TR + PICS: 4 Dutch guys, 1 wk roadtrip, 2 wks Vegas
12-05-2014
, 05:21 AM
Day 9
Wow, 8 hours of sleep, excellent. It’s nice and sunny outside. Ouwkes is our Barista this vacation, so with a nice cup of coffee we all relax at the pool. This week are the Wynn Fall Classic tournaments and today is a 200 re-entry tourney.
At around 11.30 we get in the car on our way to the Strip. We drop off Ouwkes first, because he is meeting up with a mate of his, who is staying in the Paris.
With a re-entry tournament I always try to build a big stack as quickly as possible. I bluff off my stack on a paired board and 3 clubs. Villain goes in the tank but can’t fold his AA. I wait for half an hour and re-enter again. This time I’m a bit more careful with my chips and over the course of the next few hours I am at about 2x avg. I lose a coin flip for about half my stack and I can’t win with a pfai QQ vs AT on an AA7 flop. I’m out and the re-entry time is over, so I sit down at a Crazy 4 Poker table.
Over the years I have learned not to play the bonus bet, I only play this bet once in a while ‘when the feeling is right’. Of course I know all these games are –EV, but this way you minimize the advantage for the house (thank you, wizard of odds website). Every dealer is surprised I don’t play this bet, because they genuinely think that is the bet ‘where you win’. Well, they are correct if you want to gamble and win big, but most of time you just have a flush or less and those pay outs are way too low. Some dealers even tap on the bonus circle when I hit a straight, making clear that I should have bet. Funny enough they don’t do that whenever they take that bet away……
Like I said, I only place this bet when the feeling is right but unfortunately I am horribly wrong most of the time. However, I am really good at jinxing this wager. After a while a guy across the table asks why I don’t play the bonus. I briefly explain why and BOOM… next hand I got quads…. I still got paid over 300$, but I don’t receive an extra 500$. FML!! I keep telling myself that it is still the right play, but this mantra doesn’t help at this moment. Still, at the end of the session I leave with 500$ profit, making up for the buy-in and re-entry from the tournament.
When I return to the poker room is see that everybody is out of the tournament. We only ate some snacks during the tournament (I got mine for free because apparently there were still enough comps on my card from the last few years) so we are really hungry. We all want steak, so I check online what the reviews for SW steakhouse in the Wynn are. Those are not too bad, but when I look at the prices we decide to look for another place. All of a sudden I remember that in several trip reports the Outback Steakhouse got decent reviews and is good value for money, so off we go.
Thank you trip reports!! Great place, excellent steaks. We highly recommend the Outback Special with the complimentary 2 side dishes. Add a Foster’s beer and you got yourself a great meal.
After dinner we decide to play some poker at the Flamingo. Not only is it a ‘soft’ room, they also have some nice extras. E.g. if you play for 10 hours you can enter a weekly free-roll on Friday where the top 18 gets paid 150$ and if you make it to the final table you get 300$.
Roald, Ouwkes and I got seated at the same table and Fedor is seated at a table behind me. Within 30 minutes I got a tap on my shoulder and see that he already tripled his money. Good game sir!
I myself can’t complain either. There are nights that you hit everything and this is one of them. Unfortunately it’s a very tight table, so I only win small pots.
There is a girl sitting at our table with a big stack in front of her. She looks a bit like Vanessa Selbst, but not in the way she plays. She has a headset on and is more interested in her iPad than what happens at the table. She plays really tight and when she is involved in a hand she plays it aggressively. I pick up AA and make a standard raise. All of a sudden ‘Vanessa’ wakes up and raises to 40. I can’t believe my luck! I re-raise to 100. She 5-bets and I shove all in. She calls and I show my AA. She keeps her cards covered but there is no need to show them because she can only have KK there. An A on the turn seals the deal.
I win a few more pots from here. I have JJ and keep check-calling her on an 89993 board where she shows an 8. Cards are mucked and eyes are rolled.
After 2 hours most of the table is short-stacked and since Roald and Ouwkes are also sitting at this table I ask for a table change. I play for another hour at another table but nothing exciting happens. When we exit the Flamingo, Roald tells me that when I left the table ‘Vanessa’, who sat next to him and didn’t realize that we know each other, started complaining about me. “He is running out-of-luck, so he is moving to another table. He realizes we have him figured out. If he stayed we would have taken all his money”.
People who don’t pay any attention to what is going on and are easy to figure out themselves with these kind of opinions……I love that!!!!
We slowly make our way back to the Wynn with several stops along the way. One of them is at a new, outdoor bar next to Harrah’s, the Carnaval court bar. A band is really rocking and we are drawn in.
We also go to the Palazzo where Fedor wins his money back on the European roulette. At around 1.30 we are back home. Another long day has come to an end.
Wow, 8 hours of sleep, excellent. It’s nice and sunny outside. Ouwkes is our Barista this vacation, so with a nice cup of coffee we all relax at the pool. This week are the Wynn Fall Classic tournaments and today is a 200 re-entry tourney.
At around 11.30 we get in the car on our way to the Strip. We drop off Ouwkes first, because he is meeting up with a mate of his, who is staying in the Paris.
With a re-entry tournament I always try to build a big stack as quickly as possible. I bluff off my stack on a paired board and 3 clubs. Villain goes in the tank but can’t fold his AA. I wait for half an hour and re-enter again. This time I’m a bit more careful with my chips and over the course of the next few hours I am at about 2x avg. I lose a coin flip for about half my stack and I can’t win with a pfai QQ vs AT on an AA7 flop. I’m out and the re-entry time is over, so I sit down at a Crazy 4 Poker table.
Over the years I have learned not to play the bonus bet, I only play this bet once in a while ‘when the feeling is right’. Of course I know all these games are –EV, but this way you minimize the advantage for the house (thank you, wizard of odds website). Every dealer is surprised I don’t play this bet, because they genuinely think that is the bet ‘where you win’. Well, they are correct if you want to gamble and win big, but most of time you just have a flush or less and those pay outs are way too low. Some dealers even tap on the bonus circle when I hit a straight, making clear that I should have bet. Funny enough they don’t do that whenever they take that bet away……
Like I said, I only place this bet when the feeling is right but unfortunately I am horribly wrong most of the time. However, I am really good at jinxing this wager. After a while a guy across the table asks why I don’t play the bonus. I briefly explain why and BOOM… next hand I got quads…. I still got paid over 300$, but I don’t receive an extra 500$. FML!! I keep telling myself that it is still the right play, but this mantra doesn’t help at this moment. Still, at the end of the session I leave with 500$ profit, making up for the buy-in and re-entry from the tournament.
When I return to the poker room is see that everybody is out of the tournament. We only ate some snacks during the tournament (I got mine for free because apparently there were still enough comps on my card from the last few years) so we are really hungry. We all want steak, so I check online what the reviews for SW steakhouse in the Wynn are. Those are not too bad, but when I look at the prices we decide to look for another place. All of a sudden I remember that in several trip reports the Outback Steakhouse got decent reviews and is good value for money, so off we go.
Thank you trip reports!! Great place, excellent steaks. We highly recommend the Outback Special with the complimentary 2 side dishes. Add a Foster’s beer and you got yourself a great meal.
After dinner we decide to play some poker at the Flamingo. Not only is it a ‘soft’ room, they also have some nice extras. E.g. if you play for 10 hours you can enter a weekly free-roll on Friday where the top 18 gets paid 150$ and if you make it to the final table you get 300$.
Roald, Ouwkes and I got seated at the same table and Fedor is seated at a table behind me. Within 30 minutes I got a tap on my shoulder and see that he already tripled his money. Good game sir!
I myself can’t complain either. There are nights that you hit everything and this is one of them. Unfortunately it’s a very tight table, so I only win small pots.
There is a girl sitting at our table with a big stack in front of her. She looks a bit like Vanessa Selbst, but not in the way she plays. She has a headset on and is more interested in her iPad than what happens at the table. She plays really tight and when she is involved in a hand she plays it aggressively. I pick up AA and make a standard raise. All of a sudden ‘Vanessa’ wakes up and raises to 40. I can’t believe my luck! I re-raise to 100. She 5-bets and I shove all in. She calls and I show my AA. She keeps her cards covered but there is no need to show them because she can only have KK there. An A on the turn seals the deal.
I win a few more pots from here. I have JJ and keep check-calling her on an 89993 board where she shows an 8. Cards are mucked and eyes are rolled.
After 2 hours most of the table is short-stacked and since Roald and Ouwkes are also sitting at this table I ask for a table change. I play for another hour at another table but nothing exciting happens. When we exit the Flamingo, Roald tells me that when I left the table ‘Vanessa’, who sat next to him and didn’t realize that we know each other, started complaining about me. “He is running out-of-luck, so he is moving to another table. He realizes we have him figured out. If he stayed we would have taken all his money”.
People who don’t pay any attention to what is going on and are easy to figure out themselves with these kind of opinions……I love that!!!!
We slowly make our way back to the Wynn with several stops along the way. One of them is at a new, outdoor bar next to Harrah’s, the Carnaval court bar. A band is really rocking and we are drawn in.
We also go to the Palazzo where Fedor wins his money back on the European roulette. At around 1.30 we are back home. Another long day has come to an end.
12-07-2014
, 04:51 AM
12-07-2014
, 03:21 PM
12-07-2014
, 10:51 PM
12-08-2014
, 08:47 AM
Day 10
It is starting to become a ritual; outside, cup of coffee, hot tub, pool, Taylor Swift. This is one of the advantages of staying in a house and not in a hotel, we are away from the madness and we can really relax in the morning. Today there is another 200 re-entry tournament in the Wynn, but we decide to skip the first few levels.
'Chillin'
When we walk into the poker room and register we can be seated immediately. There are some pretty strong players at my table, but I still manage to double my stack.
After a while an Asian guy sits down. I pick up AQ utg and make a raise. This dude raises immediately. Normally these guys want to make a stand the first hand, so I put him all in. He calls with a smirk on his face and opens up 26ss. I kid you not!! Of course the flop has a 6 and without any help on turn or river I lose half my stack and it’s back to the drawing board.
A buddy of his sits at a table behind him and in his own language he starts bragging about the hand…. “Ok, stay cool, don’t let this dumb f**k get under your skin….”.
Apparently everything is funny to this guy, because all he can do is grin all the time. For a moment I even think he is ‘a bit slow’ or ‘special’.
A few hands later I pick up 77. I raise again and now he puts me all in. I call and with the same grin he opens up 22. No help for him this time and I have a healthy stack again.
My final hand of the tournament is JJ vs AA against a tricky player who slow played his hand. I go all in after a 7 high flop and he obviously makes the call. We open up the cards and even though he is not in the hand I hear the Beavis-like laughter of my Asian friend. I don’t know how I did it, but I keep my dignity and exit the poker room.
Roald is also out, but both Ouwkes and Fedor are going strong.
With about 60 players left Ouwkes shoves his last 12 BB all in with AK and got called immediately. Villain opens up A7. Ouwkes is way ahead and he even gets a flush draw on the turn, but with a 2-outer on the river the tournament is over. Ouch…….
Ouwkes is really disappointed and all we can do is letting him blow off steam. He played really well, made some big lay-downs and kept grinding. We know tournament poker is cruel, but you would like to be rewarded every once in a while in tournaments like this.
He needs to get rid of his aggression and fake-punches me in my stomach when a girl passes by and starts demonstrating how he should really punch me. Ok, this girl knows how to hit! She has also got a killer body. Athletic and toned, but not too toned. A redhead, all dressed in black.
We start talking to her and the guy she is with. Turns out she is a boxer, but she is also a singer and they are about to leave to LA to make a record or something. The guy asks us if we are interested in going to a gentlemen’s club. He has a friend who is the owner of one and they can give us a good deal (just like every cabbie in Vegas….). The girl wants our number, just in case we want to go. Ouwkes gives his digits to her and I think he is giving her a fake number, but within 5 minutes she calls him back because she probably thought the same as I did.
Fedor has a healthy stack of 80k, where the avg is 60k. We need to get some food so Roald, Ouwkes and I are going over to the Red 8, an Asian joint in the Wynn.
We are close to finishing our dinner when Fedor walks in. He busted 1 of the bubble by getting his above average stack preflop all in with QQ against the chip leader’s 99. He’s obviously disappointed but he got lucky before in the tournament and the good thing is now we can all go do something together. We see 2 options here, play some cash games or get wasted on a table game.
2 Minutes later we sit down at a table game and the first 4 Vodka/Pineapple are on the way. We tip the waitress a few extra bucks and ask her if she can keep an eye on us, making sure our glasses don’t stay empty very long.
After 5 Vodkas we are all in a pretty good mood. When the waitress comes over again and asks us if we want another round Ouwkes wants something else. So he starts with: “I like…”. He hesitates for 2 seconds, just enough for me to finish his sentence with the Sir Mix-a-lot classic lyric “big butts and I cannot lie!!”. This throws her off her game and she cracks up.
Fedor is still pretty sharp as he tries to get extra comps by buying in for a few hundred, secretly taking chips off the table and then rebuying again. The dealer keeps calling “Change, 200” a few times to the manager, but it looks like they don’t register this extra money. To this day I still don’t know how they calculate these comps….
We had this table all to ourselves the entire time, but after a while a gentleman and his wife join us. We give them a warm welcome and immediately you see the wife thinking: “bad choice”.
The guy is a good sport and we start talking to him. Somehow the topic ‘work’ comes up and he asks us what we are doing back in The Netherlands.
Now, Fedor works for the government as a civil servant. I don’t how it is in other countries, but in The Netherlands these people are known to be very lazy and we have a lot of jokes about this fact. So Ouwkes asks the guy: “do you know how a civil servant winks? …No?…He opens one eye!” Even though it is a pretty corny joke it has me in stitches and I can’t stop laughing for a few minutes.
Moneywise this is not our night. The dealer, Phil, is really killing us all. We even stop playing for a while when he comes back from his break, leaving him standing there with nothing to do. He is also one of those dealers who taps his finger at the empty bonus-bet whenever I have a bonus. I’m getting real sick of this, so I start doing the same every time I don’t have a bonushand and save myself some money. Obviously I win this battle and he stops doing it.
We are all pretty drunk and after losing a few hundred on Crazy 4 Poker we head over to the High Limit room, because the Wynn has a European roulette there.
Hmm… here, the rules are a bit different. In the other casinos you can play with 5$-chips with a minimum of 25$, but here the minimum is 100$ and you must play with 25$-chips. Normally I wouldn’t play this, but the amount of alcohol and the loss of money in the last few hours make me decide this is an excellent plan. (And here we have the perfect example of how Vegas works, ladies and gentlemen….).
I’m pretty obedient, so when these are the rules I follow them, but Fedor thinks this is complete b**lsh*t and starts complaining to the people in charge why they wouldn’t let us play with 5$-chips. After some arguing back and forth he is allowed to have one spin with 5$-chips. I decide to keep the 25$-chips and put 4 of them on the zero game. If you don’t know what that is, here is the Wikipedia explanation:
“Zero game, also known as zero spiel (spiel is German for game or play), is the name for the numbers closest to zero. All numbers in the zero game are included in the big series, but are placed differently. The numbers are as follows: 12, 35, 3, 26, 0, 32, 15.
The bet consists of 4 chips or multiples thereof. 1 chip on 0/3 split, 1 on 12-15 split, 1 on 26 straight up and 1 on 32-35 split. Popular bet in many European casinos.”
BOOM, there is the 12 and 17 chips come my way. Fedor wants to play again with the 5$-chips, but he is not allowed to, so he asks for the manager.
While he waits for the manager I play the zero game once more. BOOM, there is the 35!!! Another 17 chips in the pocket. With 2 spins I make a cool 700$ profit. The manager comes over, a slick guy in a pin-striped suit and explains that we have to play as mentioned before ‘because those are they rules’. We cash out and leave the High Limit.
We hang around for a bit more and play some slot machines. At about 3 AM we decide it’s enough. We leave the car at the Wynn and call a cab. 10 days gone, 10 more to go!!
It is starting to become a ritual; outside, cup of coffee, hot tub, pool, Taylor Swift. This is one of the advantages of staying in a house and not in a hotel, we are away from the madness and we can really relax in the morning. Today there is another 200 re-entry tournament in the Wynn, but we decide to skip the first few levels.
'Chillin'
When we walk into the poker room and register we can be seated immediately. There are some pretty strong players at my table, but I still manage to double my stack.
After a while an Asian guy sits down. I pick up AQ utg and make a raise. This dude raises immediately. Normally these guys want to make a stand the first hand, so I put him all in. He calls with a smirk on his face and opens up 26ss. I kid you not!! Of course the flop has a 6 and without any help on turn or river I lose half my stack and it’s back to the drawing board.
A buddy of his sits at a table behind him and in his own language he starts bragging about the hand…. “Ok, stay cool, don’t let this dumb f**k get under your skin….”.
Apparently everything is funny to this guy, because all he can do is grin all the time. For a moment I even think he is ‘a bit slow’ or ‘special’.
A few hands later I pick up 77. I raise again and now he puts me all in. I call and with the same grin he opens up 22. No help for him this time and I have a healthy stack again.
My final hand of the tournament is JJ vs AA against a tricky player who slow played his hand. I go all in after a 7 high flop and he obviously makes the call. We open up the cards and even though he is not in the hand I hear the Beavis-like laughter of my Asian friend. I don’t know how I did it, but I keep my dignity and exit the poker room.
Roald is also out, but both Ouwkes and Fedor are going strong.
With about 60 players left Ouwkes shoves his last 12 BB all in with AK and got called immediately. Villain opens up A7. Ouwkes is way ahead and he even gets a flush draw on the turn, but with a 2-outer on the river the tournament is over. Ouch…….
Ouwkes is really disappointed and all we can do is letting him blow off steam. He played really well, made some big lay-downs and kept grinding. We know tournament poker is cruel, but you would like to be rewarded every once in a while in tournaments like this.
He needs to get rid of his aggression and fake-punches me in my stomach when a girl passes by and starts demonstrating how he should really punch me. Ok, this girl knows how to hit! She has also got a killer body. Athletic and toned, but not too toned. A redhead, all dressed in black.
We start talking to her and the guy she is with. Turns out she is a boxer, but she is also a singer and they are about to leave to LA to make a record or something. The guy asks us if we are interested in going to a gentlemen’s club. He has a friend who is the owner of one and they can give us a good deal (just like every cabbie in Vegas….). The girl wants our number, just in case we want to go. Ouwkes gives his digits to her and I think he is giving her a fake number, but within 5 minutes she calls him back because she probably thought the same as I did.
Fedor has a healthy stack of 80k, where the avg is 60k. We need to get some food so Roald, Ouwkes and I are going over to the Red 8, an Asian joint in the Wynn.
We are close to finishing our dinner when Fedor walks in. He busted 1 of the bubble by getting his above average stack preflop all in with QQ against the chip leader’s 99. He’s obviously disappointed but he got lucky before in the tournament and the good thing is now we can all go do something together. We see 2 options here, play some cash games or get wasted on a table game.
2 Minutes later we sit down at a table game and the first 4 Vodka/Pineapple are on the way. We tip the waitress a few extra bucks and ask her if she can keep an eye on us, making sure our glasses don’t stay empty very long.
After 5 Vodkas we are all in a pretty good mood. When the waitress comes over again and asks us if we want another round Ouwkes wants something else. So he starts with: “I like…”. He hesitates for 2 seconds, just enough for me to finish his sentence with the Sir Mix-a-lot classic lyric “big butts and I cannot lie!!”. This throws her off her game and she cracks up.
Fedor is still pretty sharp as he tries to get extra comps by buying in for a few hundred, secretly taking chips off the table and then rebuying again. The dealer keeps calling “Change, 200” a few times to the manager, but it looks like they don’t register this extra money. To this day I still don’t know how they calculate these comps….
We had this table all to ourselves the entire time, but after a while a gentleman and his wife join us. We give them a warm welcome and immediately you see the wife thinking: “bad choice”.
The guy is a good sport and we start talking to him. Somehow the topic ‘work’ comes up and he asks us what we are doing back in The Netherlands.
Now, Fedor works for the government as a civil servant. I don’t how it is in other countries, but in The Netherlands these people are known to be very lazy and we have a lot of jokes about this fact. So Ouwkes asks the guy: “do you know how a civil servant winks? …No?…He opens one eye!” Even though it is a pretty corny joke it has me in stitches and I can’t stop laughing for a few minutes.
Moneywise this is not our night. The dealer, Phil, is really killing us all. We even stop playing for a while when he comes back from his break, leaving him standing there with nothing to do. He is also one of those dealers who taps his finger at the empty bonus-bet whenever I have a bonus. I’m getting real sick of this, so I start doing the same every time I don’t have a bonushand and save myself some money. Obviously I win this battle and he stops doing it.
We are all pretty drunk and after losing a few hundred on Crazy 4 Poker we head over to the High Limit room, because the Wynn has a European roulette there.
Hmm… here, the rules are a bit different. In the other casinos you can play with 5$-chips with a minimum of 25$, but here the minimum is 100$ and you must play with 25$-chips. Normally I wouldn’t play this, but the amount of alcohol and the loss of money in the last few hours make me decide this is an excellent plan. (And here we have the perfect example of how Vegas works, ladies and gentlemen….).
I’m pretty obedient, so when these are the rules I follow them, but Fedor thinks this is complete b**lsh*t and starts complaining to the people in charge why they wouldn’t let us play with 5$-chips. After some arguing back and forth he is allowed to have one spin with 5$-chips. I decide to keep the 25$-chips and put 4 of them on the zero game. If you don’t know what that is, here is the Wikipedia explanation:
“Zero game, also known as zero spiel (spiel is German for game or play), is the name for the numbers closest to zero. All numbers in the zero game are included in the big series, but are placed differently. The numbers are as follows: 12, 35, 3, 26, 0, 32, 15.
The bet consists of 4 chips or multiples thereof. 1 chip on 0/3 split, 1 on 12-15 split, 1 on 26 straight up and 1 on 32-35 split. Popular bet in many European casinos.”
BOOM, there is the 12 and 17 chips come my way. Fedor wants to play again with the 5$-chips, but he is not allowed to, so he asks for the manager.
While he waits for the manager I play the zero game once more. BOOM, there is the 35!!! Another 17 chips in the pocket. With 2 spins I make a cool 700$ profit. The manager comes over, a slick guy in a pin-striped suit and explains that we have to play as mentioned before ‘because those are they rules’. We cash out and leave the High Limit.
We hang around for a bit more and play some slot machines. At about 3 AM we decide it’s enough. We leave the car at the Wynn and call a cab. 10 days gone, 10 more to go!!
12-08-2014
, 09:14 AM
12-08-2014
, 06:05 PM
12-10-2014
, 06:18 AM
Day 11
I wake up and I find Ouwkes sleeping on the huge couch in the pool-room on the other side of the house. Apparently the rest of us were snoring so loudly he couldn’t take it anymore.
Today will be an easy-going day. Fedor and Ouwkes are going to play the 400$ tourney in the Wynn and Roald and I decide to play the daily tournament in the Aria.
We call several cab companies, but this time it takes almost 2 hours before a cab finally shows up.
Killing time, waiting for the cab to arrive
The cabbie is really strange, but quite funny though. When we answer the standard question with ‘The Netherlands’, he replies: “From The Hague?”… Wait, what? Not Amsterdam? He knows our country from the International Criminal Court. He then starts yapping about Shell and several other oil companies. I tell you, this is not the standard chit-chat we normally get.
Luckily, the conversation changes to strip clubs and he tells us he likes the ‘booty-butt-naked- girls’…. (naked is pronounced as: nèkkit). We tell him because it is so cold in Holland our strippers are fully dressed and wear turtleneck sweaters, so we would really like to go to such a strip club where they have these booty-butt-nèkkit-girls, but only if it has jacuzzis filled with Cristal champagne and where they feed us caviar with their feet. Oh, and with some nickel and dime slots, because we are on a budget!!
He drops us off at the Wynn and Roald and I go pick up our car. We Valet park at the Aria and before we register we sit down at Jean Philippe for an excellent Basil Chicken Panini and a Salmon Sandwich.
My first 10k points are gone within 30 minutes, so I have to rebuy. I double my stack after making a hero call with 7
8 on a 7
J32
9
board. I put him on a missed flush draw there, especially when he instantly bets on the river. To me that is a classic tell that someone is bluffing. I hesitate for a while and I see he is not that confident. When I make the call he folds without showing his hand, but I still open up my cards. He simply cannot believe I called him with that hand and from that moment on I am enemy number 1.
I make use of the image that he has of me (a total fish, calling with any pair) and build up my stack to 30k, when things start falling apart.
The last few orbits he attacked my BB, but I never got a decent hand so I gave up easily. This time he goes all in and I find AQ. Easy call. He opens up 99. The flop contains an A and he is really tilting. He stands up and starts shouting to his neighbor about how lucky I am. Turn is a blank and he is almost out of the door when one of the two remaining 9’s comes on the river. Lucky? Yeah, rrrrriiiggghhhttt. He now starts talking to me about the fact that it is about time he won a hand from me.
Hmmm... I thought there was a law about not whining like a little b**ch while collecting a pot?
A few years back this pot would have upset me, but I know I made the correct decision and that is what counts.
Half an hour later the guy next to me is on the button and raises. I see 2 lovely aces and go all in. He calls and he shows AJ.
The flop is JJ7. I close my eyes in disbelief. When the table goes ‘oeeh’ and ‘aah’ on the turn I hope to see the miracle A. Nope, the 4th J is lying there, adding insult to injury.
A few years back this pot would have upset me….. and it still does!!!!!! Un-frikkin-believable. This reminds me again why I prefer cash games.
Roald was completely card-dead the entire tournament so he is also out. We hang around in the Aria for a few hours when the others join us. Their tourney wasn’t successful either and on the way to the Aria they bought some discount tickets for the buffet in the Monte Carlo.
I’m not gonna waste any words on the buffet, simply not worth it. The night is still young, but we don’t want to make it too late, because tomorrow Roald, Ouwkes and Fedor will take a road trip to the Grand Canyon. I am not in the mood for a 5-hour drive to watch a big gaping hole so I won’t join them.
We walk to Planet Hollywood and play some cash games for a few hours. This is definitely the noisiest poker room in Vegas, especially at night. When Roald’s full house is not enough against quads he is done for the night. We also decide to quit and head home.
Day 12 will be written by Fedor, since my day was pretty boring (sleeping in and grinding in the Flamingo to unlock the freeroll on Friday).
I wake up and I find Ouwkes sleeping on the huge couch in the pool-room on the other side of the house. Apparently the rest of us were snoring so loudly he couldn’t take it anymore.
Today will be an easy-going day. Fedor and Ouwkes are going to play the 400$ tourney in the Wynn and Roald and I decide to play the daily tournament in the Aria.
We call several cab companies, but this time it takes almost 2 hours before a cab finally shows up.
Killing time, waiting for the cab to arrive
The cabbie is really strange, but quite funny though. When we answer the standard question with ‘The Netherlands’, he replies: “From The Hague?”… Wait, what? Not Amsterdam? He knows our country from the International Criminal Court. He then starts yapping about Shell and several other oil companies. I tell you, this is not the standard chit-chat we normally get.
Luckily, the conversation changes to strip clubs and he tells us he likes the ‘booty-butt-naked- girls’…. (naked is pronounced as: nèkkit). We tell him because it is so cold in Holland our strippers are fully dressed and wear turtleneck sweaters, so we would really like to go to such a strip club where they have these booty-butt-nèkkit-girls, but only if it has jacuzzis filled with Cristal champagne and where they feed us caviar with their feet. Oh, and with some nickel and dime slots, because we are on a budget!!
He drops us off at the Wynn and Roald and I go pick up our car. We Valet park at the Aria and before we register we sit down at Jean Philippe for an excellent Basil Chicken Panini and a Salmon Sandwich.
My first 10k points are gone within 30 minutes, so I have to rebuy. I double my stack after making a hero call with 7
8 on a 7J329 board. I put him on a missed flush draw there, especially when he instantly bets on the river. To me that is a classic tell that someone is bluffing. I hesitate for a while and I see he is not that confident. When I make the call he folds without showing his hand, but I still open up my cards. He simply cannot believe I called him with that hand and from that moment on I am enemy number 1. I make use of the image that he has of me (a total fish, calling with any pair) and build up my stack to 30k, when things start falling apart.
The last few orbits he attacked my BB, but I never got a decent hand so I gave up easily. This time he goes all in and I find AQ. Easy call. He opens up 99. The flop contains an A and he is really tilting. He stands up and starts shouting to his neighbor about how lucky I am. Turn is a blank and he is almost out of the door when one of the two remaining 9’s comes on the river. Lucky? Yeah, rrrrriiiggghhhttt. He now starts talking to me about the fact that it is about time he won a hand from me.
Hmmm... I thought there was a law about not whining like a little b**ch while collecting a pot?
A few years back this pot would have upset me, but I know I made the correct decision and that is what counts.
Half an hour later the guy next to me is on the button and raises. I see 2 lovely aces and go all in. He calls and he shows AJ.
The flop is JJ7. I close my eyes in disbelief. When the table goes ‘oeeh’ and ‘aah’ on the turn I hope to see the miracle A. Nope, the 4th J is lying there, adding insult to injury.
A few years back this pot would have upset me….. and it still does!!!!!! Un-frikkin-believable. This reminds me again why I prefer cash games.
Roald was completely card-dead the entire tournament so he is also out. We hang around in the Aria for a few hours when the others join us. Their tourney wasn’t successful either and on the way to the Aria they bought some discount tickets for the buffet in the Monte Carlo.
I’m not gonna waste any words on the buffet, simply not worth it. The night is still young, but we don’t want to make it too late, because tomorrow Roald, Ouwkes and Fedor will take a road trip to the Grand Canyon. I am not in the mood for a 5-hour drive to watch a big gaping hole so I won’t join them.
We walk to Planet Hollywood and play some cash games for a few hours. This is definitely the noisiest poker room in Vegas, especially at night. When Roald’s full house is not enough against quads he is done for the night. We also decide to quit and head home.
Day 12 will be written by Fedor, since my day was pretty boring (sleeping in and grinding in the Flamingo to unlock the freeroll on Friday).
12-12-2014
, 03:57 PM
Day 12
Time to steal this tripreport from Remco for a day. The poor guy must have RSI up to his elbows by now.
The last days Ouwkes and I (Fedor) have been discussing when en how we would visit the Grand Canyon. Originally I was thinking about visiting the skywalk but Ouwkes did some research and found out the skywalk was built by some of the greediest Native-Americans you can imagine and besides that the view from the south rim of the national park is nicer too. One problem: It’s also about 160 miles further. Remco is not up for it, but Ouwkes, Roald and I all really like road tripping so 550 miles for a roundtrip is no problem for us. We decide to leave at 6 AM and have a long day on the road. We have to be back at like 8.30 PM because we have dinner reservations at the Top of the World in the Stratosphere and I don’t want to be late since I celebrate my birthday there (only 7 months late or so). Sound plan! We leave at 6.15 but we first need to stop by the rental drop off at the airport cause Ouwkes has to be registered to be able to drive as well (he had other priorities when he arrived a couple of days ago). Somehow we go through the tunnel but we find the rental straight away and next thing we know we’re good to go. The lady from Alamo even has a nice advice for us: You can take the 66 at Kingman for a nice scenic route instead of the boring interstate. She even draws it on a map. How convenient!
Well, first we really need some gas and breakfast so we stop at the nearest gas station with a 7 eleven. The gas was fine but since the food looks like it has been there for quite a long time we decide to go for breakfast elsewhere. Starbucks is round the corner anywhere in the US so in no-time we have our coffees, pastries, bananas and a lot of other stuff and are finally really set to go. On the map the 66 doesn’t look like that much of a detour (still 25 miles or so) so we decide to take the 66 (sounds much better also doesn’t it). We pass by the Hoover Dam but even out of the Jeep you can’t see it because of the high barrier at the side of the Interstate (so much for scenic driving). Well we’ve all seen it before so no need to take a stop here. The rest of the drive and scenic detour are pretty nice. At about noon we’re close to the exit from the Interstate to the park so we decide to take a lunch stop. Funny thing is when we exit at Williams, we actually drive right onto route 66 again and this town seems to like the museum of the historic route 66 so that was an extra bonus.
We meet a guy at the diner who tells us all about the Grand Canyon and where to go to (and that he thinks the north rim is even prettier; thanks for that info bro!) But anyway it’s really time to get to that canyon now so after we fill the jeep up we’re good to go. After about one hour on the 64 we reach the main visitor center and we take our first stop there. I have to say that after one second walking up to the rim I already knew it was worth the drive. We obviously took a zillion pictures but none can really capture the extraordinary beauty of the scenery.
We drive along the rim and take a few stops and pictures with Ouwkes trying to take the best selfie ever while telling that a lot of people have been killed trying to take dangerous selfies. Oh really?
But anyway it’s like 2.30 PM already so we have to get back to Vegas! I drive most of it and Roald does what he does best.
After a smooth drive back we’re close to our house when Remco calls. He’s decided to grind some hours at the Flamingo for the freeroll so we can go straight through and pick him up at the back entrance. Next stop Stratosphere! We’ve been to the Top of the World before so we walk straight up to the elevator and after our security check (and some fun with the wedding party in front of us) we arrive right on time for dinner at the top of the Stratosphere. Dinner is great and the view also. Little travel tip: You can get a 25% discount of the main course at Tix 4 Tonight for a few bucks when you make reservation at Tix. (don’t be like me and forget all about your ticket after a few Chardonnays though) After dinner and the mandatory walk and pictures from the terrace we go back down. It’s time for some gambling but not in the Stratosphere obviously. We decide to check out the new SLS. Now I’ve been reading some bad stuff about it but I actually quite like it and it is quite busy. They even have European roulette so more props to them. Really funny thing is those tables are always deserted so we have the table to ourselves and start playing while the drinks are coming. Ouwkes even wins some there but not me this time. Hey who cares it’s my birthday! After some time we leave and Remco somehow stayed sober enough to drive the car back home. Tomorrow is a good 400$ tournament again at the Wynn fall classics so we decide to get some hours sleep and try to ship that thing tomorrow.
Time to steal this tripreport from Remco for a day. The poor guy must have RSI up to his elbows by now.
The last days Ouwkes and I (Fedor) have been discussing when en how we would visit the Grand Canyon. Originally I was thinking about visiting the skywalk but Ouwkes did some research and found out the skywalk was built by some of the greediest Native-Americans you can imagine and besides that the view from the south rim of the national park is nicer too. One problem: It’s also about 160 miles further. Remco is not up for it, but Ouwkes, Roald and I all really like road tripping so 550 miles for a roundtrip is no problem for us. We decide to leave at 6 AM and have a long day on the road. We have to be back at like 8.30 PM because we have dinner reservations at the Top of the World in the Stratosphere and I don’t want to be late since I celebrate my birthday there (only 7 months late or so). Sound plan! We leave at 6.15 but we first need to stop by the rental drop off at the airport cause Ouwkes has to be registered to be able to drive as well (he had other priorities when he arrived a couple of days ago). Somehow we go through the tunnel but we find the rental straight away and next thing we know we’re good to go. The lady from Alamo even has a nice advice for us: You can take the 66 at Kingman for a nice scenic route instead of the boring interstate. She even draws it on a map. How convenient!
Well, first we really need some gas and breakfast so we stop at the nearest gas station with a 7 eleven. The gas was fine but since the food looks like it has been there for quite a long time we decide to go for breakfast elsewhere. Starbucks is round the corner anywhere in the US so in no-time we have our coffees, pastries, bananas and a lot of other stuff and are finally really set to go. On the map the 66 doesn’t look like that much of a detour (still 25 miles or so) so we decide to take the 66 (sounds much better also doesn’t it). We pass by the Hoover Dam but even out of the Jeep you can’t see it because of the high barrier at the side of the Interstate (so much for scenic driving). Well we’ve all seen it before so no need to take a stop here. The rest of the drive and scenic detour are pretty nice. At about noon we’re close to the exit from the Interstate to the park so we decide to take a lunch stop. Funny thing is when we exit at Williams, we actually drive right onto route 66 again and this town seems to like the museum of the historic route 66 so that was an extra bonus.
We meet a guy at the diner who tells us all about the Grand Canyon and where to go to (and that he thinks the north rim is even prettier; thanks for that info bro!) But anyway it’s really time to get to that canyon now so after we fill the jeep up we’re good to go. After about one hour on the 64 we reach the main visitor center and we take our first stop there. I have to say that after one second walking up to the rim I already knew it was worth the drive. We obviously took a zillion pictures but none can really capture the extraordinary beauty of the scenery.
We drive along the rim and take a few stops and pictures with Ouwkes trying to take the best selfie ever while telling that a lot of people have been killed trying to take dangerous selfies. Oh really?
But anyway it’s like 2.30 PM already so we have to get back to Vegas! I drive most of it and Roald does what he does best.
After a smooth drive back we’re close to our house when Remco calls. He’s decided to grind some hours at the Flamingo for the freeroll so we can go straight through and pick him up at the back entrance. Next stop Stratosphere! We’ve been to the Top of the World before so we walk straight up to the elevator and after our security check (and some fun with the wedding party in front of us) we arrive right on time for dinner at the top of the Stratosphere. Dinner is great and the view also. Little travel tip: You can get a 25% discount of the main course at Tix 4 Tonight for a few bucks when you make reservation at Tix. (don’t be like me and forget all about your ticket after a few Chardonnays though) After dinner and the mandatory walk and pictures from the terrace we go back down. It’s time for some gambling but not in the Stratosphere obviously. We decide to check out the new SLS. Now I’ve been reading some bad stuff about it but I actually quite like it and it is quite busy. They even have European roulette so more props to them. Really funny thing is those tables are always deserted so we have the table to ourselves and start playing while the drinks are coming. Ouwkes even wins some there but not me this time. Hey who cares it’s my birthday! After some time we leave and Remco somehow stayed sober enough to drive the car back home. Tomorrow is a good 400$ tournament again at the Wynn fall classics so we decide to get some hours sleep and try to ship that thing tomorrow.
12-13-2014
, 03:56 AM
Has it? Never noticed it before. My bad.