Vegas Trip Report

[Turkish]

A week ago Friday marked my 21st birthday and, well, you know what that means. Vegas baby, Vegas! So, Myself, FsuPlayer, and a few others made the long awaited trip across the country to give poker a try.

We arrive on Saturday and go to check in at the Mirage. While were waiting for our room to open up, we decide to check out the poker room. First interesting thing I saw was VVP playing big stakes NL, and oddly enough Mike Sexton was commentating. Ok, no he wasn't, but he did walk right past the table. Interestingly enough, they didn't acknowledge each other.

I then strolled over to check out the WPT action. There were about 30 players still in, about half of which I recognized, including Scotty N, Tony G, John J, Allen Cunningham, Thomas Keller, Freddy Deeb, and others.

We check in and head to the Bellagio. I get on the (50 or so person) list for the 2/5 nl game. After a while I take a seat and the fun begins. The table is very lag with no overly impressive play. I play tight for quite a while and don't catch much in the way of starting hands. I get blinded down a ways and only play one real pot:
I get a freeplay with A10c in the bb. Flop comes down giving me a gutshot and a flush draw, woohoo. I check to crazy LAG girl with huge stack who bets about 2x the pot. I'd say there is about a 15% chance she has at best 1 pair from this bet. A calling station on the button calls and I call. Turn comes low club and I check to my female friend who bets around the pot again. Button moves in over the top(about 20 more) and i Just go ahead and move the rest of my stack for about 30 more. Girl folds and kid shows top pair no kicker for absolutely drawing dead. Thanks bud. I leave shortly after up about 200 from the session and feeling good.

The next morning I head back to the Mirage room but they aren't spreading any NL so I sit at 3/6 and wait for it to open up. Collectively, the whole experience of this table was quite amusing. There was Joe Old guy who knows every rule there is and berates everyone at the table sitting to my left, along with Joe I don't speak english and will call you down with Ace high every hand to my right. There is no capped action in one round for 2 hours. I picked up 1 pot and then get bored so I wait for the NL to spread. Still not much on hands and I finish down about 60 from this short session.

Next we head to the Golden Nugget because we hear they are spreading a NL tourney, 70$ buy in with 50$ rebuy. If you have a chance to play in this tourney, do yourself a favor and just give a bum 70$ and go do something worthwhile with your time. About 4 hands in, 2 limpers to me and I pick up AJs in late position and raise to 250 (bb 50, starting chips 2000). One lady cold calls and others fold. Flop comes down something like A 8 2 rainbow. I bet about 500 and she cold calls..Huh? Turn is a 6 and I still think I have the best hand, and since I have already committed half of my stack, I push. She calls immediately and flips over 66 [img]/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img] for the turned set? Well, that was a fun tourney. Obviously I was representing unpaired cards in between 8-A or, middles, which justifies this flop call? Anyhow my buddies make it through the first hour but then go bust. Golden Nugget is spreading about 4 tables of side action poker so we head out of there. I'm done with poker for the evening and get to bed somewhat early that night(this wouldn't happen again)

Next afternoon I go solo back to the Bellagio to give the NL game another whirl. I continue my trend of uninspiring tight play and have to reload a little after a few misplayed hands. Then suddenly, out of nowhere, I decide to make a stand with rags and reraise a very good player who had a huge stack. Too bad he just happened to have J's, which happened to turn into a set on the flop. And even though I turned open ended, the runner runner let me down and I had lost about 240 on a bluff [img]/images/graemlins/mad.gif[/img] ..Right about now I'm pissed off and decide to get lost walking around the Bellagio for about 30 minutes before I find my way out. I head back to the hotel to regroup and try to convince myself that I can't possibly be THIS bad of a player. I hit the NL at the Mirage, pick up a few pots with rags, a few with some decent hands, and earn back what I lost for the day. By now its about 1:30 a.m and i'm about to call it for poker, but my friends are playing at the Bellagio so I figure what the heck. First hand I sit down I pick up A's and take a nice pot busting someone who fell in love with TPnoKicker. Play for a few more hours with nothing too exciting or well played, head out and get some dinner at around 5, in bed with the sun at 6.

On our Final day we meet up with the 2+2'ers at the Excalibur for some 2-6 spread limit. I play some awful limit poker and would have finished even against the tough lineup except for this hand. 1 non 2+2er limps on the CO and I get a freeplay with Q10. Flop comes Q high, i bet, he calls. Turn blank, I bet he calls, River blank I bet he calls and shows KK? [img]/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img] You got it man, take it down. Nothing like continually value betting the worst hand.

For our last night we give the Bellagio 2/5 nl one more shot. By the time we get to the main table early in the morning, the stacks are gigantic. Atleast 4 are at or around 1000 and 1 player had over 2000. This table was the highlight of the trip for me. Collectively, it was the toughest lineup I have ever played against. Atleast three players were very solid and difficult to play against, and almost the whole table was strong. I called a couple raises with small pp's and missed and was down about 150 when this hand came up. Im in the BB and get a freeplay with 26o(whippee) until the flop comes 345 two diamonds. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]
I check, solid player checks, solid aggressive player bets, crazy suckout king raises, and I push behind about 3* the raise. Suddenly, solid player right behind me wakes up and cold calls my all in? All others fold and he shows 54 and my straight holds up. A few hands later its 5 am and im off to get 2 hours of sleep before waking for the plane ride home.

Overall, The trip was characterized by a few very poorly played hands that made the difference between being up and being UP. + 400 on Poker and i'm happy to say even on blackJ, roulette, and craps, as I was thankfully able to stay away from these. The 2+2 game was a lot of fun too!

P.S. I may be weak tight, but Gonores is a maniac who never folds.