Day 1:

My hotel/casino that I made my reservations for is the Golden Nugget. And, needless to say, the hotel room and the rest of the hotel itself is very nice. And, beside from the cute check-in girl from Illinois, that’s about as positive as it gets. When I made reservations here, I had no idea any kind of organization that that Vegas had, and that’s a fault on my part. Had I known there are two separate playing areas, then I would not have stayed at the Nugget. At around 1:30 pm I decided to check out the poker room after unpacking and taking a little break. Well, I got my information about the Nugget from a site, www.allvegasreviews.com or something or other, and their poker information was flat out wrong! The site said the Nugget spread all limits from 3/6 to 20/40; which is why I roomed here. I figured I’d play the 20/40 game there until the tables get good at night at which point I’d head over to the bellagio. Guess what? They only spread as high as 4/8 and after 3 times I turned down playing NL. NO GODDAMNIT I DON’T WANT TO PLAY NO LIMIT. Then the guy said “if you now what you are doing you can play the 3/6 half kill game, it’s shorthanded.” I didn’t come 1500 odd miles to come to Vegas to play a 3/6 6 max game with a band of idiots, paying off the rake. Well, another minute wasted trying to explain to the patron about how absurdly high the rake is I and leave the hotel very disappointed.

Next I walk over to the Binion’s Horseshoe Casino, which is like right around the corner. I remember this casino from some TV show but I go in there, and the highest limit they spread is also 4/8, unless I play No Limit…

After a forgettable lunch at the local over-priced café, I decided to call my buddy Boondock Saints, who about a year ago I would talk to semi-daily or so on IRC but since then not-so-much. He lives out in Vegas and I figured I’d spend some time with him and I could ask him some advice about some other casinos out here. Well, after 10 minutes on the phone with him trying to find him through downtown Vegas (where the Nugget is, but about 10 miles away from the “Real” strip), we finally catch up and he is such a cool guy.

Well, we head to the Bellagio, the place of the “high-rollers” or something or other. I don’t consider it too high but to other people I guess it is. The Bellagio was sitting both a 15/30 and 30/60 game and, fuck, since I’m in Vegas and wanted to ‘gamble’ I sat in the 30/60 game. Now, I’ve played with some good players before. Remember I used to 8 table this game online without a Heads-up display (that was dumb) and, although I had some leaks I needed to take care, I still beat the game for about 30k hands. And, undoubtedly the online players are much better. More aggressive and no ‘tells’ to rely on. So, while at first I was nervous, as soon as the cards were dealt it felt like I was at home.

The players there were OK, they were better than the 20/40 players at the Hollywood Casino in Aurora and their leaks were much fewer but still pretty easy to spot. They really didn’t exhibit too many tells so some were pretty seasoned ‘veterans.’ Some where better than others and they understand the importance of stealing the blinds.

I HATE chopping blinds, I had QQ twice today in the SB and both times I had opportunities to chop. I also hate the “always chop or never chop” rule. I just think I’m never going to chop from here on out. The first time I said never chop because, god damnit, I want to play my hand and there is a 99% chance I can out play him post-flop. The next opportunity I had to chop again I had some shitty hand in the BB, and the same guy from the previous situation from my left switched seats to be on my right (actually a good move, but it turned out to not affect me one bit). He did his ‘steal’ by just calling preflop then autobetting the flop. Well like I said I didn’t have shit so I folded but we had agreed to never chop. Well, wouldn’t you know it he went to get dinner and I was in the BB again but this time with a different fellow to chop and I had some shitty hand like 73s so I chopped it with him, forgetting about that previous encounter. Well, the very next hand I got my QQ in the SB and was forced in the same situation. Since I had just chopped the previous hand I couldn’t not chop so we did. The guy was being an ass on my left saying that “I only chop when I want to” which I think should be fine. Fuck everyone else, if you want to chop I’ll look at my hole cards and see if it is okay. Anyway, onto the other poker.

I got right into the action as soon as I got there, I could tell it was going to play more aggressive than normal, but yet still very straight forward. Not much table talk but you can tell the guys that are rounders from the other guys strictly how they know each other. I have no problem with knowing who the rounders are at the casino, it helps me out and I can still out play them. There was one guy in particular I could tell was pretty good and I really didn’t want him in the pot with me. Good thing he sat across the table from me, we did get in one hand together when I raised preflop with ATo isolating a troublesome limper (he beat me like 4 times today) and the other good player called out of his BB. I was planning on checking behind the turn but I folded to the donk bet. I’m pretty sure he knew I missed that board pretty hard so he could have had anything. I only had two options, to raise or fold and since it was only like my 3rd hand in I had to fold as I had no read on the guy. I figured “fold now call later” was in affect. I still feel good about the fold, however.

It took me a while to play a hand again, but when I did it was AA which I won on the turn and KK which won me a $900 (15 BB) pot. The hand went as follows: I got KK and 3bet a good player’s UTG raise who just plain called. The board is K high with three diamonds and He bets and I raise and well he ended up 5-betting me on the flop. I figured at this point he either has a lower set, the made flush or AA with nut flush draw. Well, the turn paired the board thank god and I knew I was getting paid. He accused me of string-betting which I didn’t intentionally do. I sure thought I said “3bet” when I went back to get more chips but, since he didn’t say anything the dealer left it alone until after the hand. Well, we capped the turn and he paid me on the river so I showed my Kings full and he shows his Ace high flopped flush. STBH.

Not too long later (they were still razzing me on string betting, but in good nature I believe) I get 88 and raise-it-up. Well, I did get one caller from the BB, that pesky player from before and lets call him “Bob” to keep things simple. Playing pocket pairs HU is one of my fortes, as I like it a lot. Well, the board is AJ8 with two clubs and I continue to bet, obviously (while the dealer dealt the cards he inadvertently flipped over one of this guy’s whole cards for the 3rd time in a row) and for some reason I thought the player actually kept his 6 of spades, so I figured he was drawing dead. I was close. The turn came T and 7 respectably and Bob check/raised me on the river to show me A9 (the dealer game him another card), he runner-runnered the straight. I wasn’t too upset as I’ve had much worse and I did just win that 15 BB pot. This last pot was probably around 9-10 BB.

I didn’t get much for cards, pretty much paid the blinds every round (they were 2/3 blinds for 30/60) and $12/hour in rake (no rake was taken per the hands but $6 every half an hour when the dealer changes). I imagine it works out pretty similar, it works out when you win more pots in an hour than in others, is one way to manipulate the rake. But still, $12 every hour isn’t bad at all considering its only .2 BB for the 50 hands or so, works out to about $0.24 per hand. Its less than what I pay at 10/20 6 max…

Found myself break even and then got involved in some 8 way pots with Q8s. I actually had odds to see a river with a gutshot that bricked, but it turned out I was drawing to two outs anyway but I had no way of knowing that. Then one crazy hand came out.

I got tired of having to fold my trash BB hand to raises so on one particular raise from Bob I decided to call with A4o in the BB. Now, if it were online I’d be more apt to 3/bet but it seems the check/raise any flop line works best for me live anyway. Plus, I wouldn’t mind getting some action. The board came 259 (don’t remember the suits) and I checkraised like I said. Well, I fired my barrel on the turn and he still didn’t budge so I fired my 3rd one on the river as my only chance of winning the pot. What turned from a bluff into a value bet, as my A4o unimproved won the pot. I had no idea WTF he was calling me with but it couldn’t beat Ace high. This was probably the only absolutely moronic play I’ve seen all night.

Bob and I got into another hand, this time I had KK (right after I had just won with AA) and he again was in the BB. Well, he decided to call and the board came JJx9x and he checkraised me on the turn. At this point I knew I was behind but I wasn’t on my ‘A’ game today. Also, I didn’t want to be labeled as weak tight and he previously had check/raised me on another hand that I folded to (I should have saved one bet actually). So, anyway, Bob turned his boat with 99 and took yet another 10 BB pot from me.

I was getting close to 4 hours in (probably like 3.5 after waiting for a bit) and Boondock was waiting patiently in “awe” I guess of us ‘high-rollers.’ I had just bricked my AKs in a semi-blind defense and being able to fold the river anyway, I was down about 9 BB. Then 2 hands later I get AK again and flop TP and turn trips and get paid off. Next hand I iso/value raise with AJo and fire the flop and turn barrel trying to get rid of this weak/tight caller. Luckily I rivered my ace and I value bet. These two hands took me from minus 9 BB to + 4 BB and I saw my chance to leave the table. It wasn’t that good anyway and we were getting hungry.

We went out to dinner at an all-you-can eat shrimp place and checked out the Wynn (where the other high-stakes games are) and also on the ‘real’ strip. I’d like to thank Boondock for turning around my first day in Vegas to something exciting and relatively inexpensive (no cabs!). I made my average of a little over 1 BB/hour, netting around $235 after 3.5 hours of play. I really can’t expect more than 1.5 bb/hour live and I did have a great day Tuesday afternoon. I could have been up another 20 BB had my luck been normal and another 2 BB (possible 4) of bets I either missed (just 1 BB and it was pretty close, 2nd pair OOP facing an auto-caller) or could have saved (the other 1 BB, up to 3 if you include that KK HU hand, which I’m not). So, 2 BB worth of mistakes in 4 hours of play, not exactly perfect but it could have been worse. That averages to around 1 BB/100 worth of mistakes.

Off to the Wynn!!!!


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