Low Limit Vegas Adventure - Making Lee Jones Proud

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I visited Vegas from Sunday Jan 21 through Friday Jan 27, with a light sprinkling of business mixed in with a good amount of poker.

Started things off with a horrendous series of football bets during the AFC and NFC Championship games. The kicker was when I had the Seahawks and the under in a parlay that crashed and burned when the Panthers scored a trash-time TD. Oh well - on to the poker stories. Total winnings: -$50

Sunday night - very successful start at $2/$4 hold'em at Bally's. Great room with powder-puff competition. Players barely ever raised pre-flop - even with big pairs - meaning that you could safely play suited connectors, small pairs, or suited A's and K's from middle position with no fear of being raised and good odds, since 5-8 players saw every flop. I avoided nonsuited cards less than a T, and was able to hit some great sets that 1-2 players would call all the way to the river with even bottom or middle pair. Result: +$210 (5 hours of play)

Monday Morning - 10AM $40 no Limit tourney at the Aladdin. I hated this tourney format. You start with $1500 in chips, but with 15 minute blinds going from 25-50, 50-100, 100-200, you were down to 10 combined blinds after just 15 minutes, and only 5 combined blinds after 30 minutes - that's ridiculous. Unless you picked up a big pot right away, you were cooked. To top it off, the dealer at our table was a bit of a blowhard, who endlessly babbled about his poker theories. The wretched tourney format and the annoying dealer basically turned me off to this poker room. I limped a few times during the first level, which drained some of my chips, then lost a good portion of my stack when I raised pre-flop with JJ, the flop came out AKx, and I was raised and re-raised and had to lay it down. Finally, shortstacked with the large blinds I went all-in with AJ suited and lost to a pair of T's. Result: - $40

Monday daytime - $2/$4 hold'em at Excalibur and MGM. Decided to try these two rooms based on reviews here. The Excalibur was pretty quiet, with just a $1/$2 NL game, a $1/$3 limit game, and a $2/$4 game. Jumped into the $2/$4 game and played for about 45 minutes. Competition was definitely tougher than at Bally's the night before, but my tight play was still right, and I was ahead about $7 when the table got short-handed and I decided to move on. Dealers at this place were a little crotchety, but the players were friendly enough. Immediately walked across the street to MGM to try out their $2/$4 action. This was definitely a livelier room and game. My table had two girls who were playing $2/$4 while their boyfriends played NL in addition to several other players who hadn't a clue, and the game was definitely good. Unfortunately, it again got short-handed after about 1.5 hours, and I took off with a $26 win. Result: +$33 (2.5 hours of play)

Monday Evening - Back to the scene of my previous triumph - $2/$4 at Bally's. After seeing the other rooms, I still think I preferred this one. One thing I like is that it's located right adjacent to a very busy spot on the casino floor near the BJ, craps, and roulette tables. The staff would frequently announce over the PA that there was "immediate seating for $2/$4 limit hold'em" whenever we had open spots. I truly believe that this made it easy for beginners to try out the game rather than the more intimidating set-up of a completely separate room. While this location did make it noisier than usual, I didn't mind because of the presence of so much seafood. One other nice thing about this room is no jackpot rake - meaning that you are earning an extra $0.50 on every pot you rake. This really adds up over time. Once again - playing strictly "by the book" (Lee Jones and David Sklansky) I was able to put in another winning session. Total winnings +$62 (3 hours of play)

Tuesday Morning - Back to the Excalibur for their 9AM $35 buy-in tourney. Total of 36 players. Format was 300 in chips, with 15 minute levels starting at 5/10 and then increasing to 10/20, 25/50, and so forth. Still not a great format, but a little better than the Aladdin. Most of the players definitely were not familiar with proper NL tourney play, and showed it with their limping and minimum raises before and after the flop. I got the cards early - essential in these tournies - and built up a nice stack. Best hand was when I took a player out with A's full of J's vs. trip J's when my AA found a board of AJJ. I cooled at the middle levels, but it didn't matter much since within an hour we were down to a final table. I was about 7th in chip position when the final table began, and played pretty good as the short stack - going all-in twice and getting the blinds once and doubling up one other time. Down to 4, I was again the short stack but was able to catch AK that hit a K against a pair of 9's and double up again. From there, I basically played zero hands and allowed the big stack to knock out the other two players. Heads-up with about a 7-1 chip disadvantage I offered to make a deal, but my opponent wisely said no. Caught a few cards and doubled up once, but wasn't able to put anything together after that - going out with a K9o vs a 76o when he caught a 7 on the flop. Still, I was very proud of my best ever live tourney finish of second place, and a cash of $232. The whole tourney only took 2 hours - amazing. Total Winnings: +$177 (after dealer tip of $20 and $35 buy-in) (2 hours of play)

Thursday Evening - Back to the $2/$4 at Bally's after my business/conference was over. Much different set of players than before, with only a few fish and a couple of more aggressive players who did more pre-flop raising. I still managed to build a nice stack of +$72 over about 4.5 hours, but from that point on hit the wall and got tripped up. A couple of times I made the right play, but was chased down by a draw. However, another few times I made very ill-advised stabs at multi-player pots - trying to match the aggression of the other players. Needless to say these did not work and I paid the price as my winnings were whittled away. Eventually, feeling tired and frustrated, I decided that I would hit the sack and try to get up in time for the $35 tourney at Excalibur. Total Winnings: +$9 (6 hours of play)

Friday Morning - Excalibur $35 buy-in NLHE tourney. Again I started well, winning the very first hand with AQ, and was able to last to the final table. Again I was about 7th in chips with 5 players to be paid. However, this time my luck did not hold when I went all-in with AKo, was called by an A6suited, and was eliminated when the flop contained a 6 and no K came out. Mission accompished - I had got all my money in with the best hand at the final table, and probably would have cashed if it had held up. Total Winnings -$35

Friday daytime - Spent the last few hours of my rip at $2/$4 at Excalibur. Pretty tough table, and I probably should have walked across to MGM, but I knew that I could maximize my time before my flight at Excalibur since it was a short walk to my car in the parking lot. I managed to build up my stack to about +$20, but wasn't able to keep it going after that point in time. Hand that hurt the worst was when I had to lay down a set of T's when two players raised and re-raised a board of AKT4Q. Both had a J of course. Because I had been betting all the way, it was a very nice pot. Had to take off for the airport after about 2.5 hours, down only $3 for my only losing limit session of the trip. Total Winnings: -$3 (2.5 hours)

All in all a very successful trip to Vegas. Only regrets are that I didn't spend enough time in the MGM room. Next time I will probably stay and play there. Was also disappointed that Aladdin, where I stayed, did not spread $2/$4 during my stay and had such a bad tourney format. Would also have liked to try the Sahara evening NL tourney - which I regret not doing when I thought about it on Thursday night. I had played that tourney during my last trip in 2003, and I remembered that I liked it.

Total Winnings for Trip (including lost football bets): + $363 (+$413 for poker only)
$2/$4 win rate: +$311 in 22 hours - about 3.5 big bets per hour

Thanks again to AllVegasPoker and all of the players who post here - it's a great resource for those going to Vegas.

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