Vegas Recap

So I wrote about day 1 when I was still out there. Never found the time to write-up the rest of the trip until now. With the help of Twitter in another window, here it goes:

Wednesday, Day 2

I was up after about 5 hours of sleep ready to go. I walked over to the V to use my $10 food voucher for breakfast. I remembered them having a sweet $10 breakfast plate, and it delivered. Walking back to Harrah's to relax before the tourney I go my Casino Royale and get suckered into signing up for their frequent players card and the "free $50" in slot play. I sign up and they say come back between 10am and midnight to play it. It was about 9am so I come back to play. When I get there I am given a paper certificate that the machine takes. You have to play $1 machines and you can only cash out if you hit a jackpot. Lolz. Knew there was a catch. I got nothing.

Venetian event started at noon and you got 12k in chips to start with 40 minute levels and blinds starting at 50/100. After the first two levels I have nothing interesting to play and drip down to 10,100. Early in level three I lose a couple quick hands and drop to 8k. One hand I flatted with 1010 vs a manic. Why I don't reraise in that spot is beyond me. I ended up folding on a Kxx flop. late in level 4 I raised QQ UTG and got one caller. Flop comes Axx and I check fold and get shown AJ. Good fold. The last hand before the 2nd break I am down around 5k and limp with 33. I flop bottom set and bet every street with the river bet being all-in and I get called and get the double back to 11k.

The start of level 5 went well. I limper 75cc and call a raise. I end up flopping trips and river a boat. A got a decent payoff in the hand and was up to 18k. Those chips were short lived and I dropped all the way down to 9k at the end of the 6th level. Nothing interesting, just a steady drop. At the beginning of level 7 I was able to shove my 10bb stack in with 1010 and lost to QJ.

There were two interesting characters at my table. the guy to my immediately left had "GAMBLE" tattooed on his arm. Might as well have said "DOUCHE". Early on he 3-bet to around 1000 and got 2 callers before the original raiser put in a 4-bet to 6600. He thought it was only around 2600 and had his chips across the line in his hand before he asked. Somehow he was able to take them back and muck JJ face up with two people yet to act. One round penalty. Later on in one dealer down he asked the dealer to wash the cards 5 times. He asked a total of 9 times in around 90 minutes. Jeebus. I ended up having the dealer call the floor over and talk to him. One other thing, he loved to fold out of turn and head for the bathroom. this happened twice. He commented on how strict everything is. Go back to your fuckin' home game buddy.

The other character at the table just loved to touch the chips on the table. He would always scoop up the ante chips on our side of the table for the dealer. One time he reached into the pot to make change. Tool. The good thing is that both of these jokers were eliminated on the same hand in the 5th level.

Later on I played th 7m tournament. With only 20 minute levels it became a shovefest late and I busted with around 10 tables left and it paying only 3 tables.

Thursday, Day 3

Having to watch what I was able to play the rest of the way I went over to Harrah's in the morning looking for a single table satellite. I was seated in a $125 and we ended up chopping it up 3 ways. Enough for the Caesar's Noon event.

My starting table was tough to say the least. They had around 180 runners and I pulled a table where 7-8 of them actually knew what they were doing. Looking at the other tables ANY OTHER ONE would have been better. You started with 15k in chips, 50 minute levels and 25/50 starting blinds. Very nice structure.

The first 4 levels were pretty meh. I had my 15,025 at the end of the 2nd level and 16k at the end of the 4th level. One interesting hand came on the last one before the 1st break. I have 43ss and limp for $100 along with about 4 others. The BB makes it 1k to go which looked a ton like a steal spot. I ended up calling along with 2 others. Flop comes A,4,5 and it gets checked around. Turn 4. I threw in a raise and took the pot down to get back to my starting stack at the end of 2nd level.

The 5th and 6th levels proved to be interesting. I was able to chip up to 18k before a wild 11 hands stretch. A player that was playing aggro early but had slowed down the last few levels raised to 1800 at 300/600. I found AK and 3bet it to 4400. He tanked and folded. Next lap around the table he raises to 1800 again and I 3bet him with AA to 4200 and he folds again. The very next hand he raises to 2200 and I find AK suited and 3bet him yet again to 5k and he folds AQ. W..T...F? I was able to get it to 28k without seeing a flop but damn, it could have been so much more. I was able to get it to 30k at the end of level 7 and the dinner break. Average was around 33k or so.

Levels 8 and 9 didn't go as well and I quickly slipped to 19k. I found AK and shipped over a big pre-flop raise and based on the player I actually thought I may have been behind. He had AK as well. I flopped the freeroll flush draw but we ended up chopping. At the end of the 9th level I had only 10k going to 1k/2k. I shipped the first ace I saw but only one the blinds. My next ship was from the SB when it was folded to me and I saw a Q and shipped. BB called and showed KQ. I squeezed the other card which was a suited J. I flopped the flush draw but bricked the turn and river and busted around 45th with only the top 18 getting paid. About 10 hours of play for nothing. The next day I saw the guy I busted to was the CL nearing the final table. At least he used my chips well.

After the tourney I walked over to the IP for a little 1/2 NL action. After about an hour I called it a day winning $20.

Getting a little long, will post the last day up tomorrow.