(If you care only the poker part, go down to the middle where it says “Poker”)

Just got to have a getaway weekend for Vegas. I and my wife usually leave on Friday for 1 night stay from Los Angeles. This time, we decide to go on Thrs night for 2 nights. Got a pretty good deal for $39 and $79 at Monte Carlo, with a $15 resort fee / night though. Pretty deceiving if you ask me. But total price still pretty reasonable.

Drive was tough as expected since most people got off work at the time we left. Got to Vegas in about 5 hrs (with 30 mins dinner and gas). Checked in without a hitch at Monte Carlo. The room was big and roomy with a distant view of the strip. I realized the TV remote was missing a battery when I tried to turn it on, and my wife said there was no soap for shower. No problem, I would call housekeeping to take care of that. I was told it would take 15 mins to bring them up and I expected 5 mins extra on top of that. 30 mins later, I got a knock on the door and a gentleman politely handed me over a remote. But where is my soap? I asked. He looked puzzled and said he would be back. He came back with a bag of soap/face soap/shampoo/conditioner in 5 mins. Can’t complain. I finally got to shower after waiting for 50 mins in the room. Oh, in the meantime, we tried to use the wifi to kill some time for $15/night resort fee. But wait!! Front desk just informed me that there was no wifi, you had to plug in the RJ-45 jack to your laptop. That is if the plug works, mine didn’t since it was broken so I had to use a shorter cable. Enough said about the hotel. Lets go to sleep!

4am, someone walking outside the hallway, opening door, closing door. Someone trying to get into our room? Then realized the walls and the doors are waffle thin, with absolutely no sound insulation. Can hear the water running thru the pipes too to the next room or above. Wife had it, went down for some slots while I tried to catch some more Zs since I wanted to play 12pm Venetian tourney.

Wife came back at 8am and I pulled myself out of bed. Got breakfast, walked around, got lunch and psyched myself up for the V. tourney. I haven’t played a live tourney for 6 months since they are such a crap shoot. I kept on losing money without cashing. The last cash was probably 3-4 yrs ago (I used to play about 3 tourneies/yr in Vegas). I migrated to $1/2 NL and has been positive most of the time to Vegas. Enough said, let’s get down to some hands.

POKER part: 255 runners, 1st prize over $7000. 27 players will cash. What a long shot! But, I will try my best, play some solid poker. $150 for 7500 TC will give me quite a bit of play (blinds started at 25/50 with auto-shuffler). There were so many hands, I will try to recollect as best as I can. I’ve been pretty active in the beginning since the it wouldn’t cost my stack a whole lot. Looked down at KK in late position, raised 3X to 300 and got called by an Asian tattoo villan (we got into each other a few times and I respected his game a lot), flop KXX with a flush draw. He checked and I checked behind deceivingly. Turn junk, he made a pot bet of 600, I raised double to 1200 and he called. River another brick, he checked and I went all in (putting him all in for like 4000). He went into the tank and mucked his hand. This is the hand I think I made a mistake. I should have value bet it but I tried to make it look like a busted draw with such an overbet since I thought he was sophiscated enough to think that. Unfortunately, this is only like lvl 2 and he did’t want to go bust this early. I floated a couple of times and took down a few pots with position.

I looked down at 7-8 suited UTG and felt good about it, made it to 300. Then realized the blinds just increased to 100/200/25, so I threw in 1 more chip for 2X raise to 400. Even better for my hand. Everyone folded except the button who was a pretty good player. So, my plan was just to bluff 1 time and that’s it. Flop 6-8-8. Yeha! He would never put me on a 8 and I can’t imagine he would call with 79 or 57 either. I checked to represent weakness like I have AK or AQ. He bet like 500 and I called after a little deliberation. Turn J and the board looked like 6-8-8-J, I checked again and he bet like 1200 as expected. Now, I swing my trap and raised 2X more to 2400. He called. River a 9 to complete the board of 6-8-8-J-9. I thought to myself if he would play 10-Q and said nah. I fired a value bet of like 2800 this time since I missed making money earlier with trip K. Villan thought for a while and made a crying call. His look was priceless when I turned over my 7-8.

Ante started to kick in after 1st break and I had been stealing a little here and there from late position. However, an older solid tight gentleman 2 to my left just wouldn’t coorperate with me. Whenever I raised from the button, he would either come over the top at his big blind or fire out of position after the flop. I think I lost 2 and won 1 from him. He got me a little frustrated. Finally, I looked down at AK at the button and I said to myself “This is the hand I am going to war with him with!” I raised from the button 3X to 1800 as usual, he called as expected. I was a little disappointed when he didn’t go over the top. Flop came 10-5-3, no flush possibility. I betted out like 3000 into a pot of 4000 trying to end the hand, he came over the top again and he was all in. I had more chips than him, so I wouldn’t cripple even if I lost. I snap called him thinking he was bluffing. I still had at least 6 outs if he had a pair. He flipped over 10-J for top pair. Yuck! Turn a brick, river a beautiful King to my rescue!!! He stood up in disbelief, gave me his fist to knock knuckles. I told him I was just simply frustrated with his push over. Well, this hand was my suck out for the tourney.

Now, I had some extra chips to play with but no real cards to speak of. I waited patiently. A small stack raised about 3X to 2400 in late position preflop, I called at button with 4-5 suited expecting to win with position. Flop 3-3-5. Not a bad flop. Villan checked, I betted out like 5000 (almost full pot) with position as planned. Villan came over the top. Now, I had a decision to make. It’s only like 10K more to call and I had a big stack, probably around 35K. However, I hate to double anyone up with a measly pocket 5. He couldn’t have a 3. Medium pocket pair wouldn’t want to check after flop and let me pealed 1 card off for free. Big pocket pair would have gone over my top pre-flop already. That left with A-X. I called feeling good about the analysis. He disgustedly turned over K-9. Before I could give myself a pat on my back, a 9 rolled over on the turn and the hand was over before I got a chance to comprehend what had just happened. He explained that he thought I was pushing him around. I guess that’s “what goes around comes around!” No biggie, at least my read was right on.

Lvl 10 1000/2000/300 started after another break, a silver hair lady on the other side of the table was chowing down her Chinese noodle. She seemed to be enjoying her food until I looked down at “cowboys” UTG. I raised 3X to 6000, everyone folded to her and she waved her hands inward. I pulled out my single headphone off my ear and asked what did she say. I was delighted when I heard “All in” followed with a big red button that says “All-in” in front of her. She was a big stack like me, I had no problem putting my tournament life at risk with KK. Of course I called and was relieved to see her A-10. No help on the board left her very short stack and me doubling up to more than 60K. Then, my wife brought me a yummy Cuban sandwich from the food court at Venetian. Very tasty, even my neighbor, Brian, from Delaware agreed. With a big stack of 30BB, I just sat back and enjoyed my sandwich. Lady got knocked out, and there was a lot of turn over at my table. 3 super big stack sat down to my left which makes it even harder for me to play any hands.

I was pretty psyched with my new salmon-color shirt that my cousin made fun of me. I thought I would be a big salmon “fish” on the table, but I was happy with my small ball approach so far. While enjoying my music, I noticed a short stack went all in for about 8000 with blinds at 1000/2000/300. I looked down at AQ late position. I had 2 options, raise or all in. I thought I had 2 blinds to beat, but I still didn’t want to risk my tournament in case the super big stack woke up with KK or AA. I announced to them a raise to 15K. Next 2 players folded and to my surprise there was 1 more player to beat. Apparently, I missed the other big stack on the other side of the table. He pondered and went all in and I went beserk!! He knew I gotta have a hand to raise with. What could he raise with? He is a super big stack of 60K like me and pretty solid and quiet so far. Could he have AA, KK? Very likely. AK, maybe. Either way, I wasn’t going to risk my tournament life on a coin flip at best. I threw away my QQ face up. Big stack revealed AQ, all in revealed K-junk. I was still very happy with my decision not to race against an Ace or a King. A player told me that I had the best hand. That was until he saw the Ace rolled over at the turn. I told the big stack that I just dodged a bullet, hehe. Now, do you guys think I made a mistake not pushing all in pre-flop. Just remember all 3 players to my left had super big stack like me. I know statistically QQ is a favorite, but I don’t want to bust out with QQ. TV screen indicated there are still like 50 people left with no ending in sight.

I had been pretty card dead for the last 2 lvls (1 hr). I sat back patiently, looking to move near the money closer. Every round cost me quite a bit of chips at 1500/3000/500. My stack of 50K had a M of 6 and I needed to make a move pretty soon. What happened in the next few minutes was all a blur to me. My AK fell to J-10 (short stack making 2 pairs). Then KK collapsed to another short stack with another J-10 (st8 or flush).

Now, I am short in chips with around 25K with 29 players left (2 more bubble boys). I had to pick a spot. Luckily my Ace-medium crushed the other small stack’s Ace-little. I was able to weather the storm until a cheer erupted when we were told that everyone was in the money. Now I had the $7000 first place in sight. I didn’t go all in recklessly even my stack was short at around 20K. I went with it when I saw 10-10 UTG, everyone folded to BB who called since he was short stack too (lvl 12 blinds at 2000/4000/500 and both of us had around 20K). This is the same guy who beat my AK with J-10. So, I stood up knowing a bad beat would come up. Sure enough, he spiked his Q with his Q-9 on the flop. I collected $350 in casino chips for my 7 hrs effort and 24th place. I had tons of fun and was totally happy with the way I played. You need some luck (I got mine with AK), good cards (KK 3 times, AA 2 times, AK 2 times, QQ 1 time), good table draw (I wasn’t moved once, I hate to jump into new table), and your hands need to hold up (not my AK, KK, 10-10 at late stage) to win tournament.

I was totally exhausted after 7 hrs of playing, I finished some 80 mp3 songs on my phone. So, I didn’t want to play anymore cash games. Next day, we just left Vegas early to call my trip a successful one! By the way, I checked out Planet Hollywood 7pm Friday deepstack of 15K TC, no ante. It was quite deceiving since the blind starts at 100/200. So, 75X was no better than Venetian or Ceasar (7500 TC 25/50).

Thank you for reading this long TR, feel free to give me some feedback on the hands.