Saturday 6 February 2010

New Years in Vegas!

8 days in Vegas over New Years? Ideal! Have been back now for nearly a month so this is a bit of a delayed post. I wrote down some of the key hands to jog my memory and I've just gone through these main ones.


Anywayzzzzz...Before we went, I was hoping to play lots of poker to get in gear before we flew to Vegas at the end of December. That never happened; general Christmas mayhem meant that I hadn’t really played any poker for about four months. Plenty of some hot shit scenarios from bushy and adam on the flight and a skim read of Harrington however, and I felt good to go….


So, here are the hands I played....


1. The first session we play was at the MGM. I buy in for $150 and we all sign up together but get put at different tables. This is my first live cash game so wasn’t that confident about what I was doing and found it pretty hard just following the game. Zoid. About 20 mins in and getting a better feel for the table, in MP I raise to $7 with 8d8s. The button makes it $15, the BB calls and I call.

The BB and myself check a flop of Qs-8d-4s.

The button bets $20 and then the BB C/R’s to $55. I think about just flat calling, but pretty sure the BB will call my all in and I didn’t want to get too tricky and go with the push…then the button insta calls! And so does the BB. The turn and river are both 4’s, and I start to think I lose to an over pair, oooops! Thankfully, the Button tables KK and the BB mucks his flush draw and it’s pretty much the ideal start.


2. $80 freeze out at Caesars. 65 runners, $1300 for 1st. This was a great place to play poker but the tournament with a 20 min clock and big antes and blind increases meant there wasn’t much post flop poker towards the later blind levels. Things start badly when I bluff half my stack on the first level against the wrong player who was a bit of a calling station. I then defend a button raise with Ks8s.

The flop is As7s3d.

I CRAI and get called by AK no spades. I river the spade, easy game. Down to 3 tables I make a pretty big pass with 10-10 pre flop with only an M of 5 after an UTG push. I should of pushed in hindsight. A lap later, I then push with 5,2o in the cutoff and BB thinks for 5 minutes and then wins with A10. All three of us crashed and burned and this tourney was on NYE so could have been a great start to the night…


3. $1-2 at the MGM. Aggressive UTG makes it $10, folds to me, and I just call with AK in the BB.

The flop is KQJ- rainbow and I check.

He bet’s $15 and I call. The turn is an 8 and I check. He insta pushes for $90. I don’t love the way I played this, but I felt he was just trying to buy the pot and called…he had JJ, and I didn’t hit the 10. Probably too marginal a spot to play but anyways…


4. Still at the MGM, I raise the cuttoff with Ks7d to $7. A good tight player on the button makes it $15 and I call.

The flop is As8s3s.

I check and he insta bets $40. I push for $130. He starts sighing and generally looks pretty pissed off. Ideal. He then stands up, uh-oh…, and says “I KNOW you have the King of Spades!!!” He then calls, I for some reason can’t hit my flush this time and felt pretty disgusted when I was shown Kh8h for the winning hand. Sick call without the ace and any spade. I genuinely believe that this player had seen both my cards from his speech and his call (and the fact that I am a bit of an idiot and wasn’t looking at my whole cards too discretely!)


5. $1-2 at Mandalay bay. I limp in early with Jh10h and the button raises to $10. I call and so do 5 others. The flop is J44.

Checks round to the button who bets $20. I am the only caller. The turn is a 10. I check and call the buttons AI of $65 and beat KJ.


6. Mandalay Bay. I am in the cuttoff and it’s been straddled to $5 and called in 3 spots. I have JJ and raise to $25. The straddler then makes it $50. Hmmmmmm. I am playing $200ish and the straddler has me covered. I call.

The flop is A-K-3 and he checks. I check back.

The turn is a pretty interesting J. He bets $50. I’m honestly not loving this because AA, KK make a lot of sense. I shove it all in though and when he insta calls I’m feeling pretty sick. He then tables AK, phew, and I hold. Two hands later the same guy hits a straight flush for a $200 bonus and a nice pot so he wasn’t too annoyed.


7. MGM. With $200, I raise to $7 UTG+2 with 5-5. Standard 8 callers.

The flop is As-5c-6d.

I bet the flop for $22 and get called by the button. The turn is a 6h and I bet $40. Button calls. The river is another ace and I check. He bets $100. I fold…..but thankfully get shown an ace.


8. MGM.Only playing $100, and 4 callers, I limp on the button with 5s6h.

Flop is 5-5-8- Rainbow.

Checks to button who bets $30, I jam and the BB calls. Uh-oh. Button folds and I lose to 5-7.


9. Mandalay Bay. It’s straddled and I call with 8-8 UTG (playing $400). 4 other callers and the straddler checks.

The flop is Ah-8d-Jd.

Checks to straddler who bets $25. I make it $75, folds back round to straddler who calls. The turn is a Q. Straddler checks and I set her all in for $100. She calls with A-10 and I hold….


10. Mandalay Bay. I limp with 3-3 playing $350 in MP, 6 players see the flop of...

3s-8d-6d.

BB bets, $8 I just call and a good Chinese woman calls too. The turn is 7c. BB bets $25 and I call and so does the Chinese woman. The river is the Qc. BB bet’s $35. Pretty confident I’m beating the BB and raise to $90. Then the Chinese flat calls…..spicy. The BB calls the extra $55. BB has 8-6 and the Chinese lady scoops with 4d-5d.


So, I played about 9 sessions in total, longest one was 13 hours straight! and six of the nine sessions were profitable. Overall I was up around $600 through poker. My game was pretty embarrassingly nitty though, which although definitely very exploitable isn’t such a bad thing in Vegas and probably always going to be profitable at those stakes. If there’s a next time, hopefully I’ll have more of a roll and be able to be a bit more adventurous….


Since I’ve been back I’ve been running pretty well online just playing 50c-$1 mainly FR. Once we get the interent I’m going to buy HEM or PT3 and try and get some stats going. I also had a post-club
trip to the Empire casino in London to play some £1-£2 which was so funny but this has been a monster report so I’ll write about it soon.

2 comments:

Ironmonk said...

Hit sets much? :-D

Tom said...

That's 8 days of poker. Set a day innitttttt!