Day 10
It’s the morning of the 2nd. I roll over and look at the clock. There’s really no purpose in looking anymore. I know what it’s going to say. 9:30. I wake up every morning at 9:30 after I drink here. On New Year’s eve, went to bed at 3:00. New year’s day went to bed at 8:00. Last night went to bed at 2:00. All three days I’ve woken up at 9:30, feeling progressively ****tier. The old man at the craps table has a theory on this. He says you can’t sleep cause they pump oxygen into the room through the vents. I need to close those damn vents.
The booze filled days and sleepless nights are really catching up to me. I don’t want to work out in the morning, don’t want to write in my blog. Consequently, I’m sure it’s hurting my poker game. I never understood what people meant when they say they can’t do Vegas for more than 3 days. Before my friends arrived, I’d been here for 10 days and felt like I could do another ten months. Then I started drinking. Top shelf liquor, shot after shot. I don’t really like getting drunk all that much, but I wanted to make sure my friends were having fun, especially after they spent all day just waiting for me to finish poker.
I’ve got another friend coming in today. I’m gonna have to find a way to entertain her without drinking because my body can’t take anymore mornings feeling like this.
New Years Eve I ended up at the Venetian, ready for some 5 10. There were 3 games running and I got in the must move right away. First real hand I get involved in, I make it 50 after 1 limper in MP with TT. CO, BTN, and seemingly clueless player in BB call. Flop J
J
2
. BB leads for 80. I call. Turn is the 4
. This time he bets 160 and I peel again. River Q
. We go check check and my TT is good.
The table seems to be pretty solid. Other than 1 fish, the seats are filled with rocks. I’ve definitely noticed the difference between 2/5 and 5/10 games that I didn’t believe existed. The weak 2/5 players are passive and allow their opponents to control the size of the pot. The 5 10 players make way less mistakes. Even those who play exploitable usually play on the over-aggressive side which isn’t the easiest to play against, especially when playing 5X over your normal stakes.
A little bit later I play another hand with T T. 1 limper to the CO and I make it 60. Clueless player calls. Flop comes 267 and he leads for 70 with 400 back. I make it 200, he calls. Turn 2 and he check calls all of his chips. The river brings a Q and I flip up my cards. 2 seconds. 5 seconds. 10 SECONDS. Finally he flips up JJ. Are you ****ing kidding me? I want to yell at him for being SUCH a douche bag, so inconsiderate, but I can’t. He didn’t mean to slowroll, he’s just clueless. The Asian to my left and internet pro in my right, talk about what a dick move that was, trying to console me. I shake my head.
I get switched from the must move down a couple hundred bucks. Only 1 familiar face across the table. The big guy with the WSOP bracelet for a card protector. “Who does that?” I hear coming from my right, referring to the bracelet. “I mean come on, wear it, I’ll understand. But why would you ever put it down on the table?” I nod in agreement. I tell him it would be like a golf pro carrying around his trophy from last week’s tournament every time he hits the links. He starts laughing. “Perfect analogy.”
We continue chatting. Guy’s name is Brad. He tells me he manages money in the Cayman Islands. I know enough to know I probably shouldn’t ask any other questions. Brad’s up a good chunk of change and he’s awesome to sit next to. Very friendly, very funny. He shares some stories about Vegas, and I tell him some tales from college. He seems interested; I guess it brings him back a few years.
Brad losses a medium sized pot to an inferior hand that caught up. “Ahhh, good hand sir.” I’ve realized that Brad is everything I want to be as a poker player. In a day and age where protecting ego’s seems to be more important than making money at the table, Brad is the exception to the rule. He’s the
anti-live pro. He plays well and understands strategy, but he takes it for exactly what it’s worth, a game. No need to berate a bad player or lecture a fish. He just enjoys the game and does what he can to get the money in best.
A couple hours of basically no action on my behalf and finally I pick up a premium hand. Tilting guy in MP opens for 60. I look down at KK. I haven’t 3-bet once all day, so reraising in this position feels like a pretty transparent strategy. I call as does the BB. Flop comes K75 rainbow. Bingo. Original raiser bets out pot. It seems unlikely that he has a K so I just call. BB calls too. Turn brings a Q and tilting regular bets out pot AGAIN. Maybe he has AA. I think for about 5 seconds and put the remainder of my stack across the middle, roughly 1000 all day. He calls off the remaining couple hundred and shakes his head as I flip up KK. He shows QQ. The ultimate cooler. A 2600 dollar pot, the largest of my trip. Easy game.
I don’t get involved in any more noteworthy pots for the day and leave up 1300 dollars. But before I could leave for the day I notice my man Brad involved in a huge pot. He has AA. About 4,000 dollars make it into the middle on a J turn. His opponent flips up JJ and rakes in the monster pot. Brad is livid. He spends the next 20 minutes, telling this player how bad he is from across the table. It’s truly awkward to sit next to him. Guy’s an *******. An hour ago I was basically anointing him the American Gandhi. My true poker hero. It’s funny how winning and losing can mask the true character of a poker player. At times, I’m sure, I’m guilty of the same crime. It’s easy to be friendly and engaging when you’ve made a couple thousand dollars playing cards all day. It’s those who can hold that demeanor throughout the cold cards and bad beats who are genuine good people in my book. I’m starting to wonder if I’ll ever witness that at a poker table…
The post-Christmas win streak is in full effect. No losing sessions yet. Back in the 5 10 and confidant with my game. Up close to 3,000 for the trip and ending the year on a great note. Things would change drastically, however, in the next day and a half. I’ll elaborate on that later tonight when I have more time to write. For now I’m off to the B for some 5 10.