This is my Vegas Trip Report from 2/4/2009 – 2/9/2009. All my cash games that I did play were all 1/2 NL and I would buy in for $200.
Wednesday 2/4
11:30: Arrive in Vegas and realizing that Evander Holyfield was sitting behind me on my flight. I had to do a triple take and the guy with him kind of chuckled when I did realize that it was him. You know how I validated it was him?????? Yup that is right, he has a chunk missing from his right ear. Pretty cool start huh?
1:00pm: Go to check in at the Imperial Palace and they don’t have my room ready so guess what my friend and I do? Off to poker while we wait. We look at the IP’s room and there is only one game going and a list so we decide to move to the Harrah’s room since I know that there is always a couple of 1/2 games going on. We get to the room and there is 2 tables going. My friend gets one table and I get the other. This table is a dream to a player like me since there is a HUGE fish at the table and a couple of good players drooling. I am in the 8 seat and the guy in the 7 seat explains that the guy in the 3 seat is already about $600 in the whole and paying people off. I watch him call off hundreds with middle and bottom pair. I saw him $75 on ace high……I whisper to my friend get a table move NOW. He does and sits in between the two big fish and my friends gets this guy (who we find out is Roger Moore…not kidding). I watch my friend and everyone else at the table take his money. I am the worst card dead that you could ever see. Every time I get a hand FISH is out and good player is in and I don’t want to mess with the better players so I usually fold. So I watch this guy go into his pocket for about another $1K till he announces that he needs to leave. I say, “Come on Roger, we are all having a great time why are you leaving?”. He says, “You know what Sean we are having a great time I think I will stay and drink and play some more.” The guy in the 7 seat thanks me and takes another $150 off the guy. God I wish I had a hand to play against him, but it wasn’t in the “Cards”. I know that I shouldn’t leave but I have made plans with my uncle to play in a tourney at the Sahara and I had to go(Room was ready too). I leave the game around 5pm down about $20. (-$20 cash so far).
7:00pm: Met up with my uncle to play the 7pm Sahara $65 tourney. There is about 80 players and you get 6k in chips. For all those who think free poker is worse than money poker I can tell you a tourney like 7pm at the Sahara is no different than going to your local watering hole and playing for free. I can’t get myself to play crappy hands and I really don’t have any good runs. I watch while K4 takes down pots with top pair. I am a solid player and I can’t get myself to call a raised pot with crap. Nothing big happens and I basically get down to about 5BB and push with KQ and get called by pocket 3’s and 3’s hold up. No problem.(-$65 tourney)
12:00am: Go over to the Harrah’s poker room and see that same fish at the table and get into the game. Same seat as before and guy in 7 seat is the same and tells me that he went another $1k since we left so that puts him down about $2.5k at a 1/2 game. I am doing fine and winning some hands when I have a Mike Matusow moment. Villian 1 is younger guy in the 4 seat and Villian 2 is in the 5 seat and is solid but will chase a little. I am in the 8 seat and in the SB. Villian 1 bumps it to $15 and Villian 2 calls $15 and everyone else folds to me and I look down at AQ suited (stack sizes V1 has about $150 V2 has what I thought about $200 and I am holding about $320 or so) I think about raising here but I don’t like my position so I limp just to see the flop. Flop comes A5Q and I check (first wrong mistake), V1 bets out $30 and V2 calls and back to me….I look at V1 and I just know that I have him beat, but V2 puzzles me and I think maybe just maybe he has A5…why would he check. If I am going to play this I have to raise is my thinking. I look over at his stack and think he is on about $175 and my thought was if I was going to raise I was going to go to $90, then I think if he is on $175 I might not be able to fold if I have that much money in the middle so I decide to push all in(second mistake) and V1 folds and V2 calls and I walked into trip 5’s. Lesson learned. He counts out and he really has $250 behind and that would have changed my thought process. It leaves me with around $60 and I push with a crap hand and leave down $300 for the session. (-$300 cash, -$320 cash so far)
Thursday 2/5
11:00am: Go over to the Sahara to play in their $65 tourney again. I am second guessing my play since day one wasn’t so good. But I know I am a thinking player and I need to forget about Wednesday and play like I know how to play. About 60 players and I think I played the best poker of the whole week that tourney. We were on the final table bubble and I am sitting with about better than average stack in the BB. Villian 1 is a guy that has been jamming pots and not getting called by anyone and he is on the button. Folds around to him and he jams it (blinds are 5k/2.5k) he goes to 15k sb folds and I look at KQ off so I call. Flop is AQ? not important and I check he goes to 5k and I look at him and tell him that if he wants me to fold he will have to do better than that so I call. Turn blank and I check and he starts to count money out and I tell him he better do something better then 15k because his bets don’t make any sense so he checks. At this point I think either he has a monster of nothing. River a blank and I check and he bets $35k and I tank for a sec. I look at him and ask him why 15-5-check-35 it makes no sense to me. If I call this and lose that puts me in a bad situation going into the final table if I call and make the right read I am chip leader going into the final table…..I call and he mucks and I win. That was probably one of the best hands of poker I have played in a long time. Final table has a couple of locals on it and I make it down to final 4 and can’t catch anything and get knocked out winning $180. Good run though. (+$180 tourney, +$50 tourney so far)
3:00pm: Head over to Harrah’s and play in a cash game till about 5pm. Nothing big here, just grinding it out and playing solid hands and winning them. (+$150 cash, -$170 cash so far)
7:00pm: Head over to Sahara once again to play the tourney. There is about 100 players, typical tourney I get nothing rolling and I hold on but get knocked out. No big hands to talk about here. (-$65 tourney, -$15 tourney so far)
10:00pm: After getting knocked out of the tourney I join the cash game. Again just very basic play, and watch some drunk guy get asked to stop drinking and cut off. I play TAG and leave the game up $100. (+$100 cash, -$70 cash so far).
Friday 2/6
I have stuff to do during the day so play doesn’t start till the night (I did play a little craps and won $100):
7:00pm: Head over to the Orleans to play their $110 game. They have 180+ players and you see a lot of players from other rooms there. Guy to my right solid player and everyone pushes on him when he has the nuts so he has a very big stack early. Big hand—Blinds are at 1k – 2k and I have about an average stack and villain has very big stack and is hitting with crappy cards. I am in the BB and about 4 limpers to me when I take it to $10k and villain calls. Flop 8-9-10, really bad flop for me so I bet out $20k and he raises it to $60k and I go into the tank so I call. Turn and river checked and he turns over 67 damn the man….that took a big chunk. The rest of the hands were uneventful and I basically get blinded out. (-$110 tourney, -$95 tourney so far)
12:00am: After busting out of the tourney grab a cash game. What a table. There is a guy at the table who loves to bet heavy on the river. He would be on the button every time I am in the BB and he would raise it and I would always tell him that I am going to come over the top one of these times. I am up about $100 sitting on about $300 and he is at about $200 when folds around to him and he raises it and I look down at AA. I do all the typical I am strong moves like I look at him and tell him not this time and I raise…..I think for about 30 sec and say $35 (seems like a big bet and I want him to think that) he says all in and I pull a Phill Helmuth with “I CALL” and can’t get my chips in fast enough. I like it….he has AK and I show AA…flop comes J10 garbage and turn and river nothing and I take it down. Damn I love it when a plan comes together . (+$350 cash, +$280 cash so far)
Saturday 2/7
11:00am: Went over to the Venetian to check out the room and ended up playing in a cash game. I have to say over all this was one of the weakest games I played there. I think it had to do with all the tourist in the game as well as this was a new table. As soon as I sit down 8 seat, I noticed 5 and 6 seat were buds and looked very scared. They weren’t doing any raising and calling down and checking. So first hand to talk about. I was up to about $300 and I was on the button. Villain in the 6 seat limped and I raise to $15 and he calls. The flop is QK9 not a very good flop for me but villain checks I have to bet here so I make it $30 and gets a call. Turn is a 8 (another card I did not want to see) villain checks and I make it $45 (I don’t want to go to high in case he is trapping with KQ or something) villain calls. River a 8 and villain bets $25…that is right $25 so there is ~180 in the pot and he makes it $25 I make a crying call to see him flop over J8 for trip 8’s, wow what a suck out. Now later in the round I had a good feel for the table and started opening up my starting hands in position. I get J9 of hearts on the button with 4 limpers I decide to limp too. Flop comes 810 garbage. Villain in the 5 seat bets $10 I call (heads up now). I think straight will kill him….turn blank and he bets $25 and I suspect that any 7,Q or even a Jack will win here so I just call. The river the 7 (I have the nuts). Wow he checks…wonder does he have a read and is he better than I thought? I go all in and he calls for about $100 and turns over AA. I sucked out on him wow, I had him read wrong, but I take it anyway. (+$100 cash, +$380 cash so far)
1:00am: I had things to do in the middle of the day so I couldn’t get out till 1am. I wanted to check out the Excalibur poker room. They have nothing but poker trek machines and no dealers so I had to check out the fish there. I heard they only spread .5/1 nl but there was a table of 1/2 nl going on and only about 5 people on it, so I buy in for $200. The average stack was about $300 at that time. Before I start I want to say there are a lot of positives about these tables (no misdeals, always know what is in the pot, you know your stack compared to other stacks….), but the negatives really kind of bothered me. This is a very unregulated game. You can do and say just about anything at the table. There was so much talking about hands and checking things down and colluding it was pretty bad. Given all that, if you know what you are doing you can use that to your advantage. For example, I raise with KQ suited with a flop of KQ garbage. I bet big and guy to my right over the top with all in. He tells me I have to with KQ and then shows me his hand on the screen and I call to split the pot. This was an up and down game for anyone who came on the table. It was fast and furious and straights were getting sucked out with runner runner boats. My one big hand was…..I am UTG+1 looking at AK spades UTG raises to $15 and shows me 108 spades so I decide to go all in (I have about $200) cutoff calls my all in (with pocket 5’s for about $80) and then UTG says WTF and calls (he has about $800+). Flop comes 10, long story short I get my K on the river and ship over $550+. It was about 7:00am and time to leave. (+$350 cash, +$730 cash so far)
Sunday 2/8
12:00pm: Late start since we didn’t end till 7:00am from Excalibur. I head to Harrah’s room and play some. I am up and down a little till I hit my hand. I have AQ clubs in position. Villain 1 raises to $12 Villain 2 calls and I call (I remember my first day to much). Flop nothing but low cards but 2 clubs. Flop is check around. Turn is club and now I have the nuts and Villain 1 bets out Villain 2 calls and now I have to bet just in case 2 pair here. I bet Villain 1 folds, Villain 2 calls. Turn blank and now I breathe easy. Villain 2 bets and I come over the top all in and he calls….My ace high flush beats his king high flush, tough break. Now my big question mark fold. Again I have a tight image since I have shown nothing but premium hands AK, AQ, QQ. I am on the button with AA UTG (local) calls and heads up to the flop. K 8 6 rainbow. He checks to me and I bet $30 (my raise pre-flop was $15), he calls. Turn is a 5 and villain states I am not getting sucked out on the river again and bets out $100. This threw me. What could he be holding? I go thru my range of hands and I can’t put him on K8, 79, 86, 88, 66…..why would he bet here. He seems like he knows what he is doing and I fold. He never shows but I think he was good there. NP, it is better to fold a winning hand then to call a losing one. (+$100 cash, +$830 cash so far)
7:00pm: Head over to the Venetian for the 7pm daily. $120 buyin. All I can say is that I was card dead, and I had some big hitters at the table and I felt like bait. (-$120 tourney, -$215 tourney so far)
9:00pm: Harrah’s again nothing big, but do well. (+$100 cash, +$930 cash so far)
Monday 2/9
5:00am: Last day in Vegas so I go over to Flamingo and play a cash game. There were a couple of big stacks that were playing from the night before. All I can say is I had ace’s cracked 2 times in 3 hands. I crawl back to a loss…bad way to end the trip. (-$200 cash, +$730 cash so far)

So I was a negative $215 in tourney’s and positive $730 in cash, not so bad. I learned a lot about my game. I am still learning to be more aggressive on the flop. I notice the more “seasoned” players were winning money on the flop with aggression and I didn’t do that. I still love this game and will be a student for the rest of my life.