Trip Report: June 30 - July 4 Las Vegas (LONG)

[TheStation]

June 30 - July 4 Las Vegas

FYI: I wrote each entry at the end of each day.

This was a bachelor party with some 8 other college friends so not as much poker playing as I would normally like to do in Vegas.

June 30 - Bellagio - 5/10 NL HE
Flew in from Kansas City and after dinner with friends I head over to Bellagio around 10pm, they have five 2-5 nl he games and one 5-10 nl he game, I get called for the 5-10 after about an hour of waiting but there was a $300-600 mixed game going on next to the front podium so that entertained me while waiting. I bought into the 5-10 for the max ($1000). The game was pretty good, very loose and throughout the night we were going to the flop 5-7 players for $40-70 each. I got up to about $1700 after pulling some good check raises and taking down those pots (people were betting out of turn so I figured I would take advantage). I normally hate the check raise as you dont get much info but in this case it was my only possible way to isloate and pots were big enough of that point as I had big hands but not necessarily ones you want to take a lot of heat with. After getting to over $1700 I go onto lose just over $1,000 to a guy when I flop TPTK with 4 to the nut flush vs. another guys set (this guy was on fire, he took a $700 buyin and built it to over $7200). So then I am down to $700 and change. I put a couple extra hundreds on the table and the game continutes to be crazy, I get down $700 at one point (continually topping off my stack). I then finally hit a mini rush and go from $700 down to $500 ahead. After 5 hours of play I leave a $508 winner. I was tired after working and my body was still on central time and didnt care that it was 3:30am PST (it was still on 5:30am CST time). So thats my day one... Saw Ivey, Greenstein, Gun Hanson at bellagio that night as well....

July 1
Rio - WSOP Watchin
Go check out the WSOP at the Rio, no chance I am going to play a cash game out there, those dealers were too bad last year and the lack of autoshufflers made it so much worse and I had heard a ton of complains at Bellagio the night before regarding that... Anyway see a ton of pros, I will name a few: Lederer, Cloutier, Ming Ly, John Pham, Gordon, Ivey, Tood Brunsen, Negreanu, Deeb, Liebert, Furguson, and Cunningham... I will stop there. Watched a little of $1,500 limit final table (boring, no big names). I am going to have to head out for $2.5k 6max final table tomorrow, that will be exciting.
Bellagio - 5/10 NLHE
After WSOP watching I grab some food and head over to Bellagio, after about a half hour wait a must move 5-10 game starts, I buyin for the max, $1000. Its a pretty good mix, I win a nice pot with QQ vs AJ on a J high flop. Lose a little and get to around $1300 and camp there for awhile. I eventually limp with QToff in middle position after a couple early limpers, we go to the flop 6 ways for $10. Flop is Q94 with two hearts, I throw out $40 looking to pick up the $70, I get one caller, a girl that just lost $500ish the hand before, I had played with her on 3 of my last 6 trips to vegas over the last two years, she was a dealer at Palms and dealt WSOP last year, she had said she flew in the night before so I am guessing she isnt doing that anymore, anyway in the past she was terrible. She was also featured on a cardplayer.com video late in WSOP last summer. Anyway she is my only flop caller, the turn is a Ten, boom, top two pair for me and the heart flush didnt hit. I bet out $70, she raises $150 more, I put her in for her last $400ish over the top of that, she calls. This isnt a play I would make against most but after observing her for last couple years I had a pretty good read on her. She turns over T9 for middle 2 pair, river blanks, SHIP IT! So now I sit at $1900 and change, I mess around for a little while and all of the loose players moved to the main game and our game turns into a rock garden. An idiot then gets up with his $2500 stack and I get moved in a 3 player move to main game, well the 3 seats were from former idiots and that main game looked tough so I took my $834 profit over 4.5 hours and go. Figure I should meet up with my friends and get drunk. Up $1342 over 9.5 hours of play. I expected a win rate around $80-100/hr so this is exceeding expections at this point. Still have 3 days left... I feel that I am playing well and fighting back from $700 down on my first night really heightened my confidence.

July 2
Wynn $1-3 NLHE & Venetion $1-2 NLHE
Just played a couple hours of $1-3 and $1-2 nl he at Wynn and Venetion (played little lower limits to sit w. friends that came out). Won $312 at Wynn and lost $112 at Venetion. Wynn game was tricky/weird with the $3 chips.... they were okay after I got used to them. Also had a hand where young canadian kid gets all in preflop vs. scottish guy, 88 vs AA, these guys had been going back and forth and canadian kid was very drunk (it was just after noon), he spikes a 8 and yells out "im in love with a "stripper" and dances around, I think the entire Wynn poker room heard that, I thought the scottish guy was gonna kill him.

Observation: After 3 days, I have noticed a ton of people out here check/raise bluffing, which I have never seen too many people do other places (I am from midwest, played all over). Normally you might have someone do that every few hours but there were several times when there were 2 or 3 guys regularly C/Ring with nothing, people would fold and they would show, it was intereting as continutation bets from position were useless if you missed as you would be Check/Raised guaranteed, so just bet when you got it and you can pull a smooth call then raise their turn bet, that worked out well, sucks to have to do that though. I was afraid to come over and 3 bet when I thought they were on a C/R steal as I saw these guys capable of a 4 bet weakness rebluff. There was no semibluff or fold equity which made me go into a nut peddling gear.

July 3 - Rio & Bellagio 2-5 NLHE
Went back out to the Rio to see beginning of $2k O8 event and to play some $2-5 nl he, my game was tight, I picked up the best starting cards of the trip with AA once, KK three times and QQ once over a 3 hour stretch, but table was so tight that no one was calling any raises preflop, so I gave up after 3 hours... up $106. Later that night I headed over to Bellagio for some 2-5 nl he action, decent game, nothing special, made $105 over 2 hours. Jeanine Deeb (Freddie Deebs daughter who is a Card Player intern at WSOP) was there playin 2-5 nl, Feddie shielded his eyes to pretend not to see her when entering/leaving the poker room.

Ended trip:
18.5 hours $1753 ahead

[TomHimself]

awesome report

[Bulldog]

[ QUOTE ]
I expected a win rate around $80-100/hr

[/ QUOTE ]

[ QUOTE ]
88 vs AA, these guys had been going back and forth and canadian kid was very drunk (it was just after noon), he spikes a 8 and yells out "im in love with a "stripper"

[/ QUOTE ]

tied for funniest parts of the report

[TheStation]

[ QUOTE ]

I expected a win rate around $80-100/hr


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I now realize I sounded like an idiot - I forgot to qualify that, I should have said that that was my expected win rate in 5-10 NLHE, obviously not going to be that big for 1-2/1-3/2-5 no limit - before everyone jumps all over the win rate - i think that is a pretty standard win rate over time in that game, I only sit in games where 70%+ have 80 BB+ stacks and I dont sit in bad/tight games

[Brice]

The guy was yelling out the verse of a rap song. Why he chose to do it after skiping a set, I have no clue.

[TheStation]

[ QUOTE ]
The guy was yelling out the verse of a rap song. Why he chose to do it after skiping a set, I have no clue.

[/ QUOTE ]

I agree, it was a super odd time to quote that song in particular.... he was drunk at noon on a sunday, that could have been part of it

I almost changed my ringtone on my phone to it but the guy left shortly after