Nurse Holiday's Long Overdue VEGAAS TRIP REPORT - part 1
Hey folks...apologies for being so tardy ... went to vegas end of August for 4 days and am just now feeling up to making a contribution on the forum again. Hope you enjoy the ramblings - if your expectations aren't too high, you might not be dissapointed.
General background info - went Monday - Friday and stayed at the I.P. (Imperial Palace). Started off on a downer - got off the plane, saw a man about a horse, and proceeded to taxi line. Bad beat #1 - line was 45 minutes long - HUGE convention in town (even by LV standards apparently) and almost all taxis were at the convention
center. One or 2 at a time would straggle into the lot... BRUTAL. Should have hired a limo...note to self.
Plan was to play as many tourneys as humanly and financially possible at a number of different rooms - I wanted to try 4 or 5 places out for comparison. Proceed to Tourney #1
Flamingo Hilton for $55 freezeout, 30 player max. You start with $1000 in chips, blinds are 25/50 i believe to start, and the top 3 are paid 50-30-20.
Was with 3 buddies and 2 of them were signed up to play also. The other guy isn't a poker player so he was just going to watch. But they were calling for 1 more player and he got the itch. My other 2 buddies told him to play, he asked me and I said I thought it a poor idea - I had encouraged him to read Dave's book before the trip but don't think he did. So in other words, he was basically a complete poker virgin other than what he garnered from watching TSN and the Score. So against my better judgement he pays his $55 and the cards are in the air. AND on the very first hand at the table behind me, where one of my buddies AND MR. WET-BEHIND-THE-EARS (WBTE) are playing, there is a huge commotion. BUddy # 1 gets my attention and says "WBTE is ALL IN!! FIRST HAND!!". I have folded so I get up and walk over to the other table to see WBTE and 2 other players all in on the first hand. Good grief. As it turns out, WBTE and another guy made boats and chopped up the other dude. So after one hand WBTE is at 1500 chips or so and is the tourney co- leader. WOW. IF he just plays tight ABC now he has a chance to at least progress and maybe get some good experience for his entry fee.
And then about 10 minutes later Buddy#1 says "WBTE is ALL IN AGAIN!!" and I said WTF....so I go over to see him roll over 4 7 suited (clubs). This is why he shouldn't have been playing. So when his hand (somewhat surprisingly) doesn't hold up, he is eliminated and I ask him "what were you thinking??" His response was that he had a really good feeling, no, more than that, he was CERTAIN, that 3 clubs were coming on the flop. I never asked, but I suspect he mgiht also have been one of the many that bought Nortel stock at $100 a few years back. Anyhow, he was done and I went back to work.
I don't have any real hands to talk about ... made a few steals, dragged a few good pots, and snuck my way to the final table. We begin the table with a few micro stacks and they drop real fast. We're quickly down to 6, with me SOLIDLY in fourth. Two monster stacks, 3rd has about double my stack, and 5th and 6th are small stacks, tight players (both elderly) being blinded away. I will finish fourth (which pays the same as 2nd in the presidential race - ask Al Gore how it feels) unless I make a move or someone else really screws up. And 3rd stack is folding everything, so I will need to make a play to move up (and the chip leaders are both playing the big stacks very aggressively - no limping for me.) So after a few orbits of 2 7 off and 10 3 off, I get 56 suited in the cutoff. The 2 big stacks miraculously fold to me, and with the tight old lady (hasn't played anything at the final table and is literally blinding to death) on my left on the button, I push all in. My only fear is the SB calling me (3rd place guy has me covered) but even then I may get lucky and double through. But I really just want to steal his blind and the Big BLind (tight old guy in 5th). Anyhow, folded to BB who decides to call all in for all the marbles. He rolls over A 9 off and I say "I didn't really want a call" as I table my small suited conncectors. The board does not help me, and I am now in 5th place but will be all in on my BB in 3 hands (if not sooner) and likely out in 6th before the Queen Mother kicks the bucket. As it happens, I did go out 6th - oh well, 4th would have been worse - at least I gave it a shot. Anyone disagree with my steal attempt?
Day 2 of trip report to be posted later today...........
General background info - went Monday - Friday and stayed at the I.P. (Imperial Palace). Started off on a downer - got off the plane, saw a man about a horse, and proceeded to taxi line. Bad beat #1 - line was 45 minutes long - HUGE convention in town (even by LV standards apparently) and almost all taxis were at the convention
center. One or 2 at a time would straggle into the lot... BRUTAL. Should have hired a limo...note to self.
Plan was to play as many tourneys as humanly and financially possible at a number of different rooms - I wanted to try 4 or 5 places out for comparison. Proceed to Tourney #1
Flamingo Hilton for $55 freezeout, 30 player max. You start with $1000 in chips, blinds are 25/50 i believe to start, and the top 3 are paid 50-30-20.
Was with 3 buddies and 2 of them were signed up to play also. The other guy isn't a poker player so he was just going to watch. But they were calling for 1 more player and he got the itch. My other 2 buddies told him to play, he asked me and I said I thought it a poor idea - I had encouraged him to read Dave's book before the trip but don't think he did. So in other words, he was basically a complete poker virgin other than what he garnered from watching TSN and the Score. So against my better judgement he pays his $55 and the cards are in the air. AND on the very first hand at the table behind me, where one of my buddies AND MR. WET-BEHIND-THE-EARS (WBTE) are playing, there is a huge commotion. BUddy # 1 gets my attention and says "WBTE is ALL IN!! FIRST HAND!!". I have folded so I get up and walk over to the other table to see WBTE and 2 other players all in on the first hand. Good grief. As it turns out, WBTE and another guy made boats and chopped up the other dude. So after one hand WBTE is at 1500 chips or so and is the tourney co- leader. WOW. IF he just plays tight ABC now he has a chance to at least progress and maybe get some good experience for his entry fee.
And then about 10 minutes later Buddy#1 says "WBTE is ALL IN AGAIN!!" and I said WTF....so I go over to see him roll over 4 7 suited (clubs). This is why he shouldn't have been playing. So when his hand (somewhat surprisingly) doesn't hold up, he is eliminated and I ask him "what were you thinking??" His response was that he had a really good feeling, no, more than that, he was CERTAIN, that 3 clubs were coming on the flop. I never asked, but I suspect he mgiht also have been one of the many that bought Nortel stock at $100 a few years back. Anyhow, he was done and I went back to work.
I don't have any real hands to talk about ... made a few steals, dragged a few good pots, and snuck my way to the final table. We begin the table with a few micro stacks and they drop real fast. We're quickly down to 6, with me SOLIDLY in fourth. Two monster stacks, 3rd has about double my stack, and 5th and 6th are small stacks, tight players (both elderly) being blinded away. I will finish fourth (which pays the same as 2nd in the presidential race - ask Al Gore how it feels) unless I make a move or someone else really screws up. And 3rd stack is folding everything, so I will need to make a play to move up (and the chip leaders are both playing the big stacks very aggressively - no limping for me.) So after a few orbits of 2 7 off and 10 3 off, I get 56 suited in the cutoff. The 2 big stacks miraculously fold to me, and with the tight old lady (hasn't played anything at the final table and is literally blinding to death) on my left on the button, I push all in. My only fear is the SB calling me (3rd place guy has me covered) but even then I may get lucky and double through. But I really just want to steal his blind and the Big BLind (tight old guy in 5th). Anyhow, folded to BB who decides to call all in for all the marbles. He rolls over A 9 off and I say "I didn't really want a call" as I table my small suited conncectors. The board does not help me, and I am now in 5th place but will be all in on my BB in 3 hands (if not sooner) and likely out in 6th before the Queen Mother kicks the bucket. As it happens, I did go out 6th - oh well, 4th would have been worse - at least I gave it a shot. Anyone disagree with my steal attempt?
Day 2 of trip report to be posted later today...........
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