Vegas March Madness Trip Report

[pig4bill]

I was there Saturday too, but in the strange and scary 5/5 NL game.

[MtSmalls]

Sunday: OK… I am back from dropping my buddy off at the airport and its 6:20. The table I left hasn’t changed much. Sam J is gone, but there is a new player to my right. He’s wearing a red hoodie and these massive sunglasses. I think he came from a NL game. The first hand I see when I get back, he pulls down with a fairly ridiculous hand, and promptly starts shooting his mouth off. I hate people like this, but plan to take advantage of him. I have about $150 in front of me; basically what I came over with from the NL game four hours ago. I move to the 3 seat (4, 5, and 6 are all empty) just to get away from the noise. Over the course of the next hour the loudmouth continues to make noise at the other end of the table, he is also playing nearly every hand and raising and three betting on every hand he plays. There is no seeing a flop for $4. I continue to get very playable hands. Not only playable, but I am flopping sets, flopping flush draws that come in on the turn, flopping top two, basically getting hit in the face with the deck. Within the hour, I’ve very nearly busted the loudmouth, along with taking a big chunk out of the 1 seats stack and even quite a bit from the little old lady, who was still playing. Finally the loudmouth sees his “luck” is running bad and leaves. We play a half dozen or so more hands and one of the other players leaves as well. We’re down to four handed, and I hate playing that short, so the game breaks. Three of the players head over to the only other limit game going (2-4), and I decide to cash out. $434. I shake my head a little bit as I walk away from the cashier. How did I make nearly $300 in a little over an hour at 4-8??

I know I don’t want to sit in any of the games currently going, so I decide to take a small stroll around the casino to stretch my legs. It’s about 7:30 so there is very little going on. I stroll into the gift shop, since I have to pick up some souvenirs for the wife and daughter. Ever try to buy a little something for a kid in LV? Pretty tough, unless you like your kids wearing the LV logo, which I don’t. Anyway I see a few things, but decide to think about it and pick something out on my way out at the end of the day (I have an 8pm flight home). I wander back towards the poker room and the sports book. I haven’t bet on the NCAA games in the four years that I have been making this trip. But standing in the sports book, I get the itch. How is Tennessee only a 3pt favorite? Texas only a 3? Oregon only a 3.5?? EASY MONEY… I make three $50 giving the points on all three. The lady at the ticket counter misprints one of my bets and gives me a ticket for Purdue minus the points instead of Texas. I calmly report the error and give her the ticket back. (I’m later an idiot for doing this). There is still nothing going on in the poker room, so I decide that it would be a good thing to run back to my aunt’s place, shower, change and get my bag packed and try to be back around 10. This turns out to be a great plan, and fast forward into the future, I am back in the room just after 10.

I look at my watch and start doing the math…. I decide I have until 5:45pm then I have to bolt. I get on all the limit lists, and in about 15-20 minutes they open up a 2-4 game in the back of the room. I am only half paying attention to the 2-4 game, as the Tennessee game is late in the second half and the Vols are ahead by 5, looking like an easy cover and another win in my pocket. Meanwhile I am schooling the noobs in the 2-4 game. I am apparently the only on who knows what the word “Raise” means. They all seem to think it means “fold”. Meanwhile Tennessee makes a bunch of free throws down the stretch, but I only get a push, and frankly, I’m glad I got that much. Not too long after the Tennessee games ends, the floor calls for a new 3-6 game. I decide to move up to that game and rack up. Somehow I’ve managed to take $80 out of a 2-4 game in less than 90 minutes. I grab the 1 seat in the 3-6 game so I can see the TV (and I tend to prefer the 1, 5 and 10 seats). Everyone else is buying chips so I sit back for minute to assess the players coming to the table. Lo and behold… Sam J is back with a full rack. I nod at him and he says hi back. I put my head down as I pull my chair closer to the table and mutter to the 2 seat: Strap in, its going to be a wild one. Sure enough Sam is raising and three betting every hand. I get a little more respect from him this morning, as he starts folding on the turn if I continue to show any kind of aggression. One of the things that he did constantly (sitting in the 5 seat in this game) was if it was heads up, rather than folding to a bet, he would reach out and scoop up the board cards and muck them instead. Once again the rest of the table has no idea how to play against the maniac, but I get slapped in the face by the deck over the next hour and constantly have a good hand against Sam J. The 3-6 game has been going about an hour and a half when the floor announces the opening of a 4-8 game. Sam J shows his miracle 2 pair for the pot again, then stands up to reserve his seat in the 4-8 game. I am two steps behind him and lock up the seat to his left. As I am standing up to leave the 3-6 game, I sell one of my four racks to another player at the table and head to the 4-8 with three racks. Just to re-cap I’ve played just under 3 hours at this point and am up $300 at 2-4 and 3-6.

The 4-8 game gets started and Sam is rocking and rolling again. Trying to bully the table, he is raising at nearly every opportunity. But today, his luck is not running very well as he burns through three racks in about 90 minutes. Most of it to me. If I thought I was getting hit in the face with the deck at the 3-6 game, Lady Luck was alternating between blowing me under the table and riding me with her [censored] in my face at the 4-8 table. Over the next four hours more than 90% of my hands were pairs, two face cards (mostly suited) or suited aces above A-7. I probably won 80% of the pots I entered with those hands. Sam J only lasted about 2 hours at the game before going bust, but it didn’t really matter. There were a couple of loose players with not much clue, two or three good players, who couldn’t believe how many hands I was hitting and a couple of average players. By 4pm, I had $700 in chips in front of me and $200 cash from stacks I had sold to other players. I had a great afternoon, not only because I was winning, but the table was friendly and there was a lot of joking going on.

I sat for most of the afternoon next to a very nice guy named Marcus, who happened to be from Denver too. Marcus is getting better at limit HE, but I worked with him on a few things like reads at the table and not slow-rolling his opponents (he did this once, and I don’t believe it was on purpose, but he was cool about it). We talked about Family and dogs and Denver. At one point in the afternoon I raised with 10-10 and Marcus thought long and hard about playing his hand for a raise, but mucked and got up to go to the bathroom. He said “watch, I would’ve won this hand if I played”. I shook my head at him and said, “Marcus, you KNOW this pot belongs to me already” as he walked off. Sure enough the flop was A-10-6 with 2 hearts. I effectively now had the button with three other players before me. I was stunned to see that it was bet-call-raise to me. I put in the third bet and the other three all called. The turn was a black 4 which changed nothing. It also didn’t change the bet order, and again I put in the third bet ($24), this time I only got called in two places. The river was another small black card meaning the flush didn’t get there. I saw the player that folded on the turn sigh and nod, so I knew where the flush draw was (or wasn’t anymore). I had the other two players firmly on large Aces, possibly even Aces-up. Sure enough, bet-call-I raised-re-raise-call2-I raise-call-call and MHIG. Both mucked without showing, but it didn’t really matter. About that time Marcus came back from the bathroom as I am stacking a pot worth well more than a rack. He just shook his head and laughed.

I finally cashed out at 5:40 for $965, all profit (my initial $100 buy-in in the 2-4 game was already in my pocket). I’ve never, ever made that kind of win in one day. And I managed to win the UCLA bet and lose the Texas bet, making me down $4.50 in sports betting... I can take that.

I hit the gift shop for a stuffed animal for my daughter and a shirt for my wife (nice and tight in the right places). I managed to forget where I parked the rental car (I was up more than 36 hours at this point) but found it by using the remote and making the horn honk. Off to the rental car return, into the terminal and through security in less than an hour, putting me the front third of the A line for my Southwest flight home. Window seat in the second row and a 90 minute nap later, I’m back home in Denver.
Great trip… can’t wait to do it again next year.

Summary: I get back from the airport and make a Killing on Sunday. Sam J returns and dumps three racks at me. The deck makes sweet, sweet love to me all afternoon. I Love Las Vegas.

[elitegimp]

Awesome report!

If you haven't done so already, download "Ding!" from SouthWest... I've seen roundtrips from Denver -> Vegas for <$80 (including taxes / fees / etc). Sadly, I'm never free when the fares are available ):

[MicroMac]

Did the person that bought the rack off of you actually buy $140 in chips? If so, that was me. The timing looks right.

[Photoc]

Man I love these reports. Honestly, if I was going to Vegas on a poker/gambling vacation, I wouldn't be sober long enough to remember all the details like you guys do! I do know of one person who takes down notes at the end of his day for said purpose, but he'll forget a lot too, lol.