DirtArse's Vegas Cash Game Experiment TR
Hi guys,
I'm definitely not one of the big posters on here so most of you don't know me from a hole in the wall but I'll post my trip report nevertheless for your viewing pleasure. Feel free to comment and critique if you like.
A little background: I've gone to Vegas several times in the last few years for the WSOP. This year, it was for the WPT Aria. For whatever reasons, even though I have not won any money in tourneys over those three trips, my cash games have all been profitable. Up until this trip, I had about $2.5K in profit over about 40 hours of cash play. Now I realize that this is a very small sample size, but it got me to thinking.... how would I do if I went to Vegas and only played cash? With that in mind I set up a goal... 4 days... 48 hours of play... and $1200 gross profit.
As PokerJAH said "Love to see how you end up doing after three weeks grinding in Vegas. If it was that easy, we would all be living there full time"
So I got on the plane, and headed to Vegas on a 4 day mini
trip to see if my luck would hold.
As for my poker skills... I'm a winning player... I'm not a superstar by any stretch, but my win rate online over a 2 million hand sample size was around 1BB/100 @ 1/2 & 2/4NL. My goal for Vegas was 10BB/100 which I
figured was realistic.
The rest of the TR to follow on a day by day basis.
I'm definitely not one of the big posters on here so most of you don't know me from a hole in the wall but I'll post my trip report nevertheless for your viewing pleasure. Feel free to comment and critique if you like.
A little background: I've gone to Vegas several times in the last few years for the WSOP. This year, it was for the WPT Aria. For whatever reasons, even though I have not won any money in tourneys over those three trips, my cash games have all been profitable. Up until this trip, I had about $2.5K in profit over about 40 hours of cash play. Now I realize that this is a very small sample size, but it got me to thinking.... how would I do if I went to Vegas and only played cash? With that in mind I set up a goal... 4 days... 48 hours of play... and $1200 gross profit.
As PokerJAH said "Love to see how you end up doing after three weeks grinding in Vegas. If it was that easy, we would all be living there full time"
So I got on the plane, and headed to Vegas on a 4 day mini
trip to see if my luck would hold.
As for my poker skills... I'm a winning player... I'm not a superstar by any stretch, but my win rate online over a 2 million hand sample size was around 1BB/100 @ 1/2 & 2/4NL. My goal for Vegas was 10BB/100 which I
figured was realistic.
The rest of the TR to follow on a day by day basis.
Comments
So this year it was Sin City!
For those of you who have never seen Vegas from the cockpit during a night approach, I have included a pic. It is quite a sight to behold with the strip all lit up!
I landed @ 9:30PM, picked up my rental car, and immediately headed over
to The Orleans to try my hand at some 1/3 with the lowest rake in Vegas. I expected to play until at least 8AM so for the first night I did not get myself a hotel.
The place was busy when I got there, so it was about a 45 minute wait before I was seated at my 1/3 table. There was about 4 tables of no limit going on, but probably at least 10 limit tables were also in action.... I can't figure out how anyone can enjoy limit, but for some reason it is super popular with live players, in spite of how dull it must be!
The players at my table for the most part seemed OK... there was one or two who were weak, but for the most part even the old timers were not stepping out of line. From listening to them talk, it was obvious that at least five or six of them were regs, but overall, my sense was that the table was soft enough for an easy profit. For the first hour I took it easy and scoped out the table.
For five hours, I went though the longest stretch of being card dead that I can ever remember. 92off, J3off, 84off... this is pretty much all I saw for that stretch. I wound up playing some very marginal hands out of the shear boredom of folding so much, but in spite of it all, when the table broke @ 4AM I was up about $30. During that stretch the only four real hands I was dealt were 33 twice, 77, and KJ. Lucky for me the 7's flopped a set, and I was able to turn enough of a profit on that hand to make up for all the other garbage I had been dealt.
Near the end of the first table, the first big whale showed up! This guy sat down with about $80, and from the get go, it was obvious that he was stoned out of his mind. From the way he kept wiping his nose into his sleeve, it was pretty obvious that his drug of choice was probably cocaine, although I must confess I'm no expert. Also, he did everything in slo-motion... He would push in his chips at quarter speed and the game slowed down appropriately.
Now normally I don't get excited about an $80 dollar stack, but from the get go this guys started to get lucky. First off was an all in PF with 88 against KK where he sucked out. A short while later he gets lucky against AA with more garbage. In about an hour his stack went from $80 to about $500 and now he finally had a stack that I was salivating at! His degenerate buddy came to the table late in the session and tried to bum some money off of him while he was in a hand, so after the hand he got up and left!! No!!!! Come back slo-mo guy! Then the table broke, and we drew cards to see who would fill the open two seats on the last 1/2 table left, and I drew a K and was on my way.
Table 2 was better than one. For one thing the average age of the players
was probably 60 with a couple in their seventies. I know it's a sterotype, but I always feel more comfortable playing with the fossils... I love to play aggressively, and I always feel like I can muscle grandpa off of the big pots. Big mistake! 3rd or 4th hand of the session, I'm in position against a 70 plus dude, when I'm dealt QJd. As usual its limped around the table until it gets to me on the button, and I make it 15 to go. Flop is a whiff with only one diamond, all small cards. Grandpa checks... I bet 30... grandpa calls. Turn is a diamond. Grandpa leads out for 30... I reraise to 60... and then grandpa is all-in for about $160! I'm smart enough to realize that when a senior shoves, 99% of the time he has the goods. I don't like having to get lucky, but I can't fold another $100 into a $300 plus pot so after gramps announces "He ain't got the guts to call!", I call and I brick the river. Gramps shows a set of 5's, and now I'm down about $200 on the night.
The next hour is pretty slow, and then guess who shows up for round number 2? It's slo-mo guy back for another go! Praise the lord, I might book a profit after all! After about 20 minutes I finally get my chance to get my money in good with him.
I'm UTG with JJ, and he's in the hijack with about $300. I've got him covered. I bet 15 to get things started and I'm called by UTG+1, and then it gets to slo-mo guy and he shoves for $300! Now, at first I didn't see him shove because I'm in seat one and the dealer is blocking my view. I look over, and it looks like the guy to his right is the one that shoved. So I'm prepared to fold, and then I ask the guy why so much? He answers me that he's not the one who shoved, it's slo-mo guy, so I say "Since it's him I call". I made a small mistake here... I should have reraised all in get UTG+1 out of the hand, but he's seen slo-mo guy play as well and he also calls, so the pot is 3 ways with $900 in the middle before the first card is even dealt! The flop is 388 rainbow. Not a bad flop with JJ so I jam all in to get rid of UTG+1. He didn't reraise both times PF so I don't give him credit for a bigger pocket pair.... He folds. The turn is a J! At this point I'm already counting my money! The turn is a blank. I turn over my jacks and proudly announce jacks full, when slo-mo guy crushes me by showing his quads!:mad:
That one hand is a $900 swing on the night. Win it and I book a $400 profit, but because I lost it, I walk out of the casino in the morning with a $500 loss instead.
So it's off to the Riviera @ 9AM to see if I can check in early. When I get there the lady says sorry, we won't be able to give you a room until 1PM.
By this time I've been awake for about 24hrs, so I decide to head off to the sportbook, find a couch, and watch the early NFL games. I buy a $20 ticket, and get comfortable waiting for the games to start. I nod off for a while and then security wakes me and tells me no sleeping even though I have a ticket and the games have yet to start. By noon, it's looking pretty good for my bet... two of my teams have it in the bag, and the other is for now still covering the spread!
At this point, the guy next to me starts talking to me about the Steelers, and we get into a conversation. Eventually it turns out that this guy is originally from Pennsylvania, and moved in the spring to Vegas for a job with his family, and then that the job fell through. After the money ran out, his wife left him; in fact he is now homeless and spends his days in the sportbook to escape the daytime heat and watch some TV... his only entertainment. I'm sitting thinking about how awful it must be for him. He's a regular Joe, he's not strung out or anything, he's polite etc, he's just a guy who's fallen on hard times. I'm thinking I gotta help him out and brighten up his day, so I turn to him and say, "here have my ticket".
At that point one team only has to hold it's lead and he wins $140, and to be honest the ticket only cost $20 and it's not real important to me. For him it would be huge to win. He's very grateful, so I head off to check in and leave him there, hoping I've gained a little good karma in the process, and that this will transfer over to the poker tables.
After the shower I head down for a bite to eat, and on my way past the sportbook, I pass M (the homeless guy) still in the sportbook watching the late games. I go up to him and ask him if his ticket won, and he says no since the other team tied the game late and it went into O/T. I feel a little bad about it, so I ask him if he wants to come for a bite? He's got no money, but I tell him not to worry, it's going to be on me. We head off to the food court and tuck into some mexican food. I found out more about his life... he sleeps at night in the back of a store room on bubble wrap, and has not been in a proper bed since March! His wife took off in June and he has not seen her or his two kids (8yr & 10Yr) since then. I can tell that he is very upset at how his life has turned out, and his situation, so I try to chear him up. He's a really nice guy... very polite. I want things to work out for him. Then I say goodbye and head out to Binnions for day 2 of grinding.
I haven't played at Binnion's since 2009, and the place has really gone downhill since then. At 9PM there's only one lonely table going and for the whole 3 hours I spent there, it never got to more than seven players. I sat down and early in the session I lose a biggish pot to a really laggy German player who calls my PF raise with 8/4 off. I have 77 and the flop is J86 rainbow... after a C-bet and another barrel on the turn he turns over the hand, and I ship a little over $100 his way.... sheesh. Then later I river a straight and because of it I wind up losing nearly $200 to a higher straight. I'm down about $350 when I decide to call it quits, since we are five handed with only one bad player at the table.
At this point I decide to cross the street to The Golden Nugget. It is much busier than Binnions, with three 1/2 tables going as well as many limit tables. I also find as a bonus that the chairs at the Nugget are much more comfortable. I buy in for $300 and take a seat.
At first I'm just threading water... the table seems to have mostly competent players and no one is really stepping out of line, but I slowly
win small pots here and there and in a few hours I've doubled up. Then the biggest hand of the trip comes up.
I'm on the button with Q10 off. An early raiser makes it $10, and it's called by three of us including the small blind. Flop comes 78Q rainbow. The three guys ahead of me check and I make it $20 on the button. Small blind calls and the other two fold, so it's heads up for the turn. The turn is a 10 of spades, so now there's a spade draw and a possible straight on the board. SB checks, and I don't want to be outdrawn cheap, so I make it $75 to go on the button. The SB looks down at his chips and in a very cocky aggressive manner pushes out a total of $325 with $200 behind! Now I don't mind admitting that at this point I have to fight so that piss does not run down my leg! I have top 2, but I'm not liking my spot. I tank for about 5 minutes. Eventually I convince myself that the guy probably has a pair with some sort of draw, so I decide to shove all in. He snap calls me, so my first thought is "I f_ck_d up!". The turn is not a spade or an 9 or J so I turn over my cards and announce top two... and then the guy triple checks the board and mucks his cards! The pot is around $1200 and I let out a huge sigh of relief!
Directly across the table from me is this retired Navy vet called "Honey".
From everything I've seen and heard, this is the resident "big deal" at the Nugget. He's been running good and already has about $800 when I first sit down. Honey likes to talk a lot of smack, and to be honest, he's pretty solid; so a rivalry is born when I finally get to the point where I have a bigger stack than him. Up to that point I've had the better of him to the tune of probably $150, and with the huge pot I've won I now have around $1200 in front of me. Unfamiliar with live rules, I try to take $400 off the table, and Honey throws a fit and screams at the dealer that I can't do that! Evidently once money is on the table, the only way to take it off is to walk away. Now, I wasn't trying to cheat or anything... I was just oblivious to that rule. My train of thought was that even after I take $400
off the table, I still have everybody covered, so what's the big deal?
The big deal is that guys like Honey have big rolls as he shows me by taking out another $400 from his wallet to match my stack dollar for dollar as he announces "I ain't afraid of you" while pointing in my direction. "I'm coming for that money" he says. "Come and get it" I reply.
About an hour later we have our first big pot together. I flop bottom set with 44 and on the river when it's checked to me, I put out a $125 value bet. No flush possibilities, but a possible straight and for sure a chance of set over set here, so when he starts counting through his hundreds I start sweating. My heart is beating out of my chest and all I can think is "don't reraise me please!". He toys with his chips and money for about 5 minutes and finally lays down the hands and says his kicker was not good enough; I let out a huge sigh of relief as I didn't want to call a huge bet with bottom set and would have folded for sure had he done that. Honey reaches into his wallet and takes out more money to once again match me dollar for dollar.
I play for several more hours, and eventually I announce that it's gonna be my last orbit at around 5AM. Honey says "You leaving already?" I tell him that it's 8AM where I live and I don't like playing tired. He asks me to play him heads up for 1 hour and then I can go, and I decline. "I'll be back here tomorrow @ 6PM if you want another shot." "I'll be here and ready to go" he says. "Good... see you tomorrow Honey" I say as I start stacking my chips.
I've got $1100 in hundreds and $450 in chips in front of me.... it's been a good day 2... up $900 overall including Binnions, so I head back to The Riviera for a bite and some well deserved rest!
Basically there is no reason to go downtown at all, unless you are a crack whore giving $10 blow jobs.
I watch a little TV and as I'm sitting there thinking about the day before I start to think that I'm really lucky that I can fly to some place like Vegas, and risk hundreds of dollars on one hand while playing poker. Then I think about M, who goes to a casual labor office every day just in the hope that they will have a few hours of work for him @ $8.50 so he can eat for the day. At that point I make up my mind to help him out some more. After my shower I head down to Check In and ask if they can change my room to a double. They can't, but they can give me a rollaway bed if I like. "Yep that will do". I head over to the sportbook, and sure enough M is sitting there. "You hungry?" "yes I am." "Come on then... let's go". During dinner we talk about our dogs... mine passed away about four months ago.
M feels my pain as he tells me about his dog "Stink". Stink died suddenly while M was away from home for a few weeks, and when he came back, no one in his family wanted to tell him when he asked where Stink was. In his absence Stink had gotten sick and the vet had discovered an orange sized tumor in it's stomach, and the dog was put to sleep. M became emotional when he told me the story... tears welled up in his eyes. I knew then that this was a good person, because those that love animals always are. "I got something that will cheer you up" I tell him. "Here's a key to my room... you're staying with me the next two days!"
Back at the Nugget, I sat down and about 10 minutes later Honey showed up good to his word. I buy in for my usual $300.
The table was much softer than the day before. There was one young guy playing who did not know what a straight or flush was! He was playing pairs only and seemed surprised when he lucked out a straight on the river that won him a pot. He would call anything PF and ride his pair all the way to showdown if he hit. Needless to say he got stacked 3 times and lost about $600 including around $200 to me.
I had a fast start. After 2 hours I was up about $650. Honey as usual was pulling out hundreds to keep up with my stack as I chipped up. At one point he made the only big mistake that I saw him make over three days when he called with two pair and the other guy showed him the nuts.
That cost him $400. For the first time I saw him flustered, and the trash talking stopped, and he got up a left for a few hours... probably to let off a little steam.
In the meantime I decided I was running too good so it was my time to make some boneheaded plays. The first one involved AQ. On an ace high flop all spades, the villain raised all in for $120. I didn't have a spade so I took some time to think about it, but since it was a relatively small amount and I was up a fair bit I decided to gambool. As the dealer dealt out the last two cards I yelled out "no spade!" only to have spade spade fall on the turn and river. I figured I was dead, but when the villain turned over his cards, he had A7 of diamonds and the board was playing! Right on! It was a chop or so I thought! I say to the dealer "I have no spade, the board plays for me as well" as I throw my hand in the muck face down. As she ships my chips over to the villain, I'm thinking "WTF?". "You have to show your cards" the dealer says, "even if the board plays", "so you mucked".
I was pissed! But then I calmed down and decided to brush it off as I was still up a good amount and there was no use in tilting.
Screw up number two was worse. I picked up 88 and played a hand with it and eventually mucked. Two hands later, I picked up 77 and then waited for the flop. The flop was 833, and idiot here is thinking "I just flopped a boat", so I bet small to keep the "fish" in the pot. The villain has A4 and he calls the flop bet even though he had Ace high. The the turn is a 4. I bet small... he calls. River is a 4. I make a small value bet, as I don't think anything big will be paid off, and he insta shoves for about $250! "Wow Bingo" I'm thinking and I mentally do fist pumps, this sucker is about to be stacked! We turn over our cards, and it's only then that I realize that I just lit a match to $300! The only consolation is that Honey is still away from the table, and he doesn't see how bad a player I really am!
After that I must confess that the rest of the night was a blur. All I could think about was the $420 I had wasted. In spite of it all, when I finally racked up, I showed a profit of $385... so it could have been worse.
Back at the hotel, I get in the room and find M sound asleep. The safe is still closed and my money is still in it, so I guess I didn't make another boneheaded error in judgement. As he woke up the next day @ 2PM he told me he had slept for 14hrs and that it was his first time in a real bed since March!
but the players were so much worse than Binnions and Orleans, that after I started winning I decided to keep playing there.
Before I leave, M asks if I can drop him off at the job center, since his phone is no longer working and he is afraid to miss a possible job. No problem as it's on the way to the Nugget. Once there I go in out of curiosity. It's a grim place but the staff are very friendly. They will have a job for M tomorrow if he shows up for midnight cleaning rubbish from a construction site from 1AM to 9AM. Not the best of hours I'm thinking, but M is thrilled and says he'll be there. Back in the car he tells me that he brings home $59 for eight hours of work... unbelievable! "Can you take me somewhere else?" he asks. No problem so we head out to the blood bank. M gives plasma twice a week here for $20 a shot just so he can eat. Can you even imagine living this way? There's a 90 minute wait to get in and the neighborhood is bad so M asks if he can tag along with me to the Nugget, and he will walk back later when its a little less busy. I can do that, and we head off to the Nugget.
Once we got to the Nugget I ordered myself a Corona (for M), and sat down for $300 with my number one fan sitting directly behind cheering me on.
It didn't start off too good. With KQ suited I got caught semi-bluffing on the turn, and had to call a big bet due to the pot odds even though I knew
I was crushed. I wiffed the river and 15 minutes in I was down $250. For the next two hours I slowly bled away chips until M left to go to the blood bank and at that point I was down about $350. It was a ten block walk for M, and it took him 3 hours to give plasma and come back, and by the time he had returned I was only down about $150. Right around that time an attractive girl sat down opposite with her boyfriend, and all of a sudden the table got good!
She was a little drunk when she sat down, and immediately started stacking off. Her BF was obviously loaded, and every time she stacked off, he would throw her a couple of hundreds, and she continued the cycle. Lucky for him, he was quite solid, and as much as she was losing, he was winning almost as much. As the night progressed, she got drunker and drunker and I waited until the opportunity was right. Eventually I picked up AKs, and the flop came Ace high with two spades. I turned to M and quietly told him; "there's no bet from her that will not be called here".
I bet out and she called. Turn was a blank. Once again I bet out and she called. River spade; bingo! Now she's been a calling station all night long, so I know she'll call... I just have to figure out how much... In the end I made it $125 and sure enough she says "I have to see it" and ships over the money. Two hands later I pick up 99 and I flop a boat. Drunk girl stays in the pot with me to the river and then I put out $175.... the BF tells her he thinks I have it, so she folds! A little later however I pick up
99 again and once again flop a boat, and the villain had AA and calls my all-in on the river... good for $300.
Up and down for a little while and then the couple leave, so I take that as my cue to leave. Me and M head out for some wings, I slip him some money since I don't feel right about having more than $1K in my wallet while he has nothing. He's never asked for a thing, and it's my pleasure to help him out. We then head back to the hotel up $311.
So the running totals for 4 days were as follows:
Day 1 -$501
Day 2 +$900
Day 3 +$385
Day 4 +311
Total = $1096
My goal was $1200 so I wasn't far off, but if I had not pissed away the $420 on misread hands and won that one $900 pot at the Orleans, then the 4 days might have been better than $2400! Overall I was pleased with how it turned out, and now I'm 100% convinced that solid players can easily average $35 to $40 an hour playing cash in Vegas.
Pic of my stack at its peak on day 3 is shown... about $950
I didn't have my phone with me on day 2 for $1550 stack.
I've been donating blood regularly, and didn't know that the poor/homeless/alcoholics regularly sell their plasma twice a week in the US, “the OPEC of plasma collections,” supplying ~70% of worldwide collections.
That BF should be tarred & feathered for violating sacred Rule #4:
4. Don’t comment on the current hand. Don’t say what you folded or comment that a flush or straight is possible.
After this kept happening in a recent game despite warnings, pkrfce9 & I told the violator to get out of the game & the building; unfortunately, he was the owner of the building! Right, Bill? If only this was true, forum members would have thrown everything away a long time ago to become Las Vegas poker pros instead of professional couch movers.
As Blondefish noted, you should have immediately complained to the floor when the drunk chick's boyfriend told her to fold. If the dealer didn't immediately warn the boyfriend, then it's another black mark against playing at the Nugget.
Another good reason to avoid the Nugget is that the nl games are uncapped, so as you saw, Honey kept adding to his stack to cover you, not because he wanted to battle a good player but because he fully expected to get your stack at some point.
plus they may have gotten up to leave. they are there to have some fun. plus who says the guys reads are any good. I suppose you could try to explain etiquette to him but i don't know.
there's a reason why I don't scream at that guy every time he does it. just a gentle reminder EACH time.
moose may have a point here. I haven't seen you play but hopefully we can have a game at Bill's. and then head down to Vegas!
I think he was joking;)
I'm not going to drive fish from the table but I'm not going to let them cheat me either.
Part of me thinks, hey what a nice gesture that you could help the guy out. The other part of me thinks, what a fucking idiot. I'm glad it worked out well and it's a great thing you did. I was waiting for the end of the story to be, you came back from the casino and the room was filled with homeless people and crack whores, the TV was gone, safe ripped out of the wall, bar fridge empty and everyone eating steak and lobster from room service while wearing your clothes. Now THAT would have been an epic Vegas tale!
Really?
The boyfriend cost hero a call. Yes or no?
the only thing separating it from "gets you kicked out" cheating is that they didn't know they were cheating when they did it. In that case it's "gets you a talking to" cheating, at least until it happens a second time.
What did the dealer do when it happened?