The Real Vegas Trip Report

[mhoward29 0]

Way to go champ. I'm in Seattle. Need a mentor? Way to win.

You have 86 posts... I do need someone to teach me the ways of online poker. So different that live. I would gladly mentor someone to play live if they did the same for me online.

[UncleBill 0]

Congrats on the great trip, and thank you for solving my dilemma about which steakhouse to hit on my next visit.

[mhoward29 0]

Congrats on the great trip, and thank you for solving my dilemma about which steakhouse to hit on my next visit.

It was $80 for the 40oz Rib Eye for two. I suggest that if you have someone with you. And the loaded mashed potatoes were awesome. So were the lobster potatoes.

[BB2844 0]

Ok now for the real thing.SUNDAYGet to Vegas Sunday around 2pm. Get to hotel with my wife and my buddies gf. He is already in Vegas and is taking a rental car back so we wait, and wait, and wait some more. He gets to the hotel around 5:30pm (I was down playin single deck $10 BJ). So I need to reg for a tourney cuz it was really the only chance I had at a decent deep stack tourney because of our schedule.So we go to Caesars and check out their 7pm $150 + 25. Structure not so great but 40min rounds. My buddy happens to have the Venetian $180 8pm second chance tourney sheet on him. I check it out and its a way better structure. All the 600-1200, 800-1600 levels are in there. It had 30min rounds but I still liked it alot better. I really like that and you started with 4500. This was a second chance tourney for the Deep stack extravaganza (which I highly recommend if you have 12+hrs to kill, best structure in Vegas). So we start with 50 people (5 tables) and I believe 8 alternates came in after people busted. I guess the Friday and Saturday night 2nd chance tourneys had about 100.I work my stack up to about 10k when before I know it we are down to 3 tables. So I pick up some blinds and antes here and there and get up to about 12k when I got lucky my first and only time in the tourney. I pick up AQss in the SB. UTG makes it 3xbb to go. I smooth call and we are HU. Flop Q 7 2 rainbow. I bet a third of my stack, he shoves, I take forever just knowing he has AA or KK. I tell him that he has KK and I have AQ and with all the blinds/antes and moneys out there I cant muck but I still take forever to make the call. I was getting the right price for sure. He had KK and BOOM Ac on the turn. I think Im the only person in poker that really does feel back when I suck out on someone like that. Straight and flush draws when I hit I dont care, but something like that ya I felt bad for him. He was hyper-aggro though so he really could have had anything there. That was the only time I put my money in with the worst of it the entire tourney.Now Im one of the top two stacks and it was so deep blinds and antes arent effecting me for awhile. A couple of hands later I pick up AJ on the button. UTG is chip leader (so we thought). He raises 4xbb. I call and flop is J 5 6. I lead and he just calls. Opps, before I continue this guy was a luckbox. I heard he called all in into a 4 way pot with a gutter ball and hit to get his chips. He was NOT a good player. Ok, he calls. Turn 5. I check knowing he doesnt have a 5 so I think that is a good card for me. He checks behind. River 5. I check trying to enduce a bet. He shoves. I take about 15sec and call while flipping up my hand saying "Hope you done have A 5." He flips up an A. My heart sinks. Then he goes to flip up the other card and instead of flipping it he mucks it. I ended up having 2k more than him somehow. Now I have a huge lead and we have two tables left and are playing 7 handed on each table.I really dont do much else besides being aggresive on weakness no matter what I was holding. The other players knocked each other out and we are to the FT.I lose a couple of pots, some notibles are AK<AJ on a A 10 6 board. J on river we get it all in on the turn. Really didnt effect me though cuz they didnt have much. I had 99 and put a guy all in PF, he had A 10 and called and spiked an A for a decent sized pot.So here is the hand of the tourney. 7 people left, top 5 getting paid. $2.5k for first, $2k 2nd, 1.5k 3rd, 1k 4th and 500 5th. These are just rounded off, the were each a little more than this. A brit who was loud and annoying and wouldnt shut up is to my left. This is the first hand after a 10min break. Im in SB, him in BB. For some reason I look at my cards right away when I get them dealt for the first and only time in the tourney, KK. This brit is also hyper aggro and has about 60% of the chips that I do. The first thing that flashes in my head is limp in the SB if it is folded to you cuz I know he is pushing no matter what because I was card dead before the break for awhile and was mucking my blinds regularly to raises and I know the brit was paying attention to that. So it is folded to me and I do as I say and limp and say as I toss in a single 1k chip (blinds were 1k/2k) "I guess we can play some civilized poker here" and he says "not me Im all-in" instantly. I say, "I knew you were going to do that and flipped up my KK and called. He had 88, way better than I thought he could have. Flop blanks and he gets up to leave upset. Turn blanks and he starts to walk. River, ya you guessed it. 8 of spades. OUCH. I take this pot I have well over half the chips at the FT with 6 left. Lots of people around the final table and they all made the "oooooooooooooh!!" sound. I was the only one that didnt make a sound. I tossed in my ante and was ready for the next hand, not saying a word.Im about 3rd-4th in chips now and card dead but I manage to still go with my reads and pick up weakness and those wonderful blinds and antes. I guess I worked my way up more than I thought doing that. We knock out 7th place and are down to 6. I make a suggestion that we pay 6th place something and we all agree on $250 with a piece coming off each place by a %. So we play til the next break and my pregnant wife is tired and her ankles are swollen (she is the one wanting to go to Vegas so dont think im a horrible husband!!) so I suggest that we chop it up by chipstack % at the break. Floorman comes and says ok one more hand cuz it was only a minute til break. I pick up AKhh on button and pick up 2 limpers and the blinds and antes. That was good cuz it put me into 2nd. We split the money by % and 1st got $2100 (the brit, nice 8), me $1550 and Im not sure about the rest. I know 3rd was <$200 from me cuz we were really close in chips.MONDAYWe get up and walk to TI to pick up cirque de sole mystere tickets for that night. My wife said she was done walking for the trip so we taxi to the bellagio. Grab a bite and I go to play some limit. I ask what they have going in their mid-high limit area and they say $15-30, $30-60 and $100-200 but they are all full but they are starting up a $8-16. So I take it and have a seat. I buy in for $300. It is around 1:30pm and we have to be back to our room at 4:30 so my wife can get ready for dinner and the show. So I play til then and cash out $650, making some nice calls with second pair a couple of time just off reads. Also re-raising a european on the river with A5dd on a 10 2 2 9 10 board knowing that my A was good he mucked and I said "Q J no good" and he grabbed his cards before the dealer could get them and showed Q J. Nice. Oh also another good hand I had 10 10 on the button 5 limps I raise, SB folds, BB and all 5 limpers call. Flop Ah 10h 8. BB bet, two callers from the limpers and I raise. BB 3 bet and everyone calls?? I 4 bet and they all call. Turn was the most beautiful card ever. The 8h. Making the flush and my boat. BB bets, all but one limper folds and I smooth call. River 10! I actually hate the card cuz I think it kills my action. BB bets, limper raises, I 3 bet and they both call. BB had nut flush, limper had an 8.So we get ready and taxi to the Palms for dinner. We had a 6pm dinner reservation at N9NE steakhouse at the Palms. Best steak I have ever had. I orders Oysters Rockefeller for the table but asked that they just be cooked with garlic and butter and a side of tabasco. They were very nice. My wife and buddies gf ordered the surf and turf (8oz filet with a lobster tail and lobster mashed potatoes). My buddy and I ordered the 40oz Rib eye for two. The brought it out already slices around the bone and left the best meat still on the bone. It was soooo good. We also got the death wish potatoes (mashed potatoes with everything you can think of in them). After all that and about 7 grey goose martini's it was a $320 bill. We left $400 cash and went to the show. The show was good and it was for my wife. She loves those shows down there.After the show we go to the room and change and head over to the bellagio again. I sit in the same 8-16 limit game, make a couple of great calls and cash out almost 500, starting with 300 and the game breaks. As soon as it broke two seats opened in the 15-30 game so we took them. I played pretty well. I bought in for 500 and cashed out 900. My buddy cashed out 1200, taking down a couple of nice pots. My wife said she needed to get back to the room so we left around 3am. I had enough grey goose and cranberry juice for the night anyway so we left. We had to check out at noon the next day.TUESDAYGet out of the room at noon. Grab a bite for breakfast and I play some $10 single deck BJ again while we wait for the other couple. We check out bags and my wife now decides she can walk around so we head towards the Venetian (wife had a couple of slot tickets she forgot to cash). We stop here and there, my wife shopping for suveniors and stuff. $200 later when end up at the V. It is 2pm and we have to head back to the hotel at 430pm, we bought some of that spray paint art and had to pick that up on the way back.So I sit in a 2-5nl game that just started. I bought in for $400. I work it up to about $750. I tell my buddy we have to quit when the blinds come around again. I lose a couple of decent sized pots right before and Im mad at myself for even playing like I did cuz now I cant win it back. One was a runner runner hand with a dude having 7 3 on a Q 4 5 board, me with AQ. It went Q 4 5 3 7. I bet the flop big, the turn big and checked the river down. Gross. So I only leave $100 up, $500 total.We get back to the hotel, pick up our bags and head to the airport around 530pm. Flight leaves at 7:40. Airport is dead, thats good. We see our flight actually is scheduled for 7pm. Ok so we still have plenty of time. Security was bored and they put us through the ringer. We ended up having to go back and check stuff that we can easily carry on the plane. The were stupid, no one knew the answer to any question we had, they all had to ask each other. Then we get to the gate and it says 7:40 again, delayed 40min. Ok thats fine. I send out my teaser trailer for this report and my buddy plays some online on stars while we wait.The speaker goes off saying "flight isnt leaving til 9pm, no pilots." Wow, awesome. So we dont end up leaving til 930 and get to Portland at 11 or so.All in all it was a very good trip. I didnt have a losing session and paid for everything with poker (airfare, hotel, wife shopping, wife gambling, food, taxi's, show tickets and other misc) with some money left over.Sorry its so long, hope you enjoy.

[BB2844 0]

KK huh, well see ya later.