Just got back from another short Vegas trip.

Drove in from Los Angeles without much traffic on a Friday afternoon before the mad traffic rush. Checked into Mirage without a hitch. It’s kinda deceiving that all MGM properties tag on a resort fee now. Mirage charges like $14 resort fee for pretty useless stuff like newspaper that you have to ask for at the Bell service each day, free phone calls, free notary service, free printing for your boarding pass. 2 nights stay costs me over $28 for useless service. Well, at least the room was reasonable at $77/night. So, 2 nights for a total of about $200.

We were a little tired after the drive, so decided to try Mirage “Carving” buffet. I was a little disappointed with the food. Although it features half split crab legs, prime ribs, Chinese/Japanese food, the overall quality was just average. Desert selection was limited. I confused it with Treasure island’s buffet which was good at lunch time last time I went.

After dinner, I put my wife to bed so I could sneak into poker room. The place was buzzing at 11pm on Fri night, but I was quickly seated at $1/2 NL near the entrance. The table was filled with half solid rocks and a few young guns. Not too long after I sat down, I was dealt QQ in EP, I bumped it to $12 from seat# 9. An older gentleman called at seat# 2. We went heads-up to see a flop of AXX. I checked, and he bet out. I looked at him and decided to give up the pot since I had no read and no position on him. Eventually, over the next hour I picked my spots carefully and increase my $120 buy-in to almost $200.

I might have an active image, C-bet quite often, floated a few pots. I was pleasantly surprised when I saw AA in MP. I continued to raise to $12. Lost all players except a young gun (YG) at the blind with more than $200 in front him. 336 rainbow flop seemed safe enough after YG checked. I C-bet $10 to lure him in. YG swung into action with a $30 raise. I deliberated a little before tossing in another $20. Turn an innocent 8, YG checked, I checked behind to see what would develop. River another 6, and the board now reads 3 3 6 8 6 with no flush. YG checked once more, I felt confident enough now to bet out $20. To my surprise, YG raised to $60. What would you do??

He seemed like a pretty aggro YG, I decided to bite my own bullets and called an extra $40 after some analyzing. He flashed his K and I proudly showed him my AA. He looked disgusted and thought to himself what a stupid move he tried to make against AA. (+$100)

A little later, I got AQ os UTG and bumped it up to a standard $12. Seat# 10 next to me called and a very tight older player re-bumped it to $30. We both pitched in another $20 to see a flop of A K T. Wary of the tight player, I checked, so did seat #10. Tight player betted out $30. I folded since I would be a massive underdog if anyone had AK. Seat #10 called. Turn some junk and seat#10 eventually folded after tight player betted out big and showed AA for trip Ace! Phew, “I can dodge bullets, baby!” Seat#10 told me he was on a draw. This gave me a very valuable info.

A bit later, another young gun (YG2) raised from LP to $10 and he had a healthy stack of almost $300. I was salivating when I looked down at AcKc and decided to re-raised to $30. To my surprise, seat #10 called from SB and so did the original raiser YG2. 3 of us saw a flop of A Tc 8c. All checked to me, I knew seat#10 must had some sort of draw from previous info, so I betted out $30, lost seat #10, and YG2 announced raise to $90. It was a pretty no brainer for me to push all in for close to $200. He mucked immediately and later told me that he had nothing. (+$150). Wow, time flew by, and both YG were busted and there had about half table turnover. I felt a little tired and didn’t see too many fish on my table. So, I called it a nite at 1am and booked a gain of $350.

Next morning, after a McDonald breakfast across the street of Mirage (next to Harrah’s), I went for another solo session at Mirage for $1/2 NL. Hoping to find more fish like the previous night, I was truly disappointed to find a whole table of local rocks. They were all there to take advantage of Aces cracked promotion till 1pm. $150 for Aces cracked if they are the same color, $75 if they are different color. That doesn’t seem a very good deal. I played at Bally before and it’s $100 Aces cracked no matter what color, what religion or what nationality of the Aces. Anyway, nothing exciting since most people played really tight solid poker. It was 1130pm, and I made a mad dash to Wynn to check out their $120 12pm tourney. When I got there at 12pm, I was told they would only have 4 tables. A quick calculation of 45 people X $100 X 30% first place will yield about $1350 for the first place. With 10% payout, it’s just not very attractive to spend 6 hrs for 4 or 5 paid places. Besides, I had a dinner to catch at night. So, I decided to pass on it and planned to use the $120 for cash game again at Mirage. I usually played at Venetian for $150 12pm tourney, but Sat 12pm tourney is like $300 something and that’s out of bankroll.

So, I called my wife and had lunch in the mall and did some window shopping. We eventually headed back to Mirage and split up. I took my $120 and turned it into almost $300 in 2&1/2 hrs. This time the table was a good mix of aggro players and more young guns, and a few solid players. I sat down at seat #3, and looked down at QQ shortly after being seated. Standard raise to $12 EP, only BB young gun (YG) called. Flop 5 6 9, YG checked from the blind, I betted out $20, YG raised to $60. I had no read on him and thought to myself “What the hell, it’s just $120 from the tourney!” I pushed all in and he mucked instantly. Later, a new young guy sat down at seat#1, and raised on his first hand, got re-raised by a very tight older guy at seat #10. It turned into all-in battle. I put them on AA, AK, KK. Young guy flipped over KK, saw a board of A X X X K and won miraculously with trip KK at the river. The tight gentleman disgustedly threw his hand away. The young guy was as tight as any other tight rocks on the table. He limped in for $2 UTG, so did seat#2, I tried to be frisky and raised to $12 with TJ, all folded to UTG KK guy and he re-raised to like $30. Seat#2 mucked and I threw away my cards as I asked him if he had Kings again? He flashed his 2 beautiful Aces to me. Hehe, “I can dodge bullets, baby!” You gotta love live action, I would never be able to do it in online games. It’s a lot easier if you pay attention to only 1 table and get to see and feel how players act. Soooo much easier to find tells and get a feel for the game.

Last hand that’s notable: A very loose player at seat#4 (rebought $100 a few times already), raised UTG to $12, 4 callers and I called from BB with Q9. I could hardly contain my excitement when I saw a flop of Q97. SB checked, I checked knowing someone would fire. Loose cannon went all in for the remaining $51. Everyone fold to SB, who thought for a while before calling. I knew he was on a draw, so I pushed $51 + another $100 all in. SB knew he was beat and threw his cards away, and I didn’t want him to call anyway. Board finally ran as Q 9 7 Q 9 for a full house for me, loose cannon turned over QK. (+$140). 5pm rolled around and we went to have dinner at Capos on Sahara, it’s an Italian restaurant highly recommended by my co-worker. They have another store on Tropicana. Pretty neat place with Mafia theme, food was ok, but kinda out of the way. Later, my parents went to watch “O” at Bellagio while I and my wife watched “Mystere” for BOGO free ticket. “Mystere” was ok, but I wouldn’t spend more than $70/ticket. With BOGO coupon they handed out at TI, we got decent seats for $105 for 2 tickets. Not bad for that prize.

All in all, I am glad I dodged bullets twice, that was extremely lucky. I like the Mirage room a lot. Action seems better than Flamingo / Bally. Poker room at TI was extremely sad in comparisons. Very tiny room, with only 1 or 2 live tables both times I dropped by for “Mystere” show. Can’t wait till my next trip. Thanks for reading the long post, hope you enjoy it.