was uneventful, only played a few min while waiting for NL. Tues NL was ok, booked a 500$ win in a dangerous game. I'll consider myself lucky on that one. The game Fri was the worst, then the best game on the planet. It got short handed right after I sat down. I consider myself a pretty good short handed player, but short handed with some unknowns, most of whom I'll presume play well, and 5K behind to lose isn't my definition of a good game. I was about to leave when 4 guys from Oklahoma or some such show up. I swear this was out of the movies. Just there drinkin' and having a good time, complete with busty blonde who was spilling out of her top shuttling back and forth between them all, plying them with liquor. Classic. They were calling huge bets with middle pair, bottom pair, etc etc REPEATEDLY, then turning that [censored] over on the river when the inevitable set or flopped straight that was beating their brains in got the pot. GOLD MINE! I and the others at the table went to work. EVERY HAND went like this- limplimplimplimplimplimpcheck. Something flops. Fish bets, all the good players fold, one raises to isolate, everyone else gets out of the way. Check/huge bet/call. Check/huge bet/call. Fish hand no good. Reload, rinse and repeat. I managed to dig myself out of a hole after bluffing off 1K (not to one of the fish) all the way to booking a small win. Doh, the fiance is coming in in 20 min! I swear I almost called her to tell her to take a cab, the game was that good. Of course that would have been neg EV longterm. So, I left the best game on the planet after playing all of an hr. I swear my seat was probably worth 150$/hr in the right players' hands. Oh well. next time....
So this was sweet, as usual. THanks for reading and good seeing/meeting you all, you know who you are.
Leon
The Mirage-
As Tommy said recently, I'm a Mirage kind of guy. I like the room, I like the people, I like the atmosphere. I went straight there after getting in last sun to try and make the tournament. Alas, I had arrived too late and decided to play a little 20/40. Key West Mike, one of pokerbabe's friends was there. She had intro'd us the last time I was out in Vegas, a really cool guy. So we chit chat for a bit then my seat opens up. I play well and run well in a good game for a 2100$ win. I love starting things off with a bang.
I came back both Mon (to see if the babe was there) and Tues (to play in the tournament). Monday I find out the babe isn't coming back until Wed, which I think she told me beforehand but I had forgotten. Oh well. Tuesday, was, well annoying and I'll describe further below. I did get to play quite a bit with Clarkmeister over the week in the 40/80 game. We had met over 2 yrs ago but haven't gotten to chill since then. It was good playing with and seeing you again, BTW Clark. I had good runs at the 40/80 as well, including a 3-4 handed session where I took down 1500$ in an hr. Plus I got to kill Clark so all was well /images/graemlins/grin.gif Seriously, he just couldn't win a hand against me for whatever reason, not that we got into too many confrontations. My final session with Clark/40 was when the game got short handed, we're playing 3 handed, and I realize I have little, if not no edge in this game. So I roll.
20/40 the rest of the time was lucrative. Small losses mixed with big wins. I finally get to see the babe again who looks good as always, and we got to play Wed and Sat together. I stayed out way too late every night and thus was unable to hang out with the babe much for which I apologize. We'll have to grab food next time. I sweat pokerbabe on Sat which is the last time I will get to play with her since she doesn't play on Sundays. My fiance and my friend who is technically my boss (senior faculty physician) are playing in the same 3/6 game. I get into babe's 20 game, and she turns a 500$ or so loss into a very small loss. I win 950$ in an hr. Life is good. Oh, and I finally get to meet Vince Lepore. Life is very good. I'm a Mirage kind of guy.
Tournaments-
I've been playing in more tournaments over the last year or so, obviously b/c of the craze and the huge prize pools/overlays, but also just to further develop my game. Bad idea this time. I think I lost more money playing tournies than at craps, which is really saying something for me. Mon night limit tourney at the Mirage was a wash, 130$ buyin plus 100$ rebuy plus 100$ add on = no fun. Caught no cards, made no hands. Made no money. Boo. Tues night NL tourney was a nightmare by comparison. 130$ entry fee plus THREE REBUYS plus add on = 530$ outlay for sheer pain. God, it was awful. Flopped 3 sets in the first hr and lost them all. After my second rebuy I look down at AA. UTG opens for 250$, blinds of 15/30. She has an 800$ stack. UTG +1 cold calls with 500 behind. I start openly laughing. I couldn't help it. In my defense I tried to make it a carefree, friendly type of laughter. The table had just seen me rebuy twice with a lot of flair so I think they knew I was in a good mood, just getting destroyed. I laughed b/c I couldn't think of any hand either of them could have that they were playing correctly with their stack sizes/blinds. Anyway, I move in for 500$ and both call as expected. I'm expecting to see at least one other high pocket pair. Nope, KQ off for the lady, and AJ off for the guy. Jesus, I play well. Or they play bad. One or the other. Anyways, flop comes KKQ and I start counting my outs. Oh yeah, one. It doesn't come, the table groans, and I yell for the 3rd time in 20 min, "rebuy!"
Second hand after the break. I'm a fairly short stack with 1000, and about the best I can say is that the rebuy period is over so I won't lose any more money /images/graemlins/grin.gif Blinds 25/50, I pick up AJ sooted and make it 200. All fold to the sb who calls. He has me covered. Flop comes AKQ one of my suit. I'm scared but bet 250$ after he checks. He thinks and check raises me all in. So of course I immediately start thinking I'm behind. What could he call with out of the sb, that can CR that flop, that I can beat? Then I think, hey, to win this I'm going to have to get lucky anyways, and if I fold this will really cripple me. Plus I have a backdoor flush draw, a gutterball, AND there's a slim chance I have the best hand. Or he could have KQ and I have more outs against that. So all this is going thru my head but the final decision point was when I looked at him, and my thought was "look at this mope". LOL. He really did look like some overweight college kid who first got into poker via the Travel Channel. Once that went thru my head the thought I could have the best hand went up and I called. He says, "do you have an ace?". I'm like, huh? I call your all in bet and you ask me if I have an ace? So we turn over our cards and he proudly displays A6o. I play good. WHAM next card is a 6 of clubs. Ok, I picked up a lot of outs. Any club, 10, or J for the win, any Q or K for the chop. Of course I start immediately berating the dealer, telling him he wasn't doing his job properly, that the proper move was to put the 6 on the river to torture me some more. He did it too early. I think the dealer knew I was joking which was good. River is a blank, table groans, I get up and say, "you play real good sir" which is my standard parting line when I want to whine. No more tournies for me that trip.
Friends/food-
I was there from Sun to Sun. Sun to Wed night by myself, when the aforementioned boss came in. He's one of the senior docs in my program but a really cool guy. I'm actually really lucky to belong to such an awesome place, where I can be on a first name basis with some pretty famous guys, and they STAY WITH ME IN VEGAS. Sweet. We stayed up until 5am minimum shooting the [censored], drinking, etc. My fiance got into town Fri which just made things even cooler. Played a lot at the Mandalay which is my favorite place for low limit, have-fun poker. Plus I can play with my friends/fiance whose limits are more that sort of range. I actually LOST for once at the Mandalay, go figure open raising with 27 sooted, and 23o. Sheesh. They got lucky. Whenever I play there I play like a wild man preflop, but I try to play well postflop. I stuck to this plan every night but one and it did show. However, a good time was had by all and I only put 2 or 3 grouchy old men on tilt which is far below my usual average. "Is he dark raising again? Why does he straddle every time? How the hell can he get so lucky, over and over? Jesus kid, just a matter of time before we take all your money" etc etc. LOL. I love being able to say I was just learning, or had just watched the travel channel, etc and then call their hands before they turned them over and generally be right/close. Good stuff. They did take my money this time though (net).
CPK- good in a pinch. New Deli at the Mirage- too expensive. Cravings at the Mirage- decent. Lots of room. I told you I was a Mirage kind of guy. I ate a lot of meals by myself that first half of the week which was kind of lonely.
Got to see Mystere with the woman on Sat which was awesome. We actually went bed before 6am too so I'm reasonably well rested to take care of patients tomorrow.
Craps-
I love this game. Those of you who know me know I love this game. Here is my usual MO-
5$ passline bets, max odds (50$, at the stratosphere), plus come bets/max odds. I will generally have 3 numbers working unless the table is heating up in which case there's no stopping me, or I'm really stuck in which case I get only 2 numbers going, until said heat up occurs. Once I start feeling frisky I make 10$ passline bets, 100$ odds, with come bets. This can get expensive in a hurry. Usually I'll accept an 800$ or so loss at craps betting this way. That being said, I OWN the stratosphere. Everytime I play there I win, at least net. I have had down days just like everyone but I've probably taken 5K from that place over the last year or so. This trip was no exception- booked wins of 300, 400 and 400$ respectively with an 800$ loss in there in the middle. And today I made the best decision of my entire trip- I went to the Mandalay with the girl to play low limit poker rather than play craps, even though I hadn't played since Wed night. Booked a small win there, but hey, it could have been a huge loss at the dice tables. I play good.
Other random stuff-
Played twice at the Bellagio, 30/60 and 10/20 NL. God I hate that room. What a zoo. It's even worse now that the tables are out in the middle for all to see since they're renovating the room. 30/60 was uneventful, only played a few min while waiting for NL. Tues NL was ok, booked a 500$ win in a dangerous game. I'll consider myself lucky on that one. The game Fri was the worst, then the best game on the planet. It got short handed right after I sat down. I consider myself a pretty good short handed player, but short handed with some unknowns, most of whom I'll presume play well, and 5K behind to lose isn't my definition of a good game. I was about to leave when 4 guys from Oklahoma or some such show up. I swear this was out of the movies. Just there drinkin' and having a good time, complete with busty blonde who was spilling out of her top shuttling back and forth between them all, plying them with liquor. Classic. They were calling huge bets with middle pair, bottom pair, etc etc REPEATEDLY, then turning that [censored] over on the river when the inevitable set or flopped straight that was beating their brains in got the pot. GOLD MINE! I and the others at the table went to work. EVERY HAND went like this- limplimplimplimplimplimpcheck. Something flops. Fish bets, all the good players fold, one raises to isolate, everyone else gets out of the way. Check/huge bet/call. Check/huge bet/call. Fish hand no good. Reload, rinse and repeat. I managed to dig myself out of a hole after bluffing off 1K (not to one of the fish) all the way to booking a small win. Doh, the fiance is coming in in 20 min! I swear I almost called her to tell her to take a cab, the game was that good. Of course that would have been neg EV longterm. So, I left the best game on the planet after playing all of an hr. I swear my seat was probably worth 150$/hr in the right players' hands. Oh well. next time....
So this was sweet, as usual. THanks for reading and good seeing/meeting you all, you know who you are.
Leon