Vegas report (LC)

[bilbo-san]

The last time I was in Vegas and played NL Cash, I was a total Limidonk. So on my most recent trip I was incredibly surprised at how amazing the $1/$2 No limit games (and, at times, the $2/$5) are in Vegas. I didn't play the $2/$5 at the MGM very much, because it was often a rock garden, and the $1/$2 games were so often playing just like $2/$5 anyway, with the average preflop raise at $20 [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img].

The craziest games were at Bally's and the Paris. TONs of tourists and very few regulars. The MGM had very good games too, with lots of tourists, but there are also a lot of regulars and you can totally end up at a table reminiscent of the scene in Rounders in atlantic city. It's true that the regulars aren't nearly as good as a winning online $1/$2 player (as a rule) but they don't suck in that hugely profitable way where they just dump there money all over you like the tourists do, so you are just giving up a lot of EV by not changing tables when this happens (see bottom for more fun notes on the regulars).

Some fun hands, these are all $1/$2 at Bally's, Paris, or the MGM:

Effective stacks $300. Three limpers to the BB, I check T[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]7[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]. The flop is T[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]T[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]2[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]. I bet $7, only the SB calls. SB is your classic loose-passive donk. Turn is the 3[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]. Check, check. River is the T[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]. SB bets $25, I get ready to bet $50, then pause, think, and push. I figure maybe I’m lucky and he has something like 77 and puts me on a 2 or 3, or he has a 2/3 and thinks I’m bluffing or something, plus, well, “whatevah, Zeebo and [censored]” (Zeebo’s theorem, for those who know it, stipulates that donks never, ever, ever fold a full house, no matter how bad it is or what the pot odds are). Then donk starts talking about how he has a flush, but it isn’t a very good one, and ooooh the agony of whether he should call, and just as I start to get disappointed at not making it $50, he calls with a 9-high flush. Lol flushaments.

Effective stacks $500. 5 limpers, I check 4:clubs:5:clubs: in the BB. Flop A[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]3[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]9[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]. SB checks, I check, an older lady who absolutely cannot fold top pair no matter what bets $15, SB calls, I call. Turn 2[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img], SB checks, I check, She bets $25, SB calls, I bet $125, she calls, SB folds. Turn is the 8[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img], I push and she calls and shows A9o. Her husband, who's on the other side of the table, is shaking her head and telling her not to make calls like that.

I have $360 and raise A[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]A[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] UTG to $10, Ueberdonk who always overplays his hand calls on the button with about $600, pretty solid SB with > $1000 calls. Flop T[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]7[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]3[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]. SB bets $25 and this scares the hell out of me because it could well be 33 or 77 (he’d probably have re-raised TT pre-flop as I’ve seen him do it before, and I have the reputation of raising light preflop thanks to a lot of stuff I’ve shown down when I raised in LP [my range is very tight when I am UTG, of course, but players here very likely don’t understand this concept]). Anyway, it could also be a club draw so I call, and the button raises to $50. SB calls and I’m pretty sure he can’t have 33 or 77 now with the club draw out there. He could have a lot of hands that he thinks he can stack the button with, though, so I have to let him know I’m serious. I was going to make it $200 but that leaves me with a very awkward stack if I get called and the turn comes a club, and the pot is already big, so I just push. Donk calls, SB folds. Donk shows AhTd and SB says he folded 87. Turn J, River 7 (whew).

Effective stacks $400. 4 limpers to me on the button, I make it $16 with Q[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]Q[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img], hyper-aggressive donk who almost never re-raises with big hands because he likes to “trap” (he did indeed trap me for half a stack on a rag flop quite a bit earlier with KK vs. my JJ when he did not re-raise preflop in an earlier hand, and he flopped a set of kings in another raised pot where he did not re-raise) in the BB makes it $32, folds to me, I don’t really do minraises, so I make it $100, he pushes, I don’t feel happy but can’t fold to this particular guy and I call. He shows 6[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]6[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img].

I have $400. Player who was until then pretty tight with $250 raises UTG to $15 folds to donk with $700 (he’s on a heater) who makes it $45, I make it $150 to his immediate left (hmmmmmmm….I WONDER what I have??). UTG calls leaving himself $100 (lol), and too-aggressive donk calls (lol?). Flop is KQx and I thank god these donks are too stupid to realize that preflop was push-or-fold. UTG instantly pushes, donk groans and calls (I put him on QQ or KK doing an act), and I fold. UTG shows AK and the donk flips QQ – but his groan was indeed not an act, he really thought he was up against KK (which indeed was one of two possible hands that I could have had here). This is a good hand to point out a trend that I noticed the whole weekend: if there was a raise and a re-raise, and the action came to a player with AK, that player would invariably call (and never raise). At games like this, where the donks are never bluffing when they re-raise (and don’t re-raise with AQ), AK should be a super easy insta-muck if you haven’t invested any money yet. I could see pushing if you think you are up against QQ and the overlay is good, but calling is simply a huge mistake.

I have $350. UTG donk raises to $15, 3 callers (lol VegasRingGameAMents), I call on the button with Q[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]9[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]. Flop K[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]J[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]6[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]. UTG Bets $30, one caller, and I call (I could raise here but there are too many set and 2-pair possibilities and being re-raised would suck a lot given the odds I am getting). Turn is a [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img], UTG checks, MP pushes $145, I call, UTG thinks long and folds AK face up. MP shows K[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]J[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img], but the river is a J.

Continuing with the playing-AK-badly theme. Short stack with $57 raises to $7 UTG. UTG+1 with $400 raises to $25. Winning player who isn’t very creative with $900 calls $25. He’s pretty tight and doesn’t have great implied odds, so I know he has AK. I have A[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]A[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] in the BB with about $750, and I call, because I (and probably most people who are reading this) can see the future. It folds to the short stack, who pushes (Goodness!!! What are the chances!?). UTG+1 calls (lol), MP calls (lol), I push $750. UTG+1 groans and says “nice bet” and folds, MP groans and moans and finally folds AK face up. I show my AA and they are both surprised at how I played it. I can’t believe we’ve been at the table for 5 hours and these guys hadn’t yet caught on to the golden rule – THE SHORTIES ALWAYS PUSH WHEN YOU RE-RAISE THEM. ALWAYS. (By the way, the first re-raiser said he had TT and the shortie also had AK so nice cold-deck there).

I have $300. Really drunk, crazy-aggressive guy who thinks like a tournament player raises UTG to $10, I make it $35 with AK, he calls and says he has a great rundown hand. Flop K37 rainbow, he checks, I bet $40, he calls and flashes everyone a 3. Turn is an 8, he checks, I bet $70, he pushes, I call, he shows 93 offsuit. River is a 9 (hey, these hands are about how great the game is, not about how much money I won [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]).

Two hands later, same guy limps, one shortstack caller, I make it $12 with A[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]Q[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img], 2 callers, drunk guy calls, short stack pushes $47 (THE SHORTIES ALWAYS PUSH), I make it $150 total to clear out the riff-raff. Drunk guy looks at me and tries to be menacing and says “ALL YOUR CHIPS, BABY!” and I laughed and called. Drunk guy shows 6c7c, shortie has A[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]7[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]. Flop is 8[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]Q[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]5[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img], lol. Turn is the 3[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]. Drunk guy screams “STAY THE [censored] OUT OF MY POT, BABY!” which I find hilarious. But then he stacks up his chips and leaves, which I don’t think is funny at all [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img], so I start trash talking him. Alas, he is immune to the goading [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

My favorite hand of the weekend was the very first raised pot I got involved in. With $250, I limped UTG with 8[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]8[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img], an MP made it $10, the button and the blinds call, and I called. Flop was 2[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] 4[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] 8[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]. I would normally bet here because the raiser is not likely to bet for me if he only has unimproved big cards (i.e. with 4 opponents he won’t continuation bet unless he has a hand), but this flop is very dry, so a free card probably won’t kill me, and my relative position is too great to pass up, because if he does bet and 3 people call that’s a lot of extra money in the pot. Anyway, he checks and the button checks, so the free card is the 3[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]. The SB bets $15 and the BB calls. At this point the flop is too draw heavy for me to slowplay, and I bet pot for $135. The preflop raiser pushes and I think he might have “slowplayed” AA, or he might have A[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]K[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]. The Button calls all-in for $140(!), and the blinds fold. At this point it is quite possible the button has 56 or A5 but I am getting better than 4:1 anyway and can’t fold this hand. I call, the preflop raiser shows 22, and the button shows 33. Lol colddeckaments. I felt really bad for the button on this hand because the pre-flop raiser (who will probably always lose his stack regardless) cost him by slowplaying his hand. No one would ever put the preflop raiser on 22 there, and bad players always put you on a continuation bet when you raise preflop, so the preflop raiser should bet the flop there. I don’t think the button can fold for $140 on the turn getting better than 3:1 with the (combined) possibilities that I and the pfr are both overplaying overpairs, a big draw, or that I have 22 and the pfr has AA.

Back to the regulars.

Seriously, if you are a regular in Vegas, I hope you aren't like these guys. If I ever buy one of those stupid tennis/golf cappies they all wear, I might have to shoot myself.

And the special card protectors? Please. Having a special card protector is like a neon sign that says "I play poker every day at this place!".

And don't get me started with the table talk. I can't believe how often I was at a table at the MGM with 4-5 regulars all sitting in a row, and talking POKER [censored] STRATEGY and bankroll management, and on and on and on. Seriously, how retarded is that? And I ask you, how the [censored] are you making money practicing game selection where your seat of choice is with 4 TAGs on your right? Just get up and go to Bally's, FFS. I loved the games where there were 5 TAGs to my left and 4 fish to my right, lol. Especially considering that these guys adjusted pretty badly to deep stacked situations.

Anyway, not much non-poker content as these kinds of reports go, but I was there with my father, so there was no ballin' anyway [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img].