Traffic was pretty crappy heading into Vegas on Friday 3/30. I arrived sometime between 8:30 and 9pm, after leaving directly from work a bit after 2pm (mind you, this is a 3 ½ to 4 hour drive without traffic). I was expecting some delays since it was Final Four weekend, but usually, leaving so early, I can miss most of the So. Cal. traffic coming up the I-15. There were 2 different accidents after Barstow that slowed me down a bunch. But the strange time killer this time was a bottleneck @ the state-line, where 3 lanes become 2. It took 1 ½ hours to go about 15 miles, then traffic was miraculously totally clear, even before getting all the way through Primm. They were all going to Primm? Weird! The drive was kind of exhausting, so it was quite a relief to see the lights of Vegas as I made that last turn around the mountains heading into town.
This was a solo trip, the first since before I met my wife. So it was a bit of a strange feeling driving and rolling into town alone. We usually go every couple of months (last time in December) and this time I was coming to specifically play in the AVPT. Once I heard this was going to happen, I decided I was going to play, despite the larger buy-in than I’m used to. Initially it was to be a typical trip with the wife, but as planning began, it turned into a solo venture. As the days got closer, the more intrigued I was with the prospect of doing nothing but playing poker when I wanted, for as long as I wanted. It all turned out to be a great time.
So a bit of info on why I decided to play this event. First, I wanted to get some experience with the competition at higher buy-ins. I know there is a variety of skill levels at any buy-in level, but with this being an AVP event, and at that price point, I was sure that there would be quite a few deep thinkers in the crowd that would make me work for my chips. This was the first tournament that I have played for a buy-in above $175, so I had to set that aside right away, separate from the cash game bankroll. However, I was pretty confident that I could make at least some of that back playing my typical cash games. Then there’s the structure. The idea of being able to play patiently with a deep stack and slow blind levels was tantalizing. I’m so used to the crappy structures and being short stacked by level 5 or 6, that everything about this sounded great. The best structured tourney ever offered at my local casino was 10k starting chips w/ 30 minute levels. But, the blind structure still was nowhere near as good as the AVPT promised to be. Finally, the deal breaker was that I have never been able to make it to any sort of AVP event, which has been a goal since I found the site.
So, as I said before, I was pretty confident that I could make at least some of my buy-in back during the course of the weekend. I wasn’t going to be playing any slots or table games, since I usually only play them when hanging out with the wife, so I wasn’t going to lose on that front. I very rarely have a trip where I end up a loser at the poker tables. I always play Limit games. 4-8 O/8, 3-6 & 4-8 LHE, and the mixed-games when I can. Although I was tired, I am a degenerate poker player that cannot resist the call of the poker room, so after checking into my room, I headed down for a little cash game action. That always revives me for a while. I stayed at the Orleans (comped room, yay!!) and I really like the poker room there. The staff is always friendly and I go there enough that they actually remember me even though it’s usually a couple of months between visits. I even remember a lot of the players, the strong ones, the weak ones, the cool ones to talk to. I went to the players club to get my $25 “free bet” coupon, which gives me a free bet on even money wagers @ any table game. I put it all on black at the roulette table and hit!!! Score! I’m up $25 and I’m off to the poker room.
The room was packed. There are something like 35 tables in that room and only 2 tables, that I could see, were empty. The 7pm tourney was going strong with what looked to be somewhere between 10-12 tables going (maybe more). The rest were cash games. I was surprised to see that there were no 8-16 O/8 games going. Those are always noticeable because of the huge stacks of pink chips at the tables. I found out later from one of the regulars that the game has moved to the Venetian because (according to this guy) they changed the rake on the game and the players didn’t like that. Oh well, I never played that game anyway, it was too big for my bankroll. With the half-kill, it played at 12-24 on the kill pots. The most surprising thing to me about the room this weekend was the number of 1/2 NL games going. Usually, there seemed to be only 1 or 2 going. But on Friday night there were 6 or 7 tables of NL and on Saturday, there were about the same.
I got a seat right away in a 4-8 O/8 game. It turned out to be a “must-move” table, so I only lasted there for about 3-4 orbits. While I was at that table, I managed to get into a big pot with this very-loose Asian guy in the 2 seat wearing a Bellagio polo shirt. The only reason I even mention that he was Asian is because he reminded me of Scotty Nguyen. He had a couple of gold chains, and was kinda loud. He was drinking a lot (beer on ice, yuck), gambling it up, and was raising a lot of pots when action folded to him. He was also calling a lot of bets from just about any position. The hand of interest, he was UTG on a kill-pot and he limps for $6 without looking at his cards (pretty sure, but not 100%, I was watching that side of the table as the action move around to me). He continued talking up a storm with the guys next to him about how he stopped smoking , but he is smoking now because he’s drinking. The guy that he seemed to be friends with that was in the 3 seat, also limps. The 4 seat limps, the 5 & 6 seats fold and it’s to me in the 7 seat. I look down at Ah2h3sKs, I pop it to $12 and the loose guy, shuts up and looks at his cards. The 8 seat is empty, the 9 seat has the button and folds, and the 10 seat is empty. The SB who was on the kill folds as does the BB. Now the loose guy re-raises to $18. To my surprise, both limpers fold, and I call. Heads up to the flop we go, a miracle in itself in this game. The flops comes As4hKh, sweet!! I have the nut low draw, top two pair, and a redraw to the nut flush. He leads out for $6, I reraise to $12. He calls. Turn is the 8s, giving me the nut low and another nut flush draw. He leads out for $12, I reraise to $24, he calls and actually looks bewildered. At this point I figured he must have the nut low too, since he led out, or possibly a set for the high. But since he only called I figured I had at least 1/2 if not 3/4, so I planned to bet any river that didn’t’ pair the low cards or counterfeit my low. The river is the beautiful Qs, giving me the nut flush, for a lock on at least 3/4 with the nut high to go with my nut low. To my surprise he leads out again for $12, I reraise to $24 and he genuinely looks shocked and amazed. He asks me what the hell I’m doing as he stares at the board. He calls and I flip over my nut low and nut flush. He turns over his 2x5xJh10h thinking that his straight would get him half. I inform him that he has a flush, but I have the nut flush and his eyes bug out as he sees his mistake. I scoop a massive pot, over $170 after the rake and I get the kill button. The guy was mumbling about how he didn’t see the flush out there, said “nice hand,” and went outside to smoke. I moved to a new table about an orbit later, up over a rack. Nothing eventful happened at my new table, I was down a tiny bit, and after about 2 hours of play, I called it a night, up over $100 (plus the $25 roulette hit). Off to sleep, the AVPT is the next day at noon….