Kenny Rogers kills another one

I heard a story about Steve I'd never heard before. This one is... I don't even know.

Steve and his friend are drinking after work. In walks a young woman, sexy as hell, and alone. She sits two seats away from Steve and they strike up a conversation in short order. They go back and forth about their lives, how and when they moved here, and some of their future plans. Then, things turn a little dirty and they start talking about sex. The talk is hot and heavy, and she eventually reveals that she enjoys being choked. Steve hasn't experienced anyone with this particular proclivity, but is mighty intrigued (read: he had a boner).

About half an hour goes by, and while the conversation is hot and heavy, it's clear this isn't going to be anything beyond oral (and not the oral most tourists in Vegas pay for). She closes her tab. Steve offers to pay. She declines. Steve asks for her number. She gives him an email address. Steve offers to walk her to her car. She declines. Steve...

... I can't believe I actually have to say this...

Steve reaches out and ****ing chokes her. Yup. Put his hand right around her neck. Not sure how hard she squeezed, but I do know she was not amused. I'm sure she said something along the lines of "What the **** are you doing?". That can't be confirmed.

Steve never heard from either her or the police, so I guess it's a win?

Result of boner after choke?

Mighty good question. I'll have to check in with him and see what the results were. I heard this story third (or fourth) person, so some details may be skewed. But he definitely tried to pick up a girl at a bar, she definitely tried to leave, and he definitely choked her. I need new friends.

The people at Sam's Town think I'm a wizard. Sorry, the "fleas" at Sam's Town, as Cosmo would call them. Cosmo is a (now-former) craps and blackjack dealer who broke in at the old Nevada Palace (now Eastside Cannery), plus the Sunset and Boulder Stations, amongst others. He calls the low-limit, cheapskate locals "fleas", given their attraction to fleabag places.

Saturday afternoon, I decided to run the 1pm daily tournament at Sam's Town. I was expecting a worse structure and turnout, but was pleasantly surprised. That's not to say anything about this tournament is "good", necessarily, but it got 55 runners and a decent enough pool at the end. But these guys suddenly believe that I'm some kind of ****ing magician.

Blinds are 25/50, and it's the second hand of the tournament. Stacks are ~7500 effective, where neither the villain nor I played the last hand. I'm UTG+1 with two red kings. I make it 225 to go. Only the villain calls from the button.

Flop comes 976ccd. I lead out for 500. Btn calls.
Turn comes 3s. Really nothing to worry about here, but I can't figure out if my opponent is on a flush draw or hit a set. I briefly consider jamming. It would be a massive overbet, of course, but that would only chase away draws and I'm not sure that's the best move. I'm getting called by sets and if he somehow found a pre-flop call with J8 or I bet 500 again and figure if I'm currently behind, he'll raise me. He calls the 500.
River is either the best or worst card in the deck - the Kc. I've now got top set, but the front door flush gets there. So either I just two-outered him, or he 9-outered me. I lead for 1000. He insta-raises to 2100. This is clearly a flush, so I open-fold my hand. The table goes nuts "Oh! How do you fold that!" Meanwhile the villain lowers his head a little bit, taps the table, and shows ATcc. Flopped the flush draw + gutter with an over, and said he's never folding to any bet. Guess I lost the minimum there?

I honestly don't have the details of this next hand written down anywhere, but it was sort of a similar scenario. I get dealt AA in MP. I make about a 4xbb raise pre flop and get one caller. Flop comes sort of dry with Q84 or something along those lines (it was Q high and no flush or open-ended draws possible). I bet, villain calls. Turn is a J. I bet, villain raises to about 4.5x my bet. I insta-muck the AA face up and say it's the easiest AA fold I'll ever have. Villain shows QJ. I had more outs than I expected (felt more like bottom set than anything) but still an easy fold for me.

The final time was pretty amusing. It folds to a short stack shoves all in pre from the button with about 9bb. He had been pretty loose all day and had shoved with KJ, A5, Q9 and 22 before. I look down at 88 and make the crying call. I've got about 30bb behind and realize we're flipping against KTss. Flop comes QJx. Turn brings a flush draw. I say "Deuce of hearts!" for the river. And the river is the deuce of hearts. The table goes nuts. Someone says I'm a witch. Someone else calls it ginger magic, whatever the **** that means. I said "I'm gonna get that right about once every 52 tries or so". But I'm now apparently the ginger witch.

The tournament, however, does not have a happy ending. When my table breaks, I get moved next to an old man who is has folded a handful of spots like T9 suited, 22, 44, and 55, but can't get away from hands like AJ, AT, KQ, and QJ. And he's happily showing me every one as we go along. Fine.

Now we're down to the final table and he's across the table from me. Blinds are 2/4k (no ante). I've got 44k and villain has 60k.

Folds to the villain in MP and he raises to 10k. Folds to me on the bb and I look down at 66. Hindsight tells me that I misplayed this hand. I was planning on getting it all in, and if I had shoved pre, I probably get him to fold. But knowing that he had been playing all those Ax Kx hands and folding smaller pairs, I tried to get a little tricky. My plan was to flat call, and jam any board that looks like it would miss his range. So I call the 10k.

Flop comes 954r. This looks like the perfect board for me, so I shove. He snap calls and shows 98dd. I don't improve, and I'm out. Really never expected him to wake up with that kind of hand.

Also I have to re-tell this bit because it's just so goddamn stupid. It requires telling two hands.

Played at the South Point Sunday night 6pm "deepstack" tournament. It's not a true "deepstack". It has a larger stack than what you would get during their normal dailies and 30 minute levels, but the structure is the same as the "get the **** out and start playing cash game" dailies. It's pretty awful, but the rake is decent at around 10-15%. Not bad.

Starting stacks are 10k and opening blinds are 50/100. After an orbit, no huge pots have been played and there are no massive deviations in stack sizes.

There's one limper to my button, and I see QQ. I raise to 550. SB and BB call, as well as the limper. Flop comes AKxr. It checks around. Turn is a "brick". It checks around. River is another brick. It checks around again and I say "Worst possible flop for my hand". But somehow, it holds. So now I know I'm getting called with smaller pairs. And if anyone is paying attention, they (should) see that I'm playing passive.

During the next level, this horse**** happens.

Blinds are 100/200. I've got about 9500 total. There's one limp from UTG, another from the cutoff, and then I'm on the button with TT. I raise it to 1000. Both limpers call.

Flop comes AKJ all red. It checks to me. I decide that if anyone was paying attention to the QQ hand, they'd know I'd check with nothing. So I bet 2500. The UTG limper calls. CO folds.

Turn is a T. UTG checks. Maybe I just got called with AQ, KQ, QJ, but I only really see AQ making that call MAYBE. I decide to jam all in. The player asks for a count. Then he counts his chips. Then he thinks. Then he counts his chips again. Then he looks at the board. Looks back at his hand. Thinks some more. After god knows how long, he finally calls.

Q4cc.

Called with garbage pre flop. Called with a gutter on the flop (and, ironically, an overcard, but he can't have thought the Q would be good on the flop). Then took his sweet goddamn time to make the call with the nuts. The river was a brick, so no punishment for him. As I was walking away, two of the other players started berating him so bad, the dealer called the floor. I didn't heard the details of what they were saying, but I heard a lot of "What the ****?" and "What were you thinking?" as I walked away.

A proper update is coming soon. But I had to type those out before I forgot. If anyone is around this weekend, there's talk of another meet-up this Saturday. Get food, then punish the March Madness gamblers at the tables. If anyone wants in, let me know and I'll send the details.

Also, I'm not proof-reading this. I'm too damn tired.

Eleven days without an update. Shame! Shame!

Even with a full slate at work, two mid-terms, a cold that's been kicking my ass for a week, and trying to spend quality time with the wife (giggity), I've actually managed to get a ****ton of poker in. And I've been doing rather well, too. At least, I've been doing well at the tables. I've really not been tracking at all. I have no idea what my stats are. I'm definitely ahead for the month/probably the year thus far. Here's a pic dump and some poker.

I like this shot of the Gold Coast:


Sam's Town knows its clientèle too well.


This is from the tournament where they thought I was a wizard. Some mild chipporn:


Sam's Town bounty tournament structure:


Mmmmm Capriotti's:


VSiN - the Vegas Stats and Information Network. It's a radio/streaming station founded by Brent Musburger that focuses on sports betting and stats. Their studio is a fishbowl right next to the sports book at the South Point. Their shows are pretty informative and entertaining. I emailed asking if they were going to add any poker content, but never got a response back.


I've always been a terrible cook. Cooking gives me anxiety to begin with, and I was just never any good at it. But recently I've been trying to do more, especially during weeks when the wife has to work a million hours (like she did last week). Someone told me it was easy to make gnocchi, so I figured **** it. Let's give it a go. Also, that's the entirety of my workable counter space in the kitchen. I can't wait to move:



Had to get in some toilet humor:


Saturday, March 18 - the chatroom that we established a little while back has done a couple of meetups, both "formal" and informal. On Saturday, we decided to grab some dinner and then pick off the March Madness crowd. Unlike last time (Super Bowl weekend), we were significantly more rushed this time around. We couldn't meet too early, but then a couple of people were running a 7pm deepstack event at the Venetian. We had some good food and good conversation, but our (dinner) table broke around 7:45. Those of us not playing in the tournament tried to get on the 1-2 list at the Venetian, but it was 40+ names deep and just seemed like an absurd wait. The Mirage had plenty of games going with no list, so we made our way over there.

I played three hands in a 90 minute session - one loss, one chop, and one win. But the win was a double-up and I finished the night +200ish. Our table was spewy and aggro as **** so my plan was to hit a big hand and let someone bet into me. It worked out well.

Villain: MP, $300 stack and has reloaded at least twice. Between barreling with ill-timed bluffs and calling off with second pair, he is a perfect spew monster.
Hero: SB, $210ish, been playing tight, and also under the weather so I've been quiet.

Villain opens to $15 as he had been doing pretty much every hand he played. He's shown marginal hands like QTo, T8 suited, etc. Two other players call, and I call from the SB with 55.

Flop 654 two spades. I usually bet sets on these draw-heavy boards, but I know the villain is going to spew with anything. I check. Sure enough, he bets $40. The other two players fold, and I call. Turn is an off-suit T. I check again. Villain shoves all in and I snap call. River is an off-suit 2. Not my favorite card obviously, but I turn over my hand. He lowers his head a little and mucks, and I take down a decent one. I left shortly thereafter. I later heard that the group's tournament players both busted, but all the cash players made money.

Sunday, March 19 - Joboo decides he wants to run a 10pm at TI, and since I've given up on giving a **** about work, I agreed to tag along. An old Japanese man at our table is running people over and has worked his 15k starting stack to well over 80k before the first break. He cracked AA with 42, beat JJ with 44 and 66 with 55, not to mention a flush-over-flush and set over top-two. Just running absurdly hot. I managed to double through him.

Blinds are at 3-600. Villain still has a monster stack. I have about 19k. Villain and five others (!!!) limp to my BB. I check with T5o figuring I'm check/folding nearly every board. Good news is that the flop is 755. I lead for 1400. Villain raises to 7000. It folds back around to me and I figure this smells like an over pair or maybe some kind of straight draw. I just go ahead and ship it all in. He snap calls and shows AKo. Turn is a 4 and I'm pretty happy. Unfortunately, he did manage to knock me out with AA over KK and I was left with a min cash at $175.

There was one player at the final table who couldn't quite grasp one concept. He was European so maybe English wasn't his first language, but I couldn't figure out a way to explain this to him. Blinds were at 2-4k when we reached the final table. Neither the floor nor the dealer were paying attention and the blinds had gone up to 3-6k. We played two hands like this. Two players told the dealer but he still didn't raise the blinds. I let it go. The European player shoves all in, both blinds fold. Euro collects the pot, next hand is dealt out, then he starts complaining that the pot is short and the blinds were wrong. Dealer looks at the clock and says "Okay, now the blinds are at 3-6k". But the Euro just kept at it, saying the blinds had been up for a few minutes, that he had been ripped off, that the dealer is wrong. He starts complaining to me personally (as if I can do something about it), and I eventually tell him that he can ask the floor but it won't do him any good. If there's no announcement that the blinds are up, the blinds aren't up, regardless of what the clock says. He won't let it go and I eventually have to sink into my headphones until he busts.

Friday, March 24 - the wife decides she wants to go to a knitting and yarn expo at the Red Rock. It was actually fairly interesting. Not the most riveting thing I've ever seen but the wife had fun.







... a catwalk?


Someone had knit some kind of lingerie thing - a teddy with garters and whatnot. It should have been sexy. But it very wasn't. The wife and I grabbed dinner afterwards at the Libre Mexican Cantina. Managed to get a table outside and really had a wonderful little date night. It's not the best food out there, but certainly worth the time and money, especially if you get a spot outside.


Saturday, March 25 - I heard rumor that the 10am tournament at Green Valley Ranch gets ~130 players any given weekend. That seems absurd to me, but I knew it would make the prize pool juicy. It's... possibly the worst-run tournament I've ever seen, and I've played some ****ing dumps before. $45 buy-in with a 33% rake. It's 20 minute levels with a 4500 starting stack, and it's a legit double-to-double every level. As Bikeking said, "What, did they run out of chips?" Good question.

I take my seat and I'm the youngest at the table by 30 years, easy. An old man in a scally cap sits down and goes on a rant that makes me race to find my headphones:

"Did you hear about the robbery at the jewelry store at Bellagio last night? Couple of black guys. As if you would think it was anyone else. Which it never is. God I love Trump. He's going to make sure these guys are off the streets..." I'm sure he continued on after that, but I had to pop on the new disc by the Menzingers.

Got into a sticky spot at 50/100 where I lost two pair to rivered bigger two pair. I had about 1200 left when this crazy hand happened. It's one of those "It doesn't matter how deep we are, or the stakes, or the players, all the money is going in on the flop."

Stakes are 1/200, last level of late registration.
Villain 1, UTG +1: Quiet old man with about 8000.
Villain 2, MP: Scally cap guy from before, about 7000.
Hero, BB: 1200.

Villain 1 raises to 600. Villain 2 smooth calls the 600. I look down at KThh and just shove my last 1200 in there. Villain 1 calls. Villain 2 goes all in for about 7000. Villain 1 is annoyed and uncomfortable, but eventually makes the call:

Villain 1 shows AJo
Villain 2 shows QQ
Hero tables KThh

Flop... is...


Flop comes AQJ two hearts. I nail Broadway + nut/royal flush draw vs. middle set vs. two pair. Unfortunately, the turn pairs the Queen and the racist ends up with quads. I can't hit my one-outer for my first ever live royal and I'm off to the counter to re-buy.

Aside from the obscene rake, terrible structure, minuscule starting stack, and awful players, there's one other massive flaw with this tournament: They don't line up the breaks with the rebuy period or color ups. At the end of level 2, they colored up the green chips. With about five minutes left in level 3, they make an announcement that this is the last level to re-enter. As the level is in the last minute, we're in the middle of a hand. The level ends, they announce that registration is closed, and level 4 begins. I thought this was the time to get up for a break, but no such luck. So the structure looks like this:

Level 1
Level 2
Pause the clock to race off the green chips
Level 3, last level to register
Level 4
Break

So if someone is planning on rebuying, they better bust with a few minutes to go in level 3. All it takes is one person hollywooding a hand and you might miss your chance. Super weird, super annoying.

My next table goes better and the players start dropping like flies. They somehow got 116 people to sign up for this hunk of ****, paying the top 12. I make it to the top six when the blinds are 12-24k, with only a few minutes before the jump to 24-48k, and we decided on an even chop for $480 each. Not a bad day's work.

Later that night, I once again hit the TI 10pm. There was nothing all that interesting here, either, but I did manage another min cash for $175. I witnessed what may have been the worst possible read of all time.

With blinds at 200-400, there are three players in a hand.

Player 1, UTG +1: Flats the 400 with about 18k behind
Player 2, CO: Calls 400 with about 35k behind
Player 3, BTN: Calls 400 with maybe 22k behind

Flop comes K99 two diamonds. Player 1 leads for 500. Both other players call. Turn is a 5d, bringing the front door flush. Player 1 bets 1700. Player 2 raises to 7200. Player 3 snap-calls. Player 1 goes into the tank. And he's pissed. He's uncomfortable. He fidgeting in his chair. He finally mutters "****" to himself and folds. Turn is another 5. Player 1 jumps out of his chair and screams "****!" at the top of his lungs. Players 2 and 3 both check and show mid-range flushes. Player 1 looks like he wants to kill himself. He said he had pocket 5's and folded his full house because he felt that one of the opponents would have had K9 for the bigger boat. Oops.

All in all, it's been a productive few days. Made a bunch of money and my game feels like it's on point right now.

I really enjoyed the previous Sam's Town trip report.

That's where I played, and won, my very first poker tournament many years ago. Brought back good memories.

You haven't really PLAYED poker until you play in the $23 Sam's Town 10:00 a.m. tournament.

$500 starting chips, first hour is limit starting at 5/10. Then no-limit the rest of the way. The average age of the players must be close to 70.

Not sure if they still do this, but when I won a morning tournament several years ago, it got down to 2 players, and the tournament just stopped. I was awarded first place since I had the higher chip count. I was told they didn't play heads up there!?! I've played many hundreds of tournaments since then, and I have never seen anything like that anywhere..

This is the first time I've seen a Vegas casino that has posted.

^Those gun signs are everywhere in Texas.

You brought a discman to the table?

What's interesting is that those signs carry the weight of law in Texas. In Nevada, no matter how scary they word it ("Homeland Security" sure sure), they are nothing more than polite requests. You can, with a permit, carry in that casino anyway.

That said, if your concealment is poor and they figure out you are armed, they can trespass you off the property and ban you from returning. But you can't get into any legal trouble, because that sign carries no weight of law in NV.

Interesting.

Looks like that tournament still runs. http://www.pokeratlas.com/poker-tour...ker-tournament I might take some time off in April. If I do, I'll run it and report back. I'll be curious to see if they still pay off at heads up.

I don't know a shorter way to say "The new full length put out by a band that I ripped to mp3 and added to a playlist on my phone".

That's actually really interesting. I didn't know about the weight of law but it makes sense.

Alright, I'm going to sound paranoid for a minute.

I don't have a common last name. It's not unheard of, but it's rare enough that people pronounce it wrong 90% of the time. The last "famous" person that had it was really only known in certain circles and he kinda stopped being relevant in the early 80s.

My wife and I are doing a re-watch of Parks and Recreation. If you haven't seen it, you really should (but skip season 1). We got to one scene where there's a fat guy's picture on a wall and his name is written underneath. His last name is mine (in pronunciation, not necessarily spelling). Some coincidence, eh?

The weird thing is this - I was in a band with one of the producers of the show. No, really. I didn't realize it until about a week ago. I looked it up on Wikipedia and it's definitely him. And he hates my ****ing guts. I was kind of a ****ty bandmate back then, to be honest. Well, there was a lot going on. We were changing styles from pop-punk to a slower power-pop (we were trying too hard to be Weezer + the Beatles, and I hated both of those bands). I thought the guy we booted out (and the producer replaced) kinda got a raw deal. I had a full-time job while the three of them went to school. When we were going to shows, the three of them would drive down together and I would go by myself. We constantly argued about what was more important - showmanship and having fun on stage, or precision and sounding like the recordings at every show. Our guitarist's fiancee hated me, so that made things super awkward. I skipped a lot of practices, mostly out of laziness. After one especially bad show, I emailed the rest of the band and asked if they even wanted me around anymore. The now-Parks and Rec producer wrote back "Actually, once we graduated we were going to move to California and just not tell you. Sorry."

So was this a decade-dormant troll job? Or pure coincidence? I have no idea.

Just imagine it is a troll so you know how much of an impact you had on his life.

First of all, don't kid yourself. This is 100000% intentional and about you, so feel honored you can bring out 10-year grudges in people.

Sorry, but can't let this go---you HATE the beatles?

Not entirely accurate about the signs in Texas...it is not enough to simply say 'no guns blah blah blah.' They need to cite under which of the two provisions of law they sign is addressing...some are no guns at all while others are none unless concealed (I'm too lazy to pull the specific language because I have BBQ spread across the desk at the moment).

But yeah, if they have the proper signage, one can be arrested and charged with a felony in Texas for blowing the sign off...

Just made it through the entire thread. Great read. Keep it going.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Ah, that's different than AZ, which is similar to TX. I thought all states were that way.

I still got my Discman. First generation. Wanna buy it?

Teddy Covers in the pic. He almost looks like he's pissed that your taking that picture.

Narcissism rules!

Really ****ing hate the Beatles. I don't know what it is, but I just couldn't give a **** less about them. I appreciate how many other bands they influenced. I appreciate that other people like them. Just not my bag, I guess.

If anyone knows/remembers the band Piebald... their early **** was amazing. Raw, powerful, insanely passionate. Then their singer got more and more into the Beatles, started trying to make Piebald sound like them, and they went to complete ****. They had a few good songs later on (American Hearts, Grace Kelly with Wings) but for the most part, they were terrible.

Also, their bass player and his lackeys used to kick the **** out of me in high school. So that helps.

Will do! Glad you enjoyed it.

The pole is blocking Dave Cokin, too. He's smaller in person, but I appreciate his dedication to the scally cap.

Big picture dump incoming, probably tomorrow. And I'm going to take some time off work next week to play some cards. My comps are at the end of May so I have to cram in as many sessions as possible before then.

So I'm in a class this semester that's based around decision-making in public policy. The more we get into the class, the more I think about changing my dissertation topic. I don't have an advisor yet so my topic may have been **** to begin with. And given the current amount of academic research out there, my lit review would probably be about a page and a half. It should be at least 30 pages. This new topic I'm considering has plenty of research out there, both quantitative and qualitative. The trap is that I might fall into is that I can't add anything "new" to the academic field. Sort of a catch-22.

This was waiting for me in the elevator after class this past Wednesday:



A classmate of mine who currently lives in Pahrump looked at the wall and said "... I need to draw a penis and add to this marvelous collection". Pahrump broads are a different breed.

Thursday, the wife and I decided to head downtown for some food. She told me about this place that did like homemade fried chicken and Chinese soul food. I didn't quite believe her.

Saw these on the walk over:




The now-closed Western Hotel:



There's a small bookstore downtown:



And here is paydirt:



It was unbelievably good, and anyone who doesn't go here is an idiot.

A couple more pics from downtown:




We went to the record store down that way, too. I was amazed to find what appears to be an original pressing of the first Piebald CD. They were the first really heavy "emo" band I'd ever heard. The energy and passion I heard on that first CD was massively impressive and I feel in love. Not long thereafter, they did a split 7" with another band called 7% Solution - Piebald's singer's side project.

Here's where it gets a little weird - I went to high school with Piebald's bassist. He asked me what I thought of the split 7", knowing how much I liked their first CD, and I said I liked 7% Solution's stuff better. Well, that set off about 2.5 years of him and his "crew" knocking me around and just kinda being dicks to me. Aaaah, cliquish high school days.


(This is from their later stuff, but far and away my favorite song by them)

On Saturday, had Cox come and upgrade the cable box in the house. I'm not used to this fancy new remote:



We've talked about cutting the cord for a while now, but there's still plenty of live TV content neither of us want to give up quite yet. But, now we own a FireTV, a Roku, and something called Main Brain. I think I can convince the wife that giving up TV is probably +EV at this point.

Decided to get myself a new card protector. I found this on Amazon and it made me laugh. Yes, I spent money on this:





One of the regulars at the TI said "We all knew you were a poker slut. You didn't need to advertise." I told my wife that comment, and she said "Buy whoever said that a drink, on me." Love you too, honey.

Unfortunately, the poker slut chip is now 0 for 4 in tournaments. Brutal so far. Maybe I should have gotten the one that said "Poker Ho".

After the cable upgrade, we decided to hit up the butcher and grocery store, but first...

THE SWAP MEET!






Oh I love the swap meet. Every kind of knock-off and second-hand good you can imagine for dirt cheap, plus some great snacking spots. Seriously. The best jerky I've ever had came from here. There's a place that does fresh-made mini donuts. It's worth a trip, even with a $1 admission charge.

The butcher shop:



My wife is obsessed with Kroger-brand cranberry lime seltzer. They ran out of stock a while back, and placed an order for 20 (!!!) cases. Smith's, of course, didn't call us when a new shipment came in. But we did buy out three stores worth of product for a total of 14 cases.

After the first store:



Fat cat tax:



If you remember, there's that chat room floating around with a handful of members who are talking about hands, where good games are, doing meet-ups, etc. It's actually been a great resource for me, not just talking about hands and certain spots, but when certain events are happening/canceled, news and notes, etc. Definitely a good thing.

Me and one of the guys there (Bikeking19) are starting to talk about doing some kind of podcast/vlog and I'm pretty excited about it. If it comes to fruition, there's definitely an audience out there for us. More information to come.

How about a few hands to show how bad I've run the last week or so...

I decided late last Thursday night I wanted to play. I noticed that Excalibur had two games running and no list, so I decided to run over there. I forgot to call in, and by the time I got there the list was eight people long. The floor said "You're #9 on the list and I can't open a new game. I have no more dealers." Oooookay. I check, and Luxor has two games going with no list as well. I call over, ask to be taken off Excalibur's list, and head over there immediately. By the time I got there (maybe 10 minutes later), my name is gone and there are five people waiting. Holy ****. I should have gone home, but decided instead to try my luck at Mandalay Bay. I get there and they're opening a brand new, must-move game. Finally.

I take the nine or ten seat (whatever it was) and buy in for $200. The guy in the two seat buys in for $100, and he's a brand new player. Stacks his chips in sets of five, asks the dealer about every action, bets and doesn't push chips across the line, checks by waving his hand over his cards like he's trying to stay in blackjack... brandy-spanking new.

After one orbit, this hand happens against this player...

Two limpers from MP. I'm on the BTN and I see KK. I make it $8 to go, which had been the standard raise to this point. The newbie in the two seat raises to $25. It folds back to me and I decide to just flat here.

Flop comes Q84r. Newbie leads out for $20. I read this as being super weak... AK, AJ, maybe something like 77 on down. I just don't buy it. So I jam it all in. He thinks, and thinks, and finally calls with...

QQ.

Sigh.

Later that session, I get into another funky hand and I don't think I could have played it any different.

There's an MP limp from a super loose player who just spent five minutes talking about how juicy the games are in Detroit. I'm on the BTN with 55, and raise to $8 from a stack of about $90 to start the hand. SB calls, MP calls, everyone else folds. Flop comes 743 two spades. Both players check and this looks like it completely misses their ranges except maybe flush draws. I bet $10, both players call. Turn is a 5. Again, both players check. I figure I'm getting it all in at this point but want to keep both around, so I bet $10 again. SB calls, MP raises to $25. I jam it in. SB calls. MP calls. This is either really good or really bad for me.

River is a 2. Nut low on board, but any A or any 6 gets there. SB checks, MP bets $40. I know I'm boned, so I stand up. SB calls. MP lowers his head and sighs "Okay, who got the straight?" while showing 77 for flopped top set. I show my turned middle set, and SB laughs and flips over KK. Damn.

I lost a Sam's Town bullet early when I got it in with QQ v KK and then 88 v 99. I fired a second bullet, lost half my stack with AA v Q7 suited, then lost the rest to the same player with AJ v Q7 suited again.

The Mirage knockout was probably the most annoying, just given how long it took for the player to call.

Blinds are at 200-400. I have 8100 and I've barely played a hand all night. Player to my immediate left is foreign, tight but competent player with about 12k.

I'm UTG +1 and see QQ. I raise to 1000. Villain calls, BB calls.

Flop comes KJ3r. BB checks. I c-bet 2000. Villain calls, BB folds. I was about to give up on the hand, but the turn was a T. Now I'm open-ended and figure I've got outs, so I go ahead and jam it all in there. Villain now goes into the tank. I figure "Okay, he doesn't have the straight. Maybe a naked K or something like AJ and he's debating calling with the gutter...". After what seems like far too long, he shrug-calls and says "Well, if you got it, you got it", and shows ****ing KK. I miss my straight on the river and I leave. I can't believe he thought about it for that long with top set. Maybe he's just a better player than I am because I can never fold in that spot.

Rookie. Never, ever play against first-timers. Shoulda folded pre when he 3-bet you.

While reading the literal previous post to this one, I had the thought, "Why isn't Spike doing a vlog. I'd watch the crap out of that."

I'm curious, you're jumping from Excalibur, to Luxor, to Mandalay Bay. None of these are places I've played cards. (Usually I'm at the Wynn, Bellagio, Aria, Venetian.) What's the appeal of these more slummy venues for you?

Thanks!