(the conclusion to my trip)...So I bought right into the AVP XV ½ NLHE / ½ NLO tournament immediately after busting from the AVPT. I would have preferred to stay much deeper in the AVPT, but it was a decent consolation to be able to play this since I was really looking forward to this unique tourney. I was seated in the 8 seat at a table with some AVP’ers who introduced themselves, like Talon in the 2 seat and missingflops in the 10 seat, who was our bounty. Next to me in the 7 seat was vinnyboombots (DJ Sly Bri), who I recognized from his description of himself. Next to me in the 9 seat was the self-proclaimed Shannon the Cannon, who I didn’t know of, but most at the table seemed to be familiar with. So even before cards were in the air, the game promised to be interesting.
Generally, this just turned out to be a fun game. The no-limit Omaha seemed to cause some people some stress around the room, but I found it to be much easier to play than PLO. When I’ve played PLO live, I’ve always struggled with determining the pot size quickly, so being able to apply no-limit bet sizing made it easier to bet and analyze opponent bets. However, I understand some of the stress it caused since the action usually found in PLO was much different in this format since nobody seemed to understand the optimal strategy for this game. The most interesting hand for me involved vinnyboombots, sitting to my right. I waited so long to finish this report that the details are very fuzzy, so I will attempt to recall the events, but if I get anything wrong, please chime in and correct me Brian. At least I know I will get the end right. I am pretty sure I was in the small blind and vinny on the button pops it to 1200. Based on the raise size, the blinds must have been at 200/400, but I can’t be sure. I had AhxhJd8d, I think the x was the 5, but again, not sure. Hey, I was connected (barely) and I was double soooooted!! How could I go wrong? I decide to call and see a flop. I was pretty confident that with a call, the BB would come along and I still had a lot of chips at this point. OOP, it was gonna be fit or fold to a bet. The BB calls and we see a flop of x88. I can’t remember anything else except that we get it all-in at some point and vinny busted. He was a gentleman and was very gracious. He re-entered the tourney and managed to outlast me, proving to be the better man.
After that table finally broke, I ended up at a table sitting next to LVM, Jon Friedberg across the table, and vinny ended up a few seats to my left later on. I had to fold most everything and just be entertained by the table talk. There was a very vocal, seemingly pretty loose player on the other end of the table. He had a pretty large stack and loved to talk constantly, whether in a hand or not. At least he was entertaining and had what Jon Friedberg called the “Jew Fro.” That made me chuckle. He’s etched upon my brain because he’s the one that busted me. I had not seen anything worth a crap for a while and my stack dwindled to 10 or 11BB. It was a NLHE round and I shoved 3-3 from LP and “Jew Fro” was in the BB. I went into statue mode and stared at a button on the dealer’s shirt for what seemed like an eternity. He tanked for at least a couple of minutes. I could see him from the corner of my eyes moving chips around, making motions like he was gonna call. After what seems like forever he calls with 6-7 offsuit. He hit the flop, I turned a straight draw, but bricked the river and I’m sent packing. Both tourneys were a great time and generally great experience. There was still a lot of night left so I decided to head down the strip to play the mixed game ar the IP.
When I got to the IP, I decided to walk over to O’Sheas first to check it out one last time before it was gone. It was the same as always with lots of loud drunks playing cheap table games. Good times. I didn’t even pay attention to the poker room, so no news on how that was. I roamed around for a while soaking it in since it will all be gone by the time I go back. I walked back to the IP and there was a seat open in the mixed game. What a rollercoaster that turned out to be. I bought in for 200 and was up and down over the session. It was blast as usual, playing the crazy games. One of my personal favorites, 3-2-1 Omaha, was kind to me a few times, taking down a few pots at showdown once with a set, and once with 2 pair. If you’ve ever played that game, then you know how unlikely it is to win with less than a straight or flush, and most often with a boat or quads. The last time I played the mixed game, I won two hands in a row with straight flushes in the 3-2-1 Omaha round. As I said, the session was a rollercoaster and I actually managed to scratch back from well under $100 at one point, to slightly above even and book a $47 win before quitting around 3 am. Woohoo! I headed back to my hotel to get some rest before heading home.
I was up before 8am on Monday morning, checked out and on the I-15 before 9am. I made it home in almost record time and rolled into my driveway a bit after 1pm. Overall, the trip was a great time. Nothing to show for the tourneys but the experience I gained. I was up a little over $200 in cash games. Down overall, but a great time was had. Congratulations to AVP and everyone involved in the first AVPT. It was a great event and I will definitely play again anytime I can. Keep up the great work. I can’t make the May 19th event, but I’ll be back in town the first weekend in June to officially kickoff my summer. See you then :-)