Pre-Regged for 5A, as well as pre-regged a Re-Entry in 5D. Current plan is to ship it.
Fly in the the 26th and staying at MGM for the first 2 nights. Going to play cash at Aria for sure, might mix in Event # 1 of the GPS at the nugget which is a $240 Limit Omaha Hi/Lo. Next room is at the Palms Place for 4 nights, where I'll hit the Rio for the WSOP Colossus as well as the dailies / cash games. Last two nights are at Ballys so I'll probably find myself at the Bellagio and Venetian, but keeping all options open for sure. Back to Canada on the 3rd so 8 days total, assuming the bankroll can withstand it!
Anyone else going make sure to meet up for a beer!
Well, I'm flying down on the 29th after work and I'm pre-regged for flights C and D. I don't have any illusions of making day 2, but it will be a fun experience I'm sure.
Not sure what else i'll play yet in terms of cash or other tourneys, but I'm there till the 3rd, so lots of time to dabble. I'd like to take a day and play downtown this trip. I always say I'm going to, but never do.
the tournaments i will be picking from are:
WPT500 side events at Aria, its 150$ may 31. june 1, june 3.
venation deepstack may 29th 300$ 20k, june 2nd 300$ 20k
wsop event 5 on may 30th.
Also some 1/2NL
Since its my first time, what shows would you recommend as well as other activities?
Ka at MGM was amazing
Penn and Teller for sure
Helicopter tour was cool
Fountains at Bellagio / Volcano at Mirage are free
You can shoot guns or look at naked women, those are just off the strip if either interest you.
PS Greg said he really enjoyed "Thunder From Down Under" but I haven't seen it myself to comment...
Also just walking from casino to casino getting as many comped drinks as possible. Since its your first time make sure you learn this trick regardless!
Warming up in the $240 omaha hi/lo at the nugget. 108 entries, 85 ish left and on last break with 19K. (started w 15K)
3 more levels till day 2, thank fuck.... Stayed up way too late last night waiting for the drunk at the 1/2 table to pay off. (Spoiler alert... He took my money)
Played 2 session at aria and 1 session at belagio 1/3 ended up 200. What tournys are you playing tomorrow?
Well done! I had meant to make it to Aria yesterday but needed sleep. I'll be checking into the Palms today and was going to grab my seat assignment for the Colossus, so the plan is to hit the Rio for a bit. There's a $235 at 3PM and a $185 at 6PM, so probably one of those, but I'll be playing cash games for the most part. Good chance I'll make it back onto the strip later as well. Let me know where you're gonna be, my options are wide open!
Most important thing about stud8 is that if your hand does not improve on 4th, GTFO. So the best hands are 3 to a low, with 3 to a straight or 3 to a flush so you have multiple ways to improve on 4th. Other hands worth playing are when you are playing multiway with the only low draw or the only likely high hand.
Here's the rambling of a TR. Finished in the red, some coolers and some just playing bad... but really a great trip overall!
May 26
Arrived to check into the MGM Grand at around Midnight. After dropping off my gear in the room, first stop is to toss in the obligatory 25 cent video poker bet to get a comped beer. I hit a flush on the one and only hand I played, so I'm already up 1.25 for the trip and with a beer in hand. Sweet! It's late, but it's off to Excalibur for what I remember as the Vegas equivalent of Bill's Video Shop Hold em.
Get to Excalibur and find only one table of 1/2 and one table of 2-6 spread limit, which I guess isn't a surprise on a Tuesday at 2AM. I get on the list for 1/2 and decide to sit in the limit game while I wait. It's pretty uneventful and I'm pretty much just fold a bunch of junk for what seemed like 4 or 5 full orbits. Finally I declare "fuck it" and decide that I'm going to win this next pot with my K9o. I bet the whole way and the board runs out 4 spades by the river. I'm called at showdown and he confidently flips over a 7 high flush. My 9 high flush wins a decent size pot, right as my seat opens at 1/2.
The last time I played at Excalibur was in 2008, and this game has all the elements I remember, just scaled down a bit. There isn't 3 drunk guys at the table, but there's 1. There isn't 3 "let’s try poker" guys, but there’s one. Then there's the one aggro guy pounding the raise button, making it 20-25 preflop pretty regularly, one super passive player who's providing his expert commentary on everyone's pre flop hand selection, and then top it off with a couple of "Excalibur regs" to round it out. I buy in for the 200max and both the drunk guy and the new guy were on my right. I had a few good chances to isolate them and was able to take down a few hands at showdown, but pretty much stayed flat for a while.
Fast forward to about 2 hours in and super aggro guy is first to act out of the SB after the button straddles. He calls the $5, as does 3 others behind him. I have A9s and decide to make it $21. Of course I get 3 callers. Flop comes 223 and aggro guy makes it $40, with another $130 or so behind. The other two fold, I ponder for a moment and decide he's probably light, just betting the paired board, and decide to ship it in his face for the rest. He tanks for 2-3 minutes, but finally calls with 88. Oops! Read was off, but not to worry... I hit the ace on the turn which sends him to the ATM.
Went card dead for a while after, taking me back to around $300 or so. My JJ lost to 78 when the turn was a second 8, but I should have found a fold on the turn after the reg called my c bet and then came alive on the turn. I ended up calling $30 on the turn followed by $50 on the river. Kicked myself on that one but I'm going to blame it on being up for 26 hours at this point.
Back to around even, I've been telling myself to wrap it up but the drunk guy is still drunk and I always find it hard to leave in those spots. I give myself the old "one more orbit" (for the 3rd or 4th time, at that.) He opens for $6 and gets 2 callers, and I raise to $19 with 77 and we get heads up. Flop is 235, I check and he slams down $15 - out of spite it seemed, since he had caught me watching for his reaction to the flop. I raise to $35 and he snap calls, so he's got at least a piece of it. Turn is another 5, I check this time and he fires again for $50. I call, and then check call another $30 on the river, he shows me Q5 for turned trips. NH sir. With his history at the table I'm confident that he continues to bet whether or not he turns the trips, so I’m not going to over think my play here. Finished off the orbit and cashed out for $114, so -86 for the first session. I turn in for a couple hours of sleep, plan is to try to get up for the Golden Nugget's $240 Limit Omaha Hi Lo at 11AM.
May 27
Got up around 10AM and hopped on the SDX bus up to Freemont. Late Regged about 45 min into the $240 Limit O8 tourney which is the first event in their "Grand Poker Series". The Nugget is surprisingly pretty nice inside, considering its location. "The Grand" is basically their big convention room, which had been converted into a poker room with around 70 tables or so for the series. Tourney was well run and the dealers were excellent (O8 can be torture for a bad dealer!) There were 65 players signed up when I arrived and by the time registration closed we had about 110 entries for a $22000 prize pool. The combination of Limit Poker and Lack of Sleep made for an interesting tourney, but I really enjoyed it and felt I played well, especially with O8 not being a super strong game for me. Played tight as hell, scooped a few pots and maintained a healthy stack until level 10 or so. Once the blinds hit 500/1000, my 20K stack was extremely vulnerable though, and sure enough a run of unplayable cards left me crippled. A slow death, out in 70th.
Decided to pop over to Binions who were just on the PA trying to fill the last seat in the 1/3 NL game, so I took it. I hadn't planned to play cash so I only had $230 on me, otherwise I wouldn't generally buy in short in this game. First hand I pick up QJ in the BB and call $9 to see an AJ2 flop 3 ways. I check with the intention of raising, but it just checks around. Turn is a 2, I bet out for $40 and get called. River blanks and I give up on the hand, he shows A2. In hindsight, I got a little too creative there, I think leading on the flop was probably better and saves me the bad turn bet. Next hand I've got $180 or so left and look down at A4s in the SB. Someone up front makes a small raise to $7 or so and 3 guys call, so I can't help but 3bet to $30. This turns out to be a bad idea as all of them call. I continue for $35 but next to act shoves and I fold. 3rd hand I have 66 against an open to $15. My stack is too short to do anything but shove, and I manage to get it in against AQ – a decent result. I'm quickly sent back to the bus stop when he hits his A on the flop.
Bussed it back to MGM where I enjoyed one of my comped buffets, not bad at all, not anything special for sure, but I enjoyed it. Catch a nap back at the room and the plan is to hit Aria afterwards for cash. Didn't get up from the nap though, passed the fuck out for a good 12 hours!
Got up and enjoyed my other free MGM buffet for breakfast. With "Fuck It" officially declared on the remainder of the weight loss challenge, I went deep. The highlight was plate #4 which was just a huge pile of pancakes, butter, syrup, and then a pile of ice cream on top. mmm. Checked out of the MGM and walked over to Aria.
Got on the waitlist for 1-3 PLO and was seated in about 45 min. The daily tournament which was supposed to take place outside the poker room was moved into the room, causing the delay and a huge crowd. I feel comfortable in PLO, but didn't figure to have a big edge playing at Aria, so I bought in a little short for $360. Stayed nice and tight for a bit, and eventually find AA34 with two hearts UTG. I limp and it makes it all the way around for an 8 way flop. I hit my set and it is checked to me, and I make it $20. 3 Callers and the turn brings a second heart. I check this time and next to act bets $50. Next guy flat calls, and I'm able to pot it for $220 or so. They fold and I take a half decent sized pot.
A few hands later I have 99JQ with J high clubs, and it gets raised up front to $20. We see a flop and it’s A9x with 2 clubs. First to act bets out for $50 and another guy calls. Since I'm a huge donkey, I pot it right into what should a lot of the time be AAxx, but the guy who should have had the AA folds, and the K high flush draw puts in the rest of his stack. Perfect! We run it twice, I hit quads on the first board and the set holds on the second.
Got a PM from Sn1perb0y who was staying at Aria as well, so we met up for a quick smoke. He's crushing the 1/3 NL game as expected, and we make plans to try and both get into the 6PM DeepStack at the WSOP. We'll chop when we inevitably get heads up, we jokingly agree.
Back to the PLO, no real playable hands for the next half hour or so, stay flat and eventually cash out for $900 – time to go check into the Palms.
Palms Place is fucking beautiful. Very impressed by the room, it was insane that this was a "cheap" booking. Only negative (and not really, since I knew of it ahead of time) was that the balcony was locked out, I guess too many drunks throw shit, or themselves, out on to the street. Still, I was super happy to have booked the Palms, I’ll definitely stay there again. I relax by the pool for an hour or so and it's off the Rio – which is a 5 minute air conditioned walk through the gold coast. Plan is to play the 6PM daily and to pick up my seat for Friday.
Arrived at the Rio and made my way to the WSOP area. What a feeling walking into that room for the first time. The place was packed with players, tables, and all you can hear is the beautiful sound of a million chips being shuffled. The $185 was uneventful, made it through about half the field, every once in a while scooping a small pot to keep the stack healthy. Eventually the blinds hit 400/800 (100) and I needed to make a move. I get my chance about an orbit into joining a new table. Hoody headphones and sunglass wearing guy from late position makes a pretty obvious blind steal - obvious not just from his stupid outfit, but because in the last orbit he had done the exact same thing and showed 62o when called by the SB. He makes it 1900 and grandpa in the SB flats. Both guys cover me by just a few chips and I look down at T9s. My options are to defend or shove, but with hoody guy just giving chips away, and with grandpa not showing much interest in the hand, I ship it in for the re-steal. Hoody guy snap folds as expected, but the old guy thinks for a few seconds and then calls, he's got AK! I'm live but don't improve, and sent packing.
I take a walk through the rest of the WSOP areas, quite an experience and the amazon room in particular was very cool. The TV table for event 1 was down to heads up, and the $5000 NL event 2 was down to 35 ish. Ran in to Phil Helmuth who was just there to rail a friend that was still in. Got to shake hands and say hi, which was pretty cool – I regret not taking a picture but he seemed to be there just to watch and not accommodate tourists!
Stayed there to watch for a bit longer, then headed back towards the exit where on the way out I spotted Jason Somerville still playing in the 3k NL Shootout, heads up versus Kathy Liebert. JCarver is one of my all-time favorites so this was really cool. Considered stalking him until the break for a picture, but figured that would be a little creepy. Watched those two play heads up for a bit, then decided to take the opportunity to pick up my colossus seat assignment, hoping that the INSANE lineup had died down a bit.
This next part put me on mega tilt. All I can say is wow, WSOP pre-registration is a fucking joke. The line for pre-reg pickup was, with no exaggeration, 50 times longer than the line for just buying a seat from the cage. I literally could have bought my seat in the same 10 minute lineup that I regged for the daily in... Meanwhile the lineup for the will call stretched from the WSOP area all the way back to the Rio lobby. I asked a guy getting close to the front of the line how long he'd been waiting... 3 hours! What the fuck was the point of pre-registering??? I decide that there is no way I'm waiting in that shit, and headed to the cage to buy another seat, (the pre-reg would be auto-refunded later) This line was moving nice and quick, until the clock hit midnight and literally every cage teller except one packed up their shit and went home. Pretty brutal but was still better than the other line, so I wait it out just trying not to stew. Others in the line start getting impatient and yelling, LOL. Eventually get to the front and they tell me that they don't have access to the funds that I wired down from this particular cage, so I shell out another $565 and get registered for Flight 5B. The bright side is that at least I know if I decimate my bankroll, I'll still have some cash locked up in the Rio!
So anyway, I won't let that absolutely awful registration experience get me down, I'm regged and ready to play in this crap shoot of colossal proportions.
On the way back to the palms I notice an empty 1/3 seat in the regular (non WSOP) poker room, and decide to test a theory. I'm thinking that if all the "poker players" are over in the WSOP rooms, maybe this game will be super soft. Well, it was. This was a really fun game and felt like a drunk $20 home game it was so loose. I had to basically nit it up with how crazy it was, but I was getting tons of value when I did wake up with a hand. One guy would just call down to the river with everything, and then call on the end if he had anything resembling a piece of it. Another guy would snap call for stacks with flush draws (he nailed at least two other guys at the table hitting it.) Couldn't walk away from this one, I played until around 530AM and when the two worst players finally busted I cashed out. It was a bit swingy overall, I was in for $300, went all the way down to $70 at one point (and didn't have another buy in on me due to the WSOP reg) but ended up cashing out $470 for the session. Bedtime!
I'm actually super happy that I didn't have to wake up for the 10AM Colossus flight. Got up around 11 and hit breakfast, followed by the Palms pool again. Around 2PM I decide to hit the Rio for some cash until the tournament starts.
The Rio cash game is amazing again, unfortunately it didn't go well for me. A few hands in I get 99 and make it $20, it goes 5 ways to the flop. 346hh. First to act just open ships it for $250. The way this game plays, I assume he's got a pair plus flush draw or pair plus straight draw… or even less, attacking the $100 in the pot. He shouldn't really have 25o... right? Well, he does have it… and there goes buy in # 1. In hindsight, he outplayed me on that one, milking the sucker tourist when he knows I've got an overpair. I reload back to $300 and stay pretty quiet for a while, hoping to capitalize on how fast these guys are playing. Couldn't get any hands and at around 5:15 they went on the PA announcing that the room was being shut down in 15min, as the tables were being taken over by the Colossus. People start going NUTS (even more nuts than it already was...) its $25 8 ways to the flop every hand, people open shoving preflop, etc. etc. In the madness I have AJ on an A5x flop and when he shoves I feel like I have to call. He's got A5 and there goes the second buy in.
I've now got 1.5 hours to get off tilt for the start of the colossus. I grab some food and head back to the WSOP area. Ran into Jason Somerville who was just bagging his chips, still rolling in the 3K shootout. Got to shake his hand and say hi, and he tells me make sure I go “RUN IT UP!” That was a pretty cool experience as well, and perfect timing as it did help with the steaming. I'm ready to go so I grab my seat!
Mimi Tran is seated to my right, which is funny because even though she looked familiar, it took a couple levels before I realized it was her. We talked about a few hands as we played and about the WSOP in general, pretty cool.
Didn't get any real hands for a while. Was able to 3bet squeeze A4s to take down a small pot preflop, and picked off a guy who was taking a weak stab on the flop for another small pot. Had AKs and hit a K on the flop, was able to get all 3 streets of value vs KJ, so my stack is healthy at about 7000. After those hands I go back to playing tight to build the image back up. I later pick up AQ and see a Q high flop, and end up check calling 3 streets vs KK for about 3000 total. That one stung, but there was no folding, this guy had been forced to show down a big bluff earlier and I had taken note. He gets my whole stack there if he wants it. Stack is around 3800 now and I bleed for a bit, taking me down to 3000 with the blinds at 150-300. Pick up 55 against a button raise to 600 and a call from Mimi Tran in the SB. I think for a second and then ship it, hoping to take it down preflop or worst case race it off for a doubleup. He snaps with TT and that is the end of the line for me. I think shoving is OK here?
Hit the pool in the morning and it's off to the Rio to meet Card Dead. Wait list for cash at WSOP is still insane, so we check Bravo Poker to find a game on the strip. Vegas poker is just RAMMED with everyone in town for the Colossus - there are over 200 people on the WSOP list, 200+ at Aria, 200+ at Bellagio, 100+ in other rooms, and so on. We catch a break as Planet Hollywood has only 30 people on the list, the smallest in Vegas at the time. It moves pretty quickly and we're seated in about 40 minutes. Bonus of going to PH is that we discover a few awesome looking tournaments while we're waiting. Glenn ditches his late entry Colossus seat with plans to play in the "Goliath" instead, and I notice a $150 PLO for Monday and a $250 Dealers Choice 8-game for Tuesday. Those are getting played for sure!
I start off on one table and flop a full house 2-3 hands in, managing to get around $150 out of some flopped trips. I see a seat open at Glenn's table, so I apologize for the hit and run and take the seat.
At the table watching is a drunk girl who's rambling on and on. She's pretty annoying but no one is really saying anything as she's there watching one of the guys at the table. When her "boyfriend" gets up to leave it becomes apparent that she wasn't even there with anyone, just mooching comped drinks from the poker room! The whole table picks on her a little bit Card Dead makes a few speculations as to how she got that $4000 Louis Vuitton purse, which went right over her head. Hilarious. She eventually gets way too annoying to handle, so when she gets up to go the bathroom we ship the extra chair back into the middle of the room. We basically ignore her when she comes back and she finally disappears. LOL.
Our table starts off really tight, including a real "nit's row" about 6 players long. Lot of small pots are won preflop without much action, picture 6 young versions of compuease, all sitting in a row. Actually kind of sucked, and we try everything from needling them, straddling, ordering drinks to the table, but they aren't loosening up. Gradually they leave and are replaced by some casual players… and all of a sudden the game gets real juicy. One guy sits down and hits a Royal his first hand, triggering a MXM style bag pull resulting in an $800 jackpot. We take that opportunity to order another round of shots to the table. They made him keep the $800 on the table though, so he got nervous and took off 2 hands later.
Anyway, we've officially got ourselves a good loose game. A couple guys are folding too much and I'm able to take advantage, and a couple of guys are calling too much and I take advantage as well. Card Dead takes a couple of sick beats, both times holding a set with 88. He's down 2 full buyins early on, but it wasn't avoidable. A weak tight Japanese guy is sitting with $1100 now and there's another $900 stack next to him, so when a seat opens up on their left I snatch it up. Glenn pops in the 3rd bullet and it doesn't take him long to get back to even. 3-4 hours in and I'm sitting with around $800, and Glenn is now on my left with around the same. The big stack to my right cashes out, and that's when our new friend "Jeff" sits down at the table with $100. Jeff proceeds to 1. Order a steady stream of Newcastle Brown Ale's, 2. Tell us every single aspect of his life story, at full volume, and 3. Draw/call down with 6 high flushes, weak pairs, and just crap in general. Thankfully he gets real lucky against a few guys at the table and is up to around $500 within the first hour. Amazing. He's on my right and the ear beating that I'm taking, in the name of keeping a happy customer, is to the point of driving us all insane... but I'm determined to get this stack. Card Dead takes off around 2AM but I decide to stick it out.
Relatively flat for a while and I finally get my chance at the drunk-stack around 4AM. I've got T7s and it goes the standard multi way $7 to the flop. K89 rainbow giving me an open ender. I check and it's raised up to $15, Jeff and I both call. Turn is another 8, I check and the original raiser bets out. Poor Jeff raises it up to $50, for the first time he’s raised all night. I'm 1000% sure that he's got an 8, and I'm also 1000% sure that a good sized overbet on the river will be called down if I hit. I call and the river is a glorious J for the straight. He bets out for another $50, I take a few seconds and make it $175. He calls with the 8 and is shocked that it isn’t good. The pot comes my way and I'm up over $1K now, sweet!
He's still got $200, so as much as I want to cash out, I'm not going anywhere. Unfortunately this was my downfall. I pick up KK a few orbits later. Jeff raises to $30 and may as well have just yelled out "I LOVE MY HAND!" and all I can think is, here comes the rest of the stack. I raise it to $75, leaving him enough room to shove over top if he has it in him. Next thing I know, young kid 2 spots to my left just ships it in for like $450! Jeff gets away from his hand for the first time in history, and I snap of course with my KK. The all in player turns over AQo (!?!) and Jeff shows his folded AK. Music to my ears and the flop and turn are all safe. “Fucking river” brings the A and I take a major hit. Back down to $550. Eventually the drunk gets stacked 3-4 more times, to the point of asking people at the table for a $100 loan (to be paid back by mail, "I swear to god"). We get the whole story… he needs car repair money… he was trying to win his rent playing poker… etc. etc. Real sad scene, but eventually he is asked to leave. There are obviously no takers on his loan.
Few hands later my TT falls to JJ for another $150 and at 6AM, I had 3bet it pre and then called off vs a small stack who shoved on a K high flop. I don't hate my play there, but I do recognize that the table dynamic has changed again. These fresh guys will get the best of me I am sure, so I decide to finish my orbit and go. Last hand I have QJ on a Q9x board, bet $40, and the turn is the J. I check it to a fairly aggressive regular but he doesn’t fire. The river brings a T putting the 4 straight on board. He bets $100 on the end and I know I'm beat. Unfortunately through some twisted 6AM logic I convinced myself that he had bluffs in his range due to my turn/river checks. When I look back at the hand, the turn check was awful as well. After that terrible call and I get up immediately to cash out for $500. Still up $200 for the session, but what a disaster.
Make it back to the Palms for 7AM and it's time to crash. Up for noon with options wide open.
Up in the morning and another 1/2 hour at the pool to get things started. Call down to the Bellagio poker room and get on the list, and cab it over. I get there about an hour after calling and the list has barely moved, they tell me 3 hours. Bellagio connects to Monte Carlo via Tram so I pop into thee MC poker room who has an open seat right away. Sit down for $300 and can't really get anything going. After bleeding away down to $200 or so, I top up to $300 again and have the same issue for the next hour. I top up one more time and have a fresh $300 stack, now in for $500.
The gentlemen 3 seats to the left of me has been making it $20 to see a flop every hand, and is getting action. He would make it $20, then bomb the flop every time, and it’s working. I keep my eye on this guy to see if I can pick up on anything. I notice in one of the hands he gets called (and stacked) with no pair no draw, holding 84o after the usual $20 pre flop raise and mashing the flop. He buys back in and continues the same way. I notice in another hand that when he didn't make it $20 (only $9 instead) he showed down A10, and limped AK another time. I decide that, right or wrong, he's only doing this with has bad hands, and I am going to pick this fucker off. I've been playing tight so it works with my current table image. He makes it $20 as expected, and I make it $55 with QJo. I felt this was a good candidate – I'd let him do the betting if I had better, and don't really want to play too much worse. He snaps in another $60 on top of my $55, with a "get out of here kid" kind of look. There's $135 in the pot and after the $60 I have another $220 or so to raise him. I stick to the script... represent a monster... and jam it. He snap calls with AA and I feel like an idiot. "The one time you actually have a hand, eh" I say and he laughs with a bit of a "yeah I know" look.
I don't want to buy in short so I decide to go hit my room for a reload, but remember that I still have my pre-reg refunds from the Colossus to pick up. That will do, I figure, so it's back to the Rio. Lineup on this one was actually very smooth, and they give me the $1100 without issue. The WSOP cash tables have finally died down enough to get on the list, and luckily enough a bunch of new tables are opened right as I walk up.
Seated to my right is a guy named Eric from Philadelphia. A real character and genuine nice guy. "I'm going out for a joint" he says, and I crack a joke like "coming right behind you!”... "Let’s go" he says, so we go out and burn one. I'm high out of my mind, but I feel right at home. There's a giant dude sitting to our right who's playing similar to the guy from the Monte Carlo. Raise $15-20 pre and then pound the flop regardless. He'd continue barrel when checked to, and would always overbet the pot. He'd won so many pots uncontested that I never really got to see if he was just on a super heater or if he was a legit maniac, but he continues this way. Eric and I crack some jokes back and forth as to which one of us is going to win his stack.
I end up playing two big pots against this guy. In the first, I’ve got a BB special 63s as the $15 gets called around 5 ways. Flop is 45J. Turn is another 4 and he lets the check through for once. River is the 7, making me the straight. He bets out for $40 and I make it $120, my reasoning being thinking I could get value out of a 4 - I had seen him float flop bets with middle pair in 2 other hands earlier. It was still a little too thin to go for value on my part I think, I call there against most opponents. He ships it on me and I don’t get away from it… he shows me 55 for the boat.
I get my chance at redemption a bit later, when my 77 connects with the 7J8 board. He overbets again as expected. I call, turn is a 2 and he fires again for $100. Perfect. Against most opponents I am raising at this point as the board is a bit nasty, but I've got position and with his tendency to throw money into the pot I'm letting him punish himself one more time. Turn is a T, probably the worst card ever, but I can't fold against this player when he puts his last $130 into the pot. He's got J9 for the rivered straight, and I'm stewing in my own misery.
I bleed a bit more for a bit, nothing specific but can't get anything going. Next thing I know Kevin and Christine from Irunit4times' games make it over and both get seated at my table. Kevin quickly runs up to well over 1K, and Christine is hammered and is betting out of control. She's on her third $300 bullet within the first 5 minutes, then up to like $1000 after she sucks out in a 3 way pot. I top up my stack to $250. She then proceeds to stack me in a weird hand in which I hit top pair with A8. Interesting floor decision on this one. It was on me, I had chips in my hand and was just moving my arm forward to bet them, when she shipped it on me. I hadn't even set them on the table yet, so I pull my arm back and say "check!" The dealer calls the floor to decide, and he rules that I must bet the amount that I had in my hand. I was probably going with it either way, but with them making me put like $70 in I call off the rest. Board runs out and she shows me two pair, and I'm pretty sure the second pair came after we got it in. They felt bad about the suckout and throw me over a freeroll $100 - but I can't make anything of it. I'm busto for the night and head back to the room. GG.
Get up in time to check out and move over to Ballys. Room is just OK, but great for the price. I head over to PH again and reg for the 2PM $150 Goliath PLO event. The table is really soft and you can tell not a lot of PLO experience. A few ladies are drawing at any flush, one or two pairs at showdown, etc. There are also 2 players who definitely know what they are doing. One guy open folded QQ on a Q4AA2 board, and was shown quad A's. I got into a good pot with the other one but we had the same full house. A few hands later I'm dealt KsQsJ8 and we see a Q8x board with two spades. Early position leads out and gets a caller. I pot it and one guy calls. Turn is the spade, making me the 2nd nuts which I'm not thrilled about after he pots it with enough to put me all in. I hate it but I think I have to call as 70% of my stack is already in there. He shows the A high flush and I'm drawing to my full house redraw only. River bricks and I'm out.
I decide to take the rest of the day off as the downswing from the previous day has still got me in a pretty good funk. New plan: GET FUCKING HAMMERED. Hit the Bally's gaming floor, toss a 20 into the video poker and start the free drinks rolling in. I get myself completely hammered on tequila before leaving the seat, and then stumbled over to meet up with Card Dead who had just busted the PH daily. We walk the strip for a while, stopped in for a few more drinks. The bartender is nice enough to comp us Patron, so I can't help but do more shots. Glenn eventually turns in, I continue down the strip and have a few more beers. Eventually I feel myself getting a bit too wobbly and turn back for food and sleep. Managed to turn a shitty day into a great time, so I call it mission accomplished and turn in.
Last day and last chance at redemption. I've got one bullet left and it's going into the 2PM $250 Dealers Choice Goliath Event at PH. I run myself through a quick refresher course on 2-7 Triple Draw, as well as some basics for Stud-8. I'm comfortable enough with all of the games, though I certainly won't be a favorite at any of them.
This tourney turned out to be so much fun, probably my favorite of the trip. Had a great table draw with a bunch of really friendly guys. The game played like a home game it was so relaxed and enjoyable. We stuck to the limit games for the most part and had some really good laughs at the table as everyone including the dealers stumbled through the various games. I won a few pots at 2-7, and scooped a big pot in Stud 8 when I made an 8 high straight with the 86 low to go with it. Stayed table chip leader for a while, and then found a rolled up 444 on a new round of Stud 8. We get to fifth street and I've got 444T2 with my opponent showing KT. I've been firing and he's called down each time. He's got under 5k chips to start the hand (10k starting stacks, limits are 400 800) and eventually he realizes he's committed. We get it in and his lone pair of 10's is drawing really slim. Next two cards are safe, and there's no low anywhere… but when he gets his last down card he lights up as he flips it over: the last 10 in the deck. The table screams and I just smile. Son of a bitch. I've still got 8-9K but its back to the drawing board and the blinds are getting high. I see a few more hands that don't pan out and find myself with 5K left as we start another round of 2-7. I'm dealt A3478 on the button, raise and get two callers. They both draw 2 and I take one, receiving a 9 for the 98 low. I bet again and get called in both spots, all of our stacks are pretty even… but we've all basically got enough to play out this hand and that’s it. Both guys draw 2 again so I stand pat. (I'm not great at 2-7 but I think this is correct when they both draw 2?) First to act checks again, then the next guy fires. I have 2 bets left in my stack so I toss it in, and both players call - all of us are all in at this point. Now both of them stand pat! This is not good news at all… I know there is no way my 9 is good, so I throw it away and receive a face up 5… making me 34578 and giving a small piece of hope. It's not to be as I'm shown an 86 and an 85 - they both got there! Great tournament, easily the most fun of the trip, but would have been nice to cash of course!
I've got a few more hours to kill, so I take a walk down the strip, hit the north end as I hadn't made it down that way this trip. Actually ran into my Aunt at the Mirage, who I had no idea was down there... what are the odds of that?? And then head back to the Rio one last time, just to watch some of the pro's play. Made it just in time to watch Tuan Li take his second back to back win in the 10K 2-7 event at the TV table. Saw Elky win his heads up match in the round of 64. David Benyamine was playing the heads event as well, and Michael Mizrachi was there railing. Back to the Amazon Room, spotted Johnathan Duhammel playing the 1500 NL, and then got right up close to watch Negreanu play in the $1500 limit hold em. Bill Chen was at the next table over, Huck Seed came over to say hi as well. Eli Elezra was walking in as I left, just a quick nod as we passed. Was kind of a cool way to finish off the WSOP trip, and I hopped on the Rio to Bally's shuttle to call it a night.
All said and done, a great poker trip with less than great results. Had some good sessions, some less than good sessions... and a few badly played hands that I can learn from for sure. An absolute blast overall and can't wait to come back for WSOP 2016!
Comments
Pre-Regged for 5A, as well as pre-regged a Re-Entry in 5D. Current plan is to ship it.
Fly in the the 26th and staying at MGM for the first 2 nights. Going to play cash at Aria for sure, might mix in Event # 1 of the GPS at the nugget which is a $240 Limit Omaha Hi/Lo. Next room is at the Palms Place for 4 nights, where I'll hit the Rio for the WSOP Colossus as well as the dailies / cash games. Last two nights are at Ballys so I'll probably find myself at the Bellagio and Venetian, but keeping all options open for sure. Back to Canada on the 3rd so 8 days total, assuming the bankroll can withstand it!
Anyone else going make sure to meet up for a beer!
Not sure what else i'll play yet in terms of cash or other tourneys, but I'm there till the 3rd, so lots of time to dabble. I'd like to take a day and play downtown this trip. I always say I'm going to, but never do.
Staying at TI again.
WPT500 side events at Aria, its 150$ may 31. june 1, june 3.
venation deepstack may 29th 300$ 20k, june 2nd 300$ 20k
wsop event 5 on may 30th.
Also some 1/2NL
Since its my first time, what shows would you recommend as well as other activities?
I think i did my research of restaurants
Penn and Teller for sure
Helicopter tour was cool
Fountains at Bellagio / Volcano at Mirage are free
You can shoot guns or look at naked women, those are just off the strip if either interest you.
PS Greg said he really enjoyed "Thunder From Down Under" but I haven't seen it myself to comment...
Also just walking from casino to casino getting as many comped drinks as possible. Since its your first time make sure you learn this trick regardless!
Drive a race car.
One of these times I'll do this.
Yes this!! Jumped off last time, it's awesome!
Absinthe is a must see
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_LMibgpayF-S242Q0x3NHVUYTg/view
3 more levels till day 2, thank fuck.... Stayed up way too late last night waiting for the drunk at the 1/2 table to pay off. (Spoiler alert... He took my money)
Edit - busto 70th
Well done! I had meant to make it to Aria yesterday but needed sleep. I'll be checking into the Palms today and was going to grab my seat assignment for the Colossus, so the plan is to hit the Rio for a bit. There's a $235 at 3PM and a $185 at 6PM, so probably one of those, but I'll be playing cash games for the most part. Good chance I'll make it back onto the strip later as well. Let me know where you're gonna be, my options are wide open!
Had Mimi Tran seated on my right, didnt even recognize her for the first few levels!
Discovered a $250 8 game at PH, please PM stud8 tips!
May 26
Arrived to check into the MGM Grand at around Midnight. After dropping off my gear in the room, first stop is to toss in the obligatory 25 cent video poker bet to get a comped beer. I hit a flush on the one and only hand I played, so I'm already up 1.25 for the trip and with a beer in hand. Sweet! It's late, but it's off to Excalibur for what I remember as the Vegas equivalent of Bill's Video Shop Hold em.
Get to Excalibur and find only one table of 1/2 and one table of 2-6 spread limit, which I guess isn't a surprise on a Tuesday at 2AM. I get on the list for 1/2 and decide to sit in the limit game while I wait. It's pretty uneventful and I'm pretty much just fold a bunch of junk for what seemed like 4 or 5 full orbits. Finally I declare "fuck it" and decide that I'm going to win this next pot with my K9o. I bet the whole way and the board runs out 4 spades by the river. I'm called at showdown and he confidently flips over a 7 high flush. My 9 high flush wins a decent size pot, right as my seat opens at 1/2.
The last time I played at Excalibur was in 2008, and this game has all the elements I remember, just scaled down a bit. There isn't 3 drunk guys at the table, but there's 1. There isn't 3 "let’s try poker" guys, but there’s one. Then there's the one aggro guy pounding the raise button, making it 20-25 preflop pretty regularly, one super passive player who's providing his expert commentary on everyone's pre flop hand selection, and then top it off with a couple of "Excalibur regs" to round it out. I buy in for the 200max and both the drunk guy and the new guy were on my right. I had a few good chances to isolate them and was able to take down a few hands at showdown, but pretty much stayed flat for a while.
Fast forward to about 2 hours in and super aggro guy is first to act out of the SB after the button straddles. He calls the $5, as does 3 others behind him. I have A9s and decide to make it $21. Of course I get 3 callers. Flop comes 223 and aggro guy makes it $40, with another $130 or so behind. The other two fold, I ponder for a moment and decide he's probably light, just betting the paired board, and decide to ship it in his face for the rest. He tanks for 2-3 minutes, but finally calls with 88. Oops! Read was off, but not to worry... I hit the ace on the turn which sends him to the ATM.
Went card dead for a while after, taking me back to around $300 or so. My JJ lost to 78 when the turn was a second 8, but I should have found a fold on the turn after the reg called my c bet and then came alive on the turn. I ended up calling $30 on the turn followed by $50 on the river. Kicked myself on that one but I'm going to blame it on being up for 26 hours at this point.
Back to around even, I've been telling myself to wrap it up but the drunk guy is still drunk and I always find it hard to leave in those spots. I give myself the old "one more orbit" (for the 3rd or 4th time, at that.) He opens for $6 and gets 2 callers, and I raise to $19 with 77 and we get heads up. Flop is 235, I check and he slams down $15 - out of spite it seemed, since he had caught me watching for his reaction to the flop. I raise to $35 and he snap calls, so he's got at least a piece of it. Turn is another 5, I check this time and he fires again for $50. I call, and then check call another $30 on the river, he shows me Q5 for turned trips. NH sir. With his history at the table I'm confident that he continues to bet whether or not he turns the trips, so I’m not going to over think my play here. Finished off the orbit and cashed out for $114, so -86 for the first session. I turn in for a couple hours of sleep, plan is to try to get up for the Golden Nugget's $240 Limit Omaha Hi Lo at 11AM.
May 27
Got up around 10AM and hopped on the SDX bus up to Freemont. Late Regged about 45 min into the $240 Limit O8 tourney which is the first event in their "Grand Poker Series". The Nugget is surprisingly pretty nice inside, considering its location. "The Grand" is basically their big convention room, which had been converted into a poker room with around 70 tables or so for the series. Tourney was well run and the dealers were excellent (O8 can be torture for a bad dealer!) There were 65 players signed up when I arrived and by the time registration closed we had about 110 entries for a $22000 prize pool. The combination of Limit Poker and Lack of Sleep made for an interesting tourney, but I really enjoyed it and felt I played well, especially with O8 not being a super strong game for me. Played tight as hell, scooped a few pots and maintained a healthy stack until level 10 or so. Once the blinds hit 500/1000, my 20K stack was extremely vulnerable though, and sure enough a run of unplayable cards left me crippled. A slow death, out in 70th.
Decided to pop over to Binions who were just on the PA trying to fill the last seat in the 1/3 NL game, so I took it. I hadn't planned to play cash so I only had $230 on me, otherwise I wouldn't generally buy in short in this game. First hand I pick up QJ in the BB and call $9 to see an AJ2 flop 3 ways. I check with the intention of raising, but it just checks around. Turn is a 2, I bet out for $40 and get called. River blanks and I give up on the hand, he shows A2. In hindsight, I got a little too creative there, I think leading on the flop was probably better and saves me the bad turn bet. Next hand I've got $180 or so left and look down at A4s in the SB. Someone up front makes a small raise to $7 or so and 3 guys call, so I can't help but 3bet to $30. This turns out to be a bad idea as all of them call. I continue for $35 but next to act shoves and I fold. 3rd hand I have 66 against an open to $15. My stack is too short to do anything but shove, and I manage to get it in against AQ – a decent result. I'm quickly sent back to the bus stop when he hits his A on the flop.
Bussed it back to MGM where I enjoyed one of my comped buffets, not bad at all, not anything special for sure, but I enjoyed it. Catch a nap back at the room and the plan is to hit Aria afterwards for cash. Didn't get up from the nap though, passed the fuck out for a good 12 hours!
Got up and enjoyed my other free MGM buffet for breakfast. With "Fuck It" officially declared on the remainder of the weight loss challenge, I went deep. The highlight was plate #4 which was just a huge pile of pancakes, butter, syrup, and then a pile of ice cream on top. mmm. Checked out of the MGM and walked over to Aria.
Got on the waitlist for 1-3 PLO and was seated in about 45 min. The daily tournament which was supposed to take place outside the poker room was moved into the room, causing the delay and a huge crowd. I feel comfortable in PLO, but didn't figure to have a big edge playing at Aria, so I bought in a little short for $360. Stayed nice and tight for a bit, and eventually find AA34 with two hearts UTG. I limp and it makes it all the way around for an 8 way flop. I hit my set and it is checked to me, and I make it $20. 3 Callers and the turn brings a second heart. I check this time and next to act bets $50. Next guy flat calls, and I'm able to pot it for $220 or so. They fold and I take a half decent sized pot.
A few hands later I have 99JQ with J high clubs, and it gets raised up front to $20. We see a flop and it’s A9x with 2 clubs. First to act bets out for $50 and another guy calls. Since I'm a huge donkey, I pot it right into what should a lot of the time be AAxx, but the guy who should have had the AA folds, and the K high flush draw puts in the rest of his stack. Perfect! We run it twice, I hit quads on the first board and the set holds on the second.
Got a PM from Sn1perb0y who was staying at Aria as well, so we met up for a quick smoke. He's crushing the 1/3 NL game as expected, and we make plans to try and both get into the 6PM DeepStack at the WSOP. We'll chop when we inevitably get heads up, we jokingly agree.
Back to the PLO, no real playable hands for the next half hour or so, stay flat and eventually cash out for $900 – time to go check into the Palms.
Palms Place is fucking beautiful. Very impressed by the room, it was insane that this was a "cheap" booking. Only negative (and not really, since I knew of it ahead of time) was that the balcony was locked out, I guess too many drunks throw shit, or themselves, out on to the street. Still, I was super happy to have booked the Palms, I’ll definitely stay there again. I relax by the pool for an hour or so and it's off the Rio – which is a 5 minute air conditioned walk through the gold coast. Plan is to play the 6PM daily and to pick up my seat for Friday.
Arrived at the Rio and made my way to the WSOP area. What a feeling walking into that room for the first time. The place was packed with players, tables, and all you can hear is the beautiful sound of a million chips being shuffled. The $185 was uneventful, made it through about half the field, every once in a while scooping a small pot to keep the stack healthy. Eventually the blinds hit 400/800 (100) and I needed to make a move. I get my chance about an orbit into joining a new table. Hoody headphones and sunglass wearing guy from late position makes a pretty obvious blind steal - obvious not just from his stupid outfit, but because in the last orbit he had done the exact same thing and showed 62o when called by the SB. He makes it 1900 and grandpa in the SB flats. Both guys cover me by just a few chips and I look down at T9s. My options are to defend or shove, but with hoody guy just giving chips away, and with grandpa not showing much interest in the hand, I ship it in for the re-steal. Hoody guy snap folds as expected, but the old guy thinks for a few seconds and then calls, he's got AK! I'm live but don't improve, and sent packing.
I take a walk through the rest of the WSOP areas, quite an experience and the amazon room in particular was very cool. The TV table for event 1 was down to heads up, and the $5000 NL event 2 was down to 35 ish. Ran in to Phil Helmuth who was just there to rail a friend that was still in. Got to shake hands and say hi, which was pretty cool – I regret not taking a picture but he seemed to be there just to watch and not accommodate tourists!
Stayed there to watch for a bit longer, then headed back towards the exit where on the way out I spotted Jason Somerville still playing in the 3k NL Shootout, heads up versus Kathy Liebert. JCarver is one of my all-time favorites so this was really cool. Considered stalking him until the break for a picture, but figured that would be a little creepy. Watched those two play heads up for a bit, then decided to take the opportunity to pick up my colossus seat assignment, hoping that the INSANE lineup had died down a bit.
This next part put me on mega tilt. All I can say is wow, WSOP pre-registration is a fucking joke. The line for pre-reg pickup was, with no exaggeration, 50 times longer than the line for just buying a seat from the cage. I literally could have bought my seat in the same 10 minute lineup that I regged for the daily in... Meanwhile the lineup for the will call stretched from the WSOP area all the way back to the Rio lobby. I asked a guy getting close to the front of the line how long he'd been waiting... 3 hours! What the fuck was the point of pre-registering??? I decide that there is no way I'm waiting in that shit, and headed to the cage to buy another seat, (the pre-reg would be auto-refunded later) This line was moving nice and quick, until the clock hit midnight and literally every cage teller except one packed up their shit and went home. Pretty brutal but was still better than the other line, so I wait it out just trying not to stew. Others in the line start getting impatient and yelling, LOL. Eventually get to the front and they tell me that they don't have access to the funds that I wired down from this particular cage, so I shell out another $565 and get registered for Flight 5B. The bright side is that at least I know if I decimate my bankroll, I'll still have some cash locked up in the Rio!
So anyway, I won't let that absolutely awful registration experience get me down, I'm regged and ready to play in this crap shoot of colossal proportions.
On the way back to the palms I notice an empty 1/3 seat in the regular (non WSOP) poker room, and decide to test a theory. I'm thinking that if all the "poker players" are over in the WSOP rooms, maybe this game will be super soft. Well, it was. This was a really fun game and felt like a drunk $20 home game it was so loose. I had to basically nit it up with how crazy it was, but I was getting tons of value when I did wake up with a hand. One guy would just call down to the river with everything, and then call on the end if he had anything resembling a piece of it. Another guy would snap call for stacks with flush draws (he nailed at least two other guys at the table hitting it.) Couldn't walk away from this one, I played until around 530AM and when the two worst players finally busted I cashed out. It was a bit swingy overall, I was in for $300, went all the way down to $70 at one point (and didn't have another buy in on me due to the WSOP reg) but ended up cashing out $470 for the session. Bedtime!
I'm actually super happy that I didn't have to wake up for the 10AM Colossus flight. Got up around 11 and hit breakfast, followed by the Palms pool again. Around 2PM I decide to hit the Rio for some cash until the tournament starts.
The Rio cash game is amazing again, unfortunately it didn't go well for me. A few hands in I get 99 and make it $20, it goes 5 ways to the flop. 346hh. First to act just open ships it for $250. The way this game plays, I assume he's got a pair plus flush draw or pair plus straight draw… or even less, attacking the $100 in the pot. He shouldn't really have 25o... right? Well, he does have it… and there goes buy in # 1. In hindsight, he outplayed me on that one, milking the sucker tourist when he knows I've got an overpair. I reload back to $300 and stay pretty quiet for a while, hoping to capitalize on how fast these guys are playing. Couldn't get any hands and at around 5:15 they went on the PA announcing that the room was being shut down in 15min, as the tables were being taken over by the Colossus. People start going NUTS (even more nuts than it already was...) its $25 8 ways to the flop every hand, people open shoving preflop, etc. etc. In the madness I have AJ on an A5x flop and when he shoves I feel like I have to call. He's got A5 and there goes the second buy in.
I've now got 1.5 hours to get off tilt for the start of the colossus. I grab some food and head back to the WSOP area. Ran into Jason Somerville who was just bagging his chips, still rolling in the 3K shootout. Got to shake his hand and say hi, and he tells me make sure I go “RUN IT UP!” That was a pretty cool experience as well, and perfect timing as it did help with the steaming. I'm ready to go so I grab my seat!
Mimi Tran is seated to my right, which is funny because even though she looked familiar, it took a couple levels before I realized it was her. We talked about a few hands as we played and about the WSOP in general, pretty cool.
Didn't get any real hands for a while. Was able to 3bet squeeze A4s to take down a small pot preflop, and picked off a guy who was taking a weak stab on the flop for another small pot. Had AKs and hit a K on the flop, was able to get all 3 streets of value vs KJ, so my stack is healthy at about 7000. After those hands I go back to playing tight to build the image back up. I later pick up AQ and see a Q high flop, and end up check calling 3 streets vs KK for about 3000 total. That one stung, but there was no folding, this guy had been forced to show down a big bluff earlier and I had taken note. He gets my whole stack there if he wants it. Stack is around 3800 now and I bleed for a bit, taking me down to 3000 with the blinds at 150-300. Pick up 55 against a button raise to 600 and a call from Mimi Tran in the SB. I think for a second and then ship it, hoping to take it down preflop or worst case race it off for a doubleup. He snaps with TT and that is the end of the line for me. I think shoving is OK here?
Hit the pool in the morning and it's off to the Rio to meet Card Dead. Wait list for cash at WSOP is still insane, so we check Bravo Poker to find a game on the strip. Vegas poker is just RAMMED with everyone in town for the Colossus - there are over 200 people on the WSOP list, 200+ at Aria, 200+ at Bellagio, 100+ in other rooms, and so on. We catch a break as Planet Hollywood has only 30 people on the list, the smallest in Vegas at the time. It moves pretty quickly and we're seated in about 40 minutes. Bonus of going to PH is that we discover a few awesome looking tournaments while we're waiting. Glenn ditches his late entry Colossus seat with plans to play in the "Goliath" instead, and I notice a $150 PLO for Monday and a $250 Dealers Choice 8-game for Tuesday. Those are getting played for sure!
I start off on one table and flop a full house 2-3 hands in, managing to get around $150 out of some flopped trips. I see a seat open at Glenn's table, so I apologize for the hit and run and take the seat.
At the table watching is a drunk girl who's rambling on and on. She's pretty annoying but no one is really saying anything as she's there watching one of the guys at the table. When her "boyfriend" gets up to leave it becomes apparent that she wasn't even there with anyone, just mooching comped drinks from the poker room! The whole table picks on her a little bit Card Dead makes a few speculations as to how she got that $4000 Louis Vuitton purse, which went right over her head. Hilarious. She eventually gets way too annoying to handle, so when she gets up to go the bathroom we ship the extra chair back into the middle of the room. We basically ignore her when she comes back and she finally disappears. LOL.
Our table starts off really tight, including a real "nit's row" about 6 players long. Lot of small pots are won preflop without much action, picture 6 young versions of compuease, all sitting in a row. Actually kind of sucked, and we try everything from needling them, straddling, ordering drinks to the table, but they aren't loosening up. Gradually they leave and are replaced by some casual players… and all of a sudden the game gets real juicy. One guy sits down and hits a Royal his first hand, triggering a MXM style bag pull resulting in an $800 jackpot. We take that opportunity to order another round of shots to the table. They made him keep the $800 on the table though, so he got nervous and took off 2 hands later.
Anyway, we've officially got ourselves a good loose game. A couple guys are folding too much and I'm able to take advantage, and a couple of guys are calling too much and I take advantage as well. Card Dead takes a couple of sick beats, both times holding a set with 88. He's down 2 full buyins early on, but it wasn't avoidable. A weak tight Japanese guy is sitting with $1100 now and there's another $900 stack next to him, so when a seat opens up on their left I snatch it up. Glenn pops in the 3rd bullet and it doesn't take him long to get back to even. 3-4 hours in and I'm sitting with around $800, and Glenn is now on my left with around the same. The big stack to my right cashes out, and that's when our new friend "Jeff" sits down at the table with $100. Jeff proceeds to 1. Order a steady stream of Newcastle Brown Ale's, 2. Tell us every single aspect of his life story, at full volume, and 3. Draw/call down with 6 high flushes, weak pairs, and just crap in general. Thankfully he gets real lucky against a few guys at the table and is up to around $500 within the first hour. Amazing. He's on my right and the ear beating that I'm taking, in the name of keeping a happy customer, is to the point of driving us all insane... but I'm determined to get this stack. Card Dead takes off around 2AM but I decide to stick it out.
Relatively flat for a while and I finally get my chance at the drunk-stack around 4AM. I've got T7s and it goes the standard multi way $7 to the flop. K89 rainbow giving me an open ender. I check and it's raised up to $15, Jeff and I both call. Turn is another 8, I check and the original raiser bets out. Poor Jeff raises it up to $50, for the first time he’s raised all night. I'm 1000% sure that he's got an 8, and I'm also 1000% sure that a good sized overbet on the river will be called down if I hit. I call and the river is a glorious J for the straight. He bets out for another $50, I take a few seconds and make it $175. He calls with the 8 and is shocked that it isn’t good. The pot comes my way and I'm up over $1K now, sweet!
He's still got $200, so as much as I want to cash out, I'm not going anywhere. Unfortunately this was my downfall. I pick up KK a few orbits later. Jeff raises to $30 and may as well have just yelled out "I LOVE MY HAND!" and all I can think is, here comes the rest of the stack. I raise it to $75, leaving him enough room to shove over top if he has it in him. Next thing I know, young kid 2 spots to my left just ships it in for like $450! Jeff gets away from his hand for the first time in history, and I snap of course with my KK. The all in player turns over AQo (!?!) and Jeff shows his folded AK. Music to my ears and the flop and turn are all safe. “Fucking river” brings the A and I take a major hit. Back down to $550. Eventually the drunk gets stacked 3-4 more times, to the point of asking people at the table for a $100 loan (to be paid back by mail, "I swear to god"). We get the whole story… he needs car repair money… he was trying to win his rent playing poker… etc. etc. Real sad scene, but eventually he is asked to leave. There are obviously no takers on his loan.
Few hands later my TT falls to JJ for another $150 and at 6AM, I had 3bet it pre and then called off vs a small stack who shoved on a K high flop. I don't hate my play there, but I do recognize that the table dynamic has changed again. These fresh guys will get the best of me I am sure, so I decide to finish my orbit and go. Last hand I have QJ on a Q9x board, bet $40, and the turn is the J. I check it to a fairly aggressive regular but he doesn’t fire. The river brings a T putting the 4 straight on board. He bets $100 on the end and I know I'm beat. Unfortunately through some twisted 6AM logic I convinced myself that he had bluffs in his range due to my turn/river checks. When I look back at the hand, the turn check was awful as well. After that terrible call and I get up immediately to cash out for $500. Still up $200 for the session, but what a disaster.
Make it back to the Palms for 7AM and it's time to crash. Up for noon with options wide open.
Up in the morning and another 1/2 hour at the pool to get things started. Call down to the Bellagio poker room and get on the list, and cab it over. I get there about an hour after calling and the list has barely moved, they tell me 3 hours. Bellagio connects to Monte Carlo via Tram so I pop into thee MC poker room who has an open seat right away. Sit down for $300 and can't really get anything going. After bleeding away down to $200 or so, I top up to $300 again and have the same issue for the next hour. I top up one more time and have a fresh $300 stack, now in for $500.
The gentlemen 3 seats to the left of me has been making it $20 to see a flop every hand, and is getting action. He would make it $20, then bomb the flop every time, and it’s working. I keep my eye on this guy to see if I can pick up on anything. I notice in one of the hands he gets called (and stacked) with no pair no draw, holding 84o after the usual $20 pre flop raise and mashing the flop. He buys back in and continues the same way. I notice in another hand that when he didn't make it $20 (only $9 instead) he showed down A10, and limped AK another time. I decide that, right or wrong, he's only doing this with has bad hands, and I am going to pick this fucker off. I've been playing tight so it works with my current table image. He makes it $20 as expected, and I make it $55 with QJo. I felt this was a good candidate – I'd let him do the betting if I had better, and don't really want to play too much worse. He snaps in another $60 on top of my $55, with a "get out of here kid" kind of look. There's $135 in the pot and after the $60 I have another $220 or so to raise him. I stick to the script... represent a monster... and jam it. He snap calls with AA and I feel like an idiot. "The one time you actually have a hand, eh" I say and he laughs with a bit of a "yeah I know" look.
I don't want to buy in short so I decide to go hit my room for a reload, but remember that I still have my pre-reg refunds from the Colossus to pick up. That will do, I figure, so it's back to the Rio. Lineup on this one was actually very smooth, and they give me the $1100 without issue. The WSOP cash tables have finally died down enough to get on the list, and luckily enough a bunch of new tables are opened right as I walk up.
Seated to my right is a guy named Eric from Philadelphia. A real character and genuine nice guy. "I'm going out for a joint" he says, and I crack a joke like "coming right behind you!”... "Let’s go" he says, so we go out and burn one. I'm high out of my mind, but I feel right at home. There's a giant dude sitting to our right who's playing similar to the guy from the Monte Carlo. Raise $15-20 pre and then pound the flop regardless. He'd continue barrel when checked to, and would always overbet the pot. He'd won so many pots uncontested that I never really got to see if he was just on a super heater or if he was a legit maniac, but he continues this way. Eric and I crack some jokes back and forth as to which one of us is going to win his stack.
I end up playing two big pots against this guy. In the first, I’ve got a BB special 63s as the $15 gets called around 5 ways. Flop is 45J. Turn is another 4 and he lets the check through for once. River is the 7, making me the straight. He bets out for $40 and I make it $120, my reasoning being thinking I could get value out of a 4 - I had seen him float flop bets with middle pair in 2 other hands earlier. It was still a little too thin to go for value on my part I think, I call there against most opponents. He ships it on me and I don’t get away from it… he shows me 55 for the boat.
I get my chance at redemption a bit later, when my 77 connects with the 7J8 board. He overbets again as expected. I call, turn is a 2 and he fires again for $100. Perfect. Against most opponents I am raising at this point as the board is a bit nasty, but I've got position and with his tendency to throw money into the pot I'm letting him punish himself one more time. Turn is a T, probably the worst card ever, but I can't fold against this player when he puts his last $130 into the pot. He's got J9 for the rivered straight, and I'm stewing in my own misery.
I bleed a bit more for a bit, nothing specific but can't get anything going. Next thing I know Kevin and Christine from Irunit4times' games make it over and both get seated at my table. Kevin quickly runs up to well over 1K, and Christine is hammered and is betting out of control. She's on her third $300 bullet within the first 5 minutes, then up to like $1000 after she sucks out in a 3 way pot. I top up my stack to $250. She then proceeds to stack me in a weird hand in which I hit top pair with A8. Interesting floor decision on this one. It was on me, I had chips in my hand and was just moving my arm forward to bet them, when she shipped it on me. I hadn't even set them on the table yet, so I pull my arm back and say "check!" The dealer calls the floor to decide, and he rules that I must bet the amount that I had in my hand. I was probably going with it either way, but with them making me put like $70 in I call off the rest. Board runs out and she shows me two pair, and I'm pretty sure the second pair came after we got it in. They felt bad about the suckout and throw me over a freeroll $100 - but I can't make anything of it. I'm busto for the night and head back to the room. GG.
Get up in time to check out and move over to Ballys. Room is just OK, but great for the price. I head over to PH again and reg for the 2PM $150 Goliath PLO event. The table is really soft and you can tell not a lot of PLO experience. A few ladies are drawing at any flush, one or two pairs at showdown, etc. There are also 2 players who definitely know what they are doing. One guy open folded QQ on a Q4AA2 board, and was shown quad A's. I got into a good pot with the other one but we had the same full house. A few hands later I'm dealt KsQsJ8 and we see a Q8x board with two spades. Early position leads out and gets a caller. I pot it and one guy calls. Turn is the spade, making me the 2nd nuts which I'm not thrilled about after he pots it with enough to put me all in. I hate it but I think I have to call as 70% of my stack is already in there. He shows the A high flush and I'm drawing to my full house redraw only. River bricks and I'm out.
I decide to take the rest of the day off as the downswing from the previous day has still got me in a pretty good funk. New plan: GET FUCKING HAMMERED. Hit the Bally's gaming floor, toss a 20 into the video poker and start the free drinks rolling in. I get myself completely hammered on tequila before leaving the seat, and then stumbled over to meet up with Card Dead who had just busted the PH daily. We walk the strip for a while, stopped in for a few more drinks. The bartender is nice enough to comp us Patron, so I can't help but do more shots. Glenn eventually turns in, I continue down the strip and have a few more beers. Eventually I feel myself getting a bit too wobbly and turn back for food and sleep. Managed to turn a shitty day into a great time, so I call it mission accomplished and turn in.
Last day and last chance at redemption. I've got one bullet left and it's going into the 2PM $250 Dealers Choice Goliath Event at PH. I run myself through a quick refresher course on 2-7 Triple Draw, as well as some basics for Stud-8. I'm comfortable enough with all of the games, though I certainly won't be a favorite at any of them.
This tourney turned out to be so much fun, probably my favorite of the trip. Had a great table draw with a bunch of really friendly guys. The game played like a home game it was so relaxed and enjoyable. We stuck to the limit games for the most part and had some really good laughs at the table as everyone including the dealers stumbled through the various games. I won a few pots at 2-7, and scooped a big pot in Stud 8 when I made an 8 high straight with the 86 low to go with it. Stayed table chip leader for a while, and then found a rolled up 444 on a new round of Stud 8. We get to fifth street and I've got 444T2 with my opponent showing KT. I've been firing and he's called down each time. He's got under 5k chips to start the hand (10k starting stacks, limits are 400 800) and eventually he realizes he's committed. We get it in and his lone pair of 10's is drawing really slim. Next two cards are safe, and there's no low anywhere… but when he gets his last down card he lights up as he flips it over: the last 10 in the deck. The table screams and I just smile. Son of a bitch. I've still got 8-9K but its back to the drawing board and the blinds are getting high. I see a few more hands that don't pan out and find myself with 5K left as we start another round of 2-7. I'm dealt A3478 on the button, raise and get two callers. They both draw 2 and I take one, receiving a 9 for the 98 low. I bet again and get called in both spots, all of our stacks are pretty even… but we've all basically got enough to play out this hand and that’s it. Both guys draw 2 again so I stand pat. (I'm not great at 2-7 but I think this is correct when they both draw 2?) First to act checks again, then the next guy fires. I have 2 bets left in my stack so I toss it in, and both players call - all of us are all in at this point. Now both of them stand pat! This is not good news at all… I know there is no way my 9 is good, so I throw it away and receive a face up 5… making me 34578 and giving a small piece of hope. It's not to be as I'm shown an 86 and an 85 - they both got there! Great tournament, easily the most fun of the trip, but would have been nice to cash of course!
I've got a few more hours to kill, so I take a walk down the strip, hit the north end as I hadn't made it down that way this trip. Actually ran into my Aunt at the Mirage, who I had no idea was down there... what are the odds of that?? And then head back to the Rio one last time, just to watch some of the pro's play. Made it just in time to watch Tuan Li take his second back to back win in the 10K 2-7 event at the TV table. Saw Elky win his heads up match in the round of 64. David Benyamine was playing the heads event as well, and Michael Mizrachi was there railing. Back to the Amazon Room, spotted Johnathan Duhammel playing the 1500 NL, and then got right up close to watch Negreanu play in the $1500 limit hold em. Bill Chen was at the next table over, Huck Seed came over to say hi as well. Eli Elezra was walking in as I left, just a quick nod as we passed. Was kind of a cool way to finish off the WSOP trip, and I hopped on the Rio to Bally's shuttle to call it a night.
All said and done, a great poker trip with less than great results. Had some good sessions, some less than good sessions... and a few badly played hands that I can learn from for sure. An absolute blast overall and can't wait to come back for WSOP 2016!