So, we're at the Mirage...Monday after walking around all morning the Wife lays down to take a nap before the show, so I go down to the poker room for a short session. Never been to the Mirage room and was pleasantly surprised based on what I've read here. The room wasn't to busy and as soon as I walked in, the Floor Mgr. (Kat) greeted me and asked me what I wanted to play. Told her 1/2nl and she said they were about to start a new table and go ahead and have a seat at table 4. She called the list but of course now most of them had wandered off so we were 5 handed for a little while. Started out slow, built up a little when I flopped a set of fives on a K high board. One interesting hand...an older guy, that you could read like a book, raises preflop to $20, The kid to my right flat calls and I look down at AhJh. I have to put old guy on AK or better so I let the AJ go. Flop comes Ac 9h 6s...old guy bets $40, the kid raises to $100, old guy goes all in for about $70 more and the kid calls. Old guy turns over pocket 10's and the kid turns over KK...Oh well, missed that one. Awhile later the table is full and I am UTG. Look down at AA, and decide to run a play. I limp with the plan of re-raising if some one raises. Sure enough, the button says, "let's thin the field" and raises it to $12. The blinds fold and here is where I sink my whole game, I start to overthink it, I'll just flat call and build a really big pot, well, I didn't count on 3 more players calling. 5 handed to the flop, Qc 10s 6h. I bet out $25...only 1 caller. the turn is 2c. I look at his stack and he only has $68 in front of him so I bet $50 and of course he goes all in, I call and he shows
Q 10...the river is a brick for me and I very quietly pick up the few chips I have left and vow never to do that again. The wife is up from her nap so we eat at BLT. Very nice burger with a Pabst Blue Ribbon, in the can! Back to the room to clean up and back down to see LOVE. What an awsome show! If you are a Beatles fan, you just have to see it. I will be back!
Skip ahead to Thursday, the wife has gone back home and I still have to work till Sunday. So thurs. nite I go over to play the 11pm at Binions. Haven't been there in a couple of years so thought it would be fun. Binions is the first place I ever played live poker. 2/4limit, Dec. 2003. Anyway, I get there early and decide to play some 2/4 to kill time. The new room is very nice except you feel kind of isolated. I like rooms like MGM where you can people watch. Sit down with $100, third hand look down at AA (oh no) on the button, I raise, 2 callers, flop is K high, check to me, I bet, mp raises to 4 LP calls and I guess I should have raised but I really didn't want to get in a pissing match with two pair again so I just called figuring if I lose the pot it won't be huge. Anyway turns out LP had suited connectors and gets runner runner to make his flush. From there nothing goes right and in less than an hour, I am down $60. OK that was fun, now time for the tourney. Pretty dead in the tourney room, they have two tables set up for the tourney but at start time, there is only 7 players split on two tables. Dealers deal to all the stacks but it seems weird. players slowly trickle in and we end up with about 23 players. I play pretty good and wind up at the final table next to a pretty good player, local guy named Mike, very friendly and he knows everyone. I ask him if he is an AVPer but he doesn't know what I'm talking about. So, the chip leader at the table accumulated all his chips by just getting lucky because he plays sooo bad. He keeps calling all in's and doubling up the other players, so we go an hour and no one has been knocked out. Finally the blinds take out a couple and I try to get chips but finally bust in 5th, 2 out of the money...finish the week down but I'll be back in December for the NFR.