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#1
07-03-2007, 04:45 PM
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Deuce, Deuce, Deuce: a Vegas trip report in 2 parts
At 1:30 am on Wednesday, June 28, I switched off my monitor and left my software engineering position at the office to begin my 14 day Vegas vacation. I collected my wife and we went down the street for a drink at Green Valley Ranch sports book bar. They have the best Guinness draft on the south side, especially now that Fado closed. After a few of those we decided it would be a good idea to go home and shave my head into a mohawk. You know, so I'll remember I'm on vacation. We did so.
Wednesday night. I sported the 'hawk back to GVR for some 4/8 HE action. As I sat, I noticed the players averted their eyes quickly when they met my huge mirrored shades and fresh new haircut. The Hawaiian shirt I chose failed to show the intended warming effect - I'd frightened the retirees. They passed me as many chips as they could in 2 hours, which amounted to about $200. I declared myself ready for my tournament the next day and went to get drunk at PT's with my wife. Thursday (Deuce I) We arrived dried out and nauseous at Binions around 1:00pm. The man at the tournament registration desk was on the phone. "Yes, the deuce event is still on. 2 pm. We have 52 right now. Okay." He looked at me. "54" I said, and handed him $200. We got our seat cards. My wife ordered a ham and cheese at the snack bar. I broke out in a cold sweat at the sight of it. As the tournament began I ordered a coffee with Baily's. "Whip cream?" she asked. The mohawk forced me to say "Do I LOOK like I drink whip cream?" I regreted it, as I immediately got my pat 96 raised on the river. I called because I suck, and saw my first wheel of the day. We had begun 5 handed, fighting for the dead money with liberal reraises. My stack continued to erode. When the empty seat finally showed, he titled immediately after missing a wheel draw and began raising every hand dark. My stack returned to about 20 big bets (we start with 17.) The always well-dressed and smiling TT wandered over from his table, pointed at my head, grinned out an "I love it!" and vanished. I hadn't seen him since our regular Saturday night 4/8 mixed game at the Wynn stopped coming together. I was glad to see him, but his presense, as always, means I'm about to lose all my chips playing some non-Hold'em game. Thursday it was Deuces, where my fishy hit felt with me heads up, finally caught his wheel to my 85, and took 1/4 of my stack. Pretty soon something else upset him and he got up with an "I QUIT!" abandoning his stack of 10 big bets. That meant I was now the worst player at the table. I took a pat 97 all in 3 ways and lost to a two card draw that made an 8, just as the drink girl arrived with my Bud Light. I took it and exited. At the rail TT and I discussed the WSOP deuce event to take place the next day. He figured 6-8K was about the right number to take. My bankroll was an even $200 at this point. A little short. My wife and I left Binions to wander Fremont. TT had informed me earlier that I looked like I had stepped straight out of Taxi Driver. Impressive, but not the look I was going for. Some large Elvis shades should tone me down some. If you could go anywhere in the world to find Elvis glasses, downtown Vegas would have to be high on the list, right? Two sunglass stands and six t-shirt shops later, we finally found something passable and headed home to eat. Thursday Night That night I hit Wynn to see if I could get hot. I was heartbroken to see not one but TWO other mohawks in the poker room. They were sitting together at a 2-5 NL game glaring hatefully at me whenever our eyes met. I went and hid in a 4-8 game in the 1 seat, listening to Prodigy MP3's cause I'm punk rock. I neither spoke nor played a single hand for 3 orbits. The table was very loose but passive, so the pots were not huge. That changed when I got 55 in MP1 and open limped. Most of us saw the flop of 5h 6h Ts. I opened, 1 call, a WSOP dealer in 5 called, old dude in 7 raised, 1 cold call, I reraised, WSOP woke up and reraised, I capped. Turn was 2h and screw it I blasted away, WSOP and old dude call ???? River 2s I bet WSOP called old dude called. WSOP had the nut heart flush and old dude had an overpair. Ship it! I won and lost some other pots and walked away up a little over 100. At the sports book bar, the bartender didn't even blink at a mohawk requesting a Pinot Noir. I gambled for it - $20 on $1 deuces. Bets 1, 2, 3 all lose. Bet 4 is trips. Bet 5 is a single deuce that fills a soft royal. +$80 - Ship it! After a $10 tip, I'm at $400, not quite half of what I need for a shot at my WSOP bracelet. Friday afternoon I've been playing and breaking even in the $125 and $175 single tables at the Rio for weeks. I figured it was my day to win, so I hopped in the Camry and made the 12 minute commute to the WSOP, rehearsing my why-I-can't-chop speech. The flood of people coming out of the Amazon room told me some big tourney was on break. Yep, the $2000 NLHE or some such, but uh oh! They closed satellites today because the tourney was to big! Q: how do you turn $400 into $1000 in 3 hours? A: Gamboolz! The 2/5 NL cash list scrolled down the board, across the floor, and out into the parking lot. I wasn't ready to try the pit ... yet. I marched back to the Camry and drove across 15 to the Bellagio. I've played around 100 hours of 2/5 there over the years, and probably booked 1 win ever. Why not? I start at the VP bar to cool the nerves. My chardonnay order didn't disturb this bartender either, WTF? I walked even this time and went to check on my seat. I was placed in the 10 seat at a table by the rail that used to be 15/30. Oh, I had definitely lost here before. I scan the table. Based on faces, posture, table awareness, and chip handling skills, I predicted 4 or 5 late 20's tags, 2 calling station kids, 1 really solid lag, and 1 middle-eastern gambling fool (MEGF.) Lag is opening every other pot preflop and cbetting. He's working over the kids and MEGF and giving money to the tags for break even poker on a 1K stack. After watching a couple orbits I steal two small pots in position. Fourth orbit in I am third limper with Ah7h, six of us see the flop of Ts 9h 2h. Lag checks, MEGF opens for $20, folds to me I make it $50, MEGF calls? I put him on mid pair or a smaller flush draw. Turn is 2d, MEGF bets $30, further confirming my read. River is Th for a board of Th Ts 9h 2h 2d, and he grabs a stack of read and starts breaking it down into $10 piles. He puts together 8 of these, eyeballs the board, gets $10 more, looks at me, gets $20 more, stacks it and pushes it in leaving himself around $300 behind. Clearly he is trying to push me out. I don't think a 9 or smaller flush will call my push so I smooth call. He shows the 9 and my flush takes it! Now I had a dilemma. I had around $600 and 110 minutes till 5pm post. Gamble for the $400 or go see ATM? After consulting with my wife, I decided since I had wanted to play in a WSOP event for years and this particular event for months, I should just grab the cash and go do it. With my heart pounding in my ears and my hands shaking, I got the Camry out of valet and head back to the Rio. WSOP deuces baby! Continues soon... 
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#5
07-03-2007, 06:13 PM
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Part II (Deuces II and III)
Friday night (Deuce II)
Table twentysomething, seat 2 was my draw. It was not quite all the way to the far corner of the room. Seats 1 and 3 had only cards. A talkative, earphoned, shades-wearing white guy was in 4. A middle-easterner was in 5, and 6 was empty. I said nothing to them and scanned the room, immediately regretting my lack of a camera. Captain Penis Back was at the next table also in 2. A mohawk-on-the-back sneak attack photo would have been priceless! Dozens of other pros were nearby. I turned my attention back to my nearest neighbors. Seat 1's card said Andrew Black. Uh oh. Praying I wouldn't know the name, I looked under the stack of tournament chips and $1K yellows on my left at ... Howard Lederer. I remember chuckling lightly to myself but I may have been sobbing. The pros skipped the first hour, so it was me, Talker, MEG2, and tons of dead blinds. We fought hard for them. I had to play pretty tight with my single bullet. I played probably every 5th or 6th hand, in position as much as I could. I've actually played quite a bit of limit TDL, and most of it short-handed at UB. These guys were beatable for me. MEG2 was a real triple-donk, playing every hand if he had to draw 1 or 5 and only leading with 86 or better. Talky figured his chat was the best part of his game. Sadly for him his intentions were always clear. Unfortunately the variance of short handed TDL limited me to only T2400 after the first hour. I knew I was in trouble - with the betting going to 100/200, I had 12 big bets and was way behind average since I wasn't adding on. Andrew arrived just before the break. We visited some, and he's a pretty nice guy. After asking about his WSOP so far, I started in with some story about a pot-limit deuces home game, but realized I had mistaken his politeness for interest and cut it off. Howard arrived shortly after we got started. "Another optimist I see" said Andrew as The Professor plopped 15 more yellows next to his very lightly diminished stack. Andrew got busy mixing it up with the now silent Talky and MEG2. I won a small pot from Talky when an 8 held up, then tangled big with Howard. I'm 2346 in the cutoff and 3-bet MEG2. Howard smooth called, and three of us draw for 3 small bets each. Two, one, one. I catch an 8, bet and get called twice. Two, pat, one. I bet and Howard popped it. Call check call 76 nh. Five big bets. 2356 UTG, I raise, Talky 3 bets, we wind up getting me all in after the first draw. He pats the second draw and I peek at a T. I wince and try once more while he turns up an 87. "How'd you do?" he asks, I say we'll see and flip my base, then flip my last draw. 7!!! Meanwhile, Howard, Andrew, and the newly arrived stranger in 6 were discussing what percentage of the field is not rebuying. I volunteered that I'm single bullet, in for the love of the game, and got good wishes all around. Our table broke. My new table was right next to the rail, and a crowd had gathered. Great, another star. Who is it? Ew, Sam Grizzle. He'd attracted the crowd with his drawl, jokes, and running commentary. I let it slip that I'm a known $0.25/0.$50 deuce player online and the table was suitably impressed. And if that didn't intimidate them, I still had my mohawk, mirrored shades, and as a last resort, 4 big bets. I won an all-in, but this table was full and I had to sit tight with a string of garbage. Sam made a better 8 than my pat 87 to almost take me out. I made my stand in the blinds with a naked 2-3. I improved to a seven draw but failed to fill it up and I was out. The walk out of the Rio was bad. I was mostly excited just to play in the event, and obviously didn't have much hope of winning a rebuy event on 1 shot, but I would have liked to play longer. I chewed it over in my mind as I drove home. I had heard and read many times about how bad it is to bust out of a WSOP event. I had to shake it off though, as a friend was coming in to town to party, and my wife wanted us to go see him. Off we went back to the Rio for drinking and gambling. We found our friend playing $5 Jacks or Better attempting to pull Diamond status on Day 1 of his trip (he got it.) He was down over 1K when we arrived. Three quads later he is in the black and we party over to Pai Gow. The next day was much more of the same. At this point I was really running out of party energy. After dinner and a little rest I sent my wife off to go party with that crew so I could head back to GVR to wind down in a 4/8 game. Our table broke after a solid $220 win on my part. My winnings energized me, so I went over to the famous Station Casino 100.71% ev deuces wild machine to play for a spell and plot my next move. (Deuce III) Soft royal. Straight-flush. Five of a kind. Then, while sending a text on my phone, I glanced at some garbage hand, pitched everything and returned to typing. I heard beeping and wondered what I got. It kept going and I looked up. I had gotten a natural 5 card royal on a complete pitch. My Friday $1K single bullet had been returned! Thanks for reading!
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#6
07-03-2007, 06:22 PM
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Re: Part II (Deuces II and III)
[ QUOTE ]
(Deuce III) Soft royal. Straight-flush. Five of a kind. Then, while sending a text on my phone, I glanced at some garbage hand, pitched everything and returned to typing. I heard beeping and wondered what I got. It kept going and I looked up. I had gotten a natural 5 card royal on a complete pitch. My Friday $1K single bullet had been returned! Thanks for reading! [/ QUOTE ] BALLA.
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#8
07-03-2007, 07:49 PM
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Re: Part II (Deuces II and III)
Good read! Had me laughing through alot of it. You could be an author because much of the time I felt like I was right there at the table with ya.
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#10
07-04-2007, 12:44 AM
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Re: Deuce, Deuce, Deuce: a Vegas trip report in 2 parts
[ QUOTE ]
TT had informed me earlier that I looked like I had stepped straight out of Taxi Driver. Impressive, but not the look I was going for. Some large Elvis shades should tone me down some. [/ QUOTE ] Shame on you for not knowing who Travis Bickle is.     Listen, you [censored], you screwheads. Here is a man who would not take it anymore. A man who stood up against the scum, the [censored], the dogs, the filth, the [censored]. Here is a man who stood up. PS: MEG2 was a bracelet winner, his name escapes me at the moment but he knows how to play. He was probably just having fun knowing he was going to rebuy a bunch. Thats also why Andy and Howard showed up so late, no need to amass chips when your strategy is to buyin for the max. Sam Grizzle is much better at 2-7 than most people give him credit for, and he is a feared HU player in this game. Howard Lederer is one of the founding fathers of 2-7 Triple Draw, without his help the game may not be as big (is it big?) as it is today. Yuck, your table sucked!
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