[Barry]

What has happened to the LV poker scene since the summer?

When I was in LV last in August, the poker was still mostly the usual mix of weak tighties and loosies with a few LAG's thrown in to make the games good, without a lot of variance.

So I arrive on Tuesday and get into the Bellagio 15/30 game. UTG raises are given very little respect, often 3 bet by hands like QTo, suited A's or suited connectors, and still 5 or more folks see the flop. I also have never seen so many semi-bluff turn checkraises over the course of a session as I have during this trip. This is even nuttier than the Party 15/30 games, which I am quite comfortable in.

Within a relatively short time, I found myself down nearly 3 racks in a 3/6 chip game. An amazingly short time later, I had bailed out and wound up even. It was the same thing the next day, I had a 3 rack swing, thankfully ending on the up side. Later that night I got into the 30/60 Bellagio game and had another 2 rack downswing followed by a 3 rack upswing. Last night, it was the same thing again, this time, ending down 3 racks. I guess that we experience this type of variance every now and again, but in every session? Also, I'm not sure that I have yet made the right adjustments yet to my game or my emotional state. I almost feel like playing golf for the rest of the trip.

Also "the rock" was involved much of the time in the 30/60 game. For those of you that are not familiar with this, either someone posts a live straddle, or the table contributes to create a live straddle. In the case of the 30/60 game, 6 chips are rubber banded together to create "the rock". Who ever wins that hand, gets the "rock" and is obligated to post a live straddle with it the next time that they are UTG. One of these rock hands was capped (5 bets) preflop 7 ways, won by 66, (which was the fellow that put in the last raise PF) that wound up making a straight on the river. I had AKs and totally missed the flop.

I have never played in CA, but I guess that these are the types of games that are more normally found there. So what the heck is going on to so dramatically change the games in just a few months?