Vegas Baby

[Hippy Dave]

Just left Vegas after a fun packed 48 hours. Managed to win $300 overall playing $1/$2 NL, although was down $200 early on when my KK ran into a guy's AA on a flop of 8 6 2 rainbow. Will try to post some more hands etc up when I get back to UK.

[Beanie]

Awesome - where did you play Dave?

I fancy going back sometime next year, maybe go buy into a WSOP event...the gf wants to come too...

[kompressaur]

good stuff Dave. Im thinkign of moving out there and becoming an illegal alien working in some kitchen or bar and spending all my money in the casinos. do you think i could get away with my plan? Is there plenty of work out there?

[Hippy Dave]

Ok, first thing I have to say about Vegas is it's fucking awesome. Unfortunately I was only there for 2 days, but I'm already thinking about trips back there in the near future. Everything's bigger/better/brighter than I was expecting, and I was expecting a lot.

I was staying at a hotel off the strip, just opposite the Hard Rock Hotel/Casino. Of course, first thing I had to do upon arrival was get myself straight across there for a quick gamble. Now, believe it or not, I'd never been into a casino before, but as soon as I walked in it was like entering heaven. Being the Hard Rock Casino, it was full of great music, hot rock-chicks in bikinis and, of course, lots of chances to gamble. I wanted to keep things small before heading to the strip, so just put $2 in some crazy machine, and two spins later I was printing a ticket for $30, cashing it in, and heading back to the hotel

That was the last of the winning for day 1, as we headed for a meal and a limo ride down the strip. I spent the rest of the evening putting the $30 back into slot machines, checking out various casinos, and (unsuccesfully) trying to spot poker celebs at the Bellagio. And getting drunk.

Day 2, the plan was to hit the poker tables early and play for 24h before getting out of Vegas. Only problem was my bankroll of $200. Doesn't stretch too far playing $1/$2 NLHE, when a standard pre flop raise is $14, and even more when the straddle's on.

Anyway, managed to get into the Monte Carlo for about 11am (I can't actually remember why I chose this place, but that's where I ended up). Now, as I said before, I'd never been into a casino before Vegas, so my live poker experience was limited to home games - and based on those I don't exactly have the poker face for live games. Luckily, I settled into it quite quickly. The poker room was quiet at this time, just this $1/$2 NL game, and a heads up battle from the previous night's tournament.

The game was great. There was me, an American guy (whose wife was about to win that tourney), a young American kid who was clearly a great player, and a load of American-Asians, who were there to gamble. Plenty of big bluffs, chips in the middle with top pair etc. Unfortunately I just wasn't getting any of the action. I was down to about $180 after an hour, and built it up to $220 an hour later with some steady play, when the following hand occured.

I'm on the button, and get dealt KK. 1 early position caller, everyone folds to me. I raise to $10, and BB re-raises to $25, early position folds. Now the BB is probably the craziest guy at the table, so you can tell how delighted I am to have KK against him. I decide just to flat call, and the flop comes a very nice looking 8 6 2 rainbow. He checks raises me (can't remember the exact amounts), and I move all in. He tanks for an absolute age, I'm loving it. I just know I'm ahead right now, and even better he's considering a call. Finally he reluctantly calls, I start to count the chips in my head and he flips over AA ... BOLLOCKS. Needless to say, I didn't get lucky on the turn or river, and made a quick, quiet exit from the table with my bankroll decimated.

Now I should point out that I wasn't strictly in Vegas with just $200 to my name, it's just that my bank were being wankers, and I couldn't access my account, which wasn't particularly helpful, although it did allow me to calm down and avoid tilt. I spent the next few hours (and about $50 on the internet) trying to access more money, extremely unsuccesfully. I headed out to dinner with friends, and the plan was to eat, get drunk, ride rollercoasters, play the slots and forget about poker.

As I'm sure you'll have guessed, that plan went out of the window when I spotted a poker room, and managed to borrow $300 from a friend.

Part 2 (poker in the Excalibur) coming up ...

[Hippy Dave]

Ok, so I was planning to play no more poker in Vegas, just have a fun evening and forget that KK vv AA. Got some Mexican food in New York New York, had some drinks, got kicked out of a VIP area in the Luxor, saw the free show at Treasure Island, and lost some money on the slots. Then at midnight I spotted, the Excalibur poker room, borrowed $300, and hit the $1/$2 NLHE table for what turned out to be an 8 hour session.

I sat down with $150, planning to rebuy with my remaining $150 if it all went wrong. Now, it didn't take me a great deal of time to realise that the standard of play at this table was great. They were all there to have a good time, and take advantage of the free drinks. I was there to crush them. Now, it was a pretty quiet table early on, with the only guy making much noise (and the table super fish) on my right. I had a bit of a laugh with him, telling him he was going to pay for my 1st class flight upgrade home, and reminding him of this fact everytime I took chips from him. He was getting drunk for free though, so didn't care. I just played upto an image of a crazy internet kid and, despite the fact that I was the tightest player at the table, everyone thought I was bluffing every hand because of a big semi bluff I'd shown earlier, 33 on a 2 5 6 board.

Players came and went, and the seat to my right was filled by a crazy Danish kid. Now, I could tell that this kid knew what he was doing, he's probably an internet pro. He was talking people into doing what he wanted, and basically dominating the table. Unfortuantely for him he was as drunk as it one can possibly be, and still see what is on your cards. And he also claimed to have lost $2.5k in 25 minutes ealrier in the day, with 2 hands against the same player. Both times he had AA, both times his opponent had KK. Both times the money went in preflop, and both times the river was a K. Enough to send anyone on tilt, and he certainly wasn't playing his best game! An hour later he was gone, having donated about $300 to various players at the table, most of it to an English guy who I got involved in a big pot with later.

I don't remember many of the hands I'd played up until that point, but I was well up, I guess my $150 was about $400 by now, and I really hadn't had many pots of note. Just picking up nice pots with decent hands against calling stations. Earlier on (when I probably had a similar stack to now) the American guy asked me why I never spoke. I told him I only talked when I was playing well. He left soon after, with the few chips he had remaining.

The biggest pot of the night for me came against an English guy from York. I can't remember exactly where he'd been but it was somewhere for his friend's wedding, and he'd been awake for over 30 hours. He was also a really bad player, depsite his later claim that he makes some inspired plays and some really bad ones. If that's the case I only saw the bad ones. Luckily, he also had a huge pile of the chips, donated by Crazy Dane.

I'm on the button with 2c3c. Early position caller, York raises to $8, I flat call, early position calls. Flop comes A J 2 rainbow, EP checks, York bets $15, I call (York had been betting every flop he saw, so not concerned that he'd actually hit), EP folds.

Now for the fun part. Turn comes 3. York bets $50, I consider raising, but decide to just flat call. River 2 He checks. I think for a while, and bet $100, he thinks for a while and calls. We see the cards and he has A9 . Best part is that he then says, I never thought you had 23, I thought probably A2. Great call if you put me on A2

Anyway, I played for maybe another hour or so, not much happened, left the table with exactly $650 ($500 profit, $300 including the earlier session), got a taxi home, just in time for breakfast in my hotel before heading out of Vegas.

[Hippy Dave]

Originally Posted by Beanie

I fancy going back sometime next year, maybe go buy into a WSOP event...the gf wants to come too...

Thinking of doing the same, maybe a couple of the small buy ins. You can't take the gf though, what about the strippers and hookers?

[Hippy Dave]

Originally Posted by kompressaur

good stuff Dave. Im thinkign of moving out there and becoming an illegal alien working in some kitchen or bar and spending all my money in the casinos. do you think i could get away with my plan? Is there plenty of work out there?

I don't know komp, but we all know you're not going to do it, so no point answering seriously is there

[mrmuzeman]

Originally Posted by Hippy Dave

I'm on the button, and get dealt KK. 1 early position caller, everyone folds to me. I raise to $10, and BB re-raises to $25, early position folds. Now the BB is probably the craziest guy at the table, so you can tell how delighted I am to have KK against him. I decide just to flat call, and the flop comes a very nice looking 8 6 2 rainbow. He checks raises me (can't remember the exact amounts), and I move all in. He tanks for an absolute age, I'm loving it. I just know I'm ahead right now, and even better he's considering a call. Finally he reluctantly calls, I start to count the chips in my head and he flips over AA ... BOLLOCKS. Needless to say, I didn't get lucky on the turn or river, and made a quick, quiet exit from the table with my bankroll decimated.

Worst tank ever

[Hippy Dave]

Yeah, especially as he'd been throwing chips around with substandard hands for the previous 2 hours.

[Jezza]

Good report dave, makes me want to go back there ASAP....

Unlucky with the KK hand, but I like the way you played it a lot. How was the monte carlo after the fire? I have some good memorys of that card room/casino haha. I hit I think 4 of the quads or better jackpots there in 3 weeks! Interesting fact about the excalibur - this weekend I think (or maybe next weekend) they are killing all their poker tables with live dealers adn replacing them with the automated machines. You know the ones you sit down at and get an electronic representation of poker without anyone having to deal/shuffle/count chips etc. I agree their card room is pretty much full of donks, It is the most family orientated hotel on the strip after all

[Hippy Dave]

To be honest totally forgot there was that fire at the Monte Carlo, so either they've sorted it out, I was drunk, or I was just oblivious to my surroundings

I read that about the Excalibur, kind of weird. You can see why they'd do it, but that automatically kills any chance of me ever playing poker there again. If I want to play on computers I don't go all the way to Vegas. Pretty sure a lot of other people will avoid it now too.