Traveling back to the east coast after a business trip out west, I deliberately flew through Las Vegas, arriving late afternoon on the Friday before Memorial Day with my follow-on flight scheduled for 8:00 am the next morning … a perfect chance for a poker all-nighter! Certainly, it’s a lot more fun (and a lot less tiring) to spend a few days or more in town, but there was a short window of opportunity, and I took it.

I went straight to Planet Hollywood from the airport, arriving around 5pm. I like the room … not too crowded, fairly new tables, and an energetic, youthful vibe emanating throughout the casino. Kudos to the evening shift: solid management and friendly, competent dealers (in six hours, only one dealt card exposed, and no misdeals). The room has its downsides, too, like no auto shufflers and relatively slow cocktail service (they only have one server for the poker room and I think she may also cover another section of the casino, so when the poker room is crowded, you might wait a while for the drink). Anyway, room was busy, but not jam-packed, so I was seated very quickly at an otherwise full 1/2 NL table with the max buy-in of $200. Typical mix of players: a couple of locals and a bunch of tourists with varying levels of ability. Friendly enough group. I wanted to sit back for an orbit or so to assess the players’ abilities, but immediately got some playable hands, not quite premium, but you know the hands that you want to test the waters with. So, I’m not a great test taker, and after about 45 minutes, my stack is down to about $125 after going into too many pots with mediocre hands that don’t hold up. Clearly, an aspect of my game that I need to improve. Anyway, at that point, I reminded myself to tighten up and go TAG, which I know from the comments by many players on this site, is the right way to go. Got back even after another hour.

Not a ton of memorable hands, but I’d appreciate any feedback on a couple that I lost. First one: I’m in EP, and one of the players in MP (a young LA type) has been complaining to his buddy that he hasn’t seen any great hands and will go “all-in, dark” on the next hand (what is this, a home game?!?). I think to myself, “Jeez, what a bonehead”and plan not to play the hand. Well, as I said, I’m in EP, and I look down to see pocket aces, so I bump it to $15, thinking that either I’ll take his money or scare him off of his ridiculous plan. Everyone folds to him, and the villain throws in his stack, about $75. Everyone else folds, it comes back to me, and I call. It has been a friendly game, so when he asks that we wait to show until after the river, I agree. Well, as you already guessed, his A8 offsuit beats my rockets by completing the bottom end of a Q high straight. Ugh. I think I made the right play, but has anyone else come across a situation like this? Should I have just stayed away despite holding rockets?

Another memorable hand: I was in the big blind with AQs, several players limp in front of me, and I push to $12. With very little respect for my game, four other players stay in. Flop comes Q-10-rag rainbow. I put in a $60 pot sized bet to scare off any drawing hands, and everyone folds except one player. My bet is for about 75% of his stack. He goes into the box for a minute and then pushes his stack into the pot. For only about $20 more, it’s a no-brainer to call. He turns over K-J offsuit and gets to Broadway with an A on the river. Ugh. I maintain composure with a “that’s poker” shrug, but around the table the consensus was that he made a donkey play. Villian says to me that if I was concerned about a call, I should have gone all in post-flop. I still think the pot-sized bet was the right call, especially given how many chips he had to commit to raise me, but I’d welcome any feedback.

I climbed out of the hole and was ahead by about $150 after six hours. Here’s one of the winning hands, which I thought was a little ironic. Call me weird, but I have a favorite rag hand to play: 6-3 suited (and sometimes offsuit if I’m in position). Seems like when I’ve mucked that hand in the past (either online or live), many times it would have been a giant killer after the board would have gotten me to a straight, a baby flush, or even a full house. I know it’s irrational, but hey, you gotta have a little fun sometimes. Anyway, I’m in EP and I look down at 6-3 suited and limp in. A few others call, including the SB, who is a woman in her mid-40s who had played well but had been up and down the whole session. Flop comes 10-6-3 offsuit, giving me the bottom two pair. I put in a small bet, maybe $10, but it scares everyone off, except for SB. She immediately goes all-in with about $80. Whoa. Did she make the set? She didn’t bump it pre-flop, so I put her on TPTK and call. She does turn over a 10, but maybe J-10 or Q-10. My two pair hold up, and I rake the pot. After she leaves, the guy to my right (who was in the seat between me and the woman) asks me why I waited so long to call. I asked him what he meant, and he told me that before the hand, she said that she had to get going since her sister was waiting on her and that she only had one more hand to play. I didn’t hear her, so it didn’t factor into my decision, but I suppose it’s a lesson in making sure to absorb every iota of information you can as you sit at the table (a weak excuse, I know, but part of my attention was drawn away by watching my Spurs get the snot beat out of them by the Lakers in Game 2 of the Western Conference series).

Anyway, after about six hours, I leave P Ho, up about $150 for a late night dinner break at 11pm. I head over to the Venetian and grab a bite at the Grand Lux Café (part of the Cheesecake Factory chain, and a great place for food, 24 hours a day, right inside the V). I have played at the Venetian a few times in the past. I really like the room. Very well appointed, great tables and chairs, food service at the tables, and solid cocktail service (and some very attractive cocktail servers, too). Always a fair number of tables running, so quick to get seated, especially this late at night.

I get seated immediately at a 1/2 NL game in the middle of the room. Assessing the table, I might as well have been in a game in Macau. Lots of Asian players (myself included), but mainly younger kids in their early 20s. A few other tourists and one or two locals round out the group. I buy-in with the $300 max, which I like as it gives you a lot more maneuvering room than the typical $200 buy-in, especially when you sit down at a table with one or more sizeable stacks. One of the young guns introduced himself as “Bruce” (I’m guessing it was a phony name and a bad-taste reference to Bruce Lee). He was pretty obnoxious, and was an aggressive player who kept stating how he was more of a $2/$5 player, and was just slumming with us. At the beginning of my session, Bruce had about $500 behind, so I think he had taken down a couple of pots already. That said, after one (or four) too many cocktails, he started playing pretty sloppy poker, and his stack went down to about $200 in my first hour there. At this point, I look down at pocket 10s, and in MP, I raise to $15 hoping to push everyone off. Bruce is in BB and is the only caller, stating that he was coming in since we hadn’t mixed it up since I sat at the table. Okay, but now I’m worried that if a face card comes on the flop, I’ll already be dead. Flop comes 5-6-7 offsuit. First to act, I push $50 into the pot. He looks me over, and smooth calls. Huh? A higher pair? A set? A straight? He was capable of calling a pre-flop raise with suited connectors. Turn brings an 8, and now a mere 4 or 9 in his hand destroys mine. I decide that he has none of the above, and I push $100 into the pot, and I now have over half my stack in the pot. After a couple of long minutes of posturing, he mucks his cards. I show my hand, and he gets up complaining that he should hit the $2/$5 tables since he can’t win here. LOL.

Another memorable hand: I was in MP and look down at A8d, and decide to limp in behind three other callers. Two others limp in, then the BB bumps to $10, and everyone, including me, calls. I usually put very little faith in ace-rag, I almost mucked but given the pot odds, I came in. Flop comes Kd-Ks-10d, and I’m one elusive card from the nut flush. Checks all around until the BB raises to $25. Everyone folds except me, since it was a small raise into a $70 pot, so I was getting almost 4-to-1 for a $25 call. Turn brings a non-diamond Q, and BB just checks, so I check behind him. River brings a diamond, and BB pushes $40 into the pot. Hmmm, such a small bet, I worried that he had slow played a full house and let me catch up. I figure that I already had a bunch in the pot, but just in case he was trying to buy or had made Broadway, I raise to $80. If he re-raised, I’d know I was done. He ends up calling and groans when he sees my diamonds, mucking his hand. Whew, I think I benefited more from his bad play than my good play, but I was happy to take the pot down.

The table goes through a bunch changes as the wee hours of the morning bring new players in, mostly locals who are starting their Memorial Day weekend Saturday fishing expeditions. I go card-dead, and start making silly mistakes, so my stack starts dwindling. I cash out about $100 ahead a mere hour before my flight … now THAT’S a donkey play!

I end up at the airline counter 30 minutes before my flight and almost miss the flight since they wouldn’t check me in after 45 minutes before the flight. I plead my case, and since I don’t have bags to check, they tell me to make the dash to the gate. I do my best OJ Simpson Hertz Rent-a-Car commercial impersonation (younger AVPers might not get this reference) and make the flight. Another lesson: rather than rush to the tables, I should have checked in online or when I had arrived at McCarran on Friday afternoon.

Overall, a fun all-nighter of poker, conveniently tacked onto the back-end of a business trip. I’m a pretty average player, and am just now turning the corner on finishing ahead at live games (okay, online games, too), so leaving up about $250 for the night was more than fine with me. I’ll definitely hit both rooms again on my next trip, which will be a lot longer to be sure. Thanks for reading! See you at the tables!