BigEndian
04-26-2004, 04:09 PM
I wasn't going to post a trip report but had a couple of people ask me about it so, what the heck. My appologies to those I didn't call while I was out there. Like a goof, I forgot to pick up the print-out with your numbers on it on my way out and I didn't have internet while in the area.
I arrived Wednesday evening, threw my bags in the Barbary Coast room a friend had checked in earlier to and fast-walked to the Bellagio. If you want a good inexpensive room that's close to the big two for poker, it's a good choice.
This was the first time I'd been in town when there was a major Poker event going on (let alone two - WPT and WSOP) and my, oh my, was the Bellagio jumping. It seemed like half the place was spread 30-60 and up. There was a wait for the 300-600 and they opened a 1000-2000. I as told there was an even bigger NL game going on, but I never heard anything over the P.A. for it.
Sightings: T.J. Cloutier, Annie Duke, David Sklansky (who is paged for phone calls more often than God), Phil Gordon and Ben Affleck (who is quite a donator apparently - more on Hollywood-types later). There were more that I either didn't recognize or just didn't see of course.
The dealers at the Bellagio were horribly over-worked. They are everywhere, but only at the Bellagio did I hear them complaining about only getting a couple hours sleep in the past 48 hours. Everyone wants to play, no one wants to deal. It really does make it painfull when the dealers have trouble controlling the table from lack of sleep.
Back on Affleck - one of the dealers I'd had that night was one of the older, been there done that, fellas. When Affleck rolled in (without a posse I might add - surprising. Big dude though - bigger than you'd think), the dealer starts chatting about the different Hollywood types that roll in. Apparently, Tobey MaGuire is a hell of a player - enough to hold his own in the high stakes games. Chalk it up to table talk though, I obviously don't know any of this first-hand. Not coincidentally I'm sure, Annie Duke was sitting at Affleck's table.
More on bad dealers - the new Golden Nugget poker room. Holy crap. There's already a dealer shortage and they open a new poker room that spreads any game you want pretty much. Their poor dealers, who apparenely only got 2-weeks of training, were HORRIBLE. By and large, the players ran the action and the dealers went through the motions. Everyone had a good attitude about it, knowing that the place had just opened. But damn they need to get better fast. 20 hands/hr is incredibly painfull. Now, imagine when the Wynn opens it's doors. The poker room there is supposedly going to be bigger than the Bellagio's.
Over-all, I left town Sat night down 20BB but felt I played strong. I worked hard on reading people and identifying player types. But I was probably too friendly in some regards and showed people hands they should never have seen from me without paying off.
Bad beat of the trip: a flopped set of Ks that was runner-runner gutshot straighted with a pair of 5s.
Lessons of the trip: I learned a couple of things more about my B&M play: 1) I tend to pay people off too much in hands I should give up on - even if it's heads up. Which is related to 2) Players at the 6-12 and 8-16 generally don't 3-bet unless you are WAY behind and often won't even raise unless they have trips or better.
Amusing thing that I learned this trip: old-lady calling-station types (and there's a crap-load of them at the Mirage) really hate people who raise and 3-bet /images/graemlins/smile.gif. I've never gotten such dirty looks from people's grandmothers before! lol.
- Jim
I arrived Wednesday evening, threw my bags in the Barbary Coast room a friend had checked in earlier to and fast-walked to the Bellagio. If you want a good inexpensive room that's close to the big two for poker, it's a good choice.
This was the first time I'd been in town when there was a major Poker event going on (let alone two - WPT and WSOP) and my, oh my, was the Bellagio jumping. It seemed like half the place was spread 30-60 and up. There was a wait for the 300-600 and they opened a 1000-2000. I as told there was an even bigger NL game going on, but I never heard anything over the P.A. for it.
Sightings: T.J. Cloutier, Annie Duke, David Sklansky (who is paged for phone calls more often than God), Phil Gordon and Ben Affleck (who is quite a donator apparently - more on Hollywood-types later). There were more that I either didn't recognize or just didn't see of course.
The dealers at the Bellagio were horribly over-worked. They are everywhere, but only at the Bellagio did I hear them complaining about only getting a couple hours sleep in the past 48 hours. Everyone wants to play, no one wants to deal. It really does make it painfull when the dealers have trouble controlling the table from lack of sleep.
Back on Affleck - one of the dealers I'd had that night was one of the older, been there done that, fellas. When Affleck rolled in (without a posse I might add - surprising. Big dude though - bigger than you'd think), the dealer starts chatting about the different Hollywood types that roll in. Apparently, Tobey MaGuire is a hell of a player - enough to hold his own in the high stakes games. Chalk it up to table talk though, I obviously don't know any of this first-hand. Not coincidentally I'm sure, Annie Duke was sitting at Affleck's table.
More on bad dealers - the new Golden Nugget poker room. Holy crap. There's already a dealer shortage and they open a new poker room that spreads any game you want pretty much. Their poor dealers, who apparenely only got 2-weeks of training, were HORRIBLE. By and large, the players ran the action and the dealers went through the motions. Everyone had a good attitude about it, knowing that the place had just opened. But damn they need to get better fast. 20 hands/hr is incredibly painfull. Now, imagine when the Wynn opens it's doors. The poker room there is supposedly going to be bigger than the Bellagio's.
Over-all, I left town Sat night down 20BB but felt I played strong. I worked hard on reading people and identifying player types. But I was probably too friendly in some regards and showed people hands they should never have seen from me without paying off.
Bad beat of the trip: a flopped set of Ks that was runner-runner gutshot straighted with a pair of 5s.
Lessons of the trip: I learned a couple of things more about my B&M play: 1) I tend to pay people off too much in hands I should give up on - even if it's heads up. Which is related to 2) Players at the 6-12 and 8-16 generally don't 3-bet unless you are WAY behind and often won't even raise unless they have trips or better.
Amusing thing that I learned this trip: old-lady calling-station types (and there's a crap-load of them at the Mirage) really hate people who raise and 3-bet /images/graemlins/smile.gif. I've never gotten such dirty looks from people's grandmothers before! lol.
- Jim