[Garland]

Trip Report LA to Vegas October 6 to October 15 (With lots of handz). This includes a time line of events. I hope you enjoy it. Cliff Notes are on the bottom.

Stats:
Hours of days for this trip (including travel days): 10
Hours of poker played: 47
Number of 2+2ers met/seen: 3
Number of poker rooms played in: 5

October 11:

Decide I have to finally eat dinner after midnight, and didn’t get all my poker fix, so I go to the Bicycle Casino one more time.

12:30AM to 2:30AM: Find a short-handed (6 players or so?) $5/$10 no-limit and hop on. Some loose passive players and some good pro players. Maybe not the best game, but not the worst either. I buy-in for $1000 and order lasagna. It wasn’t really that good, but by that time some of the specials and other things I wanted weren’t being served. Oh well, food is food. Free food to boot!

Hand 1: I [Stack = ~$1000] raise in MP with 8[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]7[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] to $30 and I’m called by SB [Stack = ~$1000] (nice person, but aggressive post-flop player). and BB [Stack = ~$1300] (solid player who likes to show cards, somewhat more passive than he should be). Flop comes: T[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]6[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]4[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] giving me a double-gutter. Checks to me. I plan a continuation bet that I can safely call a reasonable check-raise as well as reasonably taking it down sometimes. I choose $50. SB doesn’t like $50; he likes $150. BB cold-calls. Wow. I hesitate for a moment and call as well. Turn comes a 7[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] !#@$!#@$. SB pushes. BB flashes the T[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] and folds. I fold. SB claimed to have an overpair, which I believe. It would give me 13 outs due to the improvement on the turn, but still not quite enough odds to call his push. In addition, I don’t truly know if he flopped a set or not at the time. I think that if the turn came a spade or an overcard to his supposed pair, he would easily freeze and give me a free card, or I have the opportunity to steal in position.

Hand 2: I [Stack = ~$600] raise to $55 with A[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]Q[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] UTG+1 and get 6 callers! Flop comes A[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]K[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]8[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]. Checked to me, and I push what’s left of my desolate stack. Then it’s like the calm before the storm. Folds to button (SB in hand 1) and he goes all-in. Others fold. I know he has 88 before we even flip the cards over. I fail to runner, runner him, and he wins again.

I rebuy for another $1000, but nothing happens and this game is slow and plays mostly small, and I really want to stick a chopstick in my eye by now. At this point I’m disenchanted and glance over to the table nearby see mikel in a short-handed $40/$80 limit and peek at the action. Then I walk over and take a closer look. I like short-handed, especially because I can play a more open style (you have to actually), and because they take less rake.

2:30AM to 6:30AM: I buy into the $40/$80 limit game. I’m not going to put most of my hands up as they are already in the medium stakes limit forum, but a few of the “astounding ones” I observed with mikel in action.

Hand 1: Not too astounding, really. Personally, I would call down to the river and raised then, but his line isn’t bad. I was observing this hand before I joined. I might have messed something up as I caught the action from the flop on. Pre-flop, I don’t know if mikel raised the button or was CO or what but he had 97 [This actually makes a difference as the pot would have been inflated in a raised pot vs an unraised pot]. But if he raised he was called by 3 others including SB, BB and UTG. Flop comes: 8 5 2r. Check to mikel, he bets called by BB, check-raised by UTG (who invariably has top pair or better), mikel 3-bets, SB folds, UTG calls. Turn 7. Check, mikel bets (In my experience, they never fold top pair here), UTG calls. River: 7. Check, mikel bet UTG calls and mike takes it down with runner runner trips.

Hand 2: Limps around several people and button raises. Mikel cold calls in SB. And the other limpers call. Flop comes AJ9 forgot if there was a flush draw. Checked to limper who bets, button raises, mikel cold-calls, limper 3-bets, button calls, mikel calls. Turn comes J and mikel donks, limper raises again, button folds after much agony and mikel calls. River is a blank. Mikel checks, limper bets, and mikel flashes QJ and says “I have to have chopping outs somewhere, right?” and folds. Limper never showed his hand. Kind of surprised of cold-call of QJ pre-flop, and I’m not too sure of the flop call either.

Hand 3: The most astounding of the three. EP players limps, mikel limps in MP, Button calls, SB calls (or folds forgot). I just check with 55 from BB. Flop comes QQ8r. Checks to mikel who bets, button calls, folds to EP who thinks and then check-raises. Mikel thinks and calls, button hesitates and folds. Turn comes high card J or something. EP checks. Mikel yells “go!”. River comes something big (I really forgot). Check check. EP turns over ATo. Mikel turns over A2o for a chop. I let go of the best hand [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]. I’m thinking fold the flop check-raise, if not 3-bet. Or bet the turn. Or bet the river. Or I dunno. I’m not worthy.

What’s surprising about his play was all the cold-calling of raises (for example T9s right in front of open raiser and getting paid off by him when he flopped top pair against what seemed like AK from opener) and open limping on button in short handed. That kind of got me thinking.

Hand 4: Here’s a hand I actually did play against mikel (like a little girl no less). Pre-flop he raises in CO (I’ve seen him open limp, but I know he also gets out of line too). I find A3o in the BB and just call. Flop comes 222. Of course this flop probably didn’t change the leader, and I probably still have the best hand. But I just didn’t know how he’d react to a donk. I check to induce a bet, and sure as the sun rises, he continuation bets, and I just continuation call. Dealer turns a 4. I check to induce again, but he just says “go” to check just like he did in Hand 3, so I’m very sure he has absolutely no showdown hand at all and couldn’t stand a turn bet if I decided to lead. River comes an 8. Now since I’ve played so passively like this, there’s no way I’m betting and getting called by worse (maybe K high, but I don’t even think he’s that strong). So the best I can do is check to induce a bluff. I check, he bets, and I think for a few seconds and slide my 8 plastic red friends in front of me. “I got there! I got there!” exclaims Mike and he tables J8o. Nice hand sir. Goodbye by trusty red friends.

That’s just the beginning really as I had a rush, and then a set back and then a mini-rush again. I won’t get into it all as they weren’t all that interesting, but it doesn’t hurt when you flop 3 sets and one quad.

7:00AM to 8:00AM: Drive through the God-awful LA traffic back to the hotel at Anaheim where I realize that the other guy from Vegas was checking out that day. That means even if I have to strike (read: take down) the equipment at 3:00ish, the check out is at 11:00AM. Sh*t. I call to try to get a late check-out. They say 11:30 is the best they can do. I get my 3 hours of sleep, then get up, check out, and then get some lunch (pizza and cheese sticks). When I get back to my parking spot, I realize that I have an empty van with some dirty blankets to try to get some sleep. However, I’m too involved with posting on 2+2 and go to work sleep deprived.

3:00PM to 10:00PM. My cousin not only hires 1, but 3 others for this teardown job. And they all show! [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]. So now it’s a 5 person job to strike down the equipment. It “only” takes about 7 hours to finish everything. And then I head to home, but on the way, there’s an accident on I-5 that eats up 2 lanes and delays me for about an hour. And then on a main road near Arcadia (Rosemead, I think), there’s another major accident that causes everyone to detour around. LA traffic I tell ya.

October 12:

11:00AM to 4:00PM Drove to Vegas in about 4 hours trading our full van for an empty one at the Vegas office. Discrepancy in time you might ask? We did get to Vegas in 4 hours (at 3:00PM). The extra hour is for the traffic we had to plod through on I-15 once we arrived.

5:00PM to 6:00PM Note: We haven’t eaten lunch yet and are starved. Ellis Island on Kovel and near E Paradise has this wonderful deal for people with players cards (and anyone can get it). $7.99 for half rack of BBQ ribs and half BBQ chicken with all the fixings. $1.00 for a Microbrew (for those who drink). It was great, but we couldn’t finish it all. We leave to check in to our hotel.

6:30PM to 9:00PM: We are close enough to MGM to walk (where our show is). I played at MGM’s $2/$5 blind no-limit game. No hands of memorable consequences. I learned something about Jack from the other day and straddled my first hand and announced to the table that I will continue to straddle if 2 other people straddle. This will be referred to thereafter as the Standard Straddle Offer (SSO). This actually flies (at times 3 or 4 others straddle), and I can better identify the gamblers who are willing to be loose right away.

9:00PM to 10:30PM: Watched Cirque du Soleil’s “K8” show. It was pretty good, but had some moments of lull. I think I wanted to nap a few times. Good acrobatics and stuff. Nice hand puppet show. Other stuff was impressive, but dreamy. Maybe I just needed more sleep. ** ½ of ****.

11:30PM to 4:00AM: Great $5/$10 unrestricted no-limit game back at the MGM card room. I see people raising too little pre-flop, incorrect bet sizes on the post-flop streets. In addition, it was a loose-passive game. Someone lost their relatively big stack postflop with QQ to KQ when a Kxx flops, so I think I can be very comfortable putting my stack out with marginal one pair hands (Overpairs, TPTK).

Hand 1: SSO not in effect. I [Stack = ~$1300] limp in late position with 8[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]7[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] with a couple of other limpers, weak loose kind of passive button [Stack = ~$10000] limps. Flop comes 9[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]5[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]2[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]. Check to Button who bets $30 into pot of $60. Folds to me, and I decide to gamble and call. Turn 6[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] BINGO. I check. Now button bets $100. I don’t like $100; I like $400. He pauses and thinks and thinks and calls. River K[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]. I bet another $400 and button folds.

Hand 2: SSO in effect. I’m [Stack = ~$1700] in the straddle position. Loose UTG+1 [Stack = ~$4000] guy limps, limper, loose passive CO [Stack = ~$800] limps. BB completes. I wake up with T[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]T[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] in the straddle. I don’t like to check my straddle; I like to make it $125 to go total. UTG+1 calls and CO calls. Flop comes 8[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]6[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]5[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]. I fire $275. And then it's like the calm before the storm. UTG+1 thinks for a few moments, but seems like an eternity. UTG+1 doesn’t like $275; he likes $800 fanning his bills out on the felt like a peacock fanning its tail proudly. I'm thinking "I'm probably folding to this". CO pauses for a moment, sighs and then pushes in his stack. "That cinches it" my brain goes. I flash my TT and fold. UTG+1 obviously called any supposed remainder of CO’s stack. Turn: 8[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] River 2[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] Cards? UTG+1 86o [I saw he also called a significant raise with 86o earlier, so I think he has something for that 86 hand, and probably still will after that win] CO? 55. UTG+1 sucked out huge. I really felt bad for CO who wasn’t really running well to that point. He was a really nice guy and took the beat extremely well and just walked away from the table. Graceful quiet exit and then an empty seat.

To be continued...[Last days with some smaller no-limit action]

Cliff Notes: I played lots of poker in LA and Vegas making some mad loot playing mostly no-limit and some limit poker, while along the way, I help my cousin with some computer stuff for her company. I meet 3 2+2ers and watch a couple of shows in Vegas before driving home. Cirque du Soleil’s “K8” circus show at MGM, ok ** 1/2 of ****. Mamma Mia at Venetian, great: **** of ****.

I tried to get 2+2 meet ups, but hope to attract more. I think I’ll sweeten the deal next time.

Next up: After my actuarial exam in November 7th. Arizona. New York. Minnesota. Tunica. Any suggestions for the next trip?

Garland