Tourist Poker Blitz Part 2
5/30 - Cash Game at Caesars Palace
After lounging/napping poolside all day at the Garden of the Gods Pool Oasis, I decided to stay on the property and hit up the poker room at Caesars Palace. Got seated right away at a 1/3NL table and bought in for $300 as usual. This session was an 8 hour roller coaster, and when the ride was finally over, I lost my original buy-in, crap! Couldn't get anything going & the cards/flops just weren't cooperating with me tonight. Granted, I did win some pots along the way, but I kept bleeding off chips on bluffs & dumb hero calls. The hand that got me at the end: I'm on the button with AQ & make a 3x raise, everyone folds except the Big Blind.
Big Blind smooth calls. Flop comes out 4Q7 rainbow. yay me TPTK, time to stack someone! At this point, I have about $250 behind me and villain has about $300, having me covered. I make it $50 to go & he smooth calls. Turn is a 9, no help to either of us I'm assuming, so I fire out $125 & he smooth calls again. WTF does this guy have? The river brings out a 2. I shove all-in & he snap-calls. Ta Da! This muthasucka flips over Q2 for two pair! My @$$ drowned on the river. He got some balls calling a raise pre-flop with a Queen freakin Deuce. At first I was pissed, but then again, losing only $300 over 8 hours of play isn't that big of a deal I guess. I definitely got the experience I was looking for regarding cash games. Now that I know how it feels like to have a losing session, hopefully I can keep it to a minimal in future sessions. Sometimes, you're just card dead or get sucked out on & that's the way it is. I was tempted to reload another $300 & grind some more, but I was too tired. It's past my curfew, so I headed over to Cleopatra's Barge for a nightcap & then back up to the room to call it a night.
Bought In: $300
Cash Out: $0
End of Day Result: -$300
5/31 - Cash Game at Bellagio
Last day of my poker adventure. I was too lazy to head over to the Rio for the WSOP, so I just went next door to the Bellagio. Started the day early as this was going to be my final blow out for cash games. I came in preparing to go through multiple buy-ins if needed, no scared money here! For my first buy-in, my goal was to play LAG style, and if I lost that buy-in, I would reload & switch to TAG style. Luckily, I never had to reload my stack because I stretched out that $200 buyin playing LAG all day! Of course,
it was another roller coaster ride, winning & losing pots back & forth, but this time I actually ended the session with a tiny profit! I was able to win pots without showdown with marginal holdings & I got away with one stone-cold bluff for a nice pot. Whenever I lost a pot, I would always continue to chip up with orphan pots that no one wanted to fight for! If no one wants the pot, I'll take it! No real hands worth mentioning this session, it was a total grind. I guess this is how poker really is when you don't get premium hands & you have to look for opportunities to win pots. After grinding for about 10 hours, I ended the session with $220, for a measly $20 profit, woo hoo! I had enough grinding & poker for the day so I call it quits. Final night in Vegas & I do a bar crawl starting from the Cosmopolitan & ending at Caesars Palace. Final stop ends at Cleopatra's Barge and I'm buzzin & feelin good. I'm gettin my drank on when all of a sudden I get a tap on the shoulder. I turn around and BAM! I get propositioned by this fine @$$ Asian Dime Piece. Usually, the call girls I see cruisin' the casino bars looking for johns are skanky/nasty looking, but I'm not gonna lie, this girl was fine as hell. She looked like Stephanie Ly but hotter (google the name & you'll see what I'm talking about) Man, if only she wasn't a working girl! Damn it! I'd happily hook up with her for free no doubt, but I'm not about to drop a bunch of C-Notes for her "company". She was really workin it; whispering in my ears & sitting on my lap, trying to hustle me. As much as I enjoyed her grindin up on me, I had to politely turn her down. She gives me a pout & kisses me on the cheek & we bid farewell.
I have a one final nightcap & now I got a major case of blue balls thanks to Steph Ly's twin look-alike. Nice way to end a Vegas Vacation!
Bought In: $200
Cash Out: $220
End of Day Result: $20
Total Trip: (-125) + 257 + (-300) + 20 = -148
Overall for the trip I didn't win any money, which is fine with me. I got some good poker experience & it only cost me $148. I'm still jonesing for poker action, but living in the Northern VA / DC area, I have limited options. I can always drive up to Atlantic City, or perhaps check out the poker room at Hollywood Casino @ Charlestown in West VA. I also heard that National Harbor plans to open a casino but I'm not sure if it will have a poker room. Until then, maybe I'll start playting at Hollywood Casino in Charlestown to work on my game. Thanks for reading & good luck to everyone playing the WSOP!
Thanks for posting! Glad to hear you had a good trip. It seems like new casions are sprouting up all over the place on the east coast right now, so I'm sure you'll have some more options to choose from pretty soon.
NP! I'm actually thinking about heading back out for the last weekend of the WSOP (July 13th-16th) for some more poker sessions & railbird the final days of the Main Event. Since it'll be the last weekend of WSOP, action should be crazy that weekend right?
It's tough to say. In some years it has stayed pretty crazy through the main event, and in others it dies down around Day 2-3 as people bust from the main event and leave town. Either way, there is always great action year round here in Vegas, so I'm sure it'll be a good time to come.
Should have just banged the hot Asian hooker.
@ImSoLoi
Understand that I'm not normally a NL player, but I'm trying to learn more and more NL concepts. My questions here is: In NL, isn't it often likely that you'll stack off rather than get someone else's stack with TPTK?
@ImSoLoi
If I'm doing my math right (you raised 3x$3, only BB called, maybe one or two other limpers folder, as you didn't say you open-rasied), so about $20 in the pot--and you bet 2.5X pot size?
@ImSoLoi
A pot-size bet here?
@ImSoLoi
Here's where I'm really not clear. You've made two oversize bets, and gotten called both times. Is it +EV to bet here? Or +EV to check behind?
@ImSoLoi
You've raised (or open-raised) OTB, so your range is very wide. BB has hit TP--arguably horrible kicker. So the question here is, what does BB think you have? Don't the overbets small strongly like you've whiffed and are trying to buy the pot? And if so, isn't the BB calling any river bet, even if he doesn't hit his 2?
I'd really like to hear the more experienced NL players chime in here, but I'm not seeing much of any value in a river bet here. Am I being too timid? What about the bet sizing on the flop and turn? What would the more experienced NL players do here each street? Are my thoughts about what the BB in this situation would read from the OP's betting?
I don't believe he intended this post to be critiqued, but I'll chime in. PF is fine...like the 3x raise.
Pot $19
Bet sizing is certainly a key to being a good NL player when stacks are deeper. 80bb can be lost with TPTK but is dependent on many factors.
Post flop bet was certainly excessive as we want a call from his range and $50 chases away most hands that dont beat TPTK. Everything that beats us will stay. $15 bet is all that was needed.
Turn...same as flop...should have been $49 after flop and a $35 bet would be adequate at this point.
River... $80 bet/fold or bet/call are the possible scenarios at river. I would lean toward bet/fold depending on opponent.
GL in WV...I live in KY and feel your pain with regards to lack of poker opportunity.
No worries, I'm actually glad everyone is critiquing, as it will help me learn more & become a better poker player over time. I'm actually heading back out to Vegas again July 13th-16th for more poker "education", so hopefully this time I won't make the same mistakes. Tentative Itinerary: $200 7pm Venetian Deep Stack Tourney, $130 12pm Caesars Mega Stack Tourney, and $185 6pm WSOP Deep Stack Tourney. I plan on filling the gaps with cash games. This will be my own personal "Poker Tour" Let's see what happens...
Great story bro. Love the Q2 story LMAO! Gee never been there before but if theyre calling with Q2 like that it has to be a good place to play. I'm going to vegas tomorrow and Caesars in definitely on my stop list.
@wildncrazyguy
no doubt man. If you're goin to Caesars, make sure to stop by Cleopatra's Barge, lol.