Part 2.

Sunday, 6pm MGM Grand 1/2 NL

I play at the MGM Grand Poker room and Aria, and am fortunate to catch a few big hands and dodge some potential bad beats.

At one raise-happy 1/2 NL game at the MGM, I see a flop 5-handed after calling a $15 pre-flop raise in late position with A9 hearts. It's a loose game, and having doubled my starting stack, I have been splashing around a here and there with some more marginal holdings. The small blind leads out at a flop of KQ3 with two hearts, with a bet of $30. The BB calls, the early position raiser folds, and the fourth player puts in a re-raise to $75. There's now over $200 in the pot, and I'm getting almost 3 to 1 on a call as-is with the nut-flush draw, plus now with the implied odds of the blinds still to act. If I call here, I may price in either (or both) of the blinds, giving me better than 4-1 with my draw. The small blind also only has a stack size of around $120 left - and coupled with his loose style of play, I think it's quite possible he'll come back over the top and ship it here, thereby certainly pricing in the re-raiser to once again call (but with not quite enough behind to opening the door for a further reraise). I decide my pot odds can't be horribly behind here, and make the call for a gamble at a big pot.

The SB does end up shipping his stack, but what then surprises me is that the BB - after a long period of thinking - then announces that his is now moving all-in over the top with his stack of around $250. I kinda missed the scenario where I call off most of my stack chasing down a flush. The original re-raiser to my right finally folds, and I now find myself wondering quite how I got myself into this spot here. There is now over $650 in this pot, costing me around $180 with two cards to come - I figure I really can't walk away from this hand at this point. I can't realistically think in this spot that my A is good if it hits, so I either need running cards, or I need to hit a heart. I also have to consider the action and what the blinds are holding; if either of them also has a flush draw, I'm potentially down to just 7 outs twice, maybe counting another 1 or 2 outs for running cards and two pair/straight possibilities. With all the action, it's quite possible there's another flush draw out there which can mess up my odds, but I decide it's just too big a pot to lay down here, and I throw in the remaining $180 with Ace-high. The SB immediately flips over 87h to show his flush draw, causing me to insta-vomit just a little bit in my mouth. The BB doesn't show, and neither do I - but the turn peels off a heart right away. I quickly flip over to avoid slow-rolling the SB, and with the river a blank, the BB mucks his unknown hand with disgust, and I scoop an $800+ pot. Lucky, lucky. ;)

I take a walk along the strip for a bit, enjoy the night air and the lights, go grab a late bite, and call it a night.

Monday 7pm, MGM $125 7pm Grand Challenge Series Tournament

I sleep until late morning, catch up on some work through the early afternoon, go grab a bite to eat, and then head down for the 7pm $125 "Second Chance" tournament.

I can't explain it fully. I felt transient from the start of the tournament. I couldn't get a good feel on the table and just didn't feel in a groove.

The first four levels were just bizarre. I tried to see some cheap flops in position, and a couple of times flopped a decent hand, top pair & decent kicker, etc. But the wild over betting and re-raising action in front of me meant it was just too high a price to get it all in there with just top pair, particularly given it's a deepstack tournament with the blinds at such low levels. I do get a bit cute and defend my SB against a raise from an aggressive and loose player. I'm holding T8s, and flop a gut-shot straight flush draw. I put in a big check-raise on the flop over the aggressive players c-bet, but to my surprise he thinks for a moment then calls. The pot is now pretty large and any continued bet by me on the turn is pretty much pot-committing me, so when it blanks, I decide to check and try for a free card. I do get to see the river for free, but it's a brick and I have no choice but to check-fold my T-high.

As we reach one of the final hands before the first break, an interesting situation has developed. In the hand before, a player who is taking himself very seriously, and is complete with hoodie and shades, has just made a fairly sophisticated play with a huge river re-raise representing a monster hand. For whatever reason, the other player in the pot who seems pretty hapless decides to call off most of his stack with his middle pair-no kicker, and it just happens to be good. The serious-type player is incensed and many obscenities ensue. He's now pretty short stacked and clearly on tilt. He raises all-in from the SB and steals the BB, and on the next hand he continues to be angry and tilting. I look down in the cut-off at AQs, it is folded around to me and I just limp in, expecting the BB to make a move here. The button folds, the SB completes, and as expected the tilting BB moves all-in for around 10BB. I immediately announce all-in and move in for around 40BB isolating the SB. To my total surprise, after just calling pre-flop, the SB almost instantly moves all-in behind me (and has me covered). The BB tables some random garbage, but the SB has AK! My AQ can't connect and I'm busted out. So much for my trappy play, I just trapped myself right out of the tourney. Outplayed, just bad timing, or both - I decide to move-on and play some cash games and head over to Aria for a change of scene.

Monday 10pm, Aria 2/5 NL

My 2/5 game has some solid players, but also some folks whom seem to be having a harder time transitioning from online play to live play than they might have thought. I play a tight game for a few hours and largely fold, but after draining away about 1/3rd of my stack, I finally get frustrated and request a table change. I'm not superstitious. But the change in faces and action helps keep me interested and focused.

My new table though, is perfect - and plays a lot like a 2/5/10 game at my local B&M. There's lots of straddling, and the standard opening raise is anywhere from $40 to $100. It's a full table, and the stack sizes are all over the map, but it's a deep table. A few folks have around $700-$1200, three have large stacks over $3k, and the two short stacks at the table have around $300. I'm sitting around $700 on the lower end of the stack sizes, and waiting for a good spot. There is one player 3 seats to my right who seems to be reckless, and while he understands the game, makes repeated random and illogical calls, and seems pretty drunk. He's got around $2k in front of him and enters a multi-way pot that has been raised to $20 by UTG. I am in the SB and look down at AJo, and while not my favourite hand, there's already 5 folks in for a $100 pot so I chuck in the $18, with the BB also calling.

The flop of J66 has two hearts, but it's definitely one of the better flops I could hope for. I check and wait for someone else to bet, planning to put in a steady re-raise to define my hand and chase out draws. It ends up checked around to the drunk player who sticks in a bet of $50 / about 1/3 pot. A tight, solid player on the button smooth calls, and I find myself just flat calling with everyone else folding. In hindsight, it's possible that the tight player had a low flush draw here, something like 78s maybe, but I think he also calls a lot with any pocket pair there, especially given the drunk players unpredictability. He is visibly not too happy when I also call, and with the pot around $300, the turn is a random card, I believe a 3. The drunk player is now first to act, and bets $100. This gives attractive odds of 4:1, but the tight player seems wary, and after humming and hawing, announces fold. I'm pretty sure my J is way ahead here, and there is a strong chance he has absolutely nothing. I think I can get more money on the river than telegraphing the strength of my hand here, and so just call again. The river is another J, and I pray he didn't just suck out to a chop with a weak J and that I can actually get some value. I think about it for a long time, before checking. It's risky, but he has already been reaching for chips so I anticipate a bet here. He puts in another $100, and I Hollywood (I admit it) before announcing re-raise to $300. He stares me down as he announces "all-in" and I snap call for the rest of my chips with a sigh thinking we're chopping. He stares down at my J, and looks shocked, and then finally mucks. WTF just happened. A nice $1500 pot!

This game turned out to be highly profitable, and notwithstanding my full house double up, I snapped off several decent $300 or so pots before finally cashing out for around $2100 and around $1600 up for the evening.

With my cash game cashes and the $1k from the AVP tourney, I fly back early on Tuesday morning having totalled around $3500 for the trip But it was a great weekend, certainly nice to run good a couple of times, but the AVP tourney was perhaps the best part of the weekend. Met some great folks, and it was a great professionally run tourney by the MGM Grand and AVP team. The structure was great, the atmosphere was great, and sure, it's not the Main Event, but it was exciting, got the adrenaline pumping, and a lot of fun.

Big thanks go to all the folks at MGM Grand for giving AVP'ers great room deals, running a fantastic AVP tourney, and helping to make fun stuff like this happen. ^^

Excited now to hear about the future AVP Tournament Series!