LV Trip Report #1: Escape from the Venetian
 

Other considerations for thread titles:
- Dr. Strangedonk, or how I learned to stop worrying and love the dramabomb
- Harold and Kumar don't go to the White Castle at the Venetian because the floor staff are pro-aryan
- The Pianist (don't really know why I threw that in there, but I like this movie, so deal with it)
- The Rise of Mussolini

Okay, now that that's out of the way, I would like to share with you my enjoyable evening at the Venetian meeting up with goofyballer, carrotsnake, and tufat for the first time.

I'm about to hit the bed at my place and I get a ring from goofy, who says we should all meet and play at the Venetian. I'm down, since I've never played cash at the Venetian before and I had just gotten a massage there maybe 10 hours prior and was feeling limber enough to pull through in a long session.

So, I down a Red Bull and make the drive over, getting lost in the Bellagio construction site along the way (don't ask me how).

I make my way over to the poker room, which is nicely laid out and huge , like the size of a recreational skating rink but square and not walled-off. The boards for games are just like the Wynn, and I'm looking forward to sitting in a game with Goofy and/or Carrot (I later learned Tufat was live money busto, a common occurance for those who are forced to down American highway food for 5 days leading up to Vegas).

And then, it happens: I meet Goofyballer! But that wasn't "it" that happened.

"It" was an entity of paranoia that would soon encompass every fiber of my being. I heard those dreadful words from Bryan that I had not yet encountered at the Bellagio, the Wynn, or the Rio.

"I got carded by the old guy running the games at the front".

Well, crap. This left me with a few options

1) Say to hell with it and face the old man with my really good fake ID
2) Wait until the old man walks away, goes to the bathroom, or keels over and dies
3) Play blackjack (with the same risk of getting carded)

And see, here's the thing to you viewers that don't know me so well. I AM A PARANOID CHILD. No vices, brought up well, and I play online poker. SWEET. Except the thing where if there's any sort of threat of being carded (me being 20 years 7 months old) I become incredibly worried.

So, with this newfound knowledge from goofy who goes back to sitting at the 2/5 NL game, I wander around the casino hoping the old man trips over a chair, or some similar form of fate. I come to terms with the fact that I am definitely getting carded (carrot disagrees with me @ this point, meeting him sometime after this). So I go and register for the game (2/5 NL, I buyin for $1k cap) under my initials, FMR. I wait and further introduce myself to carrot, and notice that at least 70% of people on both carrot and goofy's table are over the age of 30. JACKPOT, MOTHAFUCKAAAA.

So, I get called and get my chips when the old man is replaced by a cool, younger guy. I go to my table, sitting conveniently three seats to the right of carrot, and an older gentleman approaches me and asks how much I want.

I die a little on the inside, and ask for $1k.

Old man: "Do you have a player's card?"
Me: "No sir, I usually play at the Bellagio"
Old man (as he's getting 1k in reds): "Can I see your ID?"

My heart stops. Everything becomes motionless, almost at a standstill. The fruit wheel jackpot bingo machine on the other side of the room is clicking at a distinctly lower rate than what would be considered normal. I can hear Tufat thinking to himself 35 feet away. I hear grass grow...

- and I take out my fake casually and hand it to him. The old man looks at it for 2 seconds, long enough for carrot to stifle a childish giggle from the other side of the table (good thing, because I'd pimp slap him as I'd leave the casino).

"Ok, thanks"

- Wait, what? I succeeded in my first carding? O RLY?

Things become normal again and I can only hear tufat talking to himself from 35 feet away now. I get my racks of reds and sit down. BUT IT DON'T STOP THERE, NOW DO IT?

Carrot and I engage in some friendly banter, and I am happy to learn carrot is a normal, cool georgia tech nerd, and not an antisocial DDR-playing, styrofoam-cup drinkig Tech nerd. Of course, I have yet to meet a single 2+2'er I didn't get along with, so this came as littler surprise.

Some hands happen, mostly involving me missing flops and not making plays at multiway pots against old people, and then I get deal a sick hand (8c7s) and raise to 20. A kid 2 to my left flatcalls the 20 with like 140 behind. Notes on this kid is that he has said he is not an internet player after LRR'ing his short stack, and he knows me and carrot are friends.

So, the kid calls the 20, and carrot promptly makes it 100 from the hijack. NH carrot, bastard, etc, lets fold and move on. Of course I hear to my left: "Oh, I see, taking my money, If you fold I'm gonna have to call the rail".

Apparantly my buying in for $1,000 at this stupid game and pre-tipping pots I HAVEN'T WON YET means that myself and carrot are out to take on the world of live poker, one isolation team-play squeeze at the time. His tone suggested he was half-kidding, but it could also mean he was dead serious and didn't want his remainiing cab fare being fk'd with.

This is all going through my head at the time as I decide my best options not to play the hand optimally, but to NOT GET CARDED AGAIN AND THROWN INTO A TAIWANESE PRISON. As such, I defend with my offsuit connector and checkfold a monotone ace high, hearts flop. Carrot shows the Kh as he drags the pot (and later says he had AK to me, and the only reason he showed was because he knew what I was thinking. THANKS CARROT!)

So, having dodged two total bullets of getting abandoned in the siberian wilderness by the Venetian floor staff, a bunch of standard hands happen where I pwn everyone and correctly call carrot's hand once or twice in large pots (whee I can still read hands even tho I rarely play more than 3 handed anymore). Some other random things happen, and in spite of my donation to carrotsnake with 8 high I finish ahead $100, because the table broke and carrot and I decided it was in our better interests to not play HU live (just another awesome reason to get carded by the floor to get one's own game). 4 players had to high-card for two free 2/5 seats, and I obviously peel the 2c. Not wanting to deal with the drama of being back on the waiting list and being further paranoid, I head home.

Never before have I been so stressed and/or paranoid in a casino in my entire life. I will probably never play at the Venetian for the way I was treated ever again, unless I play one of their deepstacked tournaments. I would advise anyone under 21 to not go anywhere near the Venetian, and instead stick to the Wynn and the Bellagio, where you only get carded if you look 15 or if you challenge an old guy to play HU.

This report deserves an MS Paint, and if people like my trip reports enough I may include them in the future.

Cliffnotes: Venetian is good for massages and really bad for poker if you're younger than 21. But Goddd, the games were SO SOFTTTT.

Re: LV Trip Report #1: Escape from the Venetian
 

Nice report. You write like an author.

Re: LV Trip Report #1: Escape from the Venetian
 

good story - [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Re: LV Trip Report #1: Escape from the Venetian
 

[ QUOTE ]
70% of people on both carrot and goofy's table are over the age of 30. JACKPOT, MOTHAFUCKAAAA.

[/ QUOTE ]

You underestimate people 30-40. Some of the best players at the Borgata in Atlantic City are in their 30's.

Re: LV Trip Report #1: Escape from the Venetian
 

I bloofed someone which I very rarely do; it was funny because this bluff totally would not work online, but live donks can't read hands so I pulled it off:

I open ATo in MP to $25, three people call. Flop K74r, checked around. Turn is another K putting 2 spades on board; UTG is a bad LAG and leads $50. He probably has air and I'm planning on flat calling if it's folded to me. Someone in between us called, so I'm about to fold when I realize...

- nobody has a king
- if I raise, these idiots will think I have a king, even though there's no way I'd ever play it like this
- UTG's lead was so small relative to the pot size ($50 into $100) that there's now $200 and I can give myself really good odds on the bluffraise

So, I bomb it to $175 meaning the bluff doesn't even have to work half the time to be profitable, and they both complain and fold.

This got my $500 stack up to like $750, I donked it all back to UTG in a hand that was half cooler, half I played it like [censored], and then I got most of it back by stacking someone that I thought was solid with a set vs presumed overpair (I say "thought" because I was being my typical nit self and yet he somehow instashoved the J43ss flop over my checkraise). -$61 on the day.

Re: LV Trip Report #1: Escape from the Venetian
 

Trust me, he wasn't underestimating anybody. Sucks that table broke, playing 4 or 5 handed with those guys woulda been moooooonnneeeey, just a lil high variance [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

Re: LV Trip Report #1: Escape from the Venetian
 

[ QUOTE ]


You underestimate people 30-40. Some of the best players at the Borgata in Atlantic City are in their 30's.

[/ QUOTE ]

LOL, no offense, but 95% of people over 35 are terrible at poker. I'm sure there are exceptions at top tier games, but this is 2/5 at the Venetian where I am playing splashy deep with total disregard for money.

Re: LV Trip Report #1: Escape from the Venetian
 

some fun hands:

- raise QQ to 35, one caller who is an old man. Flop 457, he check calls 55. Turn 6, he bets 200. LOL. muck!

- young okay player raises to 40, i do something ive been trying lately and just call with KK in the cutoff. carrot also calls. flop J64, checked to PFR who bets 60. I flatcall, and carrot thinks for 15 seconds before folding 76o (quote carrot: "I was this close, like milliseconds, to bombing the hell out of the flop because I thought you were floating *makes cross gesture over chest*").

Turn is a 7, and PFR checkfolds my $120 bet and claims 99. Meh.

- Limpers to me in BB with off-color QQ, i raise to 35, just the SB calls. Flop 877 two clubs, he check calls 55. Turn is Aspades putting two flushdraws out, he checks and I quickly check. River Jspades, he checks I bet 75 he snapcalls and mucks when I show QQ. I considered betting 200 since he dark checked each street and clearly had a pp below 77 or an eight and not a draw, but figured 75 was getting called every day.

- Straddle UTG by shortstacks-mcgee/"i will call floor on you!", carrot makes it 40, flatcall by young okay player in diff chair, i call 97hh in the SB, straddler calls.

Flop Q53rainbow. I check with the intention of not giving up because this flop can be repped enough to take this down by me lots, checked to PFR who only bets 50. I think abt checkraising but with the straddler still in being so short I elect to float OOP and fold if the straddler jams. They both fold, turn is offsuit king, check check. River offsuit ace, I bet 75 and he turbomucks saying AK is good. Apparantly he though I was the preflop raiser, wheeeee.

Note to online players: When people say they are leaving soon or they are interested in getting called to another game, STEAL. During the flop I had this tell on villain who wanted to sit in a 5/10 game badly with gestures to the flor, so it made the hand way easy to OOP float with.

Limp J8o OTB after a bunch of limpers, flop J32 with a flushdraw in clubs, old man leads 15, I am the only caller and I have no club. Turn Qc he bets 15 I make it 65, he folds and soon racks up (lol).

A hand I nailed carrots range with: Multiway action raised pre, checked to same old man who bets halfpot (50 or so). Carrot is only caller OOP on the T64 flop. Turn is a 7, and carrot check calls 50 again. River is a 5, and carrot leads 150 and the old man folds. Can u guess it? wheee

Oh also carrot got pwned by a retard. Flop J93, shortie kid checks, carrot bets 15 in limped pot, [censored] flatcalls, shortie kid who wants me to get called by floor makes it 40 more, carrot makes it 100 more on top, [censored] calls with 120 left, shortie folds. Turn 7, carrot shoves with J9, retard calls with T8. WOWIE. Carrot misses, I laugh inside @ these games.

Oh yeah, [censored] was about 35. LOL.

Re: LV Trip Report #1: Escape from the Venetian
 

[ QUOTE ]
LOL, no offense, but 95% of people over 35 are terrible at poker.

[/ QUOTE ]

Why's that? No theory knowledge?

Re: LV Trip Report #1: Escape from the Venetian
 

Of those 5% or so are composed of the older men who play 11/5/aggressiver than most and stack morans, and anyone over the age of 35 who has won at online poker.

The other 95% consists of your cab driver who usually bets sports, the guy making your sandwich at blimpie who is weak tight, your brother-in-law who just likes throwing chips around with no comprehension, and that random friend of yours from work who probably couldn't decipher the odds to make a straight.