Vegas trip report 7-8 Oct (extremely long)

I got so much helpful stuff from this Board before going to Vegas this weekend that I'm posting a trip report in case it is of any interest. It's mainly written for my UK poker friends so probably has more details about my play than any of you are interested in, but you can always skim down for the bits about the various rooms we played in.


My poker playing friend Nick from London coming to visit me in San Francisco seemed like an excellent excuse for a short trip to Vegas. My main poker goal for the trip was to play a concentrated amount of no limit, which was almost non-existent when I was last in Vegas last summer but now seemed to be everywhere. (And, yes, there were a load of people in sunglasses saying ‘all in’ as if they were on the World Poker Tour). I’ve got lots of experience playing low-level limit but very little no limit experience. Perhaps 10 tournaments in my life and one short bricks and mortar cash game session (I haven’t played online since 2001 as I found it difficult to go to bed rather than carry on playing - there are only so may nights you want to be up until 4am with work the next day).

We set off on Friday armed with Phil Gordon’s new book for the ABC stuff and Ciaffone and Reuben for some more advanced thoughts and passed the flight reading up on no limit play. More reading time was created by the 25 minute wait for the taxi during the Friday afternoon scrum, distracted only my Nick’s surprising inability to understand a T-Shirt saying “I’m the Birthday Girl’s Big Seeester”.

To economise on rooms without tying down our cardroom options by taking anyone’s poker rate, we ended up at Westward Ho. Definitely a slice of the old Vegas. Where else on the Strip can you stay in a two-story motel? They are tearing it down in December to build yet another luxury condo tower, which is something of a shame as the whole place felt refreshingly 1960s.

I headed out immediately to play a warm-up limit session ending up in a uneventful 3-6 game at Circus Circus. Pretty typical low-limit loose passive, with one woman taking the biscuit by failing to raise pre-flop with QQ twice and AKs once. The room had no particular positive features to recommend it, although there was also nothing much wrong with it. Cashed out $30 up after an hour and a half to go and eat dinner.

Having done a bit of research, we went to the Steakhouse at Circus Circus, which is an amazingly nice place for such a poor casino. Fantastic aged steaks with good flavour at about half the price of other Vegas steakhouses when you consider that you get soup or salad and a couple of sides thrown in with every steak order. My rare porterhouse was verging on the blue, which I like but others might prefer to order medium-rare if in any doubt.

We contentedly set off towards the 8pm $50 buy in tournament at the Stratosphere, which was a refreshingly fun tournament. Very nice dealers encouraged us all to start drinking and pointed out that this wasn’t a $1,000 Bellagio tournament and we shouldn’t take it too seriously. Seeing that they had Newcastle Brown, I decided this was good advice and kept a fairly constant stream of them coming my way (once the waitress got over her puzzlement at me ordering ‘Newky Browns’ as if I was in England). I doubled through somewhat fortuitously when my top pair, flush draw beat top pair better kicker when all in on the turn and then settled down to play some fairly uneventful card dead poker. Enough stealing opportunities meant I maintained a slightly above average chip stack for the first couple of hours of the tournament until my big blind special 8-6 got the interesting flop on A-8-8 rainbow in an unraised pot. I checked and let the woman on my left bet her ace and did so again on the turn where I reraised her with a pot sized bet. Unfortunately an ace came on the river and I was able to get away from her 1/3 pot all in bet (she showed AJo). I then stupidly steamed into an unwise bluff with 66 the next hand on a Q-8-7 flop and got called by a 99 who thought I might be on the straight draw. Two valuable lessons for me: Don’t make big bluffs when you’ve just lost a big pot; and don’t bluff when people may deduce you are on a draw and call with a small pair. That took me down to 2 big blinds but I managed to treble through once and stayed alive until the final table, where a coin flip saw me knocked out in 7th place out of a field of 37. Respectable enough but I was never really threatening the top four needed for the tournament after an unwise bluff.

It is a fun tournament which I recommend if you feel like a low-entry tournament on nights it is running. If you do, watch the dealers and other players like a hawk. They were extremely nice but with two exceptions not very competent. A couple of times they missed that people had either put too much or not enough into the pot. And on one comedy moment a dealer tried to push the whole pot to someone who was all in for the amount of the small blind. When this was pointed out, he then gave the winner of the main pot only 400 chips despite there having been five players in for that amount. It was sorted out by the tournament supervisor, who to my great surprise turned out to be playing in the tournament himself. It created an interesting conflict of interest when he banned a player for 10 minutes at the final table for swearing when still in the tournament himself. Having been busted out, I politely mentioned to the poker room manager that it created a great appearance of conflict of interest to have the tournament director playing. He said he would have come over if there was a serious problem, in which case I didn’t understand why the manager didn’t just act as the tournament director. There was nothing wrong with the guy’s rulings, but there was a lot of muttering about it from various people and surely a poker room should go out of avoid the impression of conflicts of interest?

Having bust out, I was mindful of the advice I’ve read that you should be careful of playing no limit immediately after busting out of a tournament and also that I had already drunk 4 Newky Browns. I decided to play limit for the rest of the evening and carry on drinking. The only limit game they had going was 2-4 and I spent an hour playing on an average table before Nick came over and whispered that I should move to his table as there were a couple of near maniacs there. It proved very good advice and I ended up recouping $58 of my $90 tournament buy-in plus add-on while enjoying more beer. Overall, a fun room I'd play in again if I found myself at that end of the Strip.

We left at about 2 for a change of scene when the maniacs had moved on and headed to the Stardust. This proved a nice low-key card room with older, avuncular dealers. I was getting card dead and tired and decided to play one more round at 3.15am and go to bed. A well-timed full house meant I left the room only $7 down for a profoundly uninteresting overall total of minus $9 for the day. Bed beckoned with plans for a concerted attack on no limit the next day.

Woke up about 9.30 somewhat hungover but in a better state than Nick who had carried on playing until 5.30am and went to the Stardust to play a little until he was ready. The no limit wasn’t going yet so I played my last hour of limit for the trip, finishing down an unexciting two dollars after my top two pair with big slick ran into a baby flush on the turn my the last hand. If only Nick had turned up 20 seconds earlier!

After a nondescript brunch, we hit the Aladdin and I played my first no limit of the trip. Unsurprisingly, the adjustments I knew I needed to make in theory proved somewhat harder to put into practice and I quickly dropped a $100 buy-in through a combination of over-valuing high cards as starting hands and one unwise bluff. I had worked by second buy-in back up to $160 when Nick came over having lost a buy-in at limit and wanting to move rooms. The game was good but not great and I said I’d move when the blinds got around to me. The next hand I picked up AQo in the cutoff and made it 12 to go with a couple of limpers in front of me. The button and two other called and the flop came down a nice looking Q-7-2 with two diamonds. The first player opened with a $10 bet and the second player made it $25 to go. Not sensing much strength given their previous betting patterns, I raised to $80 and was called all in for $70 by the button and all in for $60 by the raiser. I was pretty confident as the turn came the four of spades and the river was the nine of wombats until the player on my left flipped over 42o for two pair! (The other player had the flush draw). Surprisingly, his call before the flop and all in call on the flop were not to be the worst plays I would see that day….

Although this hand made me want to stay more than I had before, I had promised to Nick we would move on. I thought the Aladdin was a nice room with better than average dealers. Would definitely play there again on another trip.

We headed off to the MGM, which was an excellently run card-room with good lively dealers (although my slightly hung-over self could have down without the mid-afternoon techno). A lack of decent cards saw me drop another $100 buy-in at no limit. Worse, I found myself playing too passively having developed a relatively tight table image. Having bust out on a cheap draw that never came, I decided to move on. Down $230 after two and a half hours no limit, I decided to try the Luxor $50 no limit buy-in as I didn’t want to be worrying about bankroll by the end of the day.

This proved a good move despite the disorganized chaos in the Luxor room. They just couldn’t cope with having most of their tables going and the floor had great trouble keeping up. At one point our dealer had to call ten times for a 50/50 split. I found myself at a pretty passive new table that played short-handed for much of the first few hours I was there. I was able to open up massively and ended up raising about 40% of all hands with continuation bets on all of my misses. A stream of $6-15 pots came my way and I was soon well up on the day despite losing $80 when my masturbation hand (KJo – I’m sure you can work it out if you don’t know it) ran into AKo and K10o on a K-J-8 flop. My loose table image helped me get two callers all-in on the flop but unfortunately a runner-runner Q and 10 made a straight for the big slick. This would be the worst beat I took on the trip, although as it turned out some kinder things happened to me later in the day that more than made up for it. A full house reloaded my stack and I was starting to get hungry. Unfortunately, Nick liked his limit table and we agreed to play another 30 minutes before dinner. During this time I proved I needed a break by thinking I had a straight when I didn’t, flipping over 87s that I was convinced was 98s. D’OH! It shaved $50 off the profit for the session.

Nick came over and watched the last few hands, helpfully noticing that I exhibited the classic tell of leaning back when I had made a decent hand at one point. Clearly it will be useful if I want to play too much more to get some friends to watch me for a while if they are prepared to do so. I may have got into all sorts of bad habits playing $3-6 in the Bay Area, where most people probably wouldn’t notice if you jumped up throwing your hands in the air having made a hand! Still, I cashed out $95 up for my first winning no limit session in Vegas. This is the second time I’ve done well at the Luxor and in my limited Vegas experience it is something of a spawning ground for fishy players. Not a great room per se, but for those who put aquariums above ambience definitely worth a trip.

We stopped for a decent but not outstanding bowl of noodles at the noodle and sushi place at MGM (for my money, the place at the Bellagio is better without being much more expensive) before heading back down the strip to get ourselves ready for the evening session. I wanted to play at the Wynn and at Ballys, both of which had been recommended by posters on the very useful twoplustwo website.

Having arranged a highly complex rendezvous plan with Nick, who didn’t want to play $4-8 which is the lowest game at the Wynn (and had no cellphone), I bought in for $100 at the $1-3 no limit. A cautious buy-in in a game where most people bought in for $300, but I wanted to keep the stakes manageable as I was still feeling inexperienced at no limit. The table was a mix of pretty solid players and I was just thinking of moving elsewhere when a Mexican couple sat down and bought in for $300 each. They were getting good treatment from the poker room staff and I thought it worth staying to find out what they were like. They both played very loose passive with the exception that they would inevitably fold to a pot-sized or larger raise, which made them very easy to play against. Between them, they managed to go through $700 in two hours without either of them ever being involved in a big pot, which takes quite some doing!

Despite its opulence, I didn’t like the room much. The waitresses acted as if they were doing a huge favour interacting with anyone and came round once in a blue moon (I was very glad to have brought a large bottle of water in with me). Granted, they were extremely attractive but I’d prefer more mundane-looking people who were friendly and brought drinks fast. Some of the dealers were a bit sniffy as well. But I was impressed by the range of games they had going including crazy pineapple and several flavours of Omaha.

I had a fairly card dead situation and in retrospect played with too little aggressiveness, especially having identified the Mexicans’ tendency to fold to decent-sized bets. Despite managing to double through when my stack size just about gave me the pot odds to call with an open-ended straight and backdoor flush draw, I could only end up $26 up after a weak run of cards couple with somewhat too passive play.

Nick and I met up again at 12.45am and walked up to Ballys. Yet again, the floor was rather disorganized and was ignoring the list system, which worked well for me as I was seated immediately but didn’t for Nick, who was told not to put his name on the list as they had a seat by someone who promptly disappeared for 15 minutes allowing several arrivals after him to be seated first. I got an inkling that this would be the perfect table for me given a bit of luck, when a bet-raise-reraise-reraise all in sequence pre flop lead to the less than over-whelming QQ and AJo being turned over. In particular, the table was obsessed with raising pre-flop to $17. Despite the size of the bet relative to the $1-2 blinds, half the table was treating it as if this meant the raiser didn’t have a hand. I immediately decided that $17 would be my standard opening bet whenever I came in. Even more strangely, the player to my right had an insistence on punishing limpers by invariably going all in to win the blinds and limpers when he was on the button in unraised pots (sadly I never woke up with a hand in the small blind I could punish him with!)

However, I wasn’t catching any cards at all. I won $50 taking down a raggedy low flop with JJ but otherwise oscillated between $75 and $135 in chips for two hours. Nick came over ready to go to bed at 3.15am and assumed I would be too seeing my unremarkable chip position. He was slightly surprised when I said that I play on, having not seen anything of the madness at the table.

As Nick left, I decided to start drinking and ordered a Fat Tire. As soon as this happened, I started catching cards and in 35 minutes had a ‘perfect storm’ of poker:

Hand 1: I get AQs in the small blind and with 5 limpers bet $17. Somewhat to my surprise even on this table, the big blind and all five limpers call a flop that comes 10-8-5 making me a four flush. I have been playing tight enough (several comments on this around the table in the past 30 minutes) that I feel I have some fold equity despite the loose game and go all-in for $85. This runs into A10 and 55, making me a 28% dog but I get lucky and catch a club on the turn to more than triple up.

Hand 2: The very next hand I get pocket rockets on the button. My $17 bet has five callers and gets a Q-10-6 flop with two spades. The loosest player on the table bets $35 into me from middle position and two fold to me. Wanting to price out the draws I make a near-pot sized raise to $160 and everyone folds.

Hand 3: After an uneventful two orbits I order a second fat tire and get JJ in the small blind. A player in early position bets $17 and gets five callers. Wanting to play the hand for more that set value, I raise to $60 and get called by the original raiser and one other player. The original raiser has $350 behind and the other caller has $60. the flop comes down an OK but not ideal Q-4-3 rainbow. I continuation bet $100, aiming for enough to make the guy with $350 worry about committing himself without committing me. He had been one of the players who had commented on my tight play and he thought for nearly a minute before throwing away his cards. I was quickly called all-in by the short stack, who had called a bet and a raise preflop with 6-5o and took down the pot with two blanks. The original bettor swore when I turned over my cards and said he was convinced I had kings or aces given the size of my bet and had thrown away AQ!

Hand 4: Two hands later I find myself with rockets again. The table loosey makes it $17 to go with one caller. I raise to $70 and am surprised when the guy who had just thrown away the winning hand makes it $200. Everyone folds to me and he calls my all in. I expect him to flip AA, KK or QQ. Instead, he rather shame-facedly flips over 44 (a fractionally better hand than KK against aces, but even so…). An ace on the flop puts an end to the suspense and when the dust settles I have $970 in chips in front of me.

Sadly, that player (who was a nice guy and gracious even when tilting right at the end) leaves the table and is shortly followed by the two consistently worst players. One wins a tiny checked down pot off me just before leaving when 8-5 made one pair to beat my unimproved A-J and proudly says “I give myself more chances than you because I will play 8-5 while you wait for aces”. I say “nice hand” and refrain from commenting further. With the table improving I start to feel tired at the prospect of a 9am flight but play a few more orbits and have a few more beers so as not to appear to have run off immediately after winning all the chips. Nothing much happens, although I lose a few chips calling big stacks with speculative hands in the hope of stacking them. I finally cash out for $897 at 4.30am. I ask the floor manager while cashing out whether the standard is always this interesting and he says it pretty much is, adding ruefully that he wished he was allowed to play in these games (clearly they have a different policy than the Stratosphere).

I catch a cab home and manage a couple of hours sleep before the flight. We check out, pausing only for Nick to deliver a Westward Ho comment card helpfully suggesting that they “should consider tearing the whole place down and building something else”. It has been a good trip and encouraging me to continue playing some more no limit back in the Bay Area. Main areas to work on seem to be more controlled aggression, being more prepared to ditch non-AK big cards in early position and making sure I’m not exuding tells. But even with the cost of the trip, an overall $680 win gives me a bankroll that can stand a mistake or two.

As for Vegas, the card room were noticeably way busier than the last time I was there which was the July 4 weekend last year despite the huge number of new card rooms that have opened in the interim. For all of some people’s worry about the decline in the poker boom, it all looked pretty booming from our perspective. Hopefully another trip out there may be possible before too long.

[zuluking]

Nice report.