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#1
11-12-2007, 05:35 PM
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Trip Report MGM 1/2 NL Cash Game *Part 3*
Oct 3rd 2007
Cont. from Day 2A. We've both busted out of the TI tourney and have just made it back to the MGM poker room. As soon as I sit down and buy in for $200 there is a cocktail waitress at hand ready for a drink order. As I'm ordering a Rusty Nail I'm dealt K4o and I'm required to post a BB if I want to play immediately. Sure why not - I'm here to play a bit. I check my option and there's no raise. It's a king high flop with a few limpers and I bet strongly and take down the first pot I'm involved with. Maybe this is a good sign. I get up and do the Hevad Khan gorilla dance for a whole minute. Just kidding. I'm seated directly across from the dealer in seat 5 and have a good view of the whole table and all my opponents. Going clockwise to my left I have a young British guy (Brit 1) who seems nice enough. Next to him a young gun who has bought in short, a guy in a cowboy hat, a friend of young gun, the dealer, a middle aged professional looking guy in a used-to-be-trendy black and white striped shirt with a suit jacket over it. I don't remember who's next him but there's another Brit (Brit 2) after that who is 2 to my right. There's a new guy to my immediate right who is very young. I very soon get involved in a pot with both young guns and their short stacks let me play them aggressively and I can't remember the exact hand but I end up busting one of them and cripple the other. I prob had big pocket pair. The young guns leave and 2 friends of the Brit to my right take their place. Nice guys and they just arrived today from London in a group and are visiting Vegas for the first time. The one 2 to my left (Brit 3) I eventually found out is a professional rugby player and he does seem the athletic type. His friend (Brit 4) who has joined is short and thin and is sitting just to the dealer's right. Soon I see a cheap flop with 77 and I flop a set. I'm out of position and decide to check into all the traffic. Brit 3 bets about $20 and after others fold I call. I check the turn and he bets same amount again. I call. The river looks harmless and I lead out for about the size of the pot. He thinks a bit and then folds. That sucks - I thought I had him for some extra chips. I get into another hand with him where I flop 2 pair and it's almost the same scenario with Brit 3. I check, he bets. But when we get to the river and I value bet him he seems to make a good fold. I now have chips and I have a somewhat loose and aggressive table image even though I've just happened to have decent hands so far. But I have been looser than usual and have manufactured some hands which I can’t do unless I win beforehand. It must be the Rusty Nails again. I soon pick up a real hand and get involved with Brit 2. He raises to $12 and I peek at my cards and see AQ. I have a real starting hand this time. I'm now a bit more talkative than usual and I say to him "You haven't played a hand in 30 minutes and now you're raising?" He just gives me a somewhat un-genuine smile. I really have no idea what he has here and I call. It's a good flop for me. A, J, 7 rainbow. I'm out of position and check to the raiser to see what his action is although I should already know. He bets $20. I decide to just call so I can make my move on the turn and put and end to this nonsense. Turn is another J and wasn't exactly the card I wanted to see. Without giving enough thought to the whole situation I check again. Brit fires out $40. Now I start thinking and I decide my hand is good. I call. The river is a brick and I feel I've shown enough strength so far and decide to manage the pot by checking and calling his bet if he makes one. Brit now announces "$105" and shoves a sizeable stack of $5 chips forward. Wow, this was not the bet I was expecting. I now go into the tank trying to make sense of this hand. I convince myself he cannot possibly have a J and ask myself how can I fold? I'm only worried about AK really. I look at my stack and try to envision what a missing $105 worth of chips does to me. I'll still be in the black but I'm thinking that maybe I can put that $105 to better use later at this table. My decision takes me a really long time and I eventually fold. Brit flashes me that same smile and shows me pocket 10s. Arrrrrgh!! I had the right read but the wrong execution not to mention I misplayed the hand on every street. I got too cute and paid for it dearly. As loose as I'd been before this hand he just never believed I had the ace and I didn't do my job of convincing him I did. I didn't use my table image to my advantage. I need another drink. It's kind of late and I've got things to attend to in the morning but no way I'm turning in now. I'm just going to get smarter....or luckier. Shankar calls us and he made the final table of the TI tourney but ended up 8th which was just out of the money. He’s going to come by here and play some cash game with us. I settle down a bit and soon I find AdJd facing a typical raise and this time it's from Brit 3, the rugby player. It get heads up and and the flop comes K,J,8 with 1 diamond. Not a bad flop for me but it could be trouble. If I bet I'm sure he'll raise me making this hand very difficult for me so I need to try another angle. I'm going to check and talk myself out of this. I look at him and say "every time I check you bet" which has been true in the 2 big hands I've had with him because he's had position on me being 2 to my left. So I check and he actually goes for it and check too. The turn is a low card but is a diamond giving me a backdoor nut flush draw. I check knowing I'm not going to get a free river. Brit3 bets $20 and I make the call due to the good implied odds I'm getting here. The river is a harmless looking card except that it's a diamond also. I've made my flush and can't lose. How to get paid? I bet out about $30 I think and he min raises me to $60. Cha ching! I'm hoping he has a set or 2 pair and I move all in. The dealer tosses a white card with bold red block letters that says "ALL IN" in fornt of my stack and Brit 3 pauses. OK, maybe I overbet this because he's not calling me like I thought. I turn on the table talk again to see if it will work. I turn to him and say "You've made good folds tonight." He's not biting. "Twice tonight you've made perfect folds against me" I say. His friend between us seems to kind of have an idea what is going on here but says or does nothing. "Perfect folds" I repeat. After seemingly forever he calls me and turns over pocket aces as I turn over my flush. The dealer shoves his stack towards me and it makes for a very nice pot. I shake his hand and say sorry actually kind of meaning it. He's a real sport about it and he calls it a night. I now have chips, I have a buzz and it's about to get fun. K6o on the button? I raise. Brit 4, the short skinny one who has played very tight so far calls me. The flop is K,9,6 rainbow and I have position. Brit checks and I bet less than the pot. He calls. He also check/calls the turn. On the river I should have just put the hammer down but I just make a value bet that he has to call. He does and turns over AK. I could have had his whole stack I think. The table takes notice here and it's game on. To lighten the mood I throw out some of my name that tune/artist prop bets my friends know me for. I'll pay anyone's next set of blinds if they can name the song or artist. When the opening riff to Jessie's Girl comes on I even get this one guy who has not uttered a single word so far to wake up. "Rick Springsteen!" he blurts out. Sorry pal, but nice try....sooo close. When the serious faced dealer from China, Jasmine, arrives I get her to crack a small smile when I ask her what Jasmine means in Chinese. I am also able to get the guy in the cowboy hat involved in some conversation and we I find out he's a local but is originally from Texas. I ask him where the worst cash players in Vegas usually are but I get no firm answer. He says they can be anywhere at any time. I guess he's right. He's a solid player who hasn't shown down any bad hands and hasn't done anything that looks dumb. One hand that struck me was when he raised pre-flop, got a caller and on the flop he made a huge bet that was just awkward looking in size. I question him on that bet and get no good answer.This is kind of a moonlighting gig for him it seems and despite the cowpoke look I find out he knows his odds, outs and percentages. I ask him what his name is and he replies "Cowboy". I think he's kidding but he insists that's his name. So when he asks mine I say “Paris”. We now get a new guy in seat #2 and he's another young guy who is from southern CA. He's got a faint Russian accent and is friendly enough to he eases into the table’s conversation. I tell him I was at a Russian wedding recently and we talk about how the reception meal is a never-ending procession of main courses, vodka and cognac. He's dressed sharp in a t-shirt, blazer and jeans. He looks like he just went clubbing and looks a bit tired/buzzed. It's now time for me to work on the guy right across from me in the striped shirt After watching me spew out my music/other trivia he says I'm just full of all kind of facts and asks what I do for a living. I deflect the question and ask him is he's here for Vision Expo. I really peg him for an optometrist for some reason. I think it's the wardrobe. The thin-striped black and white shirt with the suit jacket and black undershirt. He's middle aged and trying to look cool but he’s just not quite pulling it off. He says he's not here for Vision Expo and asks me to guess what he does. I say "based on your shirt I'd say you're a psychologist". Since I was wrong about him being an optometrist I just threw out the first other thing I could think of. I get into a hand with him and after I totally whiff the flop I bet out. He's played fairly close to the vest and is now pondering whether to call me or not and I need him to fold so I turn on some Jamie Gold. "I think I've got you. I'll show if you fold." He thinks some more, folds and I show him my junk hand. I find out his name is Jack and he's a dentist from PA here for a convention. I was close. "So you don't like my shirt?" he says almost pathetically. "Nah, that's a nice shirt. I like it" I reply in a fairly genuine tone. Before I can stop myself I blurt out "I'm just not sure about the undershirt though". I look at Russian who's sitting next to him and say "what do you think?" Russian gives Dr. Jack that look that says "yeah, I'm afraid Paris is right." I do the same Jamie Gold play later except I actually have a hand. Unfortunately the guy folds in that spot and I show him a good hand. A little hazy on details from here but eventually our table breaks up and of course it's late but it's also Vegas where it never feels late. I don’t want to look at my watch. I notice there’s no clocks here or in any casino..Hmm. Dale is still at his original table and is doing pretty good it seems. I sent over a Bloody Mary to him via our new Phillipino waitress and he's not quite ready to call it quits. So Cowboy, Russian and I move to another table that has exactly 3 open seats and the crowd here looks tougher. Russian has shown himself to be a loose player and on one hand here he really proves it. A sharp looking French guy raises and Russian calls. On the J high flop Frenchie checks, Russian bets and Frenchie check raises all-in. Russian thinks, calls and turns over 9,9. Frenchie turns over AK and doesn’t improve. Russian rakes in a huge pot. Wow. Cowboy and I are just staring at each other and by now we know Russian well enough to where we openly question his line on that hand but in a helping manner. But what do we know? A short heavyset guy across from us also plays out a crazy hand all the way to the river and I openly say to him that I’m not going to get involved in a pot with him. I win a couple of small pots and the hands I show down kind of show I can be playing anything. But I’m still tighter than some others here. On one hand Cowboy makes a decent raise pre-flop and is called by a guy between us. The flop is something like 5,T,2 and Cowboy overbets the flop like he did at our first table putting his opponent all-in. The guy says “I have to call you” and sheepishly says “I have 2 pair” He turns over T,2 and Cowboy shows pocket aces. Ugh. Fortunately it wasn’t a devastating dent in his stack. About 15 minutes later I have QJo and limp. Cowboy raises (and he’s only raised strong hands) and it folds all the way around back to me. “I might as well learn how to play post-flop I guess” I say and call him. The flop is 7,Q, 3 and I check out of position knowing he will bet. He bets and I check-raise him in a way to make it look like strength. I know he just had aces cracked and probably doesn’t want to get involved in a very big pot here. “You hit a set of 7s” he says staring down at the flop. I’m starting to think he could have KK or JJ here but he probably didn’t. He ends up laying his hand down and I show him mine. I think he might have laid down the best hand there but hard to say. Russian’s stack has been on a yo-yo going very high up and then back down. My memory is hazy for the most part here except my last hand where I play that monster combo of 10,4. The flop comes 4,4,7 and I have trip 4s. My one opponent is the one guy I didn’t really want to play against but this time I don’t mind. I’m sure he’ll bet if I check to him so I do and he does bet. I smooth call him and the turn doesn’t look like it could help him so I check again. He checks too. On the river I bet and he gives a speech and finally folds saying he’s worried about this kicker. It’s my last hand so I show it and bid goodbye to all and wish Cowboy and Russian good luck. I grab some plastic racks, fill them up and go to the cashier’s window to cash them in for real US dollars. I cash out for $957. It was a good haul and I toke the cashier a 5 spot only to later learn hardly anyone tips the cashiers. Dale cashed out and finished in the black too. We make the short 5 minute walk to our ground floor room exhausted but pleased to end up on the plus side after our tourneys didn’t go so well. I wash up, plop myself down onto the magic bed and look at the alarm clock. 5:50 am Vegas standard time. I can’t believe we actually played that long and I’m not sure when/if we’ll make it to our trade show. I fall asleep almost immediately. Day 3 - PH tourney and WYNN cash game to be continued..... 
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#3
11-12-2007, 08:30 PM
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Re: Trip Report MGM 1/2 NL Cash Game *Part 3*
nice TR, but it seems you're playing your big hands a bit too passively. if you're gonna check/call the flop, at least CR the turn. try and build big pots [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]
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