[Keys Myaths]

Day 2:

We start off early at 9:00 AM, because we're ballers like that. We decide to have breakfast at the IP buffet (very nice, actually), and head over to the Bellagio for the tournament games.

Wasting time before the tournament, my dad decides to play video poker again, so we can get free drinks. Fourth hand, he gets two deuces, and hits two more on the draw. Yet another $100 to the luckiest SOB in the world.

I put $10 on Florida -6.5, but honestly, we left at halftime because we were so tired. I took a nap through the end of the game, but I heard I won. Ship it.

Afterward, we went to Hooters. I've never seen a poker room so small, but the management was fantastic. Even at 4:30, the players are extremely loose and aggressive, so I just try and wait for my time. I get QQ on the button, and get excited. UTG raises to $7, then UTG+2 raises to $15.

It's folded to me on the button, and I repop it to $45. It's folded around to UTG, and he goes all in, with $105 more to call. The second raiser folds, and I tank. The table's been extremely loose, and extremely gamboooolish, but this guy hasn't done much. So, I end up having a pretty easy fold of QQ, but it still makes me a little queasy.

Until he shows KK. Whew.

I'm down to about $125, and thinking about reloading when it comes to my BB. I get the 95 of hearts, 6 limpers to me, and I check.

Flop comes Ah 2h 7h.

SB checks, and I check, hoping the table goes nuts behind me.

UTG bets out $25 (yes, into a $12 pot), and there's one caller behind. That leaves me with only one thing to do, and I push.

UTG turbo calls (yikes!), and the second caller folds. Thankfully, he's been pushing draws to the max all day, and he turns up KhJd.

Turn is another seven, and the river is the king of clubs. Finally.

After that, my dad and I decide to go around to NY/NY and MGM, so I cash out, and we eat dinner at the Chinese restaurant (I forgot the name of it) at NYNY. Dinner was absolutely fantastic, but the hostess had a mysterious black eye.






Bad beat, anyone?








We go over to MGM, and I sit at a pretty rocky 1/2 table there. Only hand of note, I get QQ UTG, and I limp. 3 limpers around to the BB, who pumps it up to $15. I repop to $45, everyone folds, and BB (a pretty good player) pushes.

Dammit.

I fold QQ preflop for the second time of the day, and he shows me aces. I go ahead and rebuy this time, but not much more action. I somehow got it up to $225, so I cash out my $25 loss.


We walk around the Strip a bit more, and go to watch the Bellagio water show. That's just fantastic stuff. I didn't think I'd be too impressed with water pumps, but that thing just blew me away (sorry, I'm punny tonight).


Afterwards, we head back to the IP, and we take our normal seats. My dad plays video poker, I go and hit up a brand-new 1/2 table. I'm hoping for a lot more drunk action, like last night, but it's a serious rock garden. I get QQ UTG, and raise to 15. For once, there's two callers. Flop comes 532 rainbow, SB and BB check to me, I bet 45, two folds.

So, after getting lucky and seeing the only two calls of the night from that table, I hear "live straddle" twice in a row from across the room. I go to Michael, one of the nicest dealers/floormen you'll meet, and ask to get the next seat at that table. I get seat 10, tip Michael two bucks, and sit down.

A side note: if you ever go to the IP, tip. Those guys will bend over BACKWARDS to get you what you want. I've tipped a total of 7 dollars to floormen/cashiers over the past two days, and every time I turn around, they're absolutely making sure I'm comfortable.

Now, to this table. I've played 1/2 NL live quite a bit. I've seen some crazy-### tables. I've NEVER seen a table like this. Ever.

Live straddles every hand, sure. But, in about 160-170 hands I saw tonight at this table, I literally saw pots over 200 dollars at least 40 times. Twenty dollar raises were the norm, but they were getting 4 callers each. The oldest guy at the table, an EXTREMELY nice Japanese man, was just pushing everything possible, then reloading. He reloaded five times while I was there.

Unfortunately, I wasn't getting much. In those 160 hands, the best starting hand I got was AJo (I lost that hand). But, there were two other hands of note, thankfully.

I get QJ hearts UTG+2. A limper to me, and I limp. Two folds, Japanese guy raises to 15 (he probably raised 50-60% of the hands dealt to him). Two callers, and I call.

Flop comes KhTs2d. It's actually checked all around, which amazed me.

Turn comes Ah. Jackpot.

Bet is 20 in front of me, but I want Japanese guy in the hand, so I call. Japanese guy calls as well.

3 players to the river, which comes the 5 of clubs. It's checked to me, I bet 40, and Japanese guy just wants to see what I have, since I haven't played a hand in about fifteen decades. I flip over the nuts, he mucks.

I'm up to about $320 at that point, but it whittles down to $300 before I get 75h UTG+2. Everyone that's playing every hand has me covered, so I figure I'll take a shot at this one. I limp, Japanese guy raises to 6 (huh?), and three callers. I call, and flop comes Ah2hTs. I bet out $15. Japanese guy calls, one more caller. Turn comes the 7s, and I bet $15 again, Japanese guy calls again, one fold.

River comes a brick, and I bet out $40, praying the betting pattern combined with the aggression takes him out. Turns out, it wasn't necessary, as he had the nut heart flush draw. Thank GOD he didn't hit that.

All in all, I'm now up $240 for the trip, which was my plane fare. The lesson? If you're in Vegas, and it's past 11:00, and you want to poker...head to the IP. That place is insane.

Tomorrow, it looks like we're going to see if there's any shows we want to see other than Copperfield (6th row, baby!), and I'm going to play in the 9AM tourney here.

I can't believe we've only been here for about 30 hours. Four more days to go. Wow. I didn't believe people when they said 5 days in Vegas was an eternity, but I'm really believing them now.