Abagadro
05-05-2003, 01:24 PM
Thought I would bore you to death with my trip.
Arrived Wednesday at the Monte Carlo. First time staying there. It is an alright joint. Rooms are decent, but nothing fancy. Definitely a class down from Belagio or Mandalay Bay (which is where I usually hole up). Sat through 7 hours of conference on how to litigate (ugh!) and then went to the poker room.
Ended up playing 1-4-8-8 at a table with an automatic shuffler. A first for me. I liked the shuffler quite a bit. Sped up the game and even when it had a problem, it was quickly fixed. Started playing around 7:00. Pretty tight game that was short-handed on and off. Flopped quad-4s and couldn't get anyone to play with me despite slow playing it. Discovered I would have won a jackpot (only 78 beans so no biggie) if the pot would have qualified and that I should have "suggested" that someone call my only bet after the flop so it would qualify. Oh well.
Game became quite a bit better later in the evening with a revolving cast of characters, including a very nice fellow in a wheelchair named "Don" who was from California but was apparently a regular as all the room seemed to know him(although he was quite the donater). It was his birthday. Hit the sack around midnight with a decent $106.00 win.
Next day had another 10 hours of conference. Oy. Decided to have a decent dinner and went to Blackstone's, the steak joint in the Monte Carlo, as I was by myself and didn't want to trek anywhere just to sit by myself and chow down. Was decent if not outrageously impressive. Needs a much better red-wine by the glass menu considering it is a steak joint in a casino.
Went to play in the same room. Only game going was a 2-4 at the same table as I played the night before. Problem was that everyone was playing nearly everything to the river at these low stakes. This is usually fine with me, but one guy hit three consecutive rivers against my very good hands (sets, straights, etc.), including hitting a striaght flush for a very nice $500.00 jackpot. Decided it wasn't my night and left down $62.
Friday night decided to head up to the Mandalay Bay as I had played there before. Sat down at the 4/8 1/2 kill game. One guy was running over the table with a humongous stack. There were about 4 twenty somethings who claimed they were on the tail end of a 22 hour stretch or some rediculous thing. Unfortunately I believe the sky-high-stack had already ground them down as they left soon after I showed up. Fortunately other wayward fish arrived. It was a very aggressive table, so I stayed out of the action most of the time. Had a great hand where I snapped off a 3-bet baby flush with my KQs flush. Was a kill pot too.
Here is where my rant begins. There are a couple of very marginal players at the table. Then one guy comes and seems to be a local (not positive, but somewhat sure). He proceeds to berate these players for their play, calling them "crazy" and whatnot. He succeeeds in driving these people off the table. Here is a tip: BE NICE TO FISH!!!! They are, in essence, your customers. They are there to have a good time, not be berated and chastised. They like to play and don't feel bad when they lose if they are having fun and getting some free drinks. When you criticize their play, this makes them feel stupid. People do not like to feel stupid! They go dump whats left of their rack at the craps table instead. Guy absolutely drove me nuts. Played K9 against my slick and hit a 9 on the river (after paying both a flop and turn bet from me)for two pair, then proceed to lecture me on my play. Admittedly I did not raise it pre-flop, but that was because the table had turned incredibly tight. Perhaps questionable, but definitely not insane under the conditions. Plus, he called two bets when he said he knew he needed help so he had to have put me on a decent sized K. I figure his was the worse play, but didn't say anything.
However, I had had enough of his act. He had drivin off people who were not very good players and the table had turned incredibly tight and tough. I don't know if this is a tactic to rattle people to get them off their game of it this guy was just a jackass. Regardless, I got up an walked and he yakked at me the whole time I was racking. Anyways, left MB up $103.00.
Went back the Monte Carlo. After a significant wait I made it back onto a 1-4-8-8 table. I've decided I like this structure as it gives not so good people enough leeway to tell you a lot about their hands based on bets. It was a fun table for a while with this old fossil who was making funny cracks about just about anything. Strangely, for no apparent reason he got really angry when someone (extremely mildly) needled him back a bit (he was needling EVERYONE, but it was funny). He went a bit nuts and said he would "get his gun and you would be gone" to the guy. Floor was called and he was amazingly allowed to stay. <shrug>
Table was very good. Had one guy sit down. Played about 6 hands total, was dealt AA, JJ which held up and AJ with a J high board. He then proceeds to give me crap about "not knowing how to play" because of a particular hand I played (which I won) despite me have a rather large mound of chips in front of me. He then left and I marveled (to myself) at his superior play in playing monster cards to good flops. /forums/images/icons/smirk.gif Anyways, played until about 3 a.m. and cashed out a nice $195 up.
I was scheduled to stay Saturday night too, but changed my flight and came back early. Here is another mini-rant. I have decided I absolutely despise cigarette smoke. After 3 days I just couldn't take it any more. I suppose I could have played over at the Bellagio, but the smoke still would have drifted in and I was so sensitive to it by that point that I just couldn't deal with it. I used to smoke and quit, so maybe I am hyper-sensitive, but I just couldn't stand to be around it any more. So I left Vegas early.
Total for trip-up approx. $350, but with a bit of a bad taste in my mouth because of some of the jackasses that you encounter in this game. This from someone who was spending the days with TRIAL LAWYERS! /forums/images/icons/shocked.gif
Arrived Wednesday at the Monte Carlo. First time staying there. It is an alright joint. Rooms are decent, but nothing fancy. Definitely a class down from Belagio or Mandalay Bay (which is where I usually hole up). Sat through 7 hours of conference on how to litigate (ugh!) and then went to the poker room.
Ended up playing 1-4-8-8 at a table with an automatic shuffler. A first for me. I liked the shuffler quite a bit. Sped up the game and even when it had a problem, it was quickly fixed. Started playing around 7:00. Pretty tight game that was short-handed on and off. Flopped quad-4s and couldn't get anyone to play with me despite slow playing it. Discovered I would have won a jackpot (only 78 beans so no biggie) if the pot would have qualified and that I should have "suggested" that someone call my only bet after the flop so it would qualify. Oh well.
Game became quite a bit better later in the evening with a revolving cast of characters, including a very nice fellow in a wheelchair named "Don" who was from California but was apparently a regular as all the room seemed to know him(although he was quite the donater). It was his birthday. Hit the sack around midnight with a decent $106.00 win.
Next day had another 10 hours of conference. Oy. Decided to have a decent dinner and went to Blackstone's, the steak joint in the Monte Carlo, as I was by myself and didn't want to trek anywhere just to sit by myself and chow down. Was decent if not outrageously impressive. Needs a much better red-wine by the glass menu considering it is a steak joint in a casino.
Went to play in the same room. Only game going was a 2-4 at the same table as I played the night before. Problem was that everyone was playing nearly everything to the river at these low stakes. This is usually fine with me, but one guy hit three consecutive rivers against my very good hands (sets, straights, etc.), including hitting a striaght flush for a very nice $500.00 jackpot. Decided it wasn't my night and left down $62.
Friday night decided to head up to the Mandalay Bay as I had played there before. Sat down at the 4/8 1/2 kill game. One guy was running over the table with a humongous stack. There were about 4 twenty somethings who claimed they were on the tail end of a 22 hour stretch or some rediculous thing. Unfortunately I believe the sky-high-stack had already ground them down as they left soon after I showed up. Fortunately other wayward fish arrived. It was a very aggressive table, so I stayed out of the action most of the time. Had a great hand where I snapped off a 3-bet baby flush with my KQs flush. Was a kill pot too.
Here is where my rant begins. There are a couple of very marginal players at the table. Then one guy comes and seems to be a local (not positive, but somewhat sure). He proceeds to berate these players for their play, calling them "crazy" and whatnot. He succeeeds in driving these people off the table. Here is a tip: BE NICE TO FISH!!!! They are, in essence, your customers. They are there to have a good time, not be berated and chastised. They like to play and don't feel bad when they lose if they are having fun and getting some free drinks. When you criticize their play, this makes them feel stupid. People do not like to feel stupid! They go dump whats left of their rack at the craps table instead. Guy absolutely drove me nuts. Played K9 against my slick and hit a 9 on the river (after paying both a flop and turn bet from me)for two pair, then proceed to lecture me on my play. Admittedly I did not raise it pre-flop, but that was because the table had turned incredibly tight. Perhaps questionable, but definitely not insane under the conditions. Plus, he called two bets when he said he knew he needed help so he had to have put me on a decent sized K. I figure his was the worse play, but didn't say anything.
However, I had had enough of his act. He had drivin off people who were not very good players and the table had turned incredibly tight and tough. I don't know if this is a tactic to rattle people to get them off their game of it this guy was just a jackass. Regardless, I got up an walked and he yakked at me the whole time I was racking. Anyways, left MB up $103.00.
Went back the Monte Carlo. After a significant wait I made it back onto a 1-4-8-8 table. I've decided I like this structure as it gives not so good people enough leeway to tell you a lot about their hands based on bets. It was a fun table for a while with this old fossil who was making funny cracks about just about anything. Strangely, for no apparent reason he got really angry when someone (extremely mildly) needled him back a bit (he was needling EVERYONE, but it was funny). He went a bit nuts and said he would "get his gun and you would be gone" to the guy. Floor was called and he was amazingly allowed to stay. <shrug>
Table was very good. Had one guy sit down. Played about 6 hands total, was dealt AA, JJ which held up and AJ with a J high board. He then proceeds to give me crap about "not knowing how to play" because of a particular hand I played (which I won) despite me have a rather large mound of chips in front of me. He then left and I marveled (to myself) at his superior play in playing monster cards to good flops. /forums/images/icons/smirk.gif Anyways, played until about 3 a.m. and cashed out a nice $195 up.
I was scheduled to stay Saturday night too, but changed my flight and came back early. Here is another mini-rant. I have decided I absolutely despise cigarette smoke. After 3 days I just couldn't take it any more. I suppose I could have played over at the Bellagio, but the smoke still would have drifted in and I was so sensitive to it by that point that I just couldn't deal with it. I used to smoke and quit, so maybe I am hyper-sensitive, but I just couldn't stand to be around it any more. So I left Vegas early.
Total for trip-up approx. $350, but with a bit of a bad taste in my mouth because of some of the jackasses that you encounter in this game. This from someone who was spending the days with TRIAL LAWYERS! /forums/images/icons/shocked.gif