Trip log from Vegas

[Temp Hutter]

I usually enjoy other people's trip reports so I figured I would write a few details from my last trip to Vegas earlier this month.

The purpose of the trip was to play in a couple of WSOP events, meet up with some old friends and try and win a seat to the main event. I get out to Las Vegas 2 or 3 times a year and I have been going out there regularly since '97. this is my fourth year playing in the WSOP.

I catch a flight from my hometown in VA at 5:30AM connecting through Charlotte and arrive in Vegas at 9:30AM local time. I plan on playing in the $2K NLHE event at noon and I have no problem getting to the Rio checking into my room and signing up for the event. I even have time for lunch.

Traveling makes me tired and I am wondering why I am playing in this event since if I do well I will be playing until 2AM local time a full 25 hours after I woke up that morning in VA. Maybe I am a little to eager to play and I should have planned this better. Anyway, it is a problem I would love to have.

After my quick lunch I head down to the Amazon room right at noon just in time for the shuffle up and deal announcement and then i realize that I cannot find my table. I have table 142, but I am standing at table 140 and turning a full 360 degrees and not seeing tables 141 or higher. I see some tables higher than 180, but there is no table 141 through about 179. The tournament is starting and I feel like I must be a moron and I finally find a floor person that is not really busy doing something and he sends me out to the "tent". On that particular day the tent was cold so I have no complaints about the temperature and I actually liked being closer to the bathrooms.

There was not much to talk about in the tournament. Just the usual stuff. I ended up getting bounced after a few hours when I lost a coin flip of AK versus JJ. I went and got some rest.

My friends were not due to arrive until Friday and I arrived on Wednesday, so for Thursday I headed over to the Venetian to play in their deep stack tournament. I arrived early so I could sign up with no line and play a little before the tournament started. I jumped into a 2-5NL game and had just one interesting hand come up. I raise on the button with A3 offsuit to $25 and only the SB calls. I have about $700 and he has me covered. The flop comes A3x with two suits and I bet $45 and the SB check raises me to $145. I decide pretty quickly to move all in. The SB is thinking and then he turns his cards face up to show me AK. I tell him that I am currently ahead, but that he could outdraw me. He immediately calls me because of what I said to him. My hand holds up. I guess he did not believe me.

The tournament is a $540 buy in, with a $10 add on that does not appear to be optional. We start with 10K in chips and 40 minute blind levels that go up relatively slowly for a $550 buy in. My only beef with the structure is the ante. later in the tournament the antes become larger than the blinds and that seems extreme to me. It makes stealing very critical later on in the tournament.

During a break I get a bet down on San Antonio +8 and the halftime of +4. Both of these cover by 1 point thanks to a 3-point shot and an old fashioned 3-point play. I am running goot.

We played until 2AM and then quit with 10 players remaining. The final table would be played the next day at 4PM. I must say that I really like this because I have played in two different events that did not conclude until 6:00AM and 6:30AM and that was very hard. I was having a hard enough time concentrating at 2AM and I was glad it ended.

I woke up Friday and headed down to the Amazon room to play a couple of satellites. I played in a $525 and got bounced early. I jump in another and when we get 3 handed the other two players want to chop it up. The only problem is I have 80% of the chips on the table and they want $1K each. I tell them I will consider a deal heads up but not before and the next hand I knock one of them out. Now the other remaining player asks me for $1,500 for 2nd and I can hardly believe my ears. Of the 20K in chips I have 18K of them and he wants $1,500!? Because I am too nice I offer him his buy in back and he declines. I win two hands later and now I am half way to a main event seat.

I meet up with my friends later that afternoon. I played in a home game with these guys in the early 90's and it is fun to be back with them in a poker environment. They wanted to play some smaller satellites and I ended up playing some LHE at the other end of the room before I had to leave for the Venetian final table.

The final table was short lived since we cut a deal with 6 remaining. I was currently fourth in chips and got paid more than 3rd place money ($28K) so it was a deal I could hardly refuse. One side story on the deal. We took a short break while the TD ran the deal numbers. Everyone gets 6th place money $10,600 and we split everything else based on chip counts. After the numbers are announced 5th place decides that $27K is not enough and he wants an even $30K. Everyone else is happy with the deal. The table starts to try and come up with the extra $3K for him so the deal will go through. 1st and 2nd offer him $1K each and he says no he wants $3K. Everyone is bending over for this guy and I am sitting there listening to it. I finally look at the 5th place guy and tell him directly that he is greedy and that the deal is fair for everyone and that he is not getting a penny from me. The deal is about to get busted because I think this guy is a total prick for demanding more money than everyone else and finally 6th place and 2nd place throw in some more to get 5th place his extra $3K and the deal is saved.

I headed back to the Rio and used the lammers and the cash I had won to buy my WSOP ME seat. I am actually excited about that because I was probably not going to play this year if I did not do well on this trip.

I played the $1,500 NLHE WSOP event the next day (Saturday) and wished I had gone to the Venetian instead. The structure is so much better at that buy in range.

I ended up playing 5-10 NL the rest of the day and actually enjoyed the company of guys at the table. So often I end up just wearing the headphones and looking around asking myself why I surround myself with people like this.

The only beat for the trip was me betting on Federer at the French Open. I caught some flack from my friends for betting on tennis, but when I am in Vegas and have cash in my pocket I tend to gamble.

Wow, I wrote more than I had planned to. I am looking forward to the main event and I hope I run goot.

Temp

[octaveshift]

Great report, nice scores! I'm headed out to LV Thursday, and plan to hit the V deepstack tourney. Care to add a little more color on the level of competition?

Anything particularly unique that I should keep in the forefront of my mind? (Aside from the massive antes late?)

Looking forward to your ME report. GL.

[wildpike]

Congrats so far on your success and looking forward to another winning report

[Temp Hutter]

[ QUOTE ]
Great report, nice scores! I'm headed out to LV Thursday, and plan to hit the V deepstack tourney. Care to add a little more color on the level of competition?

Anything particularly unique that I should keep in the forefront of my mind? (Aside from the massive antes late?)

Looking forward to your ME report. GL.

[/ QUOTE ]

Everything is table/read dependent, but in general I would avoid bluffing early and instead be looking to value bet. I kept seeing people call down with 2nd pair and two pair on a 4 flush board etc. Once the antes are introduced the value of stealing and restealing is important. People tend to tighten up too much with the increase in blinds and antes and there is just too much value in stealing not to do it often. I did not get played back at as often as I would have expected. Again this is all table/read/image dependent.

[KurtSF]

Nice. Please post ME report also, thanks.

[GoldenBears]

Great post, I just got back from Vegas but I played mostly 5-10 NL cash games and a few $150-$200 tournaments... good luck in the ME!