So a work buddy of mine knocked some chick up and he wanted to do a Vegas trip prior to having to pay child support. It was one last hurrah prior to his life ending as he termed it. I was in, as well as one other guy from work. I handled the hotel reservations, found a decent rate at Bally’s for 4 days, about $400 with cot. And off we went.

I gambled on the way in and out. Got standby tickets, missed an early flight by 30 seconds, and almost missed the last flight of the evening. Luckily there were some no shows. I was solo the first night and found a great rate at the Flamingo, $40 where Bally’s was over $130 for the same night. That short of a walk is no problem. They upgraded me to a Go room because they did not have non-smoking. Nice room, highly recommended for a romantic visit. While cool, the TV in the bathroom has limited utility to me. Its not like most guys spend hours doing there hair and want to catch a little sports center. I can easily brush my teeth in front of a more conventional location for a TV.

On the way out I was not so lucky. I got to the airport early Sunday and after 3 flights my position on the waiting list got progressively worse. So I had to book my own travel. I could have gotten a flight back to Orlando for 144, but foolishly followed the advice of the gate agent and waited a bit, sure enough the flight was sold out and I ended up paying 270. Got a room at PH for $50, and shuttle to the hotel for 12 round trip. Luckily I was the first one dropped off, and almost the last to be picked up. Figured I need to make $400 to make the extra day worthwhile. Got that and a bit more thanks MGM and PH poker rooms.

As far as poker, I can pretty much write a computer program to describe how I played:

if(topPair() OR overPair()) keepPotSmall()
else if (handmade()) then bet();

No real fancy play, I kept the pot small when I was vulnerable, and folded to most min re-raises. Those min re-raises typically signaled the stone cold nuts. Sir thank you for not betting enough to justify your bad calls and also communicating exactly what you have. That kind of read was verified many times during the weekend.

Alternatively, when you have your hand bet it. For the most part you will get called. Example hand: Me on the button with Q9, I call a $5 raise from someone from mid position as well as the BB. Both have about $200, and I have them both covered. Dream flop comes, 9A9. BB checks, original raiser makes it 15 to go, I call. He tells the dealer, “I need help!” I confirm by saying “yes you do”. BB calls, what? River, a blank, like a 5. BB checks, raiser makes it like 25, I think that it is hammer time. 107 sounds about right. BB folds, raiser shoves. I basically told him I have a 9 in my hand. I snap call, he shows AQ. Thanks for the $200 and thanks BB for the dead money.

I kind of follow my own version of Harrington’s cash game book. You can’t really follow his advice to the letter as players are no where near as skilled as he describes opponents. For example checking the turn will almost communicate weakness to your opponent when you hold something like TPTK. This will typically lead your opponent to think he is best, so he will bet close to the size of the pot. I find a blocking bet of something like $10 will keep the pot small (no matter how large the pot actually is), and accomplish the goal far better than a check. Additionally no one really understands the purpose of a blocking bet and typically they fall right into the trap.

In general, I found that no more than 3 out of 9 of my opponents had any idea how to play a cash game. All dreamed of aces or kings pre-flop, which I really don’t care about. To me large pocket pairs are much tricker to play than suited connectors and small pairs.

This trip really solidified a belief of mine that I am at least a semi-skilled deep stack cash game player. As many of you have heard the laws are changing here in Florida. Buy in restrictions will be lifted from the ridiculously small amounts to something reasonable. I intend to take a few days off of work to take advantage of the lack of deep stack skill. One thing I notice is that play is reasonable for a table that has 2/5 blinds with 100 buy in when it first starts. However, as players accumulate chips they are rarely able to change gears. All in calls or a shove is common with a player holding top pair, mediocre kicker. Against a knowledgeable player such hands are typically drawing very thin.

There is a huge hole in my game that I noticed. Once I start winning, and I am mostly playing with other’s money my play improves dramatically. I start talking like I am a LAG-tard, cajoling the table, and really working on my meta-game. Why the hell don’t I do this when I first sit down? Sure that money was mine when I woke up this morning, but it wasn’t 6 months ago. I should play like it does not matter so much to me.

I got to meet up with Las Vegas Michael one morning at Bally’s. Something I had not done despite being to vegas several times in the past few years. He got to see tight and silent Pete as I was stuck a bit. That morning (19th) and the next (20th) were juicy. On the 19th one guy worked his 1400 stack down to 600, back up to 1600 or so, then cashed out at 400. I got none of it.

The next AM (the 20th), I did okay, but it was my biggest cash game profit at the time. There were two stack of over 1200. One guy lost it all, another all but about $400 of it. I took a decent piece of both stacks, but I was no where near the overall winner. The game had crazy action of which I was intimidated at first, but I think I have gotten over now.
Also a cool thing, I beat that cash on my last night in Vegas.

Strangely the action in Bally’s was mostly dead on Friday and Saturday. You’d figure that there were much bigger games over the weekend but that was not the case. Places I played: Ceaser’s (where I ran so bad, I started folding in the dark), Flamingo (did really well there), Bally’s (did okay but probably had some of the highest skilled players that I ran into), MGM (played twice in two very soft games), O’Sheas (sigh, why did I subject myself to that pain? Because I was intimidated by the overnight stacks that were at the Flamingo).

So after O’Sheas, I went to the flamingo, and was totally card dead. Bought in for $200, worked it down to about $140 and then went on to win 2 hands in like the 3 or 4 hours I played. Luckily I was all in both times by a guy who had me covered and I cashed out for like 540. Weirdly the two hands that I won were back to back. Important poker lesson in patience and staying out of trouble when you don’t have it. Also I had a pretty good read on the guy. The second hand I got it all in with queens, when I knew he had an under pair. I just knew it.

My tournament success was for not. Played at the bally’s shove fest and the gal went runner-runner to hit an unlikely strait. Played one of the cheap Ceasers tourneys and was out in the first level. First hand that did me in is I flop mid and bottom two pair, when a guy flop top and middle two. Still I did not stack off. The very next hand I make a flush and another guy makes a full house. Done. I just went back to the room.

Ate at the burger brazier quite a bit, like 3 of the 4 nights we were there. The bartender Dylon was a crack up, and took a picture with the waitress Ginger(-licous). I got down on one knee for that shot. Got to hit up Elis Island for the $6 steak deal, and Bill’s steak and eggs just about every morning. We also went to the strip club Badda-Bing, which has to rate to be the worst in class.

Great time, and honestly this week has been a bit depressing. I had so much fun in Vegas. I really should have tried to go back for memorial day weekend. I pretty much had nothing to do at home. Oh well.