The third in a handful of trip reports I am going to post. This one is going to cover Tuesday.

Our Hero’s stats for the trip going into Day 4: +$797 poker, -$20 other bets

Got in last night at 1am and spent a while drafting up my trip report. Hopefully, you guys are enjoying these because they take some time to write. I will admit it is a blast recapping the day's activities in writing. However, between the work conference and poker there is not much sleep going on. Oh well, it is Vegas. I guess I'll sleep when I'm dead. Hopefully, that does not occur anytime soon.

Side Note: I forgot to post an interesting hand from Monday. A rookie player sits down and struggles with the electronic system at Excalibur. About 5 hands in, he goes all in pre-flop for $75 or so. He says he meant to just click raise. I look down at QQ. I don't really believe him. He doesn't seem too bothered about the all in and whether he will lose it. I am not bothered either. He probably still has KK or AA, but who cares. I decide what the hell I am willing to gamble for fun. I call. He shows AK unsuited. the stats say I am a 56-44 favorite. Is that right? Not sure if I had any of his suits. I wonder if the stats were counting a dead K or A that someone might have had. Anyways, I end up losing this race when he hits an Ace on the turn. I probably shouldn't have called, but it was fun to do so...

Anyways, back to today's story. I Went to bed at 3am and got up at 7am to head over to my work conference. This time I hope to actually be let into the conference. I attend numerous free sessions, which I will not bore anyone by discussing. I was hoping there might be a special class on "How to play 7-2 against weak players.", but there wasn't. Maybe I can continue my research on this and conduct the class next year? We'll see.

Now that the conference day is over, my plan is to play in the 7pm Planet Hollywood tourney. However, While walking back from Mandalay Bay, a strange sensation pulls me toward the Excalibur poker room. Apparently, there is some kind of magnetic force built into these tables that keeps pulling me back. Reality is I really like the setup. I get the social aspect of playing with others who have to listen to my innane chatter and can use the technology of the table to replay hands.

I am happy to see some familiar faces. Most notably, I see my tilty friend from Sunday night. This was the guy who I got all in for a huge pot dead to a King only to lose on the river. Maybe I can get my revenge?

I sit down and fail to win the first 10 hands. I laugh about it only to hear the guy on my right complain that he hasn't won a hand yet. he shows me his session stats and it says, hands won 0/40. I am not kidding. seriously. we both continue to fail to win hands. Eventually I drag a small pot and stop the streak at 25 or so. He still has not won a pot. I look at his stats and it says 0/63 or something. He finally ends up chopping a limped pot that gets counted as a win. We are playing .50/$1 and I have leaked off about $35 of my $100 buyin. I decide to rebuy a little and push my stack back up to $100 by clicking the rebuy button. I do it and then declare loudly a few seconds later, "Wow.. I can't believe I haven't lost a $1 since I sat down. That is weird." I don't think anyone bought it, but it was fun to say.

Soon after this I get a chance for my revenge. My tilty friend raises to $3 under the gun. He's seen me re-raise with 7-2 in this spot twice now and show a bluff (not today though). I look down at KK. Sweet!!! Tilty has about $70 left. I raise the pot to $10 total hoping to isolate him and create confusion. Everybody folds. he re-raises me to $20. This makes the pot a total of $30. It is $10 to call and Daniel has $50 left. I'm 99% sure I got him beat. Regardless, I'm getting all my money in at some point. Question is do I just smooth call and risk a scary board allowing him to get off the hook for more or do I just shove. I'm sure you know the answer.... I shove all in. The pot is now $90 and he has $50 left to call. He glares at me and finally calls. He shows A-K. This time he does not suck out as 5 uneventful cards flicker by and I scoop the pot. It wasn't as big as the pot he took from me, but I did get some measure of revenge. I don't blame him too much on this as it is hard to fold A-K pre-flop against a maniac. The 7-2 bluffs are paying dividends for my big scores later... I must keep this up. I cash out $32 ahead and head towards Planet Hollywood for the 7pm tourney.

I am a big fan of this 7pm tourney. The buyin is only $80 but you still get 4000 in chips and the levels are 20 minutes. This is pretty good for a cheap tourney on the strip. I know Caesars has some better chip structures. However, the players are better there also. I need to keep my ego in check and continue preying on the fish. Plus, I came in 2nd place the last time I played this tourney so I feel good about it.

I get there and realize I have forgot my poker card. I need it to get the 500 extra in chips. I go over to the players booth and ask for a new card saying I forgot to bring it with me on my trip. I politely ask if I can have a coupon book also. Earlier I had vowed not to play any blackjack or craps. I open the coupon book and see a $25 match play coupon. Well... I have no choice. I walk over to the Blackjack table and pull out $30. I place the match play and $25 down with a $5 tip on the side. First card is a 6 (bummer), 2nd card is a 10. Why did I make this bet??? Dealer shows a 5. That's good, maybe she'll bust. I follow proper strategy and decline to take a card. Dealer flips a 10 and then busts with another 10. Success!!! I get $45 in profit. No more blackjack this trip unless I score another coupon book.

I play tight the first couple levels due to bad cards and not wanting to push the action when I don't need to. Funny side note is I get dealt 7-2 at least 3 times. It's not a cash game so I fold it each time of course. We get down to 16 people or so. I have won a few pots here and there but mostly maintained a healthy chip stack by staying out of trouble. One of the shorter stacks pushes all in on my big blind. I proclaim loudly, "I hate when people raise my big blind and call". I show a semi-weak A-9 and am lucky villain has 5-5. Unfortunately, he wins the race. However, the good news is I have shown that anyone who raises my big blind will either be verbally taunted, called or both. I want to force people into tight play as the blinds creep up. The blinds are creeping up on me so I shove a crappy hand and pick up a few blinds. I then shove a good hand pick up blinds. I show the hand to advertise that I only play high cards. Yeah, right!! I just don't want anyone to call my shoves.

Eventually we get down to the final table and everyone is pretty even in chips. Someone proposes a 10-way chop. One guy declines. This is his right, but he does it with an air of being above it all that kinda pisses off the table. We get down to 5 people and everybody but me has been playing tight. I have shoved so many hands that i picked up the blinds. Once, I get called and am forced to show 7-4, which loses and semi-cripples me. Nobody notices as I keep shoving and build my stack slightly. I then shove with an ugly K-10 and get two callers. I am dominated all over but manage to catch a 10 on the river to triple up. I know have half the chips in play. The jerk from earlier only has 2 times the big blind left. He asks for a chop and I laugh.

Meanwhile, I have struck up a conversation with the nice lady on my right. she is in remission from cancer. I asked her because she had a chip protector with the cancer ribbon and short hair that was recently growing back. I could almost cry. I feel for her as we all know someone who has been lost to cancer. I vow in my head not to knock her out. Then I do the unthinkable... She is third in chips (ahead of the jerk and another person) when she raises all in against my big blind. I look down at two KKs. I have a little more than half the chips in play. You may not believe me, but I throw them in the muck without showing. I owe the world for all my foolishness. Maybe I won't be going to hell after all?

Two hands later I pick up AK and knock out the jerk and another player. I end up heads up with a 7-1 chip lead. I lose 2 races then I shove with Q-J and barely have the other player covered. 1st place is worth $642 and 2nd place is $360 (I can't recall exactly) so there is a big difference. She calls and shows K-Q and I am in big trouble if I lose the hand. Welll... I don't. I get the suckout when a J peels off on the turn and I win.

With fresh chips in hand, I head over to the $1/$2 cash game. I play for two hours and almost double my $300 to $600. I make almost all of it on one fortunate hand. I am small blind with Q-3 of hearts in a limped 3 way pot. Flop comes Q-9-5 one heart. I check, big blind checks and a very weak player bets $5 into the $6 pot. I have watched this guy donk off money for the past 30 minutes by overplaying and/or calling down with marginal hands. He has just bought in for more and has about $250 in his stack. I suspect he has a Q with a better kicker or a set, but I call to see what he does on the turn. The turn comes the 8 of hearts. He bets $20 into the $15 pot. I am now positive I am behind. However, I have a flush draw and I think this guy is foolish enough to pay me off big if I hit it. He has another $220 or so behind so I call. the River comes the beautiful 2 of hearts. Against someone else I might lead out and bet my flush for value. Not against this guy. He bets when he thinks he has the best hand regardless of the board. I want to see if he will hang himself. I check. He makes his "value bet" for $30. I go into the tank for a little bit. I don't want to over-hollywood so I don't take too long to re-raise him all in for another $190 of his stack. He thinks for a while and says "I hope you don't have a flush." Then he calls and shows a whopping Q-10. I mentally thank him as I scoop the pot. I am so happy I flip the dealer $10. After I while, I decide to call it a night. I need to get up early again for the conference so I head back to the room at 1am again. (of course I still stay up writing my previous trip report).

Two solid nights in a row. There appears to be a correlation between how much I had to drink each day. Days 1-2 I think I had 463 tequilla shots and won about $100. Days 3-4 I had nothing to drink whatsoever and raked in a cool $1600 or so. Maybe I shouldn't drink and play poker? Maybe I am failing elsewhere in life and shouldn't drink at all ever? We'll see. I'm definitely not drinking till the conference is over as I take my real job seriously. The tequilla shots can wait.

Day 3 Stats:
+$32 Excalibur cash game (1 hour)
+$545 Planet Hollywood tourney 1st place prize
+$264 Planet Hollywood cash game

Overall Stats for the day: +$841 poker, no other bets
Overall Stats for the trip: +$1741 poker, +$25 other bets

Next up Cold Deck Wednesday... My luck changes for the worse...