Trip Report -- My money finish at the Nugget

[warewulf]

I arrived in Vegas at the Golden Nugget around noon on Friday. Quickly dumped my bags in the hotel. Jumped in a taxi and headed for the strip. I wanted to checkout Imperial Palace first, called the Poker room -- not running any no limit tables. I call MGM and they have at least 3 (maybe 4) $100 buy in no limit tables running, so I go there first.

MGM - Wait about 10 minutes to get a seat. Sit down and buy in for $100. Immediately upon sitting down and taking out my $5 Kings Crown chip, the dealer recognizes the chip and asks me if I'm the one that posted on 2+2. I'm amazed thinking that there must be an alert posted somewhere... He was the only one that commented on the chip. I'd mention his name, but not sure if he would approve. Find out shortly after that they allow a $200 buy in. Many at the table seem to have $400+ and the game is VERY loose. I start thinking that I don't have enough money to play in this game, but stick around anyway hoping to get a few hands before I burn up my first $100. I'm still getting used to the stakes, I'm dealt 78o and fold to a $10 bet. Of course I didn't realize that $10 is barely even a respected bet, I should have called. Sure enough, two 7's on the flop, 3rd on the turn. Of course I'm disgusted that I should have called the $10 and would have had Quads. Oh well.

A guy sits down directly to my right and buys in for $200. Wins a small pot or two, is up a bit. Him and I are talking about how this is a crazy table, lots of loose players that don't seem to have a clue, but have money to burn. He then bets $50, 2nd to act. Everyone folds except the big blind who calls the $50. Flop comes blank 3 blank. Guy to my right moves all in. The button calls and flips over pocket 3's (a set). Myself and the guy to my right just can't believe this guy called a $50 bet pre-flop with 3's! My first $100 is burnt up shortly after that. I headed to the Tropicana next door.

MGM seemed like a good game if you don't mind buying in for $200. I didn't have that kind of bank roll. They did have the best tables I have ever played at -- white marble race track. Really nice Poker room. Plasma screen boards, pagers if you don't want to wait around.

Tropicana - Leave MGM and walk across the street to the Tropicana. They had only one no limit table running. They allow a $60 - $120 buy in which were the stakes I was looking for. This game had one drunk guy that was calling off bets like he was in a hurry to leave. Unfortunately someone took him out before I could get a hand. He leaves and the table was missing one to begin with, so now down to 8. A few other loose players so I decide to stay and try to make some money.

I must mention one of the dealers -- TERRIBLE! An asian woman, in the short time she was dealing at the the table, she almost mucked two winning hands. The absolute worst, un-professional thing I saw though was when drunk #2 pushes all in on me with a random stack of white chips. I ask for a count and she replies with "First tell me if you call, then I will count it". My jaw drops and I raised my voice and told her that she needs to count it first, then I will decide to call or not. Two other players back me up, we're all staring at each other in disbelief. She agrees and counts out the chips. I ended up folding because there were 3 players still to act and my hand just wasn't good enough. I leave the Trop shortly after because drunk #2 got busted and the table was now too short handed.

Excalibur - I head across the street again, this time to Excalibur. Plenty of no limit $100 max buy in tables, I get a seat right away, table is full. I lose a hand in the first round with pocket aces to trip queens. I had raised pre-flop and did not get re-raised. When the Queen flopped, I figured him for a pair because he only called my bet. I push on the turn, he calls, Queen on the river. REBUY! I end up making my money back with two pair, mid-range two pair, but lady on the end is just calling, calling, appears to be on tilt. She calls off her last $20 or so, I didn't realize she was all in. When it's time to showdown she is looking at her cards, not looking happy, taking forever. I yell at her: "Just show your cards!" She didn't have a pair, from what I could see, Queen high, missed gut shot. She throws hers cards and yells at me: "[censored] OFF ASS HOLE"! She then leaves the table and everyone laughs. A few hands later I watch a guy go all in with around $150, obvious straight on the board. Guy to my right calls with two pair and hits his boat on the river. What an idiot, glad he now has a bunch of chips. The guy with the straight yells at him for calling with two pair. I eventually had to leave this game because my girlfriend has just flown in and I have to meet her back at the Nugget. I leave around 9:30 PM up $50.

The Excalibur ended up being my favorite cash game. Nice mix of tourists and a few locals. They also give out free food in the Poker room every night except Saturday. On Friday they had shrimp Jambalaya, clam chowder, and curly fries. Excellent food considering it was free. Also a bonus because people don't have to leave the game to go get dinner.

Saturday morning I'm signed up for the Nugget tournament. $60 buy-in ($40 with my room package) $40 rebuy, $40 add-on. You can do the rebuy or add on at any time in the game regardless of chip count. I'm doing well, double up when I'm on the button and hit a pair of 10's on the flop. I make a pot sized bet, guy that was the big blind pushes on me, has me covered by a bit. I call and he only had a pair of 6's with an Ace kicker. By the break, I do the Add on, but not the rebuy. Later I'm short stacked from a lack of cards after the break. I go all in with 8 10h and get two callers. I end up making an 8 high straight, lucky hand for me. A few hands later, pocket aces, go all in, no callers of course. Dammit! Stole the blinds a few times, managed to make the final table short stacked.

My luckiest hand -- Down to 5 players at the final table. Blinds are 300/600 and I only have 900 so I go all in blind, announced I was doing so before the cards were dealt. Get one caller who flips pocket kings. I figured I'm screwed. Four spades end up coming, but he has the King of spades so essentially I only have one out, the ace of spades. I rub my first hole card on the felt and flip -- the 4 of diamonds. Rub the 2nd card on the felt, say a small prayer to the poker gods and flip -- sure enough, my ONE OUT, THE ACE OF SPADES! Nobody can believe their eyes. One of the regulars mentions he's never seen anything like that before. One other short stack at the table, goes out next round on the big blind, I'm now in 4th. I get AJo and go all in, get called by Q 10 and he catches a queen. Oh well, I was damn happy to take 4th -- $396. Would have been about $50 less had I gone out 5th. See pic! [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Saturday night head to Lawry's with my girlfriend to celebrate my money finish. Absolutely the best Prime Rib in existence! Yorkshire pudding, creamed corn, mashed potatoes with gravy, the whole works. I get the Diamond Jim Brady cut and by the time we leave there, I'm feeling ill for having finished off the whole thing. A good ill feeling though! [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Head back to the Nugget with my girlfriend, walk her up to the room. She is tired and is going to sleep, so I head back to the strip. I decide to try Imperial Palace again. I get there and have trouble finding the Poker room. Apparently it's on the 2nd floor hidden. I have to ask 3 employees for directions and finally find it. Only 1 no limit table, I'm 4th on the list. Screw that! I head to Harrah's next door. Harrahs has 3 or 4 tables, I get a seat right away. Play for an hour or so, take a few beats and a few minor wins not worth mentioning. Down about $60. The table then gets short handed, head to a different table. A few drunks at the new table extremely loose game. Two guys that are friends take turns moving in on each other with anything from AA to 5 7 suited. I hang in for a while waiting for a hand, didn't catch much in this game. Made some of my money back, end up leaving around 3:30 AM down $20. Disgusted because I couldn't take adavantage of the drunks.

Also should be noted that Harrahs is now using Copag cards. I asked a few of the dealers if they like them, most did, one mentions they're much better than the crappy ones they used to have. Harrahs also gets the cheapskate award for having the automatic shufflers in some tables, but not all. I ask why not all -- they said the tournament tables dont have the shufflers. Not sure I understand this, anyone care to answer this one?

Sunday morning

Nugget tournament again. I flop top pair of Queens with a diamond flush draw. I am close to the button and bet the pot -- 3 others still in, so it's a decent sized pot. Woman pushes on me. She has been pushing every 3 hands or so, so I call. She has two pair, I don't get my diamond draw, my legs are now chopped off and I'm short stacked. I then get pocket tens and bet most of my pathetic stack near the button after one limper and no other callers. A King comes on the flop, no other overs. Checked to me, I push. Limper calls, has AKo. I had not put him on AK because any moron would have raised preflop. Not that moron. Oh well. Lucky him.

My flight is leaving in a few hours and I hadn't done much chip shopping yet. I go to all the casinos downtown and get 2 $1 chips, one for me and one for a friend of mine. I wanted to get 100 of the 50 cent bud jones chips from Four Queens. Looks like they're only used for blackjack tips. The blackjack dealers only have a few of them. I go to the cage to try to get some, they wouldn't sell them to me. Most of the other casinos had no problem with me buying $1 chips. However, Las Vegas club wont sell me any. I ask the pit boss, he still wont sell me any. I get pissed off and call him an [censored], I then leave disgusted with their piss end casino. I cap it off heading to Binions and buy 100 $1 chips to add to my set of 200 (now 300 total) for my cash game. I stand at the cage and nit pick the rack. Give them back 3-4 chips that had nicks taken out of them. I explain that I'm taking them home. The guy at the cage is cooperative and helps me out. I tip him for his courtesy.

Get to the airport, my flight to Burbank is delayed from 8:20 to 11:20 and might get canceled. Many others are sitting around whining. I ask the Southwest staff if there are other flights -- 3 to LAX. I am able to get on the 2nd flight at 9:15, previous flight is now delayed until 12:30. I'm happy to not get stuck at the airport.

The money finish at the Nugget ended up being the highlight of my trip and put me about even for the whole trip since I proceeded to dump the rest of the trip. It was my first money finish in a casino. I usually make the final table at home tournies, make the money somewhat regularly. All in all a great trip. It was my first time playing $100 no limit and it didn't intimidate me at all. I usually play $20 buy in .25/.50 though my game you usually need around $100 to survive. Next time I'm going to play some of the Binions tournies. They have them every dat and 2:00PM 8:00PM and 2:00AM. I believe the buy in is around $120 or so.

Thanks to everyone that gave me tips on where to play!

[Johnny5]

Nice report - congrats on the finish.

Mmmmmm Lawry's.... Dammit, now i'm hungry.

J5

[jtr]

Great report Warewulf, congratulations on your money finish. And you did the right thing folding 87o to a $10 raise -- deep down you know this, right? [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

[warewulf]

In this game, I should have called. I did phrase it wrong, it was a $10 bet, not raise. This game was so loose that anything less that $15-$20 bets didn't get respect. I think someone had a boat and was betting too. Damn! [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[itsmarty]

A poker player good enough to be that dismissive of other's play has $100 to spare for a great game like you describe at the MGM. Something doesn't add up.

Martin

[warewulf]

I appreciate you calling me a liar, but the thing that didn't add up was my bankroll. Previous to this game, the highest no limit game I have bought into was $20. This game was loose agressive and I felt that I might make money, but could also burn up a large portion of my bankroll. Had I found this game near the end of my trip, I might have stayed in it. I was hoping to find the same game, but at $100 buy in. I didn't play any other places that allowed higher than $100. Only went to MGM in the first place because I thought there was a $100 cap there. Didn't figure out I was wrong until I had bought in and posted and saw all the huge stacks I was up against with my tiny stack. I felt uncomfortable, so I left.

[jtr]

[ QUOTE ]
In this game, I should have called. I did phrase it wrong, it was a $10 bet, not raise.

[/ QUOTE ]

Thanks for the clarification, but seriously, you did the right thing and should do it again. The key point is that you only had $100. Maybe if you had $400 and everyone else did you could think about calling, but you can't put in 10% of your stack preflop with 87o and expect to make money. Honest.

Anyway, congrats again, and I hope this experience compensates for your awful time at the busted LA game!

[MrClean]

Nice write-up, Wulf.

[Chipr777]

I would've enjoyed reading but the very large pictures make it very difficult. The print was spread a mile across.

[itsmarty]

</font><blockquote><font class="small">In Antwort auf:</font><hr />
I appreciate you calling me a liar

[/ QUOTE ]

I didn't call you a liar. I suggested that perhaps you're too dismissive of other's play.

It's ridiculous to read a report about what donkeys people are and how you're talking with someone at the table about it, only to hear you say you don't have the bankroll for 1-2 NL. It only adds up when you've beaten the game, and the way we know you can do that is by your bankroll.

Martin