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#1
04-04-2007, 01:17 AM
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Trip Report
Hey guys,
I just got back from MGM Grand over the weekend and what a blast. I went to Vegas for my cousin's wedding. It was a pretty small gathering. Bride, groom, me, my brother, 3 of the bride's closest friends, and 2 of my cousin's friends. I arrived at Las Vegas around 5:30 in the afternoon. I waited for my luggage and was pleased to be one of the first to get mine and I was off to get a cab. I asked some guy who works there and he said I was better off getting a shuttle. So I did. Well, I tried to anyway. I went to pay with my credit card as I didn't want to travel with cash, and they said cash only. So I looked in my wallet and found 11 dollars. It just so happened the shuttle that I was taking, cost 10.75. That worked, until I arrived at the hotel at around twenty past six and was unable to tip my driver. Traffic on the way to the hotel from the airport is hideous at rush hour. Luckily the MGM Grand is one of the first hotels, perhaps the first one, where the shuttles stop to drop off passengers. I was greeted in the lobby by my brother and we checked in. He had been waiting for me for 3 hours. I had neglected to place his name on the room and he had to wait for me to arrive. We checked in and then got a phone call from my cousin. He was staying at the Luxor, but coincidently we had a common friend who happened to be at the MGM Grand for his own vacation (no intent on going to the wedding) who was just kicking around waiting for some dinner reservations. We chit chatted for a while, but I was getting antsy to play some poker. The others were saying, "You can't play poker. We are going for dinner and then we are going to get trashed." I said, "You don't understand. Tomorrow is Jason's (my cousin) stag. Sunday is your wedding. Monday will be dead. This is Friday night. This is my best opportunity. I have to play tonight, otherwise I may leave here and never have played at all." They insisted that I wasn't playing, so I let them think that for a while. They came up with all sorts of things like, "Well you won't be stagging all day tomorrow, and we won't be doing the wedding all day Sunday either." Good points. I still wanted to play poker as soon as possible though. We ended up going to Hooters for wings and drinks. The service sucked and the wings were bad. They didn't bring my beer, and I asked for hot wings, and got naked wings with nothing on them. Bare. Ever have a plain ole fried piece of chicken with no sauce? Very bland. I think after that we returned to the MGM Grand and I just walked straight to the poker room. I scoped out the waiting list. I had it in my mind that I was ready to dive into the 4/8 game right away. I didn't know what tables were running what games and it was hard to see who I was going to be playing with as there are over 20 tables at that casino. There is one name on the 4/8 list and 3 on the 3/6 list. I put my name on both. I wait for about 15 or 20 minutes before I get seated at the 4/8 game. I am seated immediately and I get the big blind. I am allowed to play it while the brush runs and gets me some chips. The action starts. UTG raises, one cold caller, the SB calls, I look down at A3o and muck. The dealer looks at me and says, "It's your blind sir." He grabs my cards and discards them into the muck. I look at him and say,"I thought it was raised." I have never played at a big casino before. I have played at small casinos where one dollar chips are white. Just as I finish saying that, the brush gives me my chips and I see that the blues are not two dollar chips as I thought they were. The flop missed me completely thank goodness. As I sit, I start to build my reads of the players. Glasses is to my left. He seems like the stereotypical LPP. The next fella to his left is rocky. The fella next to him seems tight and agressive. I can't remember the next two. They were unspectacular I guess. The guy in seat three though. I had some great reads on him, although I don't think I ever went up against him. He was a bad TAG. I saw him, several times, raise preflop, then check the flop, then check raise the turn with missed overs and bet the river UI. To his left was Gym. Gym liked to bet when someone showed weakness. Gym was bleeding chips. There were very few interesting hands in this game. I had found a deep improvement in my game with respect to paying attention to players styles and characters as well as mannerisms. I always counted the bets in the pot, which I have had problems with in the past in just maintaining that focus. I remember one hand I was in the SB I think, and TAG raised it UTG1. I think there was one or two cold callers and I called with AQs. I flopped a Q and was going to check raise the TAG as it was an uncoordinated board. I would also have checkraised a flush draw. If it had come coordinated I would have lead out in hopes of the TAG trying to eliminate the field, going into call down at that point. The TAG checked it through and so did the rest of the field. I bet the turn and the TAG folded. I got one caller, bet the river and he folded. In all that game I won 7.75 bb and most of it from Gym. If he had position on me and I had a marginal hand, I would check call the river. One hand, he bet immediatedly with position after I checked on the river. I called, and he sat there waiting for me to flip over my hand. He said, "You have a pair, your hand is good." I said, "No, I have ace high." I flip over my AJs and he patted the table and said good hand. Another hand I remember, I had A3s UTG1, TAG calls, bad TAG calls, someone else calls, bb is in. Flop comes with 2 of my suit, I check in this instance feeling that I would get a bet out of someone. There was a 2(possibly a diamond) and a ten and another unremarkable card. I strongly felt that bad TAG would bet this and I could either get heads up with him for a cheap showdown, or I could value raise if more came along. TAG bets, bad TAG raises, 2 folds, I reraise, TAG caps and bad TAG folds. HU I miss check call. River I miss check fold. River is a two and TAG flips over 22. NH. Another hand I am either UTG with T9s or in the bb with T9o. I can't remember. The flop comes 923 all one suit. There were only 4 bets in the middle. I remember reading on on the plane about RIO and perhaps it was weak, but I end up check folding my hand when the TAG bet with one caller. The pot was still small (6 sb) and there were so many hands that could kill me on the turn and river so I folded. Turn and river bring runner runner T9 and my hand would have been good, but I am glad with my lay down as TAG rolled over a flopped flush. I didn't know he had the flush, but I didn't think he would bet anything less than top pair and J9s-A9s was something I was willing to put him on. He could have also been betting 22-88 as well, of which I was ahead of 44-88 or 30 combos. Perhaps I played it weakly but like I said, the pot was small. After a while there weren't many people going to the flop and and when Gym left the game, so did I. The next day I decided to play only 3/6 to see if that was more loose. Oh my gosh it was heaven. There was Tourny to my left, ATM Romanian to his left, someone to his left who took more breaks than he played, someone to his left that I can't remember, LAG Romanianto his left, iPod to his left, and Olives on his left. I was on Olives' left. Everyone is seeing the flop. One hand I limp EP with 44 knowing I will get enough people to play them profitably. Flop comes 4T8 with a 2 flush. I bet, Tourny raises, all fold to me who 3 bets, he calls. (There is a 4 raise limit on these games by the way, not unlimited raising HU.) Turn is a non scare card I bet, he calls. River completes the flush and I bet with the intention of calling a raise. He calls. I show my set, and he tells me NH and says he flopped top two pair. I have noticed ATM will call with bottom pair so I value bet all my pairs against him. The only hand of interest I remember with him, was it was folded to me in the CO and I raise with K5s. It is the first hand that I have raised with less than a pp greater than 9 or that wasn't full broadway. A new fella, Royal Ohio, has been playing quite passively to my left for a while. Tourny left for his tournament. I raise to steal the blinds, and if the blinds call I really don't mind. LAG Romanian has moved to ATM Romanians left. If they call, I am probably still a favourite. All three call the raise. Ouch. Flop comes Axxr. Check, check, I bet, call, call, fold. Turn comes a K. Check, bet, call, call. Now I really hate my hand. I have seen them show down some crap before, but any one of their kings likely has me beat and if they have an ace I am screwed. River is a J. Check, I check, with the intent of folding if Royal Ohio bets. He checks. I show my pair of kings, ATM mucks, and Royal Ohio shows me QJ. MHIG. Sometime later Royal Ohio got the first royal flush that I have seen in a cash game live. Somehow he managed to check it OP when he nailed it on the river. One hand I was on the button with KK when I raised with LAG romanian and iPod limping in. ATM Romanian calls, the rest call. The flop came T22. LAG Romanian checks, iPod, who I have been watching make some laydowns where most wouldn't, giving him an image of solid, comes out and bets. I think I should have raised and folded to a reraise. Instead I thought about something I read in SSHE and check with the intent of raising the turn. I reread that section after and realized I misapplied what I had read, as it was not the exact same circumstance. However, that is what I did anyway. The turn is non broadway that puts a two flush up. LAG Romanian checks, iPod bets, I raise, LAG Romanian calls, iPod calls. The river is a brick, all check call and my hand is good. LAG Romanian rolls over JJ. Now I don't know that I should call him a LAG anymore. I ended up calling him a LAG as one time it was 4 handed in an unraised pot. The flop came JJ2. I was in the BB with 55. Olives checked I checked, Royal Ohio checked, LAG Romanian checked. Turn I don't remember, but it was bigger than a 5. I seem to think it was a 9 or T. We all check. River comes a 3. Olive bets, I call, Royal Ohio calls, LAG Romanian raises. Olive folds. I think about it and see that Royal is going to call, so I fold. LAG Romanian flips over A high, and Royal Ohio has JQ. I ran well in this game and in general I think I played near flawless for 2 hours. I was up 21 bb at the end of 2 hours. On Monday I played some 3/6 again and two hands that I remember. One I had AA against JJ and that won, and another against this middle aged asian fella who raised every time it was folded to him CO or Btn. This had happened at least 4 times. It just so happens that if he was in the CO I was in the BB. I never got to see any of these show down. He would c-bet and everyone one would fold to him. He raised one hand and I look down at A9o. I think, all I want to do is go to showdown as cheap as possible. Flop comes Kxx. I check, he bets, I call. Turn comes a Q. I check he bets I call. River is a J. I check he, checks. He asks me what I have, I say ace high, and he looks down at his cards, looks at the flop, and mucks. That table got broken up eventually and I sat at another great table, similar to the one I had on Saturday. I had a complete maniac on my left, and a Loose straightforward player on my right. I ended up leaving that game as I had to get to a show. One hand I had QQ in a large pot. Flop comes 223. Checks to me I bet, maniac calls, folded to Thumbs on my right. Thumbs calls. Turn is an Ace and Thumbs bets. I think for a second. I think some more. I think and fold. Maniac calls. River is an Ace and Thumbs bets. Drunk maniac calls and Thumbs rolls over 54s. I couldn't think of anything that Thumbs would bet that I had any chance on. If he had an A or a 2 I had 2 outs. I couldn't see him betting with anything less than either of those two. What I thought had happened was that he was holding a 2 that he was going to checkraise on the flop, but when only one caller came, he changed his gameplan. The fact that he was willing to bet when an Ace fell on the turn and he was betting into the preflop aggressor told me that I was in trouble. Damn.. I really have to go to bed. Nothing much more remarkable than that happened. All in all I came home up ~37 bb and was really happy that I was able to hold my own in Vegas on a game that SSHE was written for. 
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#8
04-06-2007, 12:11 PM
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Re: Trip Report
Two notes:
One: always take a limo from McCarron. It's like $30-40, instead of $20 for the cab or $10-15 for a shuttle, but those are the guys that make Vegas move. He'll tell you where the best games are, where the best deals are, where the best hoo...well, you know the rest. Also, the limos are allowed to drive up to the front doors of the hotels, not the side "cab" door. I have 4-5 "regular" Vegas limo drivers, always make sure to have one of 'em ready to deal with me for the weekend. Sometimes I'll just throw 'em $200-250 when they pick me up on Friday, and have a towncar on call for the weekend. Two: Hooters wings suck. Even with the sauce they suck. Go to the ESPN Zone in New York New York, they'll set you up.
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#10
04-06-2007, 08:58 PM
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Re: Trip Report
[ QUOTE ]
Two notes: One: always take a limo from McCarron. It's like $30-40, instead of $20 for the cab or $10-15 for a shuttle, but those are the guys that make Vegas move. He'll tell you where the best games are, where the best deals are, where the best hoo...well, you know the rest. Also, the limos are allowed to drive up to the front doors of the hotels, not the side "cab" door. I have 4-5 "regular" Vegas limo drivers, always make sure to have one of 'em ready to deal with me for the weekend. Sometimes I'll just throw 'em $200-250 when they pick me up on Friday, and have a towncar on call for the weekend. Two: Hooters wings suck. Even with the sauce they suck. Go to the ESPN Zone in New York New York, they'll set you up. [/ QUOTE ] I will never go to Hooters again.. at least not there. They were indeed horrible. [ QUOTE ] Nice report. Me thinks you might out think yourself in those games a bit though. Doc Modern knows that I have done the same. heh heh [/ QUOTE ] In what way? Too weak? That T9 hand disturbed me after I folded. I really wondered if I should have bet or at least called. Anyone else play the T9 hand differently?
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