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The trip to Vegas for 4 days of poker was something else. It was a blast. My last 2 days, particularly the last day, were real rough from the poker perspective. My positive spin is that Vegas and I are even. I finished up $500 last February, and lost $500 in July. Even steven.
The trip kind of got off to an auspicious start. I took an evening flight, leaving Milwaukee 8'ish PM to land in Vegas 9:30 Vegas time. There was rough weather running towards Milwaukee and I thought my flight might get delayed. But we were able to get up in the air before the storms arrived. Cool.
Well, almost cool. Vegas was being pounded by storms when we got there. It was kind of cool seeing strong storms, lightning and all, from 35,000 feet. But they weren't letting any planes land. We flew in a holding pattern 75 miles north of Vegas for 45 minutes. Then the crew started to have fuel concerns. I'm not going to argue. So we flew to Phoenix to load back up on fuel. By the time we got back to Vegas the storms had cleared and planes were landing again. In the end, it was well after midnight Vegas time before I checked in to the Monte Carlo.
The first day went pretty well. Tony and I owned the SNG's (Sit and go's, 10 people sit down at one table and off we go) at the Monte Carlo. One, or both of us, finished in the money every time.
We got some familiarity with a couple of players from down under. I initially thought that one of them was good, because he made a good call on me early on. But as I watched him over time, I realized he didn't call me because he made a good read, but because he didn't know any better. They are referred to as “calling stations”. They just call, for no apparent reason. They just do. I owned him after that.
On the second day we played in the morning multi-table tourney before heading to the Rio in the afternoon. I made the final table but out of the money. We wanted to get to the Rio to check out the World Series of Poker action. The main event hadn't started yet but they have a slew of smaller buy in events for a few weeks before the main event.
Pro player sightings – Greg Raymer (World Champ 2004), Joe Hachem (2005 champ), Phil Gordon (at least one World Poker Tour title), TJ Cloutier (I don't remember what year he won), and the biggest boy of them all – Doyle Brunson. He was the first back to back champion (1976 and 1977) and is still considered to be the top dog. He's somewhere in his 70's but he still takes down a nice share of first places. I think he had at least 2 last year. He is so respected and admired in the poker world that two things always occur when he gets knocked out of a tournament. The person that knocks him out feels bad that he knocked him out, and everyone in the room stands up and applauds him as he leaves.
There was a lot of activity and action and it was so tempting to plop some money down. But I have had a certain rule regarding my poker playing. I want it to be a self supporting hobby. I have a poker fund/bankroll. It was initially funded by an early $175 winning night and has not been below 0 since. It got real close in late 2005, but I was able to build it back up. It was a little over $1000 before heading out. The buy in that interested me was $1500. I maintained discipline and just checked things out.
The next day we played in the morning multi-table tourney at the Monte Carlo. I really wish my Spanish was up to snuff. It may have come in handy with this lady that was playing. I had seen her earlier but we weren't at the same table until the final table. I then discovered she was from Spain and spoke very little English. I thought it would be a cool inside track if this obvious Anglo-Saxon spoke her language. I still would have been limited, though, because there is an “English Only” rule at the poker tables. She was no novice, though. When it came to the game of poker, she wasn't missing any beats. She looks like Angie Harmon, and can play poker. It just doesn't get any better than that.
I knew she was from Spain and not a Latin American country through her cheering section. It was her family and friends and they were so excited that she was at the final table. At one point one of them did the thumbs up thing to her while saying “Espana”. That's the Spanish word for Spain. I am so like Columbo. : )
I started the final table short stacked. One of the Aussies takes a seat with a huge pile of chips. I thought, “Someone's been catching some cards, because there is no way he got those chips with skills.” The other big chip leader tossed out a new payout structure so that everyone left would get their buy in back. Being short stacked, I was all for that. The Aussie being so full of himself shot it down. He would pay for that. Unfortunately, not from me.
I started to make a nice comeback and thought “Here we go.” A lady with a big pile of chips raises from UTG (under the gun, to the left of the big blind). I'm in mid-position and look down at J-J. I'm sure she has at least an Ace, but what else? Well, J-J, at this point in a tournament, in my position, is an all-in moment. So off I go. Tony said he knew as soon as she called I was dead. She had A-A. Well, I was right. She did have an Ace.
That marked the beginning of a lot more of the same to come.
We headed downtown because Tony had never been there. In particular, we were going to play in a tourney at Binion's, the original home of the WSOP. Every poker player should play there some time. It's kind of like a football player getting a chance to play at Lambeau.
I had to challenge a guy who was on a rush, but his being on a rush wasn't over yet. So, once again, I was in “Winning through Attrition” mode. Tony is a master at that. I'm still fine tuning it. My only comment about the hand that knocked me out was that if you're going to have two over cards to my pocket pair, just hit one of your over cards. Don't draw to a straight. That just plain sucks.
I played in a 1/2 NL game while Tony continued in the tourney. Do you suppose I could win a pot with A-Q? I had it 3 times during that hour and a half, lost every time. When some one else had A-Q, they always went on to win the pot.
I'm just going to do a quick, cursory run through to illustrate my last day. I want to make this short, because it hurts too much. : )
I called an all-in with K-K. She had A-Q. I'm the 70% favorite. She catches an Ace.
I have A-A. After some aggressive betting, I get this guy all in with his K-K before the flop. I'm the 80% favorite. He catches a K on the flop. (The odds of getting A-A is once every 211 hands. I played for 4 solid days and this was the only A-A I saw. And it lost.)
I slow play K-K, small blind catches an outside straight draw that he hits on the turn.
I had K-K, called all-in by A-9. Again, a 70% favorite. Again, he catches an Ace.
I had another K-K loss, but I'm at a loss at this moment recalling the details. I was pretty much to the point of taking the second strongest starting hand you can get, and just folding it from that point on.
Tony bought me a drink. I don't drink while playing but he said after that I needed one. He said that it was just as hard for him to watch.
We then took an uneventful red eye flight back home. Whew.
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