Day 15/16
Days 15 and 16 were composed of one god awful 2/5 session sandwiched in between two pretty well played 5/10 sessions. Day 16 was the last for all of my friends. My poker friends and those from home. We all ventured to the Bellagio for a final session of the trip. Otto and I sat down at a pretty slow 5/10 game.
After a couple hours of up and down poker, I got some chips into a pot. In the BB with 88, a scared money Asian limped in the CO, the BTN followed and I made it 50. Asian calls and we see a flop of J72. I lead for 80 and he calls. I plan on shutting down. That’s until the Ace hits the turn. I fire 140. He thinks, doesn’t want to call, but does. I glance at his stack and see he’s got about 300 remaining. The turn comes another great card, the King. I ask him how much he has, he tells me 320. I bet 270. I read in a CitzenJames post I believe that this is a very intimidating strategy. He doesn’t want to call; I can see it in his eyes. He hates his hand so much, that instead of putting the whole 270 into the pot, he sheepish puts 1 10 dollar chip (anyone who plays live knows this is an indication of a call). I turn over my 88 and he shows J9. Thanks a-****ing-lot CitizenJames.
A little bit later, Aggressive Black Guy joins the table. It’s not long before we get tangled up. I’m in the BB with 77, when UTG opens to 30. ABG calls in MP, as do I. The flop comes 10 4 3 and it’s checked to ABG who fires 80. Him and I see an 8 turn and it goes check check. I know I’m ahead. River comes the J, but I’m not scared, and fire a 200 dollar value bet out. He takes little time in calling, and chuckles to himself when he can’t beat my 77. He spends the next hour promoting his imaginary book he plans on writing. “It’s called, Check raising Value Betting Youngsters, for Value”, he tells us repeatedly. All things considered ABG is actually a really nice guy. He doesn’t spend hours after losing significant pots moaping and complaining like most regulars. He’s very friendly and obviously good to have in the game.
Later on Otto gets involved in a spot where he raised a pre flop raiser with 810 on a Q53 flop. On a 7 turn he shoved in his stack and the aggressive kid folded AQ face up. What the ****??? He can get an aggressive monkey to fold top pair nut kicker, but I can’t get some Asian whose holding onto their money like it’s their god damn first born child to lay down 3rd pair ****-house kicker?? I must really suck.
Around even, I call the table fish’s raise to 30 preflop with k
2
on the btn, as does seemingly the whole table. Flop comes A
3
J
. Fish bets 70 and only I call. Turn comes an off suit T and I raise his 80 dollar bet to 250. He calls fairly fast. The 9
hits the river and he insta-calls my 400 dollar bet. He shows the 8
6
and says “I guess it’s not my day as he leaves.
With 8 o’clock approaching, Otto, Casey, and I head back to our place to get dinner. After eating we’re craving some relaxing poker so we head to Venetian for 2/5. Little did I know that relaxing for me would mean, play like an absolute moron. After playing fairly decent poker for an hour, and just losing a bunch of 50/50’s, I go into monkey mode. Every hand looks good. I’m calling raises to 25 preflop with any decent holding because, hey, that’s only half of what I’d be calling at 5/10. Brilliant logic, I know. The last of my money goes in when I call a turn Bet with QJ on a K
10
3
4
board and shove the river on a 7
. He snap calls with 10 10, and I’ve officially managed to donate 1,000 dollars back into the fish pool.
After the session I get very angry with myself.
That type of play is not okay. If you’re trying to prove you can make a steady income playing poker, mental lapses are just completely unacceptable. There’s enough variance as it is, that adding a mood induced variance variable is simply a death wish for a pro poker player.
At night we head out to NY NY because we’ve heard good things about their piano bar. We were not disappointed one bit. The two piano players are awesome. I’m legitimately surprised at the number of songs that our foreign friends knew the words to. They claimed afterwords that they probably knew 85% of the songs. I guess I never realized how strong our pop culture is worldwide.
The night was going great until Casey decided to run his mouth off to 2 Las Vegas Avenge players (apparently that’s the semi-pro hockey team in town). To Casey’s defense he claims it was the other way around, but either scenario was just bad news. These guys were built, and looked, like barbarians. Not only did they come over to our group and tell us they were going to beat us up, they told us
how they were going to beat us up. I believe mine was a right hook that would shatter my nose. We tried to calm them down, as we
really didn’t want a fight. But they
really didn’t want to listen. Finally the massive bouncer approaches the crowd and I’m relieved. The man must be 6’10 300 pounds. Relieved until I realize it’s not the bouncer, just another one of their friends. Now I’m certain I’m going to die. One of the barbarians (who looked identical to Dirk Nowitski) keeps asking the other two if he should throw a cheap shot. As if he needed their okay??
Finally the girls they were with approach the group and whisper things into their ears. I’m not sure what they said but it works. They tell us continually how lucky we are and disappear into the Las Vegas night…
The next day I wake up and everyone is taking off. I say goodbye. Those feelings of emptiness in a crowded room begin to return to me. Vegas is an amazing place, but not exactly ideal for someone travelling alone (in my opinion). Whatever it’s only 4 more days. I can focus on poker and hopefully make a late trip run.
I walk to the B and get placed in just the perfect seat. Directly to the left of an absolute whale. Not only is he a whale who raises 70% of his hands preflop, but he’s got about 6 grand to give away. I watch in amazement as he calls 400 dollar turn bets with mid-pair, only to trip up. I sit patiently, waiting for my spot, until I realize we are in a must move and he is next up on the list. The anxiety overwhelms me. I start playing impatiently. Calling 70 dollars with pretty marginal holdings (910cc, KJ, A10) because I’m dying to get involved with him. Someway, somehow, I manage to hit absolutely no flops. An hour later they declare our table a “main game” and I can relax.
Unfortunately, at this point I’ve burnt through 600 dollars trying to catch a flop with the beluga whale. Down about 700, I rebuy and finally find my hand, AA on the BTN. As the action slowly makes its way towards the whale, I anticipate the fireworks. I can see the money being shipped my way in my head. Finally it gets to the whale and OF COURSE he folds. Mother ****er. I do get action however as I raise to 50 and get a call out of the BB and 1st limper. Flop comes A63hh. Checked to me I check it back. Turn brings the off suit 8 and the BB leads for 100. Limper calls and I make it 300. Back to the BB, his hands are shaking and I know he’s got a big hand. He ships it in for 500 more and shows me 6 8. Strong yes, any outs, no.
A bit later I see a regular ream out a dealer for counting out a bet without the request of the player. Now usually this would go unnoticed, but it’s maybe the 10th time this trip I’ve noticed this regular go off for the same reason. Anal retentive much? It’s strange because he’s actually a really nice guy. Came to Vegas for vacation 30 years ago and just decided to never go home. Owns a jewelry welding business I believe and does fairly well for himself. But for some reason he cannot get over this miniscule rule. Things get worse when he tries to explain himself. “What if a player wants to call until he realizes that he’s actually faced with a bigger bet than he believed?” Does he realize he just outed himself as an angle shooter, I wonder to myself. Or worse, maybe this type of business is standard in the live Vegas games?
Anyways, I spend a few more rounds in the game and actually do get involved with the whale. Unfortunately he seems to slow down every time I’m in the pot. He looks tired and uninterested, so I decide to rack up, 500 dollars richer than when I sat down.
The win makes up for my mental lapse in the 2/5 game, but unfortunately that episode cost me 2 days of break even poker, when I should’ve been up a buy-in.