Venetian

The Venetian Poker Room is all that... and then some.  Easily the best poker room I've ever played in.  I played the regular noon tournament this past Friday.  The dealers are awesome and the structure is the best you will find anywhere.  Only one exposed card in the entire 7.5 hours I played.  No contested pots.  No errors.  Superb.  Only one minor thing between me and one dealer and that was partially my fault - more about that later.

I registered at 10am for the noon tournament: Table 32 seat 3.  Not the greatest seat at the table but why should I bitch?  I could be not playing poker in Vegas on the second day of the new year.  Only 4 more live bodies appear by starting time.  Dealers are told to set out 8 stacks per table but it would appear we only have 6 live players one of which is MIA for the first few hands.  The table eventually fills up.  After a while I ask about table breaking order because I'm thinking this table may never break.  Sure enough we are one of the the final two tables if the the final table.

Shuffle up and deal!  I win the button draw.  I raise up AK the second hand and win the blinds.  I raise up AA the third hand and win the blinds.  I rather get those hands later when I could really use it.  A few hands later there are two limpers in front of me and I look down at AJ - raisy daisy.  They both call.  Flop comes out J high rainbow.  I bet and the older, gray-haired lady at the other end of the table calls but the third guy folds.  Turn another low blank; I bet she calls.  River is another J but completes the flush.  Check, Check.  She flips over QQ.  The woman limped in early with QQ and check called until she had the worst hand.  Mkay. 

My biggest donkey move is next.  I raise the guy on my right who limped to my AA.  He calls.  Flop is all low 9cTcX.  He bets into me and I raise him.  He ships and I reluctantly call. 

"Do you have a set?" he asks. 

"No, do you?" I replied. 

"No, but I have two pair," He smugly responds.  Rut Row.

Well, shit.  The turn is another 9, "And now I have a boat," said with even more smugness.

The river, *dink*, one of the two remaining aces. 

"And now I have a bigger boat," I said trying not to sound smug.  Ooops.

So, after I suck out on QQ and 9T soooooted I've more than doubled my starting stack!

I manage to keep above average chips the remainder of the tournament, sometimes waaaaaay above average but I don't recall any really dramatic hands until were down to 3-4 tables.  We started with 189 players.

I pick up JJ in the cut-off.  It's limped to me and I say, "Five," and throw out a 5k chip.  The dealer didn't hear me and called the floor over when I said that was a raise when the BB asked if it was a raise or a call.  The BB is new to the table and has no clue how I play or how tight/loose I am but he can see that I have a decent chip stack.  I end up having to just call but everybody knew I wanted to raise.  The flop comes out A high and I c-bet 5k.  BB calls.  He leads into me on the turn and I ship it.  He tanks.  Mumbles.  Stares at me.  I do my best Phil Hellmuth with my hands cupped at my chin.  He eventually shows me an A and folds but continues to stare me down for quite some time after that.  I say, "Nice hand, sir," as I rake in the chips.

I score a few more chips in the BB when I see a free flop v Mr. "I folded my weak ace to you" and this LAG on my right in the SB.  I have A3 and check my option.  Flop A78.  Check, check, check.  Turn another small card and it goes Bet, Call, Fold leaving just the small blind and me.  The river is a 3 giving me Aces up and now I'm confident I'm waaaay ahead.  He fires out another bet, I call and he insta-mucks without showing before I announce Aces up.  He wonders if I would have called had I not hit my kicker on the river.  I was totally calling this guy - he was trying to claim any pot that appeared to be abandoned.

The older lady from the QQ hand earlier proved to be one of the most weak/tight players I have ever seen.  She won a HUGE pot from the SB.  After the hand was over I explained to the guy on my left that he missed her showing down QQ that she had limped in with before he showed up to claim his seat.  Here's how she won the HUGE pot: two limpers to her in the SB and she completes, BB checks.  Flop is A high all diamonds.   She LEADS out about half the pot AND GETS CALLED IN TWO PLACES.  I sat there in SHOCK that anybody would think this woman is betting anything less than the nuts.  Turn is low, doesn't pair the board and isn't another diamond.  She bets again and is called in both places.  The river is another blank.  She bets again and the first guy shakes his head for a while and mucks but the second guy calls her and mucks after she shows K9d for the flopped nuts.  Uh, duh. 

About this time the Older Crazy Asian Guy showed up at our table.  He was raising a lot and playing a lot of hands - I guess that was redundant, huh?  He had been winning a lot of pots without showing down a hand when I picked up KK and it was folded to me; OCAG was the BB.  I throw out my standard 3x raise or maybe a tad more since we had hit the antes a while back.  OCAG calls like I was pretty sure he would.  Flop comes out all small cards.  He checks to me and I fire out a bet trying to make it look like a c-bet.  Sure enough he called.  The turn was another blank, he checks I bet and he calls.  The river another small card and he puts me all in.  I say, "I call."  He shows his JJ and I double up in the most painful way with KK.  Who likes getting called all the way down with a guy who will play any two cards?  Only to have him put you all in on the river?  After I took a good portion of his chips he went on Uber Monkey Tilt and spewed raising shit like 94o.  In no time he was gone.

Immediately after the KK hand I pick up AQd.  I raisy daisy as usual and this time I get a call from the weak/tight old lady.  Flop comes out KQx; I c-bet and she calls.  Turn a blank and I bet out again.  She tortures herself for a while and folds.  I'm pretty confident she had AQ and was hoping we could check it down or get to a cheap showdown.

Annnnnnnnnd the next hand I pick up AA.  You heard me.  KK, AQ and AA in three hands.  Somehow I get it all in with a shortish stack and my hand holds up.  After all of this I end up with a nice stack but the blinds and antes are getting up there and I'm not going to spew it off to a bunch of shorties shoving into me everytime I raise.  I'm not going to risk a lot of my stack raising marginal hands just playing "Big Stack Poker" because my stack isn't THAT big at these blinds and ante levels.

I must have folded for an entire level.  No playable hands for a long time.  Which was probably a good thing because there a lot of shorter stacks shoving their Hail Mary hands and things were getting fugly out there on the felt.

We were down to two tables.  A deal was made to take $300 off of 1st place money to payback the buyin to 19th and 20th places since only 18 places paid per the payout schedule.  Action was stopped so all the remaining players could sign the agreement. 

After another stretch of folding, I look down at 77 UTG and, since I hadn't played a hand in ages, I raise it up.  Everybody insta-folds to the BB who calls.  The flop QJX.  He checks and I check.  Turn a blank.  He checks and I fire out a bet.  He tanks and finally says, "I know my eights are no good."  He asks me a hand or two later what I had.  I just shrug my shoulders.  We make a deal for me to tell him once one of us is out.  The guy on my left - he's been there this whole time - perks up and says, "Tell me what she says and I'll tell you if she's telling you the truth.  I know her range."  Bwwahahahahahah.  There was speculataion that I had QQ and I admitted I would totally check that flop if I had QQ in that spot.  I never did tell that guy what I had as he went out soon after that but forgot to ask me but I'm sure he would never believe I had sevens.

Pretty soon it was an all in fest.  I stayed out of it until I picked up AK utg.  I raised and the guy on my left who was a good patient player ships for much less than my raise.  I was fine with that and figured we would end up heads up but NO ooo o oo.  The next guy ships it, too, for less than twice my raise so you know I'm calling.  Turns out shorty had JJ and the other guy also had AK.  JJ holds up of course but it only cost me a few chips.  I was happy to chop the rest with the other AK guy. 

In the mean time the 20th and 19th places go out.  Now we're actually in the money.  I've been anted and blinded down quite a bit but I still have more chips that many others.  I raise with AJ and get shipped into.  I debated folding but we are at 3000/6000/1000 and I have about 55k and had raised to 20k.  I call only to see AA.  IGHN.  With a whopping $83 for 7.5 hours of play.  Sad really since I could have folded and still not be the shortest stack at my table or even left in the event.    

Yes, I caught very lucky to double up with my AA early.  I caught another good series of hands with KK, AQ and AA.  I outplayed a few people.  I nitted it up when I needed to.  I played poker when I needed to.  I picked my spots and played the player.

Finally, I think I can say I am a poker player.