Vegas trip report (sort of) plus various hands played/seen

[soah]

When I got back from my trip on Wednesday I decided not to post a trip report because all the sessions were starting to run together in my head and it was going to come out a mess. But I changed my mind now, and I'll just give an overview of the trip plus the interesting hands, even if I can't present everything in the right order. If you're only interested in MSNL content, skip ahead.

I left for Vegas on Wednesday, April 25th. I flew over the Grand Canyon which was really cool. Arrived at 1 PM and was able to collect my luggage and get a cab very quickly and easily. I was staying at Imperial Palace because it was cheap and right in the middle of the strip, within walking distance of the four rooms I was hoping to visit (Bellagio, Caesars, Venetian, Wynn). I was fully expecting it to be a dump, and I was right. The layout of the building is terrible and confusing. When checking in, I was given a map to show me how to get from the front desk to the correct elevator bank to take me to my room. Guest rooms are on floors 6 and up, which have one set of elevators. There is a separate elevator which only goes to floor 2 (a coffee shop). There is an escalator which goes to floor 3 (Burger Palace and the buffet). To get to floor 5 (dining) you have to go to floor 3 and then take another escalator. These elevators and escalators are located in three different places. It wasn't too bad once I figured it all out... but wtf, why can't you just build a single elevator bank that's clearly visible from the front entrance? Speaking of the front entrance, they seem to have tried their hardest not to get anyone to actually enter their casino. While walking down the strip, you see a sign telling you to walk down this strange little walkway to get to IP. It's easy to miss and even if you see it, who would want to walk down it? In contrast, the Flamingo next door had their casino build right up to the sidewalk, with big openings in the wall (rather than doors) so that you could just walk right into it.

The room was basic Motel 6 quality. I wasn't planning to spend much time in my room except when sleeping, so I didn't think this would be a problem. I was wrong. The room had no soundproofing at all. I was facing North, looking right at Harrah's. Between IP and Harrah's there's some sort of bar outside that plays loud music until 3 AM. It was just as noisy inside my room as it was if I went out on the balcony. The one thing I liked about my room was that the shower had good water pressure.

Food there was pretty good, though. I had some burgers and hot dogs from Burger Palace and some pizza from Pizza Palace, and it was all reasonably priced and tasted very good. Service was mediocre.

Poker at IP was.... lol. Their poker room was on your immediate right as you enter, so I looked in there on the first day. Official check-in wasn't until 3 PM and I was early, so I thought i might waste 90 minutes in whatever games they had running. Only one table is running. They seem to be using funky colored chips with no edge spots. LOL Donkaments! I went to Bellagio instead.

I had intended to try out a variety of rooms, but I ended up spending 90% of my time at Bellagio and 10% at Caesars. 5/10 at Bellagio is [censored] sick. Vegas is really different than other markets because the fish are there to play 24/7, not just on Friday and Saturday nights. Due to messed up sleeping patterns, my second session started at 6:30 AM on Thursday and ran until early afternoon. You'd think that would be a lousy time to play, and while it may have been slightly less good than at some other times that I played, it was still sick soft. In the course of the trip I ran into three players that I learned were locals/regulars. Seems like they'd be good, right? One of them was absolutely terrible. She said she used to play 10/20 but moved down because she was "making bad decisions." Well, she was making bad decisions at 5/10 too. She was worse than the tourists. Another of the locals was just having fun and not really trying to win. He mentioned that he "owned a business" and judging from his appearance and his play, I suspected that his business had some illegitimate sources of income and he used poker as a way to have fun flushing away some of that cash. The third local was a guy that had recently retired and sold his car dealership for a bunch of money. Most old dudes that I come across seem to be in a constant daze and not really with it, but this guy was real sharp, and almost certainly a winner in the game. He played tight and did stab at pots sometimes, but he wasn't the type that was going to put me any many tough spots so I didn't mind having him at the table.

Games at Caesars were much different. There was a WSOP circuit event going on at the time which increased their business and I'm not sure how this affected the games. The worst players I encountered on my trip were there, but the overall quality of competition was much tougher. They tended to be younger, tighter, and more aggressive, and many of them were buying in for $3-5k at 5/10.

Some hands from Caesars:

Well, first a non-hand. There are two 5/10 games running when I get there and I'm immediately taken to one of the tables... where everyone is leaving. The game is breaking. One guy offers to play me HU. I say that's fine. We'll call this guy douche #1. People are still wandering around, moving chips from this table to the other, and other stuff I'm not paying much attention to, and douche #2 starts talking to douche #1. They are debating which of them gets to play me HU. They are doing this right in front of me as if I'm not even there. Douche #2 challenges me to a $2000 freezeout and says it's the only way he'll play me HU. I reject this offer and say I'm only interested in playing HU while we wait for some other players to show up to give us a regular game. Douche #2 won't play anything but a freezeout, so I'm left with Douche #1 again. I was pretty stunned at how they were just sitting there and basically trying to hustle me - they made it perfectly clear that they had absolutely no interest at all in playing against each other (either HU, or three-handed). At some point I look around to try to determine what's taking the chip runner so long to get me my chips (I hadn't realized the game was entirely broken when I first sat down), and a floorman shows up and starts talking without getting my attention first, and he's explaining that there are only certain circumstances in which we can play HU. I didn't hear what any of them were because he was talking to the back of my head. But the gist of it is that we're not allowed to play HU. He said something about how if they let us do that then every single table would be full of HU games, which made no sense at all to me since the only reason we were going to be playing HU was because the game broke and we were the only ones left. It did occur to me that the floorman might just be making [censored] up because he felt the need to protect me (a random first-timer) from this kid who I suspect was a regular. I didn't really care too much about it and there was a 2/5 game with two open seats, so...

I get seated at 2/5 while waiting for a new 5/10 game. I fold ~10 hands. During that time, it's folded all the way around several times, which only happens like once every 5 hours at Bellagio 5/10. So the game doesn't seem too great. Then I get AA utg. I limp, someone else limps, someone raises to $25. I make it $80 (should have done more). Limper folds, raiser calls. Flop Kxx with two diamonds, I have the Ad. I bet $115, he calls. Turn is a low diamond, I check, he bets $300. He has $400-$450 left. The size of his bet caught me by surprise a bit, but after considering my options I decided to just shove. He tanks several minutes which means my hand should still be good. He calls, I make a flush on the river just to be sure. He doesn't show and walks away. Interesting note: the only other pot I got involved with in that game also involved me making a backdoor flush. I run good at Caesars.

From a 5/10 game, it's folded to me in LP and I have QQ and raise to $40. Calling station calls on the button, older dude in SB reraises to $120. I think I'm behind here, and call for set odds. Calling station calls. Flop is J98 rainbow. SB bets $150, and I somehow call even though I think I'm behind. When considering real outs plus bluff outs, it's probably not too terrible, meh. Calling station shoves for $390 more, SB tanks and folds, I tank a bit too cuz I haven't really seen this dude get out of line. At some point though I realize I'm getting the right price to call vs 2 pair and even vs a set a call wouldn't be terrible. I have some blockers against the nuts as well. So I call. 7 comes on the turn and I think I'm [censored] for sure now, but at showdown he won't show his hand, so I flip mine over and he stares at the board for a minute and finally mucks. Interesting. SB obviously had the best hand (KK he says), which makes the hand sorta funny. My QQ actually has much better equity vs the idiot's pushing range than his KK has, so in theory it's possible that it was correct for him to fold and also correct for me to call. I found this to be quite interesting.

Some other idiot sat directly to my left in that game. I knew he was bad, but I didn't realize how bad he was until he was gone. Some dude opens for $40 in mid-late, called by the button, I fold, idiot calls from BB. BB has $2000ish (might have been less) and others both cover him. Flop J77 rainbow. BB checks, MP bets $80, button calls, BB raises to $200. MP and button both call but neither of them call quickly. Turn is a 9. BB bets $400, MP folds, button tanks and calls. River is irrelevant. BB insta-allin, button insta-call. BB says "..... you got a seven?" Then he turns over KJo. Button had 99. After idiot is gone, he says he was peeling one time on the flop to try to stack the guy. I'm not sure exactly how much money idiot had, but I don't think it was enough to make the peel profitable even if he's certain to stack the dude. Plus the other dude in MP could already have JJ. I was sitting with $2400 at that point and I'm used to playing capped 3/6 online, and this hand really woke me up to the fact that playing deep 5/10 is just really not within my comfort zone when people are willing to make neutral-EV chases to try to go after me. I was tired and the game sucked (both idiots were gone) so I just quit at that point.

Misplayed hand from Bellagio:

I'll start with the one hand that I really feel bad about. 8 seat raises to $60 like he had been doing constantly, 10 seat calls which means he has two cards. I'm in the 1 seat on the button with AA and reraise to $200. I knew the raiser had less than $1000 so he wasn't getting set odds, and the other idiot was playing every single hand so I didn't even make an effort to figure out how much money he had. This turned out to be a problem. Both of them call. Flop is T98 with two hearts. I have no heart. 8 seat checks, 10 seat bets $200. Stack sizes make this ackward. I ended up calling, which in 20/20 hindsight seems terrible. 8 seat folds. The turn is another T. 10 seat bets $400, which leaves him with $650 left. I think I need to either push or fold here. I knew he seemed weak on the flop, but that easily could mean he made trips now. Eventually I decide that his small bets mean he wanted to see if his T was good on the flop, and now he's using the installment plan to milk me. Doesn't it seem like he'd bet a bit more if he wanted me to fold? So I fold and he shows me AKo. wtf?

Suckouts from Bellagio:

I start a new session and fold for an orbit. Game is semi-tight compared to typical live donkfest standards. Then someone straddles and four people call. I'm in CO with 8s6s and raise to $150. I haven't yet played a hand and I know none of those fools have a strong hand, so this is like free money for me. Except that the button cold calls, and this is the first time I've seen him put any money in a pot. [censored]! I'm strongly considering just giving up if I don't flop good. Everyone else folds of course. I flop a flush draw and he has $650ish left, so I bet $300 and call his push and suckout on his KK.

Another session, I have AdKd on the button facing limpers, and I raise to $70 or something. Two callers. I flop a flush draw and one dude bets into me for $50. I raise to $250. He pushes. Meh. I call and suckout vs his set.

A different session, there's been some limpers and a raise and I have TT and many of us see a flop of J98 rainbow. I think six saw the flop for $40 each. One dude donks out for $120 and the pfr folds, dude on my right calls. The caller is obviously weak, and the bettor only came out firing for half pot. I think I can get them both out of the hand so I raise to $400. As the bettor is calling, I realize he only has $60 left after making the call. I guess that hurts my FE a bit. Other guy folds. Turn is a 7 and the dude bets all-in for $60 so I assume he sucked out for half the pot. Nope, he had 99.

These were the only times I got caught on big bluffs or semi-bluffs, so I guess I run good at sucking out.

I make a sick read, and get [censored]:

There are a few limpers, and I raise from LP with Td8d. It just seemed right given the game dynamics and my image and stuff. A tightish player calls from the blinds and the limpers fold. You know how irritating that is when you know the limpers will fold, but someone else calls instead? ffs. The flop is T43 with two spades. He checks, I bet $100, he raises to $250. This leaves him with like $450-$500 more. Normally in these games I give people credit for what they are representing because few people make big moves. But this guy has set off my bull [censored] detector and I have no idea why. I decide to trust my gut and go all-in. He calls with 8s7s and gets there.

Your floating will not be tolerated here, sir:

I posted this hand when I got back. Kid sits in the 10 seat with sunglasses, plays tight, frequently plays for a raise, and seems to be sensative to position. I peg him as a probable internet player, familiar with the standard online playbook. Neither of us play a hand which involves much money going into the pot for a while. Then some guy limps and the game conditions seem right for me to raise to $50 from MP with Ad5d. Kid calls on the button and my immediate instinct is that he's calling on the button to try to outplay me. Limper calls. Flop JJ5 with one heart, one spade, and one club. Limper checks, I bet $100, kid calls, limper folds. He called me immediately and my immediate instinct was that I was being floated. Turn is a king. I consider betting here. I might need to move him off of 66-TT. My pair of fives aren't really something I want to try showing down to win the pot. But if he's a strong hand reader, he may call me again with those hands, assuming that the standard play for me with AK/AA/QQ and various other pair hands would be to check. There is also a chance he might raise me. I'm not really sure what is best here and I end up checking. (I didn't spend more than a few seconds thinking about this.) He immediately bets $300. At this point I have a lot of reasons to think he's full of it. I have four bills sitting behind my stack, which are clearly visible to him, yet he has never asked me how many I have (I haven't touched them since he sat down, so he has no way to know how deep I'm playing). He never stopped to think about his actions. He just called the flop, but is now betting almost full pot on the turn. Is he really trying to get all of my money in the pot? He doesn't even know how much I have! It doesn't add up. Also, what hands could he be trying to stack off with? I have a 5, so there's only one combo of 55. I have one ace, and jacks of two other suits are on the flop. This leaves only one combo of AJs. What other jacks could he have? I'm playing tight, he's playing tight, so random [censored] like QJo should definitely not be in his range. For each hand combo in his range that involves a jack, you have to add dozens of other combos that have entirely whiffed at the flop which he could float me with. So now that I've decided he really can't have a hand, what do I do? Calling sucks; he might be treating 66 as a bluff here, and any random hand he has could spike a pair on the river to win this huge pot. So I need to raise. Could I play a big hand like this? Sure, I could have KK, AJ, KJs, 55, and I could potentially play any of them this way. I have $1200 left while facing his bet, and I end up raising to $600, confident that there is virtually no chance at all that he puts me all-in for the final $600 as a bluff. As soon as my bet hits the felt, his cards hit the muck. I was really pleased with this hand because I thought through every aspect of the hand, from live reads to weighted hand combos to what I was representing and how he would interpret it.

Lady doesn't want my stack:

Lady comes from must-move and sits to my right. At some point she tells a story about going all-in on the flop with a straight and some guy calls with a flush draw and hits it. I assume she meant there was betting and raising which resulted in pot-commitment and such. Or maybe not..... five minutes later, someone openlimps in LP, she calls from SB, I raise to $70 in BB with AQo. Both call. Flop Q84 with two hearts. She open-pushes for $1500. I fold and she shows 88. She didn't want me to make a flush. Thanks.

They don't represent anything, so I don't either:

Same table, a while later. Some people limp and something compels me to overlimp in MP with QTo. People limp behind me and one of the blinds raises to $30. Oh ffs, now look what I've gotten myself into. Like eight people see the flop of J87 with two spades. I have the Qs. PFR checks, a limper bets $60, lady on my right calls, I decide to call with my 3 nut outs plus dubious outs. This hand is rapidly becoming a trainwreck for me, I think. Two people call behind me (did I mention Bellagio 5/10 games are sick good?) and the pfr folds. The turn is an offsuit 6. Flop bettor now checks, and lady on my right bets $140. I know her hand must not be very good, or she'd have been all-in a long time ago. The player on my left is telegraphing a fold so much that his cards are nearly in the muck already. Clearly, no one here even has TPGK. I raise to $500 to make them all go away. I figure it will look like I have T9 for the turned nuts. It's folded immediately back to the lady who gets right in my face (literally) asking me "why so much?" and then she asks if I flopped a straight. [censored] brilliant. I never even realized that the nuts on the turn were the nuts on the flop, cuz it's a jack high straight and not a ten high straight. Umm, I guess now I'm representing 86 or something instead. Fortunately though, my read that her hand sucked prevailed over the fact that my play made no sense, and she mucked.

It's Christmas everyday at Bellagio:

I sit down and the first thing I see is UTG + others limp, some dude raises to $50, UTG reraises to $150, other dude reraises to $400, UTG calls. Flop Axx drawless. UTG checks, other dude bets $200, UTG insta-pushes for like $1050 total. Other dude gets a count and then calls while saying "I guess I'm behind" and shows KK. UTG has AKo. wowowowowowowowow

Some other table, UTG raises to $70. lol he has a big pair for sure. Folded to button who reraises to $270. holy [censored] he has a big pair too. SB cold calls. lol! BB overcalls. roflcopter! UTG calls. Flop is something like A65 rainbow. Checked to button who bets $700. SB calls. Others fold. Turn check check. River is also irrelevant and SB bets $400, which doesn't leave him much behind (a few hundred, details elude me). Button tanks forever and folds KK. SB shows Th6h (one pair). While dragging the pot, he yells "NOW WE'RE GAMBLING HERE, BOYS." That was the only time he made really stupid calls like that, although there was one time that he raised preflop with 54o and then went all-in for $2k on the flop with bottom pair and showed it. He tried to use that advertising to stack me later by pushing into a small pot when he turned a flush, but I was a step ahead of him and folded the nut straight.

I raise UTG+1 with AsQd to $40 and a terrible local chick (mentioned previously) calls and everyone else folds. Flop is KQJ with two spades. I decide to check. She might not have a clue about reading hands, but I do think she might be able to fold an underpair on this board. She checks. Turn is a low spade, and I decide to just check again. She checks. River is an ace, and I bet $40 for value and as a block. She starts to muck her cards, and then stops and gasps. wtf? did she really forget that she had a ten? Then she proclaims, "I had a spade!" and shows the deuce of spades and an offsuit eight. I wonder if she would have called the turn with that.... Later there was a hand where she was obviously chasing a flush oop on a paired board and missed, so she checkraised me. Like six people had seen the flop and I'd fired strong 3 times, declining my chance for a free showdown, so this was pretty stupid. I had one of the larger possible full houses and moved in (just in case she actually had something other than a busted flush draw, but she didn't). She also tried the checkraise bluff against the same guy who called $850 more when his KK was outflopped. lol giving away money.

But, but, but, I COULD have been semi-bluffing:

I overlimp with 77 in MP, about 7 of us see the flop for no raise. KTx rainbow, checked around. Turn is 7h which puts two hearts on the board. SB bets $40, which is sorta weak, girl in the BB raises to $110, which is also sorta weak... but they are doing it with the field to act behind them, so they can't be THAT weak. Any card that falls on the river can complete some sort of draw, and cold calling looks pretty damn scary in itself, so I go ahead and reraise to $300 despite the fact that it will look strong as hell. Folded back to the BB and she goes into the tank and folds. Then she says she thinks she made a bad laydown - kings up. Meh. Any hearts I could have on that board is a combo draw, and given their bet sizes I think I could have pulled the trigger there, so I think she should have called. =p My range there is pretty much exactly 77 plus turned draws. Unfortunately for me, she had no way to know that. She plays pretty well.

Biggest pot of my life:

Player to my right limps, I raise to $50, a guy that I've played with in KC reraises to $110 (lol?), folded back to me and I reraise to $410, he insta-allins (effective stacks ~$2000), I insta-call, and yeah you guys know what we have. Chop chop! I was freerolling on the flop, though.

He forgot to make a plan:

I have a tight image, and raise to $40 from MP. I don't remember what I had anymore, but I think it was a suited ace. Guy on my left calls. He is one of the less sucky players I played with, in that he seems to have experience and understands basic concepts, but he's still not really great. Flop is Kxx which means I have nothing. I bet $60 and he folds. Then he's like, "I just called a raise, flopped top pair, and folded it." And... I think he was serious, cuz the way he said it was like "wow I'm a [censored] idiot". He said he had KTs.

Twenty outs twice:

Two limpers, I call with 9s8s in the SB. Flop is Ts 8c 7s. I bet $40 and two players call. Turn is a 7. I check and hope for a free card, but the second dude bets $200. Bah. I don't think he's full, so I call? Not so happy with that. I miss on the river and fold for $400.


That should cover most of the interesting stuff. The trip was a huge success. I netted $7300 in 50-55 hours of play across 7 days. I was very pleased with my play and there were only a couple hands where I really had any doubt about my play afterwards. I ran decently well at Bellagio and white hot at Caesars, netting $1100 from their 2/5 game in the space of 20 minutes, and the next day I flopped sets on the first two hands I played at 5/10 and got some action each time. Each of my sessions there were short because I was running out of energy after playing quite a bit at Bellagio earlier in the day. In ~5 hours I made about $2500 at Caesars. Sick.

[JKratzer]

nice read

[lippy]

Good read.

[downtown]

good read.

live poker, yum yum yum

[RaiseAndPray]

Yah, well done. Enjoyed the read. Hope I run as well when I make my trip for 2 weeks during WSOP.

[LearnedfromTV]

Enjoyed it.

Thinking ahead a little to series time, are there any main msnl rooms (good 2/5 and 5/10) I'm forgetting besides the 4 soah mentioned (Bellagio, Caesers, Venetian, Wynn)? Plus obviously the Rio.

Uncapped 1/3, 2/5, 5/10 at Wynn; deep games at Caesers; 2/5 1000 max at V, 2/5 and 5/10 at Bellagio. Yeah?

I guess I've played in a good game or two at MGM, but it's not really on the same level I don't think.

[soah]

From various stuff I've read here, Palms spreads a 2/5 $1000 capped game regularly and sometimes gets some 5/10.

[BobboFitos]

good report soah. man, you shouldve played douche 1 and busted him, then played douche 2, and busted him. some people are such [censored] i wish you broke them.

[ QUOTE ]
SB obviously had the best hand (KK he says), which makes the hand sorta funny. My QQ actually has much better equity vs the idiot's pushing range than his KK has, so in theory it's possible that it was correct for him to fold and also correct for me to call. I found this to be quite interesting.

[/ QUOTE ]

you are very nice when talking about other players. let me not be so nice: dude who folding KK sucks. =)

[ QUOTE ]
Doesn't it seem like he'd bet a bit more if he wanted me to fold? So I fold and he shows me AKo. wtf?


[/ QUOTE ]
standard ;/

[soah]

I left out this detail, but prior to the QQ hand there had been another hand where the calling station dude called a raise with AQ, called a bet on a QJT flop, and then folded to a push on a blank turn. From this I extrapolated that he probably wasn't pushing the J98 flop with just one pair, he either could beat an overpair or he was just on some sort of bluff. And I hadn't seen him bluff that I can recall.

But what I didn't consider was that after folding his AQ, the other dude showed A3, which probably rattled him.

Oh, and him folding AQ on that hand doesn't mesh well with me calling him a calling station - that laydown certainly surprised me. He was playing way too many hands and going too far with them, rarely as the aggressor.

Remember I said I flopped sets on the first two hands I played that session? One was against him. I'd opened for $40 with JJ from an earliesh position and he called and one of the blinds called. The flop is J63 rainbow and I'm like "oh [censored] what a stupid board to waste a set on" but I bet $80 anyway... and they both called. Turn is a brick and I'm like "wtf how can they have anything on this stupid board" but I can't win more money if I don't bet it, so I bet $250. The dude calls me again! And the other guy folds. River is a Q and I push ($600ish) and now he finally folds and asks me if I "had a set or something" and he says he expected me to just check the river. I guess he must have had the case jack? But he never said anything more about it.

But anyway, I suppose it would be better to refer to him as a loose-passive rather than a calling station.