Solo in Vegas proves profitable in early hours.

My second solo trip to Vegas proved to be a profitable and enjoyable experience. I was assuming the latter, but the former was a pleasant surprise.

I spent the 7th-12th Oct in Vegas staying at the IP, which was just what I expected. Nothing too fancy, but perfectly serviceable.

Wednesday
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Arriving on the red-eye from London I got through immigration surprisingly speedily, and for the first time ever the taxi didn't take me through the tunnel. Being English I don't like to make a fuss, so if they had I wouldn't have said anything (see later) but it was a good start to the week.

In and out of the room I hit Planet Hollywood the scene of my only previous poker successes, and the 1/2 tables.
I bought in for 200, and cashed out for 544 (+344).
My 1/2 strategy is generally pretty tight pre-flop, but I'm capable of making the odd move post-flop.
I'm aware of my tight image, and when I first raised pre I had AA - which I showed, thus cementing my reputation for a while which I was able to exploit a little.
The biggest hand here was a monster draw. I saw a cheap flop with QdJd and the flop came AdTdx.
There was a bet and a raise before it got to me so I pushed, and turned the nut flush. Which was nice.
This was the first time I had a draw to the royal, but not the last on the holiday (there were at least 3 other occasions). They all missed.

On the way back to my room I spotted an open seat at the IP so flushed with my winnings I sat down.
Buy-in 200, cash-out 427 (+227), most of this money came when I hit top set with AA, against someone who rivered 2-pair. He was a decent player (and nice guy - a dealer from elsewhere in the States) so didn't raise the river.

Hitting the sack I was comfortably up and feeling confident about things. I've played a lot of cash on-line and improved as a cash player greatly, so was pleased that I seemed to be one of the better players at these tables. (I'm still a better tourny player than cash though).

Thursday
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The jet lag caused me to wake at 5am, so naturally I was back in the IP room pretty swiftly.
Buyin 200, out 271 (+71).
The most interesting hand (for me) was when I ended up all in pre-flop with KK against KK,
and had to dodge a club on the river for a flush, which I did. Phew. I played for a couple of hours till 8 or so, but then the room filled up with the local 2/4Limit grinders for the day so I moved on. The cookies were nice though.

After breakfast I wandered down to the Mandalay Bay.
Buyin 300, out 268 (-32)
I hit no hands early, and found myself below $100, bought in for another $100, and hit some cards as I was preparing to leave to get back to approaching even (but not quite). This was a tougher table than some I've played at. The MB was fine as a poker room. I'd never played there before though (which was why I walked down), but forgot to take a spare $1 chip home as a souvenir. Blast.

I thought I'd try my luck at the Planet Hollywood 2pm tournament, but finished nowhere, having had
no cards, and unable to bluff enough to build up a decent stack.

Back to the hotel room at 4pm for a rest.

Diversion - a word on times
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I'd been chatting to a fellow Brit on the tables at the IP who suggested that it wasn't worth battling with jet-lag and to just sleep when you wanted to. I thought about it and took that advice and decided to put my head down for a snooze. Just a nap, to recharge the batteries. I woke up again at 11pm, seven hours later. Oops.

This led to an interesting possibility though. Staying on British time (8 hours ahead). If I slept from 4pm till midnight then I could spend a few hours on the graveyard shift being wide awake and fresh from a good "night's" sleep - while everyone else was drunk and shattered. Sounded hugely +eV.

I discovered though that while the strip never sleeps, some of its food retailers do. Have you ever tried to find cornflakes at midnight? Breakfast in the very early hours isn't possible at all, nor really was anything resembling a healthy lunch at 5am, but once I resigned myself to eating junk I settled well into the new routine, and wasn't jet-lag on my return home.

This did mean that my plans of playing one of the deeper stack events at the V bit the dust (way past my bed-time).

Friday
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Planet Hollywood 1am-6am . In 200. Out 497 (+297).
Luxor 8am - 11am. In 300. Out 180 (-120).

Only one hand of note at PH. I had pocket 5s, flopped a pair, turned a boat and rivered quads. Hit the high hand jackpot of 123.

The Luxor table was very very juicy. There were two incredibly drunk players. One of whom was
American and very entertaining ("Paul" - [name changed]), one of whom was German and slightly annoying. Paul hit a huge run of cards just as I sat down and was up to about $800, maybe even $1k. I, and several others were eyeing his chips covetously.

Paul was sat two seats to my left and after a while a very nice local sat between us. He was an OK player - but more of a gent than you'd find at most tables. He spent a little time telling Paul to leave the table and go and get some food as he'd been playing all night and clearly in need of a little break and some food. Paul didn't leave, but I've rarely seen anyone as gentlemanly as the local.

I only got into one hand with Paul. I limped with 99 behind about 4 players and Paul raised to 16 or so from the BB. The limpers called round to me, and I isolated against Paul by re-raising to 55. Paul called, everyone else folded. I'm certain I'm ahead of Paul's range here and I wasn't worried that anyone would spot what I was up to, and wonder why I'd flatted in late position, only to isolate later. The flop comes A-high, no 9. Paul leads into the pot for a big enough bet that I'm commiting my whole stack either on this street or on the turn. I tank for a while. He's been bluffing a bit, but is certainly capable of doing this with any Ace. Paul shows his cards to the German to his left (not for the first time). The very pleasant local between me and Paul asks to see my cards, so I look at them again in such a way as he can see. I think he knows what Paul is holding. After a few seconds he kicks my foot, I glance up at him
and he, subtly, shakes his head. Nobody notices. I muck, and Paul takes it down. He had A5. The cards weren't shown, but Paul says he has the Ace, and isn't lying and the chap between us tells me the cards.

After a while Paul did leave, so did the drunk German and the table settled down. Bored of cash I set off for the PH 2pm tournament. Which I won for 661.

I got a little lucky in this tournament, but you have to to have any chance. I won a flip with AQ>99, then K5s>AQ and finally when heads up pushed on a board on AKx with QJ and rivered a T. I like these tournaments though.
The fields are super-soft. I only found 2 other players all the times I played who had much idea. One player was very good with deep-ish stacks and then C-bet enough to chip up, although he limp/folded too much when a short-stack. One lady was a good short-stacker, and final-tabled twice while I was there. Thats pretty much it though. I'm not a great player I was running over these tables.

Saturday
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PH 1am-5am. In 200 Out 401. (+201) KK v KK and QQ v QQ chopped two pots. I played pretty nitty as usual, but this was only spotted by a couple of players. One of whom folded AQ to my 3-bet (when I had AJ). I was later able to fold AQ to *his* 3-bet when he had QQ.

I was down to 150 when I raise to 12 with AQo. 2 callers, I'm in position.
Flop A6J. Check - Bet 25 - call - call. (I'm the last to act; first caller).
Turn 3. Check - Bet 35 - call - call.
River J. Check - Bet 75 - call - call.

I'm not really certain what the best line was on this board. The guy betting wasn't much cop. Too loose, and spewey and the fellow check/calling from EP had only just sat down. All three hands were shown. The guy betting had A7 ("Aces and Jacks") and was sure he was ahead. The fellow check/calling had 6-5 for a flopped bottom-pair, no kicker and turned gutshot. Sometimes you just have to stack off with top pair, good kicker I guess to take advantage of spots like this.

If its worth anything the guy betting in the hand above showed his hand to a friend of his while I was considering calling the river. This is a sure sign of strength, but I'd have been wrong to use it as a reason to fold. He was feeling confident in his hand, but just thought A7 was a huge hand there.

I played in two futher tournaments, the Caesars 9am when I had KK run into AA early, and the PH 10am, when I finished 18th or so out of 40. I got lucky early to bust the only other good player at the table but soon ran out of cards.

I played at Bally's for the first time in the afternoon, which is a perfectly serviceably card-room, but had zero cards. I didn't even get enough to see many cheap flops with the hope of catching, so having won 1 single pot I cashed out after 2.5 hours with 165 of my original 200 for a loss of only 35. I'm not that much of a rock normally.

Sunday
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PH 3am-6:30am. In 200 Out 572 (+372). An incredibly interesting session with 2 big hands and one very interesting player.
My first hand at the table I'm dealt AQo from EP and raise someone's blind staddle to 16 (I think) and there are 2 callers, one being the straddler. If the straddler re-raises me (and he's sitting behind a mountain of chips) I'm getting it all
in pre-flop. The flop comes Q-high. Its checked to me, I bet out and the other limper goes away, just me and Mr Straddle.
He calls, and bets out on the turn for $40 or so. Playing a stack of $200 this would leave me only $90 or so behind so I really need to make a decision now as to whether I'm ahead, and if so I'm playing for my stack. I decide I am and call.
The river completes loads of draws. There were two spades on the board by this point, and the river makes both a straight and a flush possible (I can't remember now whether a one-card straight was though - it was early!). Mr Straddle pushes.
I don't like it really, but I'm sure I'm ahead enough here to call, and do (although I'm not sure I'm ahead *this* time). He shrugged, nodded and pleasingly this was the time he had AK, and having attempted to get tricky out of his straddle, missed his overs and decided to bet me off the hand, assuming that as a new-guy I can be pushed around.

About an hour later a similar hand arose. I'm dealt AK and raise, and the flop comes AKx. I bet and there's a fellow playing his first hand at the table who calls along. I'm sure I'm ahead. The turn is a J, and he's playing a short-enough stack here for me to put him all in with around a pot-sized bet (I think he bought in for 150). He's calling with AK/AQ/AJ/AT here and if he's playing JJ then good luck to him. He calls and looks sheepish on the rivered Q and turns over AT for the straight.
That would have put me at over 1k ...

Aside: A note on luck
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The hand immediately above it the only example of me taking a bad beat at the cash tables for a sizeable pot. I didn't have KK run into AA on the cash tables, nor did I hit my flushes against full houses. I ran well - not really because I
was getting lucky, but because my opponents often weren't and I avoided losing big pots with big against huge hands. I know this, but I did play pretty well too.

Where I got really lucky though was the spots I chose to call down fairly light in. I stacked off with TPTK on a dangerous board when I thought my opponent is bluffing enough for it to be worth it - and similarly when I suspected my AQ was a
better Ace than my opponents'. In neither of these occasions did I run into a set, and dodging those sorts of spots *is* lucky.

Sunday (continued)
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Still at the PH a dealer sat down (Stefan - v slim with a stuck-up quiff). Hugely entertaining figure, with a lot of gamble in him who would straddle often, and raise blind and sometimes bet the flop blind. More than reasonable player too which made it all the more fun. Everyone at the table was watching him. I think he lost about 350 before leaving having been felted, but he played a high-variance game and may well win more than he loses like that just being able to bully
and read the fish. I'd been nitting it up, and continued this against this guy. You know you are playing for your full stack against him, and so I waited for the hand to stack him, but it never came. I bluffed at him once (raising his flop-bet and betting on the turn) with KQo, only for him to turn over AJo on the river to win with A-high. He'd turned an OESD which (I think) was why he called the turn bet. A soul read that A-high was good can't be ruled out though. He'd made such a call against someone bluffing three streets earlier on.

Later on I played the 10am tourny, still at PH, and finished second for 332. I struggled early on with cards. I was making a lot of moves (quite unlike my cash game play - great fun) and was up a bit at the first break. I'd been fortunate enough to get an all-in river bluff on QxxxQ board through. I tried a C-raise on the flop (as variety, I'd been leading out a lot) but
was called, and after villain checked behind on the turn I stuck the rest of my chips in with A-high hoping he didn't have a Q. He didn't.

I've got a quite an edge in these weak fields, and I didn't call a large bet (for about 2/3rds my stack) with AhJh on Kh7h3c board after one player made an overbet push on the flop (which I was sure meant he had a weak King) and another fellow called all-in after some thought. The chap who called was one of the only good players in the tournament and I'm pretty sure had 2 of my hearts. If there was only 1 player in the pot I'm definitely folding, but with 2 I've definitely got the odds to call.
I folded though because I didn't need to gamble much of my chip stack when 2 of my outs were probably in the callers hands.
They were - my reads were spot on (the caller had a pair as well) - and a heart didn't come.

After this though I cruised through to the FT fairly easily. I got my money in good a couple of times and they held up (JJ > TT, TT > 77) and when I was raising nobody was really playing back at me. Another reason not to gamble too much early ...

4 places paid and with 5 left someone suggested everyone chip in $10 for the bubble player. I had the chip lead and declined, as people were playing much too tight at this stage. Everyone else would have been happy doing that, but
fortunately they didn't take against me too much . I pushed fairly light and got down to 3 left. I lost a flip to the short stack (55 K5s).
Heads-up we were playing blinds of 4k/8k which represented 8-10% of the chips in play. I was pretty short and pushed every hand until we were about level in chips. I decided I could fold a hand now, only to turn over
AT, but that ran into AK which held up.

Poker Summary
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6 tournaments, 1 first, 1 second, and up over 1k at the cash tables. I've done the maths and I think my total profit was over $2100. Naturally I had a fantastic time.

Food
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For about the first time in my life I complained in a restuarant (I'm English; we don't do complaining). I went to the Caesars breakfast buffet and while the food was fantastic, the service was terrible. My waitress behaved as if
I'd insulted her and couldn't have done a more effective job of "blanking" me if she'd tried. It was really really weird. I replayed our brief conversation in my mind to see if I could have inadvertently offended her in some way. I asked for a glass of water, never got it, so went and fetched it myself. I never got a refill in about 3/4 of an hour.
Amazing. At the end I went to see someone who looked like they were running the kitchen to complain.

After that I gave up on Caesars and went to the Mirage for a breakfast buffet, which was cheaper but not as nice.

Following a recommendation on here I went to the Burger Bar at the Mandalay bay which I can happily recommend.
Tasty burgers in friendly setting. I had the 'American Kobe' - which is a third the price of their proper Kobe beefburger, but tasted very good. A pint of the local Vegas beer (my only alcohol of the trip) marked the end of my trip in traditional fashion.