This is my trip report for a visit lin late June/early July 2012. A little background. I am a poker donkey trying to transform myself into a poker race horse. Or at least a pony. I think I’ve improved my game every time I’ve visited Las Vegas, but there’s an awful lot of room between me and the kind of player I’d like to be. Unfortunately, living in Alaska in a post-Black Friday world means not many opportunities to work on my game. No legal poker games in Alaska except for pure home games. I’ve even stooped to subscribing to Club WPT just to feel like I’m playing something that reminds me of playing poker. But enough whining.

I don’t recall exactly when I found AVP, but I’ve been an avid reader ever since. I’ve enjoyed living a little vicariously through the many trip reports. I’m finally posting one so I can hopefully give a little entertainment back. As I said above, I don’t know if I’ve truly managed to graduate from donk status, so feel free to blast away at any of the hands I describe below. I’ve learned a lot reading your analysis of your own play and I’m ready to take some surely well-deserved shots at my own. Please, just don’t hit me in the face. I’m too pretty.

So in late June my parents flew up from California to watch our girls and two days later my wife and I took the red-eye from Anchorage to Las Vegas by way of Seattle. Left the house at midnight local time and got to Treasure Island about 11 hours later. We were smart and saw that 1st class mileage tickets on Alaska Air weren’t going for much more than coach on the flight down. So we booked first class, got a nice breakfast on the plane, and I was actually able to sleep for a few hours. Amazing how much sleep you can get on a plane without your neighbor’s elbow in your side and your own knees jammed into the seat in front of you.

So far in my poker hobby, I’ve mostly been a tournament player. It’s always seemed less intimidating to me. But I clocked a few hours of 1-3 cash games this trip as well. I didn’t spread my time around to many different rooms, so I’ll divide the rest of the report into the places I played:

Aria:

I’m going to start with Aria because I ended up playing there only once, and I’d expected to play there a lot more this trip. If anyone had asked me before this trip, I’d have said that Aria was my new favorite place to play tournaments. I’m sure for cash players Aria is still great, and I’ve vowed to play some cash there on my next visit to Vegas. But for tournaments, I’m a lot less happy with it now.

The structure (good stack of chips, pretty long levels for the buy-in) and the buy-in ($125) are still great for me. But the tournaments have been moved from the real poker room to a roped off area hiding behind some slot machines, across the main pedestrian highway through the casino. I understand the need for a change because the room was packed to the gills when I last played there in January 2012. But the new tournament area has crappy folding poker tables. I have a table at home that I picked up at SportsAuthority for $100 that’s about the same level of quality.

Even worse for a tournament like the Aria that can easily run 6-8 hours, the chairs are what I would call poor convention center quality. The only way the chairs could be worse is if they were folding. Or if you were being waterboarded on one. I could accept the change in location for tournaments, but the table and chair situation really sucks. If I’m going to park my butt for that long, I want it to be a little more comfortable than I was on this trip. I've sat in less than premium seating at the Rio, Palazzo, etc., for tournaments, but I thought this was a notch below those.

I am hoping that someone is going to post a response here that says, “Hey fish, they only did that while the WSOP is in town, they’re going back to hosting the tournaments in the main room starting in mid-July. If that’s the case, I’ll wiggle my gills in happiness and look forward to playing at Aria again. My two biggest cashes ever were in Aria tournaments in January of this year and October of last fall, so I’d like to want to go back.

The Rio:

I’d never made it over to the Rio during the WSOP before, so one day my wife and I went over there to check out the scene. We were there on the Friday before the OneDrop, and I wanted to play the 2:00 pm $235 side tournament. There were over 1,500 entries that day, and my recollection is that first place was paying over $60k. I played from 2:00 pm until around 6:00 pm. There were about 650 players left when I went out according to the Bravo screen. They were paying about 170 places. The structure was good, with 15,000 chips and blinds starting nice and low. I’d describe it as the Aria tournament structure on steroids.

There were some very aggressive young players at my table, but I tried to sit back, collect information, and wait for good spots. Early on in level one, blinds at 25/50, I had 98o on the button. Villain raises to 150 under the gun. Three callers plus me. Flop comes 9 8 5 rainbow. Villain leads out for 500 into the pot of 750. Everyone, including me, calls. Turn is a 4. Villain leads out for another 1,500, two callers, but I reraise to 3,000. Villain calls but everyone else folds. River is another 4. Villain checks. Now at this point, I figure I am ahead. If he was playing a 4 from UTG that way, good for him; same if he had a 67o. It was too early to get a really good read on this guy, but he didn’t seem like he was likely to be playing that kind of crap from so far out of position. So I thought 5,000 was a good value bet for my two pair, with the pot at 11,750. Villain folds an shows a 9. He’s crippled and I’ve almost doubled up. I’m guessing he had A9 suited.

In level 2, with blinds at 50/100, I get dealt 99 in the BB. Folds around to villain on the button who raises to 350. I re-raise to 900 and villain calls. The flop is K 9 x rainbow, another very nice flop for me. I lead out for 1,800 and the villain calls. Turn is a 4. I decide to check and see if I can get him to bet out. Villain bets 2,500 and I call. River is another 4, pairing the board. I bet another 5,000 into the pot of 10,400. If he’s followed me this far, I don’t think he can fold his Kx hand, which seems like his most likely holding. Villain calls and says he has a king. I turn over my 99 and he shows everyone a king before tossing his cards in the muck.

I was pretty happy with how I played both of these early level hands. I thought I was pretty aggressive. On paper, checking the turn when I had the 99 seems a little –EV because he could have easily checked behind and saved a street of betting. But my gut sense at the time said I didn’t want to lose him and that he was the kind of player who would attack if I showed a little weakness. Guess it worked out

I eventually busted out of the tourney when my stack started getting low and my K 9 shove ran into KQ. Oh well.

Treasure Island:

I ended up playing the majority of my time at Treasure Island for a couple of reasons. First, I’ve always loved TI. It’s where I played my first hand of real life brick and mortar casino poker. Second, we were staying there. Third, I felt like the level of skill of the other players was such that I could be pretty competitive. I played in about 10 tournaments at TI during our five day visit and managed to cash in four of them. We had a four-way chop when the blinds were 2k/4k and we all had less than 10 BB; I took second in another; and chopped 1st/2nd in the other two.

One tournament hand of note was towards the end of the third level, with 100/200 blinds. This was also the last level before the reentry period ends. I was on the button and the villain was in the cutoff. I had AQ of clubs, and there were two limpers including the villain. I raised to 800, a little more than my standard raise but with 700 in the pot and position I felt like that was about right. SB and BB fold, limper #1 folds, villain calls. My read on the villain is that he was fairly tight, not very aggressive. Pot is now 2300.

The flop is A J x, with two spades. Villain checks to me. Not a terrible flop for me, and with two spades I don’t want to give anyone a great price for a flush draw. Odds are he missed the flop and that I’m ahead. I bet 1600 into the pot of 2300. Villain moves all-in and has me covered. So the pot is now 3,900. I’ve got 3,500 behind. So it’s all my chips to call and potentially win a pot of 7,400.

With this flop, I’m way behind to AA, AK and even AJ. Another AQ is a chop. I beat all pocket pairs except Jacks and Aces, but I’m discounting pretty much any pocket pair except JJ+. I beat aces with weak kickers. Based on my read that this player is playing his cards and playing them tight, that he did a limp-call-check raise then all-in, I think it’s a lot more likely than not he has a hand that has me dominated. We’re less than 15 minutes away from the rebuy, which gets you 4.5k in starting chips, so I’m not crippled if I fold here but I’m lining up to reenter if I call and get it wrong. I think my image at the table is fairly tight but relatively aggressive.

At the end of my two minutes of reviewing the hand and the player, I just don’t think this guy would make this play with KK, A10, two spades, etc. He’s either got the AA, or AJ+, and there’s only one combination in that range I don’t lose to, and that’s the AQ chop. I fold and feel pretty damn good about it. He doesn’t express a lot of emotion after I fold, but overall seems like he would have liked a call. He later tells me that he had AA, but that’s what I’d say too whether I had it or not. This was the tournament I went on to chop four ways, so it all worked out either way. Curious to know what other folks would have done in this position.

I also played a little cash 1-3 NL at TI between tournaments one day. I didn't take a lot of notes, but three hands there will take a long time to forget. First, I had a smallish pocket pair, 6-6 I think, in middle position and decided to limp & set mine. Sure enough, there were a few callers and a flop of K - 6 - x rainbow. Older Asian gentleman with less than $100 in front of him raises to $20. I re-raise to $60, everyone else folds. OAG shoves for his last $80ish dollars. I have him covered and call. He turns over his limped KK and I double him up. Not sure there was much I could have done to get away from that.

I later played a second cash session at TI. Early on, I had QQ on the button. Guy to my right, young kid watching movies on his iPad the whole time, raises to $7. I re-raise to $25. Mr. iPad re-raises all in and has me covered. I have about $250 behind. I think about it for a long time. I think I've been playing fairly tight, but I haven't been at the table long enough for anyone to get a read on me. I am a 40ish guy, so maybe I by default fall into the tight/weak category. And maybe I should lol. I'm basically getting 2:1 on my money, but something just doesn't feel right. I talk myself into folding. He flashes one of his cards, a 4, as he picks up the $50ish pot. I told myself that in the same circumstances in the future, I'd call. I'm really only crushed by AA or KK preflop, and it's what, 60/40 in my favor if he has AK? Everything else he has I'm crushing. Bad lay down, but I'm chalking it up to my lack of cash game experience and newness to the table.

Later at that same table I got into a hand with a slightly better 8-8 in late position. Flop was rainbow trash, putting my 8-8 ahead as top pair compared to the board. BB and I were heads up. WIsh I could remember the amounts of the pre and post flop raises, but I made the raises and he called them both. Turn was more trash. I decided to check behind because I didn't want to build too high a pot with my mid-pair of overcards. River was a Q. I don't recall exactly what was in the pot, but it was more than $200. I decided to bet on the theory that he hadn't shown a lot of strength on the turn or river, and I might still be value betting the best hand. I bet another $100, leaving me with about $100 behind. He agonized, out loud and quite dramatically, about whether to call me or not. He said he was afraid the queen helped me. He said he thought I was a tight player. Finally, he folded pocket 10s face up. Now normally I would never show my cards unless I had to, but I was planning on leaving the table to go play my tournament. So I showed him the second best hand. Poor guy went ballistic, although to his credit he directed his rage at himself and not me. Still not sure if it was a good aggressive play by me to follow up on my turn check with the bet on the river or just a lucky donkey bet.

Anyway, had lots of fun in Vegas and I'm glad I finally took some notes on my phone about the hands I played. I got to meet AlaskaGal as she dealt a few times to my table. Wanted to meet up with Scott Davies (miamicane) who I had the privilege of buying a small stake in a few times this summer, but never managed to pull it off.

I’m looking forward to being back later this month for a boys-only poker trip that spans the Labor Day weekend.

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