LV trip report May 4th-7th (long, some content)

[martinimagic]

Ok. So I am finally getting around to my trip report from LV. My buddy has an apartment their and is the project leader for the fire protection portion of MGM’s new City Center project. It’s going to be a huge complex between Bellagio and Monte Carlo taking until about 2009 to finish. Nothing like having a free place to stay for the next 3 years… which is a 15 minute walk to Red Rock. (Red Rock is awesome!!.. read on)

Day 1

I got there on Thursday morning, bright and early, all excited to hit what I thought to would be some good games. My buddy dropped us off at MGM and we went right to the tables… huh? One game of 2/4 and a tournament. Ok. Whatever. We decided to go to Bally’s so my non-poker playing friend could find some cheap craps tables. Once again a 2/4 game and a tourney… nothing else. I have been to Vegas several times and this just doesn’t seem normal to me. What the heck!! I decide to sit down and see what’s up? I was dealt a lot of good hands to start. This table was passive with hardly no raising preflop and little to none postflop… this is going to be fun!!! I am in the 6 seat. I get KK from MP1, raise 2 callers in front of me and get called by about 4 people behind me. Flop is T3T and I bet since no one bet before me. I get to the turn having been called by 4 people. On the turn I am first to act so I fire away and get called by 2 players. On the river I fire again and get called by 2 players. I flip my cards and lose to this lady who has trips… she never even hesitated to call, by this I mean she didn’t even think about raising. About 30 minutes later I get KK again and the same exact thing happens. She seems to be calling everything any time she hits the board… even with the nuts. Her stack is slowing shrinking and she has no idea why or so she says. I am like great this is how it’s going to be. Next hand is KK… yup back to back KK. I am little frustrated and ready to push hard. The guy in the 2 seat raises UTG and I reraise trapping 1 player in the middle. 3 players on the flop and it comes K83.. yippee!!! The 2 seat bets, middle man folds, I reraise, he 3-bets, I 4-bet, he 5-bets… then I make a stupid mistake. I ask the dealer what the cap is? 2 seat almost chokes… I know he’s got a set of 8’s and he thinks I can’t possibly have received KK back to back. Of course he calls down and I don’t make much. That was a bad time to ask about the cap. I should have called and dinged him hard on the turn.. which was a 3 to make me a boat. My read ended up being correct.. he had trip 8’s. I finally get bored with the game after about 3 hours and leave 30 up. +30

We finish the afternoon hanging out a Ceasar’s watching the Red Sox pound on some poor helpless team while knocking back some much needed beers. I stuck my head into the Ceasar’s Poker Room…. very, very nice… but hardly any games going on and it’s 5pm. This still doesn’t seem right to me…. Oh and some meathead has half of Vegas outside watching him attempt the Triple Lindy on a motorcycle over the fountain. Also, the WSOP is there and running satellite’s and daily tournies… I didn’t bother with those, but I could hear some really pathetic stories of people trying to play TV poker with horrible hands…. all-ins with Kxo and Axo. Gotta love what ESPN does for the game.

After a short break at my buddy’s place we go pick up our fourth at the airport. We end up at Paris and once again there is a 3-6 game barely and one NL game. WTF? It is 12 midnight and nothing doing… so I sit down get aggressive and lose 50 bucks by calling stations. I decide to stop playing and get drunk on some Grey Goose. -50

-20 for the trip

Day 2

The next day we go golfing at Angel Park and I shoot a lovely 78… first round of the year and no practice… thank you very much to all the golfers. Of course, before we go golfing I sit and play 2 SNG’s with a win and a 2nd place… what a junkie I am. We go home and nap then hit the strip for dinner at House of Blues in Mandalay Bay. The poker room here was half full again and it is 11pm.. I have never seen this room not full… something is not right. It’s Friday in Vegas and the rooms are half full. We end in Excalibur.. which I hate by the way… so my buddies can play $5 craps. I go back and play 2-4 in a half full room (once again)… it was a horrible game and I got horrible cards. Best comment of the night though… guy next to me raises and another guy tells him not to raise. “Why raise when you can get in for cheaper?” I couldn’t help but giggle under my breath… I finally get up after 2 hours of pain for a wonderful loss of 30. -30

-50 for the trip.

Day 3

The last day we sleep in and chill around the apartment til noon. When we leave we decide to go to Red Rock, but our expectations are very low since most Station Casinos are mediocre. We just wanted to have some drinks and bet on the Kentucky Derby. We walk in and SSSSHHHAAAZZZAAAAMMMMMM!!! This play is very classy, the servers all are drop dead smoking hot chicks and the placing is hopping. I find the Poker Room and it’s running games from 4-8 to 40-80 in Hold Em, plus many Omaha games, plus NL. This place is full and the list is backed up. I decide put my name on the 4-8 ½Kill game… thought about 10-20 ½ Kill since this was the next jump, but just didn’t have confidence. I finally get a seat and sit down. My first hand, no posting, is a kill hand and I get dealt AK from UTG. I raise and am prepared to lose a lot of money if necessary on this day. I get 3 callers and the flop comes A73… bingo. I bet and get called on every street all the way to the river for a nice first pot. The next hand I get 77 from BB and hit the flop for trip 7’s with some raising.. to drag in another nice pot. Now I am on the Kill!! Yippee!!! Life is grand. I get dealt AA about 15 hands later and run over the table for another nice pot. Next hand is A7s so I raise from UTG+2 and everyone folds except SB and BB. I bet out and they fold. This table didn’t like aggression and I had grabbed control since I had won a few pots. My stack went up and down with a few mediocre hands and calls. I finally buckled down and really started playing tight, aggressive. In the next 8 hours I had most of the table fearing me and showed very, very few losers… not letting them see my hands seemed to help a lot. After a while I was winning hands just on shear aggression… and when that didn’t work I was hitting my hands…. it was a lot of fun. At one point though a hot chick sits down with a rack, a rack of chips that is, and just beats the snot out of the table. I managed to stay out of her way…. in just 90-120 minutes she finishes playing and gets up with 4 racks… 400 smashdogs!!! She knew how to play and she had some luck.. it was fun to watch this happen as many men were squirming and complaining. When she got up I resumed where I left off and kept winning. Most of my hands were top pair and some good solid flushes. On a couple occasions I flopped the nuts and just pelted the table with raises since no one ever thought about anything but their own hand. My best hand of the day was a flopped straight A-10 and this gave me about 80 smashdogs!! The easiest hand was QQ with a flop of Q77.. but no one wanted to go to the turn with me… I did show that hand for the fun of it. I finally got up after 8 hours with a good day of 362 smashdogs.

+310 for the trip.

We did have some nice amusement at our table. The guy across from me had been up for about 2 days straight and kept nodding off. Eventually he was overcome and we had to wake him for each hand… then after a while the dealer got the management to make him pick up. Glad I wasn’t on the road when he left!! He wasn’t drinking, but the exhaustion made him seem drunk. He also made some very off color comments to the servers about their assets which was rude, yet funny at the same time. At the same time Sleepy is being tossed a huge commotion erupts from a higher limit table and two guys are about to really go at it. Not sure what happens, but some giant security guards come out of nowhere and escort one fella who is particularly upset. He makes a big stink and accuses the Poker Room of being out of line and the dealer being a knucklehead. I had never seen so much drama in a poker room.

Observations

What I noticed the most is no one seemed to ever thinking about anything, but their own hand. It was so easy to read most of the people after just a couple of hours. Another observation is that poker really seems to have peaked in Vegas. The last two times in the past 8 months I have seen poker rooms only half full. Maybe I just go at the wrong time of year, but I have seen most rooms just jammed in previous visits. Everyone is interested in playing tournaments as well… seems like most just play the tournies then go on their way. No worries though because the players for the most part still really suck… so if you can find a game you are going to do well as long as the cards cooperate even a little bit.

On a side note

Two thumbs up to Red Rock!!! Avoid the Voodoo lounge at Rio... it has become way too night clubby and a round of 4 drinks is 54 dollars!!! Yikes!! I blew all my winnings there and at the Spearmint Rhino. Spearmint Rhino is a must… what a gentleman’s club this place is… you will all love it. Anyways, it was a great trip and another success!!! This trip did wonders for my game and since returning I have jumped to 1-2 and been crushing the games. I don’t know what clicked in my head while out there, but ever since everything is just making sense and coming a lot more natural.

I might have more info, but this is already too long. Thanks for reading. Now go to Vegas and have some fun!!