Tuesday, December 05, 2006

Las Vegas Trip Report part 2 (where I give away money)

It’s my last day/night in Vegas. I attend my conference, make my phone calls, and generally make sure my house is in order. There was a “rush street” type reception afterwards where rooms were set up by the vendors, each with a different theme, where food and drinks were served. I passed on the drinks, but did have some sushi. I relaxed with a hand rolled cigar. And then I left the free-loaders gobbling up free "vendor branded" dollar store crap before meeting Poker Prof (www.lasvegasvegas.com) for dinner at the Wynn. Oh and just a note. No. 1 on list of things that you would think would be sexy but aren’t? A Woman smoking a hand rolled cigar.

I had never seen the Wynn before. Wow. Ostentatious. We ate at a restaurant that featured a $32 burger, which we both ordered. It was a stuffed-burger, full of unique flavors. Frois gras? Really? Tasty. But ask any waiter if they serve a Mojito, and they’ll answer “yes”. This is a lie. I think waiters must be trained to answer this question yes regardless of the theme of the restaurant. "Yes, sure. Chez Burger can get you a Mojito". They did serve something CALLED a Mojito, but let’s face facts… It’s going to be sugar water, rum and some mint leaves throw in at the last second. In my head, I bashed his skull in with prof's empty coffee mug.

The restaurant faced a water fall which, upon some random time lapse of nothing weird happening, will break into either an MTV video or an animatronics song that would make Walt Disney jealous. The later, in this case, being a giant frog singing “Low Rider”. And that's all I have to say about that.

I leave for the poker tables. I am currently, after tips juice and miscellaneous tables goofs, up $478.

POKER CONTENT
Warning: The following contains graphic donkey content of a mature nature. Parental Discretion is advised.

The Wynn runs a 1-3 NLHE low end table. Here is the problem. Rich people play here. The table I get seated at has two tight guys to my left, a huge LAG with a ton of chips, more tight players, and a Frenchman on my right. The LAG loved seeing flops with position, in total disregard of the pre-flop raise. Well, more specifically, he would CALL a big raise if he had position and a thin field with ANY TWO. When a player moans with disappointment when a third club falls on one flop, he bets him off the pot and shows a K high bluff. We all saw that coming. The guy literally moaned. Donk-tacular!

But when I understand this guy's LAG mentality and still completely misplay a hand…

I have TT in Mid-position and make 18 (6xBB) to go. He calls from the button and we are heads up. The flop is J65 rainbow. I like this flop. Unless he has a jack, I am ahead. And even if he has a Jack, (in which case he is a JERK) he has put me on QQ-AA. Especially if I bet on both the flop and the turn. So, I make a flop bet of 2/3 the pot and anticipate a call. I( will then bet the turn if a blank falls and take down the pot.) He indeed calls and the turn is a 2. A great card if I am indeed ahead and maybe even if he has something like J9. I make another 2/3 pot size bet and he calls while getting a massage at the table. The river is a 3 and I expect I have won the pot. I bet off the rest of my chips (only about 1/3 of the pot) and he calls. He played J5 and led the whole way, hoping I had AA. “Nice flop” was all I could muster as I left the table.

Story Problem (10 points)
He called a 6xBB raise with J5 because:

1. He could (He had about 500 in front of him)
2. He likes to crack aces
3. He had isolation and position
4. He cared not about odds or the money, just the chance of flopping big and breaking someone.
5. All of the above

Obviously, 5 is the answer. But if everything played out as he scripted, his implied odds pre-flop were just over 4-1 (assuming he breaks me if he hits hard) and IF I had Aces, he is almost a 7-1 dog. (I only bought in for 100 to test the waters and had about 85 in front of me when this hand occurred).

I left not because I felt I was out-matched here, but because of the no-cap buy-in. There were just too many big stacks at the table. That and I did so well at MGM.

So, back to the MGM to grind out more money. After all, I am still up $378 for the trip, right? And its late, but I figure I’ll play an hour and leave.

Fast forward an hour and I am up about $75 bucks. I have just over $225 in front of me. Then, I would go insane.

The player on my left was a big fat guy who played like he was in the world series. He made fancy moves at small pots. There were some generic guys, the guy who kept feeding me chips from the night before, and a serious tattoo guy on my right. (I caught a glimpse of the tatoo and it was poker related. PLUS the word lucky was visible underneath the picture. um, welcome to the 1-2 table Mr. My Life is Poker)

I had taken a SMALL hand off tattoo guy about 30 minutes earlier. This was an exciting hand as he was the button and raised to 3x. I called with 44 in the SB and the BB folded. The flop was 34T. I bet out and it confuses him. Not only did I bet out, I made a pot size bet. He was sure if I had a set I would check the flop and says so out loud. Yet, he hesitates to call. He folds. Then as the dealer deals the next hand he says he thinks I had 99. I tell him he was right and he is noticeably upset. After calming down, he told me he had AT and he wanted to put me all in. pwned. Maybe next time he will.

So it’s the end of the night and big fat guy raises my limp to 3xBB. Tatoo guy calls and I call with AJ. The flop is JT5. TPTK and I bet out. Fat guy raises. He did this at times to win with second best hand, so when Tatoo guys calls, I put in a huge re-raise. Pot sized. Both players go all in. I am already pot committed and if I was way behind, I already made my mistake when I re-raised. Donk-Y. Even if I had AA, my odds were: “Drawing dead”. Set of tens vs. the OESD. The OESD got there on the turn and tattoo guys wins a ton of money and I am the vanquished donk-tacular victim. I get up and go, too tired to play on.

I can’t be upset about getting out-flopped, or Top Pair not holding up. What I CAN be upset about is that the re-raise was nothing but stupidity. There was NO WAY that was the correct play against TWO players. They couldn’t BOTH be drawing. Plus, I made the pot huge, making sure the draw was going to stay. I felt EXTRA stupid as I was up for the night before that hand and managed to lose an ENTIRE STACK on TOP PAIR. I PREACH AGAINST THAT STUPIDITY!!!! I am Jack’s crushed ego.

I finish the trip up $178. Lame. Better than last time when the SAME thing happened (only one loss was a huge suckout by a runner/runner straight to beat my flopped top set) where I lost $220. Oh well, better a winner and disappointed, than a loser and miserable.

As I am checking out, I hear advice about getting to the airport earlier on an irrational level. 3 hours prior?! Are you kidding?

I stood in line for breakfast (at the airport's world famous whatever) and the girl behind me in line had a cliché’ Baby girl voice. You know, like in the cartoons? I thought it was a joke, but it was real. I listened to this latin Betty Boop as I munched my breakfast burrito. Those don’t go together well, especially where there is no salsa in there. Check please.

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