Feb 19th-23rd Trip Recap – Wingman Strategy – Book a Win

One of my friends and I decided we needed a plan for when to walk away from the poker tables so we created a “Wingman Contract.” Neither one of us would allow the other to get stuck playing cash and to book a win when possible. Violation of the contract could lead to verbal or physical abuse if required. If you were down – minimize the losses and look for a better table. If you were up (at least up $100), book the win and move on to something else.

The Wingman agreement first appeared Wednesday night when I had been playing cash at Aria for about 2 hours. I was down about $20 when the Wingman said it’s time to go. I decided to play the hand I was dealt – KT of spades and it almost cost me. There was a $15 raise pre-flop, 1 other caller – a guy who was a bit of a table maniac. The flop came King high. I figured the maniac didn’t have a better King than me since he didn’t re-raise. However, he bet the flop for about $35. I called, the other guy folded. The turn put the 9 of spades on the board, giving me a gut shot straight draw and a flush draw to go along with top pair. The maniac bet $75, leaving me with about $65 behind. I called and missed improving my hand on the river. He bet enough to put me all in and I folded after getting him to talk some and convincing me he had me beat. He showed AK. Now I couldn’t leave. I played a few more hands, hit a set of 6’s to get back to being down only $40 and I left. The Wingman agreement had been violated and I felt like Jim Carrey in “Yes Man.” Never let the wingman down again!

During my tournament runs, the wingman helped me navigate past the bubble two times and to leave up in my only other cash game session. I convinced him to leave a cash game session up $750 at Flamingo and $380 at Caesars. One time he tried the old, “let me play one time around” routine, but the contract was brought up and he got up before I had to resort to the penalty section of the agreement.
The plan to “book a win” each time we played proved important to maintain our confidence.

Trip Recap:
I was torn between playing the daily Aria games or the Venetian DSE event or the WSOP Circuit event. Ultimately I decided I was better off playing the Aria game twice a day for 3 straight days than playing against a larger field with bigger buy-ins.
My three poker buddies and I arrived on Wednesday and checked into the Flamingo. The plan was to head over to the Aria for the 7PM daily. On the way we stopped at Twin Peaks. I had a burger and I can say it was one of the worst burgers I’ve had. The scenery was great, but I would not recommend going there for a hamburger.
We got into the 7PM tournament at Aria. I busted around 30th with KK vs A7 after all in preflop and the guy hit an Ace on the turn. I don’t get people calling 90% of their stack on A7 preflop, but you have to take the good calls with the bad at Aria. 2 of my friends made the final table but they finished 2 from the money and on the bubble.
I played a little cash at Aria after I busted (1/3) and after getting up $130, I found myself in a hand with too many outs to fold until the river where I missed 17 outs and had to fold. I won some back and finished down $40.

On Thursday, we headed to the Aria again after eating at Hash House A Go Go – I had the French toast which was excellent. The 1PM game had 124 players. I managed to make the final table with a slightly below average chip stack. We had one player who was winning almost every hand with any 2 cards. We were down to the final 7 and hit a break. We tried talking a chip chop but the chip leader didn’t want to. The first hand after break, I had KQ of hearts and went all in. The big blind thought about it for a long time before finally calling 90K with K,10 – he was risking about 70% of his chip stack on the call and of course he hit a 10 and I was out. I went to the pizza slice joint by the sportsbook and saw 2 more players had busted within 5 minutes. By the time I ate my slice, I went back to the table to see how it was going and the game was over. The chip leader apparently just annihilated the table within 15 minutes to take down 1st place and $3,900.

FYI, my friend went to Bellagio to check out the 5 pm tournament and it had 9 players signed up a few minutes before start time. I’m not sure that tournament is going to last if that is all they players they attract on a typical night.

On Friday, we used our 2 free buffets for 24 hours for getting the Total Rewards card. We had the breakfast buffet at the Flamingo, which was good. After that we headed to the Aria again for the 1PM which had 170 players. I started out hot and quickly turned the starting stack of 10k into 52k. Unfortunately, my luck turned and I lost to a short stacked all in pre flop with KJ vs my A9 when he hit a Jack on the river. I then lost to an all in on the flop to a player with 77 vs my A6 on a 6 high flop. Soon after, I ran AQ of spades into KK. Suddenly I was back down to about 15k. I managed to build my stack back and got to the final 2 tables. 1 player objected to paying the bubble and I was able to use that to my advantage and went from about 210k to about 300k before the bubble burst. We got to the final table and quickly lost one. We went on break and the chop talk began.
I was 2nd in chips, but it was fairly closely bunched except for the chip leader who had over 500k and a couple of short stacks. The next out would have received only $372, and everyone agreed to a chop based on chips. FYI, the tournies both ended around 10 pm. I heard some people say they read the games only last 6-8 hours. Based on my experience, it is safe to plan on 9 hours if you plan on making the final table.
I spent almost the entire time of my 24 buffet in the tournament and by the time it was over, the buffet was closed for the day.
The next morning we ate at the Flamingo buffet again. I really didn’t want to play in the Aria 1 PM game again, but I wanted to try to make the final table 3 days in a row (plus my last time I was there in October, I also made a final table, so winning in 4 out of 5 games would have been an ego boost). I didn’t decide to join until right at 1 pm and I was an alternate. I had to wait 1 ½ levels before a seat was available and I wasn’t in the right mind-set to play. I struggled to get any momentum going and out of 159 players, I went out around 39th. I was a bit relieved that I was able to go eat a normal dinner. One of my friends made the final table and they agreed to a chip chop.
On Saturday night, I played some cash at the Flamingo where I won $170 in about an hour. There were some crazy loose plays at the table and I was happy with my win. My friend was at another cash table and he won $750 in a few hours.
On Sunday I avoided poker completely. I won a little bit playing Miss Stud and Let it Ride before grabbing some Caprioti’s on the way to the airport.

So was my plan a good one – playing the smaller Aria games vs the WSOP Circuit? The $365 WSOP Circuit event had 432 players. In order for me to have won as much as I did at Aria, I would have needed to finish 13th in the WSOP Circuit– thus outlasting 419 players with nearly triple the buy-in. First place at the WSOP game was $28,514. While the 1st place prize sounds great, I think the odds of me beating 400+ players, with fewer tourists and a more talented field, makes playing the Aria game more profitable.