I arrived in Las Vegas at 3:30 PM on Friday 11/2. Some of you may remember from my October trip report I like to set the goal of winning my airfare back, which was $120. Here’s my 16 hour journey of trying my best to do just that.

My patience is already a bit lean from knowing I need to maximize my time. So, when the shuttle from the airport is delayed I’m ready to start jogging to the strip. I’m so antsy - I feel like an obnoxious kid who can’t wait to get to Disneyland. Maybe that statement is so close to the truth it doesn’t even qualify as an analogy. The shuttle finally arrives after 25 minutes of me suffering from poker-jitter-angst. The first stop is MGM. I get out and walk to Mandalay Bay to stretch my legs and clear my head before playing. Plus, by walking over I think I beat the shuttle which had 2 more stops before MB. 

I get seated right away playing $1/2 NL. After 15 minutes I spot a table that appears a tad better than my current situation. This is something that plagues me. I’m always looking at other tables when I play and often convince myself the grass is greener on the other side. And so, I request a table change. I get seated with a big stack guy from NJ on my right and a couple of poker-savvy younger women to my left. I found out one of them owns a tanning salon in Vegas and we chatted about the employees, customers, costs and challenges of running a business in Vegas. The big stack begins sliding off $750. A few of those chips come my way when he doubles me up after I’m dealt pocket Q’s for the third time in the session. At 8:00 PM I leave up $34 after getting trip 3’s busted by a boat of 3’s over aces. Not a great start, but it’s going in the right direction.

I make the relatively long walk to the Bellagio for some $2/5 NL and get seated after a 15 minute wait which felt like 2 hours. This impatience isn’t good and unfortunately, I think it translates to how I play. It did in this session. After sitting at a table for 10 minutes I see a great seat which would put my back against the wall next to two guys who I can see laughing a lot and an Asian gal who everyone in the place seems to know. This table change gets tricky as the manager doesn’t want me leave the table I’m at because it’s getting short on players. After pre-tipping him $5 I get the seat I want.

I sit in seat 2 for the next two hours and I play OK, but not great. I’m valuing position way too much and I’m constantly looking to do something sneaky from the button. I just keep dreaming of hitting hands like J/7 suited for something big, and as a result I make some loose calls on raises when I’m in late position. I’m not card-dead. I’m getting decent starting hands, but I’m flop-dead. Is that a term? My cards just aren’t relating to the board. They’re not communicating with the cards on the flop. What’s going on guys? Come on cards, get in the game! Make friends with the cards on the board. But they don’t, and after the Asian girl to my right (Annie) hits hand after hand and then gets pocket 9’s against my K/J I’m busted by 11:45 PM. My $250 buy in is gone. I’m felted.

I slog across the strip to Planet Hollywood. This is my first time playing there and when I see the room I can’t believe it’s right inside the front door. I had no idea. I don’t know another room like that. I’m all excited as I think about soft players walking by and getting pulled in. However, my table’s dead both in terms of action and personality, and I don’t find the karaoke going on in the background exactly soothing, so I leave up $10 after 30 minutes of play. I cross back over the strip to the Monte Carlo and play there for 30 minutes, leaving up $12. Same problem, I just can’t find the game I want.

At this point I’m bummed. I’m down $193 and adding that to my airfare, my goal is now $313. I’m in a hole. Even though 3 of 4 sessions have been positive, overall I’m loosing yardage. I hang my head as I trudge back to Mandalay Bay. I’m wasting time walking all over town in search of the perfect game. What am I doing?

When I get to MB I’m seated at my 8th table for a total of 5 sessions at 4 locations. And, yep, I’m not excited about this table either. I’m at a rock solid table and if there’s a fish at the table, I’m it. However, there are a couple of enjoyable players seated near me, including a guy from San Diego who I like talking to. However, I feel I need a bigger game in order to get my $313, so I ask for yet another table change and they put me on the list for $2/4. As I’m waiting for change I hit my lowest point of the trip. I’m dealt 9/8 off and I’m in a pot with the main rock of the table two seats to my right – and I mean Gibraltar. He checks the K/J/6 rainbow. I don’t know what I saw in how he checked or what his body language was or what, but I did something I never, ever do… I bluffed at the pot, which was around $35. I fire $25 and he fakes like he’s going to fold and then makes the call. At this point I convince myself he wanted to fold, he should have folded, he needs to fold, and so when the turn blanks and he checks I fire another $50. He does the same move, but then re-raises me $50 and I insta-fold. I want to vomit. My $120 buy in is now half that and I feel another felting coming on.

That’s when it happens, the whole trip does an absolute 180. I cancel my table change request when another table is broken up at around 2:30 AM and the young guns come swaggering over. Now we’re in a shoot out. It’s the wild, wild west and these fellas are here to play some cards. As the table turns hyper-aggressive I’m finally getting the action I wanted. I’m also getting very lively cards. In 20 minutes I get dealt A/J and hit my jack. Then it’s A/Q and I hit my queen. And then I get Q/Q which holds up to a scary board of under cards that look like they want to form a straight. Then I have 9/7h and when the board comes all hearts I know my cards are relating well to the flop. Now we’re talking boys! On that hand two players go all in and I call for a sizable pot. A while later I get a monster flop when my A/Q connects with A/A/Q. Are you kidding me? Listen cards, I said make friends, don’t form a band of mercenaries. There are four players in and we all check, then three of us check to the button who makes it $20 to go. I’m the only caller. I check the river and he makes it $50 to go. I raise to $100. He folds and I get to avoid turning my army face up. Everyone thinks I bluffed it and a few people say, ‘nice bet.’ I’m now the big stack and feeling very comfortable. Additionally, I feel I have a good read on each person’s style and I’m incorporating that with how I’m playing, which is something I usually don’t do well.

The table gets very lively with conversation, joking, and just giving each other a bad time. The kid to my right starts ranting about how poker is such a head game. The table tries to find a good analogy for what he’s referring to. We talk about how poker is like trying to solve a Rubik’s cube while trying to determine out if your girlfriend is lying while cutting checks to pay your bills at the kitchen table. I wish I could remember some of the other goofy stuff we were popping off about. It really was a fun table. At one point I say, ‘Come on dealer, I need a little help here’, and while he puts out the flop I yell, ‘Oh yeah now that’s what I’m looking for!’, and I quick-bet $10. Everyone folds, and I say, ‘That’s a free trick you won’t read in any poker book. Say that line, do a little dance, and bet out.’ They all get a laugh out of that.

Back to play - at the end of this session I get two hands that haunt me. The first is when I lay down a straight draw, having K/J and the board has a Q/10/x. The guy from San Diego re-raises another $50 on an original $17 all-in bet that I had called and then I didn’t have the guts to call the additional $50 with my draw. The re-raiser ends up only having middle pair, and of course an ace falls on the river helping nobody, but would have given me the nuts. And then I have A/9 from middle position and it gets raised to $20 pre-flop and I fold, only to see an ace and 9 come on the flop and two players crazy-bet with one hitting bottom two and the other hitting the ace. Both of those pots were very sizable and I missed out - probably because I became too conservative as the night went along.

I end up cashing out for $955, which put me at $835 for the session - up $632 for the night. It’s now 5:30 AM and I have a 6:40 AM flight to catch.

Things I learned…

1. Chill! Don’t worry about other tables. The texture of a poker table in Vegas changes pretty regularly. People felt, buy back in, leave, stand up, sit down. It’s always changing. I need to learn to stay put and not waste time walking all over town.
2. My particular style of play doesn’t benefit that much from position. I’m not the aggressive, bully type who needs to act last to push people around. I don’t bluff, so it’s more important for me to play the cards than the position. The one attempted bluff in this trip report is the only one I can recall in NL in my life. Granted, better players than me would likely suggest I add selective bluffing to my repertoire.
3. I think next trip I need to play the North side, like the Wynn, Venetian, etc. See, there I go again, the grass is always greener…