Vegas TR - Nov 2-6th @ TI - Part 2 (more content!)

[mpitts]

OK, if you missed the first part of the my three-part TR, you can find it here.

Sunday
======

I wake up Sunday at around 8:30 Vegas time again and head down to the poker room. I am immediately seated in the $1-3NL game in seat 10. To my right is a good player who's game I came to respect over the weekend. I now know him as Minnesota Dave (MD). He and his friend John were in town from MN and I played with both of them quite a bit. MD is the type of player who puts forth a crazy image at the table but does not play on blind aggression. He is a creative and cerebral player who is capable of putting someone on a hand and going with his read. I didn't get tangled up with him during this session. That comes later. [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

During my session at this table, I am watching the Lions destroy the Broncos, as well as Adrian Peterson snapping off the Chargers D for 296 yards and 3 TDs. This is great news as I have AP on my fantasy team. But back to poker..

I glided along at this table for about two hours before anything worth mentioning happens. There are big pots and a few bad players, but I haven't had a hand or situtation that I can take advantage of so I just sit back and stay patient. This this happens:

I am in the small blind with 3d 4d. It is limped to me and I complete. We are six-handed to the flop which reads:


5s 6h 7h


I have flopped the straight, but it's the bottom end. Someone could easily be sitting on top of me at this table with 89. Couple that with the flush draw on board and I decide to lead the flop for the pot which is $15. MP (who is short at about $125) raises to $50. I know he is steaming because just a few hands before this pot he had his Aces snapped off by MD when MD turned two raggedy pair and got paid off on the river. I put him on 88-TT or some kind of flush/straight draw. This is exactly the kind of flop that he would want to see. The CO (~$400) calls the $50 cold. The CO is relatively new to the table and I don't know much about him. I 100% put him on a flush draw. It's rare that you see someone call a raise and a re-raise cold with much else. They want to see that next card and they don't really care what has happenend in front of them.

It comes back to me and I decide that, based on my assessment of the situation, I am ahead and need to get money in the pot right now. I raise to $150. This is enough to put MP all in and show the CO that I am going to showdown with this hand. MP calls off the rest of his money (~$100). I was trying to bet enough for CO to fold his flush draw. No dice. CO calls the $150 flat, leaving him roughly $250 behind. I am BEGGING for a black K to roll off on the turn. NO HEART, NO HEART, NO HEART, NO HEART!

The turn is a 3 of spades. All that matters to me is that the board hasn't paired and that no heart has come. I go all-in. CO sits and thinks for a minute. He looks at the pot and his stack and finally calls. He calls with TT. Wow! He just stacked off drawing dead. So I know the worst thing that is going to happen to me is that I am going to win money.

MP shows Q9 of hearts, the river bricks and I drag a $1000+ pot. Whew! MP steams out of the room, never to be seen again. MD said that he was bitching the entire way out of the room. Of course, I was too busy dragging a monster pot to notice. [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] The CO just laughs it off and rebuys. I can't say I wasn't happy about that.

The next big hand at this table is pretty standard. I am in the bb with 2c 2s. Two players limp and the button raises to $15. He has about $300 behind. I call, the limpers call and we are off. The flop is:


8h 6c 2d


DING DING DING DING DING DING DING! The button raiser seemed very comfortable with this flop and was already looking at his chips after the flop. Gotcha! I am defintely leading here because he is ready to bet and it seems to me he is planning on putting money in the pot. I lead for $50 and it is folded back to the button who instantly raises all-in, which his met by an equally fast call on my part. He holds KK. He doesn't improve and I take down the $600+ pot.

I am now sitting on roughly $1300 and decided it is time to take a break and eat. Danette gets me a comp for Canter's and I walk down to get my Brooklyn and matso ball soup. Let me just say that the Brooklyn from Canter's might be the best sandwich ever. Corned beef on light rye with a fantastic cole slaw and TI dressing (whatever that is). I bring it back to the poker room and eat it while chatting up the dealers. I also picked up a fruit cup and bran muffin for Perry, who has apparently become one with Mother Earth and has gone liberal hippy on everyone. [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

OK, so I am feeling great. I am up $800 at the NL game and am running beyond good today. I sit back down and begin play. Sitting directly across from me is a player in a Dallas Cowboys DeMarcus Ware Jersey (DCJ). He was one of those players that just looked comfortable at a poker table. I immediately pegged him as a wide-open and aggressive player. I don't know how creative he is but I am sure that he doesn't back down at the poker table. MD gets into a sizeable pot and him and the way the hand plays out confirms what I had intially thought; he is VERY aggressive. Good to know.

DCJ, MD and I are all sitting on around $1300+ each when this hand comes up:

DCJ is UTG and straddles for $10. UTG+1 calls. MD is UTG+2 and folds. I am MP and look down at two black Queens. Time to set the trap. Considering my read on DCJ, I am confident that, unless there is a sizeable raise in front of him, he will raise his option when it comes to him. Four other people limp to him. He looks down and raises to $70. Bingo. My elaborate plan is coming to fruition. The UTG+1 player to his left calls(!) $70. Now I have to figure out what to do. There is $200 in dead money in this pot and I am ready to take it down right now. I am not worried about DCJ's raise, as I had planned on it when I limped. I did NOT expect a cold call from UTG+1 for $70. Normally a call like this would set alarms off in my head, but it also occured to me that if UTG+1 was setting a trap himself that he would not just limp then call the straddle raise. He would pop it up. I have no fear of UTG+1's hand. "Raise... $350", I say. I love it. I know I have the best hand and I know that there is no way that DCJ can call. If he has AA or KK then I am just going to get picked off here because the range of hands that he is raising with out of the straddle is just way to broad. Everyone folds and I take down a $200 pot without a flop in a $1-3NL game. Awesome. [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

Not too long after this hand the mix game starts up. No Yappy, no LVM and the mix game is starting?!? WTF?!? I didn't complain. [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] I racked up my ~$1000 win from the NL game and cash out. I get $300 in blue for the mixed game and we are off. We start off by playing Badugi but the player to my left, who I later got to know as Steve, is cranky and doesn't want to play it. We take Badugi out of the rotation and play 2-7 TD, O8B, Stud Hi/Low (barf) and Crazy Pineapple. I text LVM to let him know that the mixer is jumping off. He texts back letting me know he will be there soon and wants Badugi and Double Flop Omaha in the rotation. Cool.

There are two tourist, Jay and Vince (I think) in seats one and two. Marcia and Rick are back for the mixer in seats three and four. I am in seat five. The aforementioned cranky Japanese guy, Steve, is in seat eight and Joel1968 is in seat ten. I am being my usual aggresive, idiotic self in the mixed game. Three-betting before the first draw in 2-7 then drawing four cards, proclaiming to the table that I am "drawing to the nuts". [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] We play the mixer for about 90 minutes when LVM shows up. He sits to my left in seat seven. The game was a lot of fun, as usual. Eventually Marcia and Rick leave for dinner and seat four is filled by Cindy. I know she is an AVP lurker but I don't remember her screen name. Cindy is so sweet and fun. It was fun playing with her. Not too long after Cindy shows up, TI Sabs shows up as well and sits in the six seat.

Anyway, Jay and Vince (the tourists in seats 1 and 2) are 100% convinced that I am A) a local and B) a hustler. I do my best to try and convince them that I am not a local, but they continue to be skeptical. It doesn't help that ten minutes later Yappy and The Other Dave both show up and are like "HEY MIKE!" and "MPITTS! WHAT'S UP!". This is the first time I have seen them on this trip and they are blowing it for me. Typical.

So Yappy and Dave want to start up a $1/1 PLO table. Wow! Are you kidding me? I love PLO and make more money playing it online than any other game. I'm not sure why that is, but PLO is a game that I have put a lot of hours and hands into and very rarely do I get to play it live. The last time I played it in a casino was at the Rio during the WSOP last year. It is my second-favorite game to play (2-7 TD is my favorite). I cash out of the mix game and sit down at the PLO table and all hell breaks loose...

We sit down at the Omaha table three handed. I am in the three seat, The Other Dave (TOD) is in the six and Yappy is in the eight. Some people say that what follows was the third hand but I am almost positive that it was the first.

Yappy is the button and limps for $1. I am in the SB with A886 with the A6 of hearts and I check my option (remember it is $1/$1) and TOD checks. The flop is:


8h 9h 3x


I am a little fuzzy on the third card but I am sure of the other two. To be honest with you, I don't have a solid memory of the betting on the flop. I believe I potted it and Yappy called.


Turn Jh


DING DING DING! I now have the flush and a set. I am feeling very good about this hand. I pot it and Yappy looks at me for a what seems like forever and re-pots. I am not sure what to think at this point. I love my hand but I can't figure out what Yappy has. He might have 99 with a flush. Something like a KK99 or KQ99 type hand with two hearts. Yappy is a smart and good player but I don't know how good his Omaha game is. Omaha is different from hold'em and hand values are drastically different, especially in Omaha High, which is what we are playing. I know he knows how to play all of the games well.

At any rate, we wind up getting it all in on the turn or river (again, fuzzy). Yappy shows QhTh7h and another card that I didn't even bother looking at. He had the immortal nuts and I was drawing dead on the turn in Omaha. Not an easy feat. I am down $300 in the blink of an eye. Wow. People talk about coolers and this is one of them. I am rarely going to be able to get away from this hand. Oh well. That's Omaha. Next hand.

The TI room staff is pimping the Omaha game and it is starting to fill up. This makes me very happy because I feel like Omaha is a game that I have a real edge against most people in. Steve, the cranky Japanese guy from the mixed game, sits down in the one seat and it isn't long before we get involved in a big hand.

I have 5789 and am on the button. Steve limps and I call. If this hand was double suited I would likely raise, but it isn't so I am not too interested in building a big pot yet. All four of us see the flop (IIRC) which reads:


7 3 7


I didn't pay attention to the suits because they aren't really relevant to the hand. Steve leads out for the pot and I call with my trips hoping to boat up on the turn.


Turn 5


BAM! I have the nuts. 7s full of 5s. Steve, who is not the greatest Omaha player in the world, leads out for the pot. I repot, he repots and I wind up putting him all in on the turn. I am feeling great.


River K


Steve rolls over 73JK and I am devestated. I had him drawing to six outs on the river and he just nailed it. Instead of dragging a $400 pot, I am now stuck $500. Nasty. We hadn't been playing more than 30 minutes and I am already $500 into one of my favorite games. I remind myself how swingy Omaha is and that I just have to ride it out. Don't worry about being stuck, just play your game and you will be fine.

It sounds stupid but sometimes a player needs to have these internal discussions with themselves to keep them from tilting off tons of money. I feel like I am the type of person who can handle adversity in situations like this. It sucks but you just have to forget about it and move on to the next hand. It's like the cornerback who gets burned for the big play in football. You can't think about what happened. You have to think about what is going to happen. Just take the information that hurt you and use it to your advantage in the future. I also have to remind myself that Steve has already proven himself to be a marginal Omaha player and that I should have many opportunities to get it back from him.

OK, time to get my head back into the game. I love Omaha but I am not loving it right now. I buy in for $300 (the game is uncapped) and am slightly tilting. I need to get my head clear. TOD reminds me that the money I lost to Steve is "boomerang money" and that it will come back to me. I smile and agree. If only I could say the same thing about the chips I sent to Yappy. Oh well. I work up to about $500 over a few hands and then comes the perfect storm.

I am dealt AAQ2 in MP. AA hands in Omaha are generally overplayed by people after the flop and you can tend to lose a lot of money with them if you are not smart. This particular AA hand is pretty ragged; not suited and a Q and a 2 to go with it. I decide that with so many people seeing each flop, I will limp-reraise if given the opportunity. There are benefits and detriments to this play. The benefit is that it helps to minimize the field and will likely leave you in a heads-up pot, which is where AA has it's advantage in Omaha. The detriment is that you are broadcasting your hand to a player with any kind of experience at Omaha.

So I limp for $1. It is limped back to Yappy, who raises the pot, which I believe was $6. Excellent. Now I just need a couple of callers between him and I to bloat the pot enough for me to make a good sized re-raise. Two or three people call before it gets back to me. I think about flat-calling and closing the action, but I can't do it. I raise the pot. The exact numbers are fuzzy to me going forward in this hand. I know that after I pot it Yappy repots. I am starting to put him on a hand. The only hands I can put him on right now are a better AA hand (maybe AAKT double suited), a KK hand (like KKQJ) or a good rundown hand like 89TJ double-suited. Then things get complicated. After my limp-reraise and Yappy's second raise in the pot, Steve decides that he is coming along for the ride and calls Yappy's third raise. Now I know that Steve is not the best Omaha player, but his hand in the pot really confuses me. Both Yappy and I have shown a lot of strength in this hand and Steve scares me because I have absolutely no idea what he could hold. I repot it for the last time. Yappy calls off his chips and is all-in and, of course, Steve calls and has only $120 left(!).

I'd say that there is probably $750 (again, it's an estimate) in this pot preflop. Yappy is all in and I cover. Steve has $120 behind which I will be putting in on any non-scary flop. At this point, I feel like Steve might have the advantage because I now have Yappy solidly on a better AA hand. I am apparently still in a jovial mood because I tell TOD (who has been sweating my hand) that I will be winning the pot with trip dueces. [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] Here comes the flop:


T 6 2 with two diamonds


Safe enough. Steve checks and I bet him all in. He calls. Oh boy.


Turn 2 (Woo! Trip deuces!)


River T


Crap! Someone has to have trip tens now!

I roll over my hand. I am the only one who shows a hand. Steve and Yappy muck! OH YEAH! My hand holds up and I dragged a pot of about $1000. I throw Steve (the dealer, not the player) a green chip and am sitting on cloud nine. What a crazy pot.

We play for another four or five hours. I wind up at around $1600 when I finally cash out for the night. All I remember is hitting every flop for about two hours. The two hands that I can remember are:

Hitting a wrap with a 9TJQ on a KQ3 board against Clem2754. We got it all in on the flop. Clem had flopped top set with KK. I didn't improve.

Flopping a flush draw with AAQ2 (double suited this time). There was a pot sized bet and two callers (including myself). I turned top set with an A and rivered Aces full when the board paired. Clem paid me off as he had an underboat.

I went to bed feeling good to say the least. [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

[StevieG]

These have been nice posts.

The low limit mixed game at TI provided some of the most fun ever had playing poker in Vegas. I was disappointed when I was there a couple weeks ago and the game was not running.

Also,

[ QUOTE ]
Let me just say that the Brooklyn from Canter's might be the best sandwich ever. Corned beef on light rye with a fantastic cole slaw and TI dressing.

[/ QUOTE ]

Growing up in Philly, where this is called a "corned beef special," I always thought this was a pretty standard sandwich. But it turns out it's pretty regional.

[mpitts]

[ QUOTE ]
These have been nice posts.

The low limit mixed game at TI provided some of the most fun ever had playing poker in Vegas. I was disappointed when I was there a couple weeks ago and the game was not running.

Also,

[ QUOTE ]
Let me just say that the Brooklyn from Canter's might be the best sandwich ever. Corned beef on light rye with a fantastic cole slaw and TI dressing.

[/ QUOTE ]

Growing up in Philly, where this is called a "corned beef special," I always thought this was a pretty standard sandwich. But it turns out it's pretty regional.

[/ QUOTE ]

Just a quick FYI.. If you want to play the mixer, just tell them to start the list. They have a person that they call (LVM) and he sends out a text to a bunch of people.

Thanks, BTW. I will post the last part of the TR tomorrow. Lots of good stuff still be to posted. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[pig4bill]

[ QUOTE ]
Just a quick FYI.. If you want to play the mixer, just tell them to start the list. They have a person that they call (LVM) and he sends out a text to a bunch of people.

[/ QUOTE ]

What's the message say? Something like "Fish on the line!"?

[mpitts]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Just a quick FYI.. If you want to play the mixer, just tell them to start the list. They have a person that they call (LVM) and he sends out a text to a bunch of people.

[/ QUOTE ]

What's the message say? Something like "Fish on the line!"?

[/ QUOTE ]

Hahah.. Funny story. I was sitting at the table when he sent the message out one night. I got the message.. All it said was that the mixer was running at TI. I think the "fish on the line" is implied. [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

[Halfpoint]

This brings the record of TR posters to an astounding 946-1, 745 Ko's

[StevieG]

[ QUOTE ]

Just a quick FYI.. If you want to play the mixer, just tell them to start the list. They have a person that they call (LVM) and he sends out a text to a bunch of people.


[/ QUOTE ]

Thanks for the tip.

However, I'm not shy. I got myself on the interest list. The brush told me that the other names on the list were hours old and that the game was unlikely to start (uh, yeah, thanks, just put me on the list and maybe make an announcement that "the mix game interest list has started up").

Then I tried talking up the game at the table. There was a girl playing that was interested, but a different regular at the table acted as a cooler, dismissing the idea and saying the guys that usually play it were not around.

To make matters worse, the dealer then poo-pooed the idea, saying it wouldn't go.

Thanks for all the help, fellas.

That was a surprise, since the last time I was there and we got it to go the dealers helped talk up the game.

[mxp2004]

Nice report and kudos on those two monster Sunday morning pots. The funny thing is that, a few weeks ago, I held your exact hands in one NL game, but I did not fare as well as you did.

Like you, I took a flop with a bunch limpers with 3x4x and flopped the low-end of a 5x6x7x straight. Unlike you, someone else held 89 and stacked me when all the money went in on the turn after a blank fell.

A couple of hours later, I took a flop with 22 from the SB after calling a Button-raiser with a deepstack. The K 9 2 flop looked sweet to me. I led out, the Button raised, I pushed, and he called. He showed a set of 99s, and I lost my second big pot of the night.

I think I finally got over those beats just this weekend. Thanks for reminding me of them. Anyway, congratulations on dragging $1,600 worth of pots. It's good to be you!

[Twistofsin]

[ QUOTE ]


Also,

[ QUOTE ]
Let me just say that the Brooklyn from Canter's might be the best sandwich ever. Corned beef on light rye with a fantastic cole slaw and TI dressing.

[/ QUOTE ]

Growing up in Philly, where this is called a "corned beef special," I always thought this was a pretty standard sandwich. But it turns out it's pretty regional.

[/ QUOTE ]

Was it really cole slaw? This is one of my fav sandwiches but here in AZ it's called a Reuben (which I also thought was standard) and is made with sour kraut instead of slaw.

[StevieG]

[ QUOTE ]

Was it really cole slaw? This is one of my fav sandwiches but here in AZ it's called a Reuben (which I also thought was standard) and is made with sour kraut instead of slaw.

[/ QUOTE ]

A Reuben (found all over the US) is different from the corned beef special (more local to the mid-Atlantic).

Delis that offer the corned beef special (served cold, by the way) also offer a Reuben (served grilled).

[/deli hijack]