Vegas TR - Nov 2-6th @ TI - Part 1

[mpitts]

OK, where to begin? I scheduled a trip to Las Vegas (and more specifically TI) for November 2-5th. My plan was to do the following:

1. Play poker at TI
2. Eat at Canter's Deli in TI
3. Eat at In-N-Out Burger

Unfortunately I was so wrapped up with #1 and #2 that I never made it to #3.

Friday
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I landed in Las Vegas at 3:30PST after a 4+ hour flight from Atlanta. I took a cab to TI, checked in, dropped my bags off and headed to the poker room at around 5:00PM.

Having just been in Vegas in mid-August, I felt like I had never left. Danette and Michelle immediately recognized me and welcomed me back. We caught up a little bit and I sat in the $1-3NL game. The first hand that I got involved in was as follows:

I am in LP. MP player, who is not a very good player and has shown down some VERY questionable hands, raises to $12 preflop. One caller in front of me, I look down at 5h8h. MP has roughly $200 behind and I cover. I call. One blind calls and we are four-handed to the flop which was:

6h 7h 8s

Bingo. Top pair and an open-ended straight flush draw. I am going with this hand as far as the table will let me. The pot is just shy of $50. The blind bets $25 and the intial raiser (MP) calls. With $100 in the pot, I overbet it a bit to $150. This pushes the blind out of the hand. MP calls(!) leaving him $50 behind. Now I had sat with this player for a couple of hours and I knew that he was a poor player. I had no idea where he was in the hand and when he checked to me on the turn (a blank, BTW) I barely even look at what rolls off before I put enough in the pot to put him all in. He calls instantly and shows A-T offsuit(!!!!!!!!!) for two overs and an inside-straight draw. Of course, the river is a black Ace and I lose a nice pot to a complete moron who had no idea what he was doing. Awesome. This is how I want to start my trip. I brought plenty of cash with me for reasons just like this. I was upset with how the hand ended, but I had to remind myself that players like this are what make my trips to Vegas profitable. If I bring enough money with me to absorb a blow like this, it helps me keep my mind straight and not start playing on scared money. I am still down about $200 when they announce the 2AM tourney is starting.

I wasn't planning on playing the 2AM, but I was up and the cash game was a bit boring as the biggest fish had all left the table, so I bought in as the 2nd alternate. Since you get 3500 chips and the blinds are relatively small through the first hour, I felt getting in as an alternate would not be bad. Nam busted out (HA!) and I was in the tourney half way through the third level. I believe the blinds were 100-200. Three hands in particular helped me triple up to around 10K with blinds of 300-600. This made me chip leader and helped me to open my game up against the shorter stacks.

I am a little hazy on the exact amounts, so I will leave them out. But here are the cliffs notes on the three hands:

I have AA in EP and raise to 3x BB. It folds to the button who re-pops it. The BB calls it cold(!). I move all in. Button calls and BB folds. The button shows JJ. The BB says "I folded KJ" which led me to almost spit my Red Bull out in his face. I'm sorry, sir. Did I just hear you say that you called an UTG raise and re-raise from the BB with KJ? I knew I liked this table but WOW! Moving on, my AA holds up and I more than double up in the first 10 hands.

Next big hand is I raise UTG+2 with AcJc. Small blind calls. I flop top pair and a flush draw and get the small blind all-in. To be honest, I don't even remember what he held but I know it was no good. I busted him with less than 1 minute left before the break. This allowed Jon to sneak into the tourney. He was BEGGING for someone to bust so he could get in and he hugged me about three times after I stepped up to the plate and took care of it for him. [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

Last of the three big hands before we got short was as follows:

MP raises and I call with 66 on the button. Flop is 6 4 2 with two spades. MP makes a half-pot sized bet on the flop. I raise to half of the MP's stack. He instantly goes all-in and I insta-call. MP shows ATo(!!!) and is dead to runner-runner for a straight. That plan goes to the wayside when the case six hits the turn and it was at this point that I was sure that I was winning this damned tourney. [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

The tourney paid three and the play was relatively tight. Since I had been getting more than my fair share of nice hands and the fact that I had a lot of chips, I felt it was my duty to bully the table a bit. We got to the bubble (four handed) fairly quickly. I was still near the lead in chips and put my foot on the pedal. I was raising around 50% of the hands and semi-abusing the two short stacks. This would pay off when I raised for 2.5K on the button with AdAc and a girl that I had befriended (a local who works at Sapphire's whos name escapes me) gets tired of my aggressive antics and re-raises all-in. Of course I snap-called her A4o and she out on the bubble.

The next major confrontation in the tourney came with I raised on the button (shocker) with AKo, only to have the BB re-raise all-in. Being three-handed, it was a pretty easy call as I figured I either had him dominated or we were in a coin-flip. I had him easily covered as well. BB rolls over pocket 4's and a K on the turn sealed his 3rd place fate.

So then the real game begins. Heads-up in a tourney with the infamous Las Vegas Michael. I had a decent chip lead (I would say around 3-1) when heads-up began. We pushed blinds back and forth for a bit when this hand came up:

LVM is on the button with blinds of 1/2K. I am about a 3-2 chip leader at this point. He min-raises to 4K. Of course, this stinks. He has not min-raised me the entire time we were heads-up. I even say out loud that the bet stinks. I look down at my cards and see KsJs. For about .5 seconds I think folding. Then for another .5 seconds I think about pushing. Then I settle on calling to see a flop. A K comes on the flop, right in the window. I lead out for roughly the pot and LVM pushes all in. I make the crying call only to see what I had feared from the beginning. A-A. I don't improve and now LVM is the chip leader.

I am now a little more than a 3-2 dog in chips (rough estimate). After a few hands, I double up with A2o when LVM calls my preflop push with K-something (I forget). I am now back to the chip lead, but it is slight.

After a few hands we literally wind up with almost the exact same amount of chips. We do a straight chop of the prize money, which equated to ~$280 each. We both tipped 10% for the dealers (always remember your dealers when you cash in a tourney!).

So, instead of going to bed at 4AM Vegas time (or whatever time it is), I decide a smart thing to do would be to play $5-point Chinese poker with TI Jessica, LVM and the freakin' Chinese Poker Hustler himself, Nam.

I proceed to donk off money left and right to Nam, as he scooped me twice at $30 a pop. Luckily, I got him back a couple of times later. I also was dealt quads two hands in a row, only to lose the back to LVM when my quad 4's ran into his quad K's in the back. I still took a nickel off of him on the hand though! [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

So it's about 5AM Vegas time and I have to get some sleep. Michigan is playing Michigan State at 12:30 Vegas time and I need to be of clear mind to watch the game. [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]


Saturday
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I wake up Saturday around 8:30AM Vegas time, don my Michigan t-shirt, and head down to the poker room. I buy into the $1-3NL game and sit with LVM, who is directly to my right (excellent [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] and another local player that I befriended named Tim. During this session, I snap off LVM with KTo when he and I both flop top pair. He said (but never showed) he had JT suited for top pair and a flush draw. I made a tough call on the flop when he led out, I raised, and he re-raised all-in. I felt my hand was best and went with it. I was right and LVM headed out. I proceeded to donk off all of the money that I had won from LVM to just about everyone at the table. I also played with Clem2754. He was a great guy and I enjoyed playing with him a great deal. We never really tangled at this table. That would come later on. [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

Over the next six hours, I go from being up $300+ to being stuck nearly $300. Tim pushed me off of a couple of overpairs on scary flops. If I were to go into the details of every hand that I remember it would be a VERY long trip report. I could have doubled up through Tim twice and twice folded when he was drawing to two outs. He put a lot of pressure on me and it worked. Let's just say I played entirely too weak-tight during these few hours and I promised myself I wouldn't let it keep happening.

It was around this time that I notice another Michigan fan waiting to be seated. He was wearing a Desmond Howard #21 Michigan jersey. I walk over and give him a nice "Go Blue!" and he acknowledges my fandom. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] The only hand that made a serious dent to my stack occured when I flopped a set and a calling station who couldn't miss chased me down to make a straight on the river. I paid him off for $100 and was steaming inside when he showed me his hand. I had check-raised the flop and he still called me with middle pair, Jack kicker on a two-heart board. Oh well. To be honest, I was way more concered with the Michigan / Michigan State game at this point and wasn't paying nearly enough attention to the $1-3 game or it's players. In fact, when Michigan started their comeback with 7 minutes left in the fourth quarter I sat out from the table and watched the game in the poker room. I want to say a HUGE thanks to Danette for not only getting the game on the TV by my table, but also for getting a technican out to the room so I could get the sound as well. It's small things like this that the staff of TI will do for it's semi-regular players that make me never leave the room.

So Michigan comes back in dramatic fashion, going ahead with 2:28 left on a jump-ball TD pass to Mario Manningham. I leaped out of my seat at the empty poker table and ran over to high-five the other Michigan fan in the room. I am such a dork when it comes to sports. You don't usually get a LOT of emotion from me at the poker table but I am a freak when I watch Michigan football and Red Wing hockey. I guess it's my outlet. [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] So after the football game ends I return to the poker game. I wind up stacking an asian lady for about $250 when I raise preflop with AA and she calls out of the blind. The flop is J-high and she stacks off with AJ vs. my AA. She proceeds to leave the table and it was not too long after this hand that the $3-6 mixer game starts.

The $3-6 mixed game is the sole reason I started playing at TI when I was in town and it is one of the major reasons that I always come back. Where else in Vegas (or anywhere?) can you play Badugi, Stud-8, O8B, Crazy Pineapple, etc and my personal favorite poker game, 2-7 Triple Draw? Nowhere! This game is the most fun anybody in Vegas can have. We play Stud D/Q (double qualifier, high-low where the high must be 2 pair or better), 2-7 TD, O8B, and Crazy Pineapple for what seemed like forever. I am pretty sure this game ran for about 10 hours and it had the same core six people in it for most of the time. The players were myself, LVM, Motorcyle John (a local and great guy), a middle-aged Norwegian gentleman and a husband and wife, Rick and Marcia. The couple were generally nice people and Rick seemed like a really good guy. He seemed to know/understand all of the games. His wife, on the other hand, was your typical low-limit fish who chased every pot (or half of every pot in the high-low games). She continued to call me down and catch me on the turn and river. It was quite frustrating but I was fine with it. She was likely learning all of theses game and it's good for me (any everyone) that she's in the game. I bought into the mixed game for $500, which is completely asenine because it is played with $1 chips. I was making all kinds of ridculous chip castles and just being an idiot. Again, this is fun for me. [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] I wind up losing around $60 during my 10-hour mixed game session and decide that I have had enough poker for the day. I hit the bed at around 3AM Vegas time, which is actually 4AM because the DST change occured while I was at the table. This is just a testament to how good I ran this weekend. I picked the one weekend of the year that I would get an extra hour of time at the poker table. Genius!

To be continued..

[Brain]

Nice report!

[GoCobbers95]

Very long but good read.

I am making a trip to LV in December. Will definitely be looking up the TI mixed game.