Was 2-5

Nice start to the trip back.

Yessir!

So I ended up going to Yardbird inside the Venetian. Basically a fancy comfort food place. Here's the main menu



I had the fried chicken sliders with a side of Mac and cheese. Don't judge. The pickles counted as a vegetable.



I paired it with a flight of local brews. I had my waitress make the selection of an ipa, amber, blond, and something else.



After that I was pretty full and went back to the tables. And the poker gods decided to send the variance devil my way and I promptly went from 1500 up to about 600 down. But then I hit the glory hole to restore my stack.

I don't remember exactly how it went down, but it was something like this...

My image was terrible. I was missing hands and caught bluffing several times. Villain in this hand was a semi nitty older man. Effective stacks were ~750. All folds and he limped in on the button (he had been limping all positions and hands all night). I checked my big blind with Q4 off suit. Flop came QhQx8h. I bet 15 he called. Turn QhQd8h4d (Damn I'm good). I bet 40 he called. River was some diamond I don't remember. I bet 70ish. He raised to 150ish. I asked what he had behind, he pointed and I just said "all in" and he quickly called and tabled.....an 8. He blew 750 in a limped pot with a crappy pair, because of my crappier image.



Decided it was time to go since I'm meeting people early in the morning. Here's the Mirage volcano erupting as I walked back.

What the hell am I doing here?

Somehow ended up at Casino Royale on the walk back. Dug myself into a hole -300 but climbed out +95



Then walked back to PHo. Here's a pic of the Bellagio fountains

Im a degen, so of course I hop into the PHo 1-2 game instead of going to bed last night. The players were so awful and punting off stacks left and right, but I just couldn't get a hand. After about an hour, and $100 down, I hung it up for the night.

The next morning I started off at Starbucks.



Then sat right back down for a very quick 1-2 session before my spa appointment. The guy you see in the pic to the right was there last night and tired as hell. The guy on the left was a 22 year old who had no idea what he was doing, but boy did he get some good suck outs. He ended up leaving.



I ended up about +350 thanks to the guy in the hat. I called him down with middle pair when he raised my flop bet and blasted each street. He had an obvious tell and turned over an under pair at showdown.



Later I spent a few hours in the spa with a workout and massage, in order to loosen up, since doing these TR's is so damned stressful.

Then I splashed around for fun at an Aria 1-3 table for about an hour. Just like in the morning at PHo, the guy on the right (the one with the beard) punted his stack to me with an under pair to my middle pair. I went with a read (hat tip to Zach Elwood).



I was just able to play for about an hour, but managed to eat lunch at the table and cash out +201.

July 9, Part Two: Chip Porn, Side Boob, Eating & Cashing....

After lunch yesterday I just wasn't yet feeling up to grinding cash, and didn't have time to enter one of the bigger multi-day tournaments in town, so I reg'd for Aria's 1:00.

Here's the starting chip stack



Overall I played pretty well. Here are two luckbox hands.

New monster stack moves to table. He's playing semi-laggy and competent.

IIRC I'm dealt AA in EP and raise 2.5x. He flats. Board comes out AAX and I check, he goes all in, I snap with flopped quads.

The very next hand I'm dealt 55. I can't remember exactly how it went, but I hit a set on the flop, he hit top pair, we got it in and I hit quads again. Table goes nuts. Easy game.



I kept going, winning a pot here and there, and losing several flips but never really getting crippled. I eventually made the final table and cashed.



Had a fun time during that tourney thanks to several entertaining people.

I was feeling a bit hungry, so chose to hit up Sage to blow my winnings on good food and wine. If you remember from a previous report, this is one of my new favorite places.

I started off with the wagyu beef tartare. I asked them to choose a wine pairing and they selected a French rose.







For the main dish I went with the braised veal cheeks, which they paired with a French Red.







Lastly, I finished the meal with a banana bread thing.





And with a nod to CvD, here's a little cleavage I spotted in the restaurant.



Great meal complete, it was time for some 2-5. I jumped into a challenging game with a solid mix of competition that put me to the test several times. Had a few opponents who were staying in Vegas for the series, and including me it looked like three rec/tourist players.

Sorry for the lack of chip pron progress, but i was in for 1100 and out for 1650ish.

I don't know the guy's name, but here's a shout out to the 30ish aged guy at my table with spikey black hair who gave me a good run for my money.

Nice work, OP. Keep it up.

Thanks. Trying my best

July 10: VP, Megabucks, Lady Galfond, and rough poker. Also need help evaluating a $2200 hand decision.

Started out the day with some breakfast at a 2-5 game at Aria. Had a pretty successful morning session. In for 1500 and out for 1980.





Tended to non-poker stuff for a few hours, and then our group went to dinner at barMasa for sushi. Wish I took pics, but we did it right with sake and all kinds of rolls.

After dinner I got on the lengthy 2-5 list, and used the time to donk off a couple hundred at VP, but then won some back playing Megabucks.



After getting seated at a 2-5 game, I received a thorough beat down. I was card dead, but when I would finally get cards I usually wouldn't get any action. Or when I would cbet with a hand like MPGK/TPWK, I'd be check raised and have to fold. Quite frustrating to not be able to play my game.

Here are a couple hands. Could use any feedback on the first one.

V2 is solid TAG who owned me twice before this hand, who is quiet and patient, and has largest stack at table. Table has been very tight. No wild bluffing, almost nitty. Nobody getting squirrelly at all. And only one big pot in a couple hours. My image at this point is probably absolutely terrible - a blend of nitty, weak, prone to bluffing, folds to flop raised cbets. I was probably the table spot. V2 has me covered and eff stacks are $1100. (These #'s are approximate - I forgot to write it down exactly) V1 in EP raises 15. V2 flats in mp. H raises 55 with QQ on button. Both Vs call. Flop j84 rainbow. V1&2 check. H bets 90. V1 folds, V2 raises to 210, H raises to 440, v2 jams. H? Is my overpair any good on a dry flop against a patient, competent TAG's 250bb total shove, who thinks he's playing against an older fishy nitty losing player who reraised on the button? I had to think a while on this action. What should I have done?

Here's another hand that epitomized my session:

Im in bb w/red aces. EP bets 25. MP and a shortstacked V in SB call. I raise 80. All but sb fold. Flop k84. V shoves remaining 110. I snap call. V turns over k5 and 5 comes on turn and river bricks. That was standard for me this evening, and that was the only hand in hours (other than my QQ hand above) that saw real action. Hands like that kept whittling away at my stack.

On an interesting note, I think Phil Galfond's wife was playing at our table. Nice lady.



After a long night, and Because of my poor image and runbad, I decided to stop the session. In for 1500, out for 800.



But wait, there's more.

Walking back to PHo near 1 am and dead tired, I decided to take my frustrations out on a 1-2 table. It turned out to be a LAG's rungood wet dream. They folded to my bluffs, and called off and were one-by-one felted by my monsters. And when they had a hand, they let me know and I was able to get away. In for 400, out for 1175. After getting unstuck, I finally went to bed.

I think I played with you last night. Did you move seats from 5 to 9 and stop playing there? I was the semi drunk guy drinking irish coffees to stay awake in seat 4

I definitely remember you. I steered clear for the most part since you were playing solid and unafraid to get into big pots.

Great report as usual - good luck

Funny I was thinking the same thing about you. Definitely had one or three too many but ended up +about 350

Was happy you gave up having direct position on me but you were probably way better off being on those three guys' left anyway

Say hi if we play together again, frankly in having trouble remembering your face lol. I definitely remembered approx stack size, time, position in the pic, etc though

Gl

Thanks Arc. Having a great time

Finally got some sleep and managed to stay in bed until later this morning, and feeling a bit refreshed.

We met up for lunch at Burgr in PHo. Took the standard line of starting with the stuffed jalapeños, but we also tried the wings which were damned good. I got a wild hair and decided to get a noodle salad with chicken, and it was pretty tasty.





The other guys were wanting to learn how to play craps, so I took them to Casino Royale to degen, showing them how to live life on the dark side. Hung around for only about 45 minutes, but I went up 200, then down 300, and finally left +55.



I then had about an hour to blow and splashed around in an uneventful PHo 1-2 and ended up about 50ish



After that we spent time hanging out until dinner. Decided to go over to Bellagio's Le Cirque. I went with their prepared menu with the wine pairing.





They first brought out a small bowl of salmon (or something like that) topped with something with a dot of caviar, and surrounded w/some liquid nitrogen stuff that made it smokey (though I don't understand why it was there other than looks).



First course was a yellowtail dish with a white wine





Next up were snails with Chablis.





Followed by a scallop topped with caviar in a lobster bisque.





And for the main dish I had the lamb.





Before dessert they brought out a salmon mousse thing and a very good port.





Lastly was a soufflé with some jelly-gummy type cookies on a side dish.



Overall the meal was phenomenal. Not the stone cold nuts, but still a great experience. The wine pairing was probably the best part.

Now I'm off to see if there's a good 5-10 table. I've been hesitant to sit in one lately because the 2-5 games have typically been better, but I'm looking for a bit more action on a Saturday night.

Crap. Loud neighbors woke me up and now can't get back to sleep. Time to give an update on the poker sesh last night.

I started on a 2-5 table for about 30 minutes of card deadness until a seat opened at 5-10. The new table was full of solid players, with very little action, except for the inordinately high number of big hands that got stacks on the table. But otherwise nobody was getting frisky, except for one LAG who helped me chip up a bit.

The first couple hours were just ok for me. I called down the LAG on a couple boards with TP, hit one big hand without getting paid too much.



I eventually changed seats to get position on the LAG, but it went downhill from there. Except for getting AA once, I was generally card dead for 2-3 hours and Had to fold several mediocre hands to aggression. The table was terribly tight and the other two rec players left the table, which made me the table mark. I usually don't mind being in those situations (I'm not as good but I like tough competition), as long as table is friendly and there's action. But this was absolutely boring.

I wanted to switch tables, but knew I was leaving soon since I was so tired.

Chip stack high point was +1500ish:



Lost a big chunk of my stack in the AA hand. I raised preflop. Solid TAG called and showed aggression on a mildly wet board, and when the board paired on the river and he bet it, I paid him off since I placed him on two pair and thought I might be good since he could be counterfeited.

Maybe it's just hindsight chewing on me, but I now feel it was a bad call because I didn't think it through. This guy had only been betting the river with very strong holdings, or otherwise he check/called down. And I played my hand face up, and a good player like him would have checked with top two on a counterfeited board, knowing a player like me would never fold a likely overpair to a little more than a 1/2 psb. But like a good fish who hadn't been getting cards and in love with his AA, I called and he turned over a flopped set, for a rivered full house.

From there the table lost a player or two and tightened up further, and my cards got worse, and I was starting to get a pretty weak table image (had to fold several mediocre hands to raises and table might have started taking advantage of it), I could tell I was way too f'ing tired to be playing and might be prone to force something, so I cashed out.

Ended -500 on the session.

This is my last full day in LV. Thinking of doing something touristy since I've been grinding so much. Also need to pick a good place for dinner. I'm thinking Carnevino.

I usually don't do steakhouses since I prefer more complex and interesting dishes, rather than paying a lot of cash for a slab of meat, vegetable and starch. But their tasting and wine menu looks like it has potential.

Aria's 2-5 looked boring when I arrived, and the 5-10 was all regs, and there were some tourist types at 1-3, so I went with the smaller stakes.

Had a yo-yo time with my stack, thanks to the table fish that kept hitting his hands, until I finally felted him when his hand didn't get there.



2-5 table started looking a little better, so I switched tables after about an hour +250ish.

Not much action at 2-5, but I've been having fun battling a couple guys. Chipped up a bit.



Just an observation... I swear that on this trip there have been fewer rec players at 2-5, and definitely 5-10, and action has suffered. My hourly win rate (granted, I don't track it, but have a feeling) seems to be better this trip at the lower stakes. Maybe that's normal for players like me who aren't experts. Sure gives me a new appreciation for the patience required of being a 5-10 pro.

I later had lunch at the table. I was in the mood for a margarita, ordered one but tasted like that too-sweet generic mix, so I got up to take a break for a while and got a real marg at Javier's. That's what I'm talking about:

Interesting that Sage served the same French red with your braised veal that they did last time with your scallop dish.

I was wondering about that too. I'm no expert but I thought you were supposed to have white with seafood. Either way, it was great.

Two big thumbs up for this TR, considering how terrible my own was, this is a great read.

Heading back in August to sign up for the Super Contest, will definitely be sticking to the "more pics/fewer words" mantra this time around.

Bravo.

Thanks DC! Good luck in August

Yes do it! Let's the craps degen flow through you. I feel like Darth Sidious when it come to pushing craps.

You are evil. And I like