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4 rooms in 4 days - 1-2 NL
I've only ever played Limit poker in the past in Vegas. My plan was to play all 1-2 NL and play at a different room every day. My wife was along and I had some a conference to attend, so my play was limited to 3-5 hours per day. I arrived on Friday afternoon to Harrah's. I headed straight to the Harrah's poker room. I was pretty card dead that 1st night and wasn't able to win many hands. There was a lot of action...many live straddles and a lot of loose, drunk players, but I wasn't able to take advantage. I pretty much broke even there. Even though I didn't make any money, it was a fun room with a friendly dealers and a lot of chips being thrown around.
On Saturday morning, I headed to the Venetian. I absolutely love everything about the room. I still didn't catch too many hands, but I managed to finish up about $300, thanks largely to a hand in which I drew to a 10 high straight in a multiway pot. The room was more serious than the others, and the play was better, but notsignificantly so.
On Sunday, I played a few hours Mandalay Bay, since my conference was there. I started catching cards, but lost a big pot when AA were cracked, I lost the minimum on that hand and was playing well, despite the bad luck. The play by those in the room was pretty average. Some good players, some bad players. I didn't like the smokiness of the room and had my worst experience of the weekend here.
Finally, on Monday, I played for 1 1/2 hours at MGM before catching my flight home. It was fish fest. I doubled up on the following hand: I have AdKd in the small blind with $185 in front of me. 5 limpers to me and I bump it up to $15. BB and 3rd position calls. Flop is Ac, 2d, 9d. I make a small continuation bet of $20. Both players call. Turn brings the Kd. I check my nut flush. BB checks. Position 3 bets $80. I think about it for a bit, start counting out my chips, and slowly make the call. BB folds. River is a bad card for me to get value. It was the 8d. I make a small value bet of $30, hoping he has a diamond and will call. He immediately goes all in for my remaining $45. I instacall with the nuts and he shows AhKh, saying "That's the only hand I was afraid of." The only hand? LOL. I took some more from this guy a few hands later when he was steaming. It was a lot of fun.
Had a fun time playing poker, won about $300 overall. I'll take it and can't wait to come back.
Can't believe someone didn't complain about the deck having two Kd. lol. I know you mistyped. Nice report. Good job.
I mistyped a lot in that report. Sorry! I think it was the Qd actually.
Not to pick on this particular poster, but I have a real problem with the constant stream of trip reports that have the following sentence, " Mostly card dead for X number of hours, only won $X. Listen folks, if you were truly card dead/running bad/caught bad beats/etc, you do not finish ahead $100/$200/$300, etc.
And if you win more than $100 in a 2/4 game over ANY number of hours(less than 20) you were running hot, pure and simple. Yes, the players are bad, and they will be bad tomorrow as well, but you were running WAY above average.
And while I am at, don't say, "I played my normal tight aggressive game" if you have no idea what it means. And by no idea I mean if you do not have poker tracker or some other device to truly track your play and tell you you are TA, you are in almost every case, not TA. You are most likely loose passive. To be honest in the low limit games in Vegas tight aggressive is not the right game to play anyway.
Blah, end rant, for now
@wlgolfpro
Brilliantly put.
I've gotten so sick of the dead card crap. 90% of trip reports say they have been card dead, which is trash. And I agree, if you're card dead, you don't go up big in a low limit game. I'm so sick of the phrase card dead, I wish it were dead.
The 2 rants seem to be speaking of low limit games. I clearly said I played NL, in which you can certainly be card dead, but play well, losing as little as possible, then scoop 1 big pot and break even or make money. Why not start a new thread rather than make silly rants on my trip report thread that address issues and things that I didn't even say?
And tight aggressive is a fantastic way to play 1-2 NL in Vegas, which is what this trip report was about. Limit poker is a whole different animal.
@JuliusErving
Regardless of what you were playing, I'm so sick of hearing people talk about how they are card dead. How is it that everyone on this forum thinks they are card dead?
It's the same as watching your team play a sporting event. You are completely biased toward the team you are rooting for, so you ALWAYS think you are getting screwed by the officials. That's just how it is, passionate fans seem to always think they are getting screwed by the officials, when in all actuality, it's split evenly 50/50 90% of the time.
The same thing with cards, everyone thinks they are card dead if they aren't getting brilliant cards. The reality is, 90% of the time, we're getting decent cards just as much as everyone else, but we are biased towards thinking we should be getting great cards all the time, or at least more often.
Card dead is the most overused, worthless term in poker, because everyone thinks they are, but no one really is.
I'm sorry that this got put in your thread, it has nothing personal to do with you.
@wlgolfpro
I don't want to get too picky either, but I think there's a difference between being card dead and running bad. To me card dead means getting terrible cards to start, which pretty much ensures you don't play them and are therefore not going to take bad beats. It's a different situation when you're getting playable cards but still losing to better hands and/or suckouts. You can get great cards and make every single correct decision and still lose evey hand to idiots who either just get lucky or have the odds to stay in the hand with a slim draw.
What a lot of players end up doing when they're not getting good starting cards is to play lesser hands than they should and play them out of position. Then for instance, if their QT loses to a KQ they feel they're taking bad beats, when perhaps they shouldn't have been in the hand in the first place.
Since this didn't belong on your trip report, I started a new thread. It is located here:
viewtopic.php?p=4501#4501
Exactly. You also don't lose much money in that situation, if you are patient. It doesn't take much to dig out of a card dead hole in NL. I made that point to help those who are thinking of playing in Harrah's because I didn't want future readers to think I broke even due to the game being tough, or my poor play. There is a lot of money to be made in that card room as there is a lot of loose play/straddling, etc.. My lack of decent cards didn't allow me to make any. That's all.
Are you guys trying to discourage people from posting trip reports?
If the guy felt he was card dead or running bad, that is what he reported.
As my first sentence said, I am not trying to pick on this particular poster. Just making a general comment about the vast majority of the trip reports. It is either card dead/bad beat/played my normal TA game and won $400 in 3 hours at $2/$4.
Ah, Feel the love!!!
And I'm tired of people saying, "I don't mean to pick on the OP, but..."
Geez, someone tell a bad beat story to change up the thread.
@ontheuptick
Thank you for posting that link. Any further discussion about "card dead" or comments not directly relating to the OPs report will be deleted from this thread.
Please continue the "card dead" debate in the above posted thread.
Thank you for your cooperation in this matter.
@JuliusErving
Exactly. You also don't lose much money in that situation, if you are patient. It doesn't take much to dig out of a card dead hole in NL. I made that point to help those who are thinking of playing in Harrah's because I didn't want future readers to think I broke even due to the game being tough, or my poor play. There is a lot of money to be made in that card room as there is a lot of loose play/straddling, etc.. My lack of decent cards didn't allow me to make any. That's all.[/quote]
Thank you for posting your report and for clarifying, and sorry your thread got sort of hijacked. That is not the way things usually go on this forum, but every once in a while it can happen.
Harrahs room reminds me of Ballys with regard to the clientele. Lots of tourists, and good action (especially in NL). I actually may check them out tonight, as I haven't played there in quite a long time (about a year or so).
Once again, thanks for posting. Great report.