Maldini's Vegas trip report part II

[maldini]

Thanks for the positive responses.

Day 2

Monday (I think) I wake "John" up at something like noonish after about 3 hours of sleep. He was intending to play the $300 WSOP Circuit event on Tuesday and I guess its best to register early. We both wake up again about 2ish and decide to hit the pool for a few hours. I get tired of listening to John having his wife read his email to him over the phone and his corresponding responses back to her for immediate dictation. This strikes me as some kind of abomination of modern technology. He has no job, so I’m not clear on how these emails could rise to this level of importance. I go ahead and head down to check out the vaunted treasure that is a pool on the Las Vegas strip. The day is perfect. The pool is not.

I mean, I truly was not expecting much from a pool at the Excalibur. It under delivered. Of the approx. 200 “people” occupying the pool area, exactly 2 were good-looking girls. And I do mean “girls”. I estimated that they were 20-22 yrs old and with their mom. I’m 32, 31 at the time of the trip. Yes, I’m sorry to report that 20 year olds look like children to me these days. Hot, slutty children at times, but children none the less. If Wal-Mart had a pool, this was it. Well, maybe not Wal-Mart, but somewhere between Appleby’s and Shoney’s. In retrospect, we should have moved hotels right there and then. The sad thing is that we had $50 for the first 2 nites and $70 and $100 the next two. Amazing what power inertia (or lack thereof) has on the world.

I’m ready to leave after a couple of hours but John is nowhere to be seen. Guess he had a lot of emails. We agree to meet at Paris for the buffet. It is very good and lives up to expectations. Paris casino is very cool. Not sure why it has been reported as an old persons’ hang out. At lunch John asks me what I think of Dallas +2 vs. Philly. I say that I’d take Dallas in a heartbeat and am surprised they are not the favorite. John felt the same way and took Dallas with the money line while I was at the pool. Not sure how to quote the money line but I believe he got Dallas +150. He bet $200 to win $250. We decide to watch the 2nd half while we have a few beers. I’m apprehensive because I know that beer and poker don’t mix for me. At my home games I’ve decided that I am a break-even player if I am buzzing before I go play and sip on beer while I play. If I’m flat drunk, I’m not so good. Heck, who am I kidding? I can’t turn down beer and a ballgame with a buddy. We’re in Vegas for Christ’s sake. Wow, do games start early here or what? We watch the game outside at some tent in front of Caesar’s. Its actually a great spot. Big TVs with sound, nice looking women within shouting distance (which is probably what I was doing to them). The nite was a little cold and they had outdoor heaters going. Also, zero time inbetween beers. Worked out perfectly, I think we went 0-3 on sports books before settling on this place. All full. With about 5 minutes left in the game I suggest we head downtown. Dallas looks terrible; they’re down 13 and have zero offense. The QB looks rattled and the offense is out of sync. I don’t see anything happening here. We’re feeling pretty dejected, which is a weird sensation for me since I hate the cowboys with a passion (I’m a Texans fan). John wants to wait, mainly because he just ordered a beer I think. Low and behold, they pull a miracle and win in the last 3 minutes. Wow. Have I mentioned that John is the luckiest person ever? To further this claim, I would like it noted for the record that he’s ahead something like $1700 lifetime playing roulette and probably has never placed more than a $25 bet at any given time. He pulls this game out after winning $700 at poker totally hammered the night before. Well, this totally changes our disposition. After another few rounds of drinks and the realization that the girls we’re talking to are not ready to sleep with me, we head for downtown.

The monorail kicks ass. I will say that the switch from the monorail to bus is not easy to figure out. Well, not if you’re stupid and drunk like me. We make it to a bus stop and wait like a minute or less. I get on with ½ a beer and the driver commands me to get rid of the beer. Eh? I’ve walked around with beer many times already in the 2 days I’ve been here. I consider raising for a moment, but think better of it and submit to his will, ready to fold. However, I don’t see a trash can on the bus. I turn around and there is no trash can at the bus stop either. I ask him for a beer placement suggestion. He is unhelpful. I elect to fling my beer out the door and turn to take my seat. He surprises me by telling me I cannot get on the bus. I’m banned from the bus. Now I’m interested. It seems to me that he is making a judgment call and I wonder to myself just how serious he is about this pronouncement. I decide first that I am not going to have much problem with him if he comes at me. Secondly, I don’t think he’s thought ahead about the next move and I doubt he’s really ready to mess up his whole nite and face unknown consequences to prove a point to little old me over such a seemingly small infraction. I weigh the fact that I’m drunk against all this data and decide to roll the dice. I tell him I’m just going downtown, I’m getting on the bus and he’s welcome to try to stop me. Before the guy can commit himself, John steps in front of me and says a few words that I don’t hear/remember. Well, we get on the bus and get downtown. Well done, John. Of course, I’m convinced that I was getting on the bus either way, but John believes that I was definitely about to go downtown (the hard way). John is a lawyer from Harvard, so his arguing skills cannot be overvalued (by him). I’ll leave it for the reader to decide. As a famous anchorman once said, “we just have to agree to disagree”.

Poker downtown:
Wow, this is a different experience from the strip. I’m prepared to meet a bunch of locals that are hardcore so I plan to hit a few places, get a feel for downtown and get out. I sit down at $1/$2 NL at the Golden Nugget right away, I look around and witness a big hand as im stacking my chips. Wow, I can already tell there are at least 2 ballers at the table. 2 guys appear to have about a dime in front. Plus the guy to my right was just in a big hand and he is clearly tough. Maybe I was already biased but the feel was that these guys are a lot more serious than what I’d seen on the strip. First hand I get dealt 4-5o in the CO. There are a few callers to me, I call and the button raises. I look at him for the first time. He’s in his early 100s. There are several callers and I call. I flop the wheel. We all check to the raiser. He bets, I call, it’s just us now. I check/call the turn blank, and check/raise all in the river. He has AKo. Ouch for him. Double up first hand. +200. Within 2 minutes I see witness a fun hand. Flop is JJ3 rainbow. One guy has KJ, the other guy has 33. ouch. At least a $1400 pot. I come to grips with the fact that I am a drunk wuss who’s up $200 so I wait an orbit or so and bow out. I head over to Binions.

Binions is so far from what I wanted. I sit down with my fat $200 and examine the table for talent. The guy to my left has at least 3 grand in chips. I then notice the biggest stack of $100 bills I’ve ever seen, and I used to work at a bank. I take a quick look over the next few hands and decide that he’s at the table with about $10k. The guy to his left has about $4k. The next guy to the left has somewhere in between these two. One of these guys gets off the phone (at the table) and tells us/them that he’s just convinced a huge sucker to meet him here and play some. They are clearly regulars and the kind of guys that will call my all in just to see the pain on my face. I decide not to pick on these guys. The rest of the table is normal so I plan to work on them. I’m in the #2 seat. I intend to establish a tight image and then play even tighter. I’m clearly intimidated. I may have wet myself a little, just a dribble though. I try to sell the tight image. I think I stack my chips methodically and even line them up so the edges match. I count them once or twice more just to be sure they are all there. I sit out a few hands until I get Q-Jo in the hijack. I raise a bit more than I normally would for no other reason than to give the stacks behind me a chance to sit out. I probably make it like $17-$20 to go. Luckily they all fold and I get only one caller. He’s in seat #10 and doesn’t appear too threatening. The flop is pretty bad, not likely to do much for anyone. He checks, I make the standard ¾ bet and he calls. I’m done with the hand at this point. The turn is bricky also. He checks, I check. The river is a K. He checks. The pot is calling me like a siren. Will I be lured to the rocks below? It’s like $100 in the pot. I’ve got like $150 left. He’s got to have AJ or some bad pair in the hole. If he had something nice, or if he hits that K he’s got to bet at some point. Its not like he can count on me to bet for him. I could have AK couldn’t I? I go all in, he folds quickly, mercifully. I show, partly because I want respect, partly because I don’t plan on bluffing again, ever. The locals laugh and call me a player. Next hand I limp with 3s and get raised by daddy 10k. Everyone folds and he shows me Q-8s and makes a comment about how I can play with him. I give it like 4 more hands to look good, rack my chips and get the hell out of there. They moan when I leave and one actually makes a humorous comment that they really aren’t good; they just buy in for a lot because it’s embarrassing to keep calling for more chips all the time. All I know is that I am drunk and up $250.

Interesting postscript about that table: Later in the week a guy comes up to me to tell me he was at that table with me at Binions. I had played with him previously at Excal. Not sure why I didn’t recognize him at Binions other than he is a normal unassuming guy. Maybe I was just that drunk. Again, I leave it to the reader to determine the relative strength of each argument. He tells me an antidote about a hand I had missed by less than 2 minutes. I got the seat of the guy who just left. It seems that 3 of the locals had gotten into a big hand. On the flop there was over $2k on the pot when one started accusing the other of cheating (I assume by collaboration with another). One of the guys throws his hand into the other guy’s cards and walks out. The seated player doesn’t have them protected and both hands are ruled dead. The pot is awarded to the remaining player. The dude telling me the story says that the guy who didn’t protect his cards had KK and would have won the pot. Interesting to me. I now protect my cards even when I’m not near the dealer. It’s a 2nd hand story so I don’t know how right I have it, but I got the gist.

I catch back up with John at Golden Nugget. He took my seat. He’s ready to go. I think he said he’s down like $15 after seeing one flop in 3 orbits. That’s amazing for him. Must have been some REALLY bad cards.

Maybe interesting note: there was a lot of talk at Gold Nugget about Hatchem and Raymer playing at that very table the night before. Apparently Poker Superstars III was filming there that week. They were both reported to be very nice and cool. Hatchem seems to like to straddle for $40 or else make it $40 whenever there are limpers to him in the blinds. Of course, the obligatory “I took him for $2k” story made an appearance at some point.

After some more drinks at the 4 Queens we cab it back to the Sahara monorail stop. I check out the poker room while John tries to find a Caribbean stud game. Don’t ask me why. Apparently there is a jackpot of some sort in that game? Dunno. This place is downright sad. Definitely has more of the sad, rent check gambling casino feel that I’m used to. My other casino experiences are in Biloxi, Lake Charles, and Bossier City.

It is 2-3 am when we get back, John goes to bed and I go to the poker room at the Excal. I stop by MGM first but there is only one table and everyone seems to have great deal of money in front of them. I’m not sure that I’m at my peak playing level at the moment so decide to mosey on and hope I don’t run into a hooker with big tatas on the way. Not sure I could refuse her at the moment. I do run into some hookers but its cold and they are showing nice legs but covering the tatas. I can resist that. Maybe my luck IS good tonite. I sit right down at a 6 handed $1/$3 game. Nobody looks particularly rich or good. I buy in for $160 ‘cause I know my limits. Bust out in like 2 hands. I flop a naked A (A8 or A9ish) against a guy that looks tentative on an ugly board. Surely if he has a better Ace he’d have raised PF. I go all in. He tanks it for about 2 minutes and calls with 2 pair. Something like A5o. Ouch. Buy in another $160. Maybe 10 more hands goes by. Same exact situation. Guy is clearly not too good, looks tentative, I go all in with nothing at all. He tanks for a couple of minutes and calls with 2 pair. I decide I’m a moron and call it a night, down $70 for the night, -$370 for the trip. Going to have to get serious from here on out. Only 2 more days and I’d like to be +$600ish before I leave.

More to follow…

[lapoker17]

these are great. keep them coming.

[NoRiverRats]

Good stuff, glad to hear some positive comments about the monorail. Look forward to part III.

[runnerunner]

Great report, thanks!

Good stuff. Loved the bus scene.

[ QUOTE ]
He tells me an antidote about a hand

[/ QUOTE ]
Wish I had an antidote for some of my hands.