Yet again, my saintly wife agrees to watch the kids solo while I take a quicky Vegas trip (solo) for two nights (9/10—9/12). This is my 4th trip in the last year or so, and the shortest, but since I’ve been there a number of times recently, I felt that I had a good sense for where I wanted to go and what I wanted to do, and that I wouldn’t waste a lot of time feeling my way around.

B ecause my flight out of KC was early on Thursday, I Pricelined a room for Wed night and got the Hilton KC airport for $40, and played a couple of hours at Harrahs North Kansas City on Wed night. Not a very eventful evening, except for two hands. I had 34o in the big blind, and about 5 limpers come in and I check my option. Flop comes A57rainbow, giving me a double gut shot. Small blind, who had also limped, bets $7 (this is a 1/2NL game, btw). I call ($7 into about $15 pot, no-brainer, right?), hoping that some of the other limpers might also join in for that price, but they don’t and we’re heads-up. Anyway, turn is the blessed 2, giving me the nuts. Small blind bets $7 again, and I re-pop to $20, not wanting to scare him off with a small ace, but wanting to get him priced in to call the river (he’d have only $45 or so left). He calls my raise, and we see a J on the river (no flush, I’ve still got the nuts). He bets $25, I push, he insta-calls, and immediately flips AJ for top two. I declare straight and turn over quickly (no slow-roll). He says (disgusted tone) “suck-out piece of sh**” and gets up and leaves. Me and the other players get a good chuckle out of that. Anybody out there NOT call the $7 with the well-disguised double gutter in hopes of having exactly what happened, happen? I’m guessing not.

I uneventfully work my way down to about $100 stack when the following odd hand happens. I have J10 suited and call a small raise in late position (maybe $10) with a number of other callers (maybe 5 in total). Flop gives me an open ended straight draw (982, rainbow)—early player bets like 20, call, call, to me….. hmmm, priced in ($110 pot) with double nut draw, in position, I call. Turn looks like a blank (maybe a 4, still rainbow). First bettor bets big ($75), gets a call, and a raise, and its to me. With only $70 or so left, and with my share of the pot being about $320, I stick it in, probably not quite having the right odds to call, but figuring it was close with 8 outs (you can do the math if you’re so inclined). I miss on the river and head back to the hotel for the night, eager for my trip the next day.

Direct flight on Southwest is uneventful and smooth, and I land a little early. After a quick cab ride to TI (first time staying there), I check in and head over to the Mirage to find something to eat. Amazingly, I’ve never actually been to the Mirage—poker room or otherwise—and one of my goals for the trip is to check it out and play in the poker room (now under new management as I’ve learned on AVP). Its about 4pm, so a lot of the specialty restaurants aren’t open yet, but I’m hungry as hell and decide to do the Mirage buffet. I really like the food there, and like the layout a lot. While I’m there, I see probably the hairiest man I’ve ever seen in person—this is made all the more apparent by the fact that he is wearing a wife-beater t-shirt. Not quite side-show hairy, or Chewbacca hairy, but pretty close. Luckily I’d already eaten, or I might have been really turned off. This is the guy who clogs all the drains in hotel room bathtubs.

I head over to the Mirage poker room and wait about 10 min to get on a $1/$2 table. There appear to be a couple of strong players and a couple of pretty weak players on the table, and it seems easy to identify everyone. After about 1 hour I get involved in a hand, in late position, with 99. Strong player in early position raises to $12 or so, weak player in MP calls, and I call. Flop is Q9x. Strong player makes it $75 to go, weak player calls, and I push all in for my remaining $170 or so. Strong player sniffs out the set, I think, and folds. Weak player calls with J10, but he misses and I rake a really nice pot. Not too much later, I flop two pair, and raise the same weak player, who calls, then calls another big bet by me on the turn, and then sucks out on the river….. back to $200ish from $500ish. Unfortunately that guy leaves, but two buddies sit down and are really quite bad. One guy in particular calls just about every raise pre-flop, then habitually check raises when the original bettor puts in a bet after the flop—it was as if someone told him this was a good idea, so he did it every single time. This works a couple times, but then he shows down a couple hands with like ace-high or second pair. About 5 of us at the table are licking our chops to get a piece of this action, and I’m the one who gets lucky enough to get some legitimate hands and take him for some big pots. For example, I get AQs in late position, raise to 12 or so, and he calls (heads up). Flop comes AQx. He checks, and I put in a decent sized bet (maybe $30), being fairly certain that he’ll raise. Sure enough, he makes it $90 and I call. Turn looks like a blank, and he bets $50 or so…. I call. Can’t remember what the river was, but it was a little scary (maybe paired something on the board or put a 3-flush on), he checks, I check, and he shows just a pair of queens. I take down a $300 or so pot. Couple hands like that against him, and a couple other legitimate hands, and I leave up about $550. Nice start to the trip.

I head over to the Venetian and get on a 1-2 table. Not really any hands of interest, but I see one of the funnier things I’ve seen at a poker table. I’m in the 1 seat, and the guy in the 10 seat is a very large black guy—probably 6’5” and a cookie short of 300—I only mention this because someone might recognize the description. He proceeds to reach into his bag, on the floor, and pulls out an ear of corn on the cob and eats it at the table. Not only that, but this guy is just DEVOURING the corn, taking mammoth bites and not even trying to chew with his mouth closed. He finishes the first, then reaches down and pulls out a second, also devouring that one—maybe 45 seconds. I’m kind of surprised that nobody else seems to notice—I’m kind of laughing and trying to make eye-contact with other people, but everybody seems oblivious to this behavior. I’m reminded of the last IMOP report in which one of the fellas pulled a pork chop out of his pocket at the table and started to eat it. I play until 2ish then head back to hit the hay.

However, as I’m walking into the TI, right in the semi-circular drive, I’m approached by two ladies who I quickly identify as hookers, to receive my first legitimate Vegas proposition. One was about 25 ish, blond, busty and kind of heavy, and the other was probably 35, but looked more like 50, ridden hard, and put away wet. I keep up my pace to try the brush-by, and expect a kind of subtle come-on like, “hey, do you want to party with us?” or something like that. Instead, the younger one, in her best “me so horny” voice just declares “I want to f*** you.” Hell-O. I keep up my pace, and say “no thanks,” she says “why?” and I just say “not interested” and walk on without further incident. Upon reflection, though, I wish I would have thought of some snappier come-backs:

“Will that include your mom, too?”
Or
“Does that come with complementary anti-biotics?”

On the other hand, getting beaten-up by two Vegas hookers outside my hotel would have significantly eaten in to my poker time, so its probably better that those phrases didn’t pop into my head.
Friday morning I call down for room service, which comes REALLY fast, and I enjoy hanging out in my room watching the news and drinking some coffee. I head over to Caesars to play the 9am buy-in ($70 or so) tourney. Play is kind of crazy right off the bat, with guys getting it all-in with like 77 vs. 44 pre-flop. I bust out pretty early when my K high flush with AK loses to another guy’s A high flush with AK. I probably should have been able to get away from it, but…. Whatever. I head over to Bally’s to participate in a little more 1-2 during their aces cracked promotion. I end-up down about $150 or so, with most of that attributed to losing to A-10 with my AQ—we get it all in after the flop, and my opponent catches the 10 on the river. C’est la vie.

I head back to the TI grab a sandwich at Canter’s (excellent) and then go to my room to relax a little. I buy in for the 7pm head-hunter tourney, then head to the Mirage for a couple of hours before the tourney. No real hands of note, kind of card-dead, and leave there down about $100 before heading back over to TI for the 7pm tourney. There are only about 18 runners (although some people bust out early and then buy back in as new players—a couple of them a couple times!). One interesting hand—early on, I’m dealt 99 on the BB, and call a smallish raise. The flop has a 9, but also two hearts. I bet, and get two callers. Turn is another heart, and I put in a decent sized bet, only to be raised all-in by a fairly aggressive player. I suspect he’s full of it, or perhaps just has 2 pair or something, and I decide to call figuring that worst case scenario I can still win if the board pairs. Turns out he has air, and I nearly double up and get his bounty. There is one group of guys there (I think from Tennessee) who are clearly there to have a good time. One of the guys in their group ends up going deep, and the others essentially hang out waiting for him to bust out so they can go eat. While they’re waiting, they really get their drunk on pretty good and are a little rude to some of the staff (though they otherwise seem like a nice group of guys). Kudos to the staff, dealers, floor staff and cocktail waitresses for coping with them and letting them have fun while keeping them under control and not resorting to kicking them out. I thought the dealers were all really friendly and kept good control over the game. I end up being one of three remaining players, and we work out a chop where the big chip leader gets slightly less than first place money, and me and the other guy split 2nd and 3rd , and we all keep our own bounty. +$300 for the tourney.

I decide to walk over to the Venetian, and opt to play some $4/$8 limit for a change of pace. I’m catching some cards, and hover between +$100 and +$200 for a few hours. REALLY loose game, with a lot of people seeing lots of flops and calling lots of raises with weak cards. Although I’m primarily a NL player, I might very well mix in some limit in the future for a change of pace…. I think the fact that 4/8 is the lowest limit game at the Venetian means that it attracts some of the worst players. One guy keeps calling or raising with jack-squat and getting uber-lucky (e.g., calls my KK raise with 2-4, catches a 4 on the flop and calls my raise again, then catches a 4 on the river--- calls all the way down to catch runner-runner straight to my 2 pair, etc.). I call it a night +$100. No sleazy hooker propositions on the way back to the room.
In the morning, I play a couple more hours of 1/2 at the Venetian, down about $130, and then head to the airport. All-in-all, I leave up a couple hundred—doesn’t pay for the trip, but takes a little dent out, and I have another great (though quick) solo trip!