Las Vegas Poker Trip Report: 7/7/08 – 7/12/08

I hadn’t planned to come to Las Vegas this year due to various vacations with the family and the cost of some home improvement projects, however when my father’s Las Vegas group decided to go during the week of the WSOP Main Event I reconsidered and made it work. My bankroll was a little light for this trip at about $1800. This was my fourth trip to Las Vegas.

Monday, 7/7/08

Arrive at the Gold Coast about 11:00 AM, which like the last trip is not my choice, but the choice of the group I am traveling with. Not bad though as it is right next to the WSOP at the Rio and the rooms and food were likely to be comped, which they were. I played some video poker to settle in then took an afternoon nap since I had been awake since 3:00 AM EST.

I decided to start of slow and play the 7:00 PM TI tournament and then play some 2/4 Limit at TI. I did not do too well in the tournament, can’t really remember too many details about it. Afterward I got on the 2/4 Limit list of 4 people. Sat at a table and chatted a little with the top two on the list. They were seated quickly, actually they were a couple and the lady decided not to play when she realized she would be at a different table or across the table from her husband or some such arrangement that did not suit her. Good for me, right… well to make a long story short I waited an hour and a half and watched 3 people not on the list get seats while I never got called. The manager at the time was not someone that I recognized from the year before. This wasn’t a great way to start the trip. I took the tram over to the Mirage and the room was very busy and the lists were fairly long. I was tired from the early start to the day and the trip out and so I decided to call it a night.

Tuesday, 7/8/08

Jumped right in at this point and played the Venetian $330 Deep Stack Tournament. I knew going in that it would take a lightening strike for me to go deep, but I wanted to play and learn from better players and this seemed like a relatively inexpensive way to get some lessons. There were 513 players and I made it midway into the 6th level, knocked out somewhere around 300th. I enjoyed the experience and took as many mental notes as I could regarding properly implemented aggression which is the area that I feel I most need to improve in, particularly in regard to stealing and pressuring opponents. I used the $10 meal comp toward a BBQ salmon meal at the Grand Lux Café. I really like the Venetian, but I’m not sure that I am a good enough player yet to make that home base for a poker trip…. I would like to, but I have to get better to do so. Maybe the 4/8 limit game would suit me.

While I was at the Venetian, I bought some souvenirs for my kids and then went over to TI to play poker. I played $2/4 Limit which is a game that is clearly too inexpensive for me to take seriously or to play very well. I lost $78 at the table for about 3 hours. I’ll pretty much talk myself into calling with anything pre-flop for $2 and just am generally very undisciplined, but it is hard to be in a game that often sees big hands busted time and again. I think pocket Aces were played 3 times while I was at the table and they lost each time. Called it a day and went back to the Gold Coast.

To and from the Strip I would ride the free Gold Coast shuttle and then walk to wherever I was going. The Gold Coast shuttle is much easier to deal with than the Orleans shuttle, much faster (shorter distance) and much less in demand. When you see the shuttle line at Bill’s 95% of those people are going to the Orleans. This made getting to and from the strip easy and cheap. I did taxi back and forth one day and it cost about $30 total to do so.

Wednesday, 7/9/08

I played the Treasure Island Head Hunter tournament at 11:00 AM and was able integrate some of the strategies that I observed at the Venetian tournament into my game. I won pots with my good cards, but I also took several without good cards by playing position with aggression. The players in the Head Hunter tournament were better than in the daily tournament, at least so much as that the top of the field was stronger. And so I had two very good players at my table which again I took every opportunity to learn from. One very nice 22 year old kid that is a waiter at the Bellagio I believe and then a quiet lady with magnets as her card marker. Both were very aggressive and took advantage at opportune times of anyone that showed weakness. There was clearly a method to their madness. I really enjoyed watching them play and was able to sneak in a steal a few pots from them playing weak hands like 2-3 off suit. Anyway, I made it to the final table and went out 7th I believe when my M was at 9 and I pushed with pocket 77’s and got called by pocket Aces! Oh well, I liked my play in this tournament and I liked the hand I exited on given the situation. I took a stand when M dictated it and I was at least glad to not have waited passively to be blinded away.

The TI Head Hunter tournament is EXCELLENT and I look forward to playing it in the future. The structure is really good for a cheaper tournament with the buy-in of $125 and the bounty aspect makes it interesting.

I ate at the TI buffet and thought it was pretty good. Then I sat in the keno lounge for an hour trying to hit my 5 spot numbers before returning to the TI poker room to play some $1/3 NL. I bought in for $300 which I felt was all that my limited bankroll really allowed and I quickly bumped that up to $700 when I let someone take the lead into my set of kings before taking the lead back at the end of the hand and getting called. 15 minutes into the session I was feeling pretty good, but I was really tired and misplayed a winning hand while I was tipping the cocktail waitress…. Lesson learned. I have to keep my attention on the hand. I had KJ and did not pair up, same guy that played the previous winning hand with me, we bet a little early in the hand and then he checks, I check and the river bring me a straight, but all I know is I don’t have a pair and the waitress is behind me and my attention is more on her and the tip than on the hand…. so like a dumb ass I check. A minute later a guy two seats to my left looks at me and asks, “Was there a flush on that board?” I felt like a fool, but man I was tired and that signaled that it was probably about time to go. I played 3 hours that session, gave some of the chips back and left up a couple hundred.

Thursday, 7/10/08

No poker this day. Stayed at the Gold Coast and walked over to the Rio. I played blackjack several times winning a little here and loosing a little there. On the trip I think I was up about $300 playing blackjack. Anyway, the Rio was nice and the video poker seemed a little more alive than at the Gold Coast where it was dead as dead can be. But I lost there too and it looks like I’ll probably give up on video poker…. It doesn’t seem to payout like it used to.

Friday, 7/11/08

Again traveled back to TI as this is my favorite room. I wasn’t crazy about not getting seated on Monday night, but I think this is more a problem with one particular employee than characteristic of the room itself. Played the 11AM tournament and finished 6th, two places from the money. Dang it! I really like these little tournaments. They are a great value for $65, but the jump between the 500/1000 to the next level of 1000/2000 is just too much and after working to get close to the money that jump just turns the tournament into a lottery. I may be off on the exact numbers there, but the increase is huge and I think this tournament would be so much better if there were an intermediate jump in between those two levels to allow the last 7 or so players 20 more minutes to play poker rather than play lottery…. But we all know that is the name of the game in a little tournament so you can’t complain too much.

Anyway, I had caught pretty good cards and was again able to win pots without card to chip up, and even flopped a monster playing junk in position, but I went really card dead when we got down to about 7 players. I called a 2 way all-in with QJ suited when my M was around 6 and flopped QJ, but damn if somebody didn’t make a straight, but I won the side pot and still hade around 6500 in chips. That was the best hand that I saw and with the 1000/2000 blinds to me in two more hands and M now down to 3 I look down at pocket 4’s and go all in. Villain really had no choice either as he only had me covered by a few thousand and he called from the BB with 7-9, I think they were suited, but anyway he makes a straight and I am done in 6th. I hated that my M got so low, but I really went card dead… I was desperate for connectors, a high card, anything to push with and I just could not get it. Maybe I should have pushed with the 7-2 and 8-3 crap I was getting when my threat potential was higher. Oh well, overall I felt good about it.

Again ate the TI buffet around 4:00 and digested in the keno lounge before returning to play NL. I bought in short for $300, but that was as much or more than most of the people at the table. I played in a short handed game of 6 and then 5 which included 3 friends that openly discussed not wanting to be aggressive and competitive toward one another. The writing was on the wall for that game and I was about to get up when I hit Pocket Rockets and doubled up from $205. The table broke up and I moved to another table were I played a few uneventful hands and lost a little bit over an hour before cashing out about $50 up and calling it a trip for the poker playing.

Saturday, 7/12/08

Our flight left at 4:00 and I had not made it across the street to the WSOP so I felt obligated to do so. Day 6 I believe it was, less than 200 players. I saw a glimpse of Matusow at the featured table, but heard him loud and clear when I gather that he won a big hand with the audience cheering. I also saw Gus Hansen if I am not mistaken still playing. I didn’t stay long. Bought a few t-shirts, took some pictures and headed on back to the Gold Coast.

That is about it. I feel like I learned a good bit from playing with players better than I am and I hope to work on implementing some of those nuances into my game effectively.

Thanks for reading.