Vegas trip report (Venetian, Bellagio, MGM, Ceasars)

[GoldenBears]

I've been living out of a suitcase for the last month, traveled from Japan to Pasadena to D.C. to Boston to Austin to Vegas, just got back home to Berkeley.

Got to Vegas at 10am Sunday, but completely forgot that the banks aren't open on Sunday so I was limited to $500 which was lame. I played a $130 satellite at Ceasar's, got QQ busted by 66 all in preflop and then played the $180 tournament at Venetian and didn't cash.

Past midnight, I got some money from my buddy and got another withdrawal from the ATM so I could play 5-10 NL at the Venetian. Played my usual aggressive style, ran a few big bluffs, got caught bluffing twice and then got paid off when I hit top boat... cashed out +1281.

I had a rough day on Monday, played some 2-5 at Ceasar's waiting for the $200 noon tournament and found myself with 88 in late position. UTG (very aggressive, poor player) raised to 25, I called in late and button calls as well. Flop is 944, UTG bet 75, I felt confident my 88 was good and called, button called. Turn was an 8 which filled me up and I start thinking about how to maximize my take. UTG checks, I bet 150, button called. River brought a flush which I thought the button was chasing, so I’ve hit my money card... I bet, he raised me all in and I called and he turned over 44. Ouch. Didn't cash in the noon tourney.

Went to Venetian to play some more 5-10, came in on the button buy in for 800. First hand (didn’t even have my chips yet) I got KK with 2 limpers in front of me. I raised to 55 and BB reraised me to 155, 2 limpers folded. I called to outplay him on the flop, which is 2-3-9 rainbow. He bet the pot, 300, and I went all in for my remaining 645 and he called and turned over AA. Ouch.

I got drunk.

Tuesday was much better. Got back on the horse, determined to play perfect poker. Played 3.5 hours at the 5-10 game at the Bellagio for $1000, made two fantastic laydowns (QQ post flop to a 10-9-5 flop when someone had top 2 pair and AK to a AKJ flop when someone hit his JJ) to save a ton of money and then ran two very big bluffs after making very confident reads. Continued to pick up small pots here and there and cashed out +842.

Went to the Venetian for 2 hours before the 180 nightly tourney and the 5-10 table was extremely tough. There were four pros and five regulars, no fish. I got into a good position with AA and a guy bluffed off his stack to me when with a board of A44A2 when he figured I was hoping my weak pair would stand up. He was studying me carefully and I gave off a couple of low confidence tells early in the hand and he pushed with K high... quad Aces won handily.

Later, one of the pros there that had about 4-5k in front of him limped with a medium ace from late and let me see a free flop with A4 from the BB. Flop was A45 and I check called him on the flop, turn and river for a pretty big pot. Finished +1139 but didn't cash in the tourney again.

I went to the MGM Grand to see my buddy at about midnight after busting out of the tournament in 22nd place out of about 90 and sat down at the 2-5 game. It was a pretty weak game and a lot of the guys seemed to be playing over their heads, and I quickly pushed my way around to 1500 (max buyin was 500, which is annoying) and finally got KK to a flop of AK4, made a huge bet and a guy called me for about 80% of his stack pot committing him, and the turn was a J and he went all in and I called and he turned over Q10o to show the 4 outer... ouch. Two hands later, this clueless guy called huge bets down with 8-6 when I had 10-10 and flopped 455,3,2... runner runner straight, and I overbet the pot the whole way, and I busted.

I had been talking really aggressively, raising almost 40% of hands and had loosened up the table to a point where every hand was now well over $200, and there was more action on every hand than there were on any two or three hands at 5-10. I actually switched gears and tightened up a lot but I was talking so much and buying drinks for a couple of players that I still had my hyper-agg image. I was sitting on 600 for about an hour and a half, keeping this up before I finally got 5c6c in a 4 way pot on the button, and ended up taking down a 1600 pot when I missed a flush draw but backed into running 6's for a set, after which I cashed out.

Overall, I came up 2462 in cash games in about 13.5 hours of play but failed to cash in any of the 5 tournaments/satellites that I played in… the games were a little tougher than the 2-3-5(10come in) game that I typically play at Lucky Chances in SF but I think that I’m still continuing to improve my game rapidly, and I’m now back over the $100/hour mark since I’ve started playing serious poker in January.

My thoughts on the cardrooms:

The Venetian was my favorite, good mix of solid, predictable players and vacationers having fun. There were a fair number of suckers in town for the HP computers conference, but they mostly stuck to lower limit games. I like their 5-10 game which usually gets going around 2pm, but I found that it was much softer after 5-6 hours of play. The Venetian deepstack tournaments are extremely well run and have a ton of clueless players looking to play ‘tournament poker like on TV.’

The Bellagio was nice, but I got the sense that everyone there seemed to think that they were a pro. There were a couple of guys at my 5-10 table waiting to get into 10-20+ who were very sharp, and a couple of guys who thought they were sick but were pretty easy to read and exploit… in my limited experience, it was a harder game to crack than the one at the Venetian.

The MGM grand was unbelievable for late-night poker. At the 2-5 table, the average stack was a little short of 1000 but 2 or 3 of the players were drunk, and I honestly think that the pulsating music from the KA club actually enticed players to gamble more and play a little looser than usual.

I wasn’t that big of a fan of Ceasar’s, it was a solid room but their tournaments weren’t as good as the Venetian’s (their levels were a little quicker and there were 2 or 3 fewer of them). I only played the 2-5 game briefly but it wasn’t anything spectacular. One thing to its credit is that it’s a no max buyin unlike the MGM which limits you to $500.


All in all a fun trip and a great way to close out a month of traveling!

[Arbitrage]

Nice read

[swope]

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Nice read

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agreed!

ive heard the 2-5 spread limit game at LC is actually really ferocious, suprised you found it easier to beat than the 5-10 at vegas.. wonder if thats because most of the predators moved to the 10-10-20 game at LC?

[WillYumTX]

Nice report. Thanks for the update on those rooms. I'll be there this weekend.

Did you get to play any in Austin?

[floppynuts92]

Can't wait to go to vegas.. I am currently in the UK. It is such a long flight.

[RydenStoompala]

Nice report. We've all had those days like your Monday. I'm with you on the poker room ratings but I did like Bellagio a little more for the game selection. I like to play stud and Omaha now-and-then if those are the games to be in.

[Off Duty]

Thanks for your report.

Entertaining and useful. And well written to boot!

[swope]

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Nice report. We've all had those days like your Monday. I'm with you on the poker room ratings but I did like Bellagio a little more for the game selection. I like to play stud and Omaha now-and-then if those are the games to be in.

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the 20-40 stud game at the bellagio is absolutely epic.

[GoldenBears]

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ive heard the 2-5 spread limit game at LC is actually really ferocious, suprised you found it easier to beat than the 5-10 at vegas

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It's very easy to be patient at the 2-3-5 LC game since the blinds are so small relative to the pot size (because it's 10 to come in)... you can play for several hours and not see a hand without going down very much. The players are better overall than in Vegas, but there are a few more clueless players IMO. Plus, there are no EXTREMELY good players, since they tend to play the 10/20 game, whereas in Vegas there were a few EXTREMELY good players at the 5/10 and sometimes even the 2/5.

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Did you get to play any in Austin?

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No, I went to Barton Springs/Barton Creek & Lake Travis during the days and went to 6th every night. My buddy went to Westlake so he knew all of the Bartenders and we got free drinks everywhere and blacked out every night, it was pretty fun. Girls in Austin are amazing.