Went to Vegas for a friend’s 50th birthday and donated a bunch of money to the Las Vegas poker community. I had one of those trips where, I couldn’t catch anything but everybody else did. I felt sort of like the Poker version of the Tooth Fairy, everywhere I went there was money left behind. Besides that, it was an awesome trip. To everyone who says that there aren’t I lost trip reports, here is one. I played $2-4 limit and $3-6 limit hold’em, $2-6 spread limit hold’em, the $3-6 mixed game at Imperial Palace and the $2-8 spread limit Razz game at Tropicana and dropped nearly $500.

Trip started well. My plane got in 45 minutes early for the first win of the trip. Went to rental car place and had a really cute and friendly rental agent, thought it might be first big win until she mentioned her husband giving me my first bad beat of the trip. Couldn’t check into my room at Bill’s so I checked my luggage at the bell desk and went over to Flamingo to play a little low stakes limit. Sat for about 3 hours and never got anything going. No bad beats, just never made any hands, was down about $30 when I got A-A about 10 minutes before the aces cracked promotion ended. I slowplayed all hand and a rivered set got me a $100 payout, to put me about $60 before I checked into my room. I stupidly thought “hey, this might be a great trip.” Turns out this was my bankroll highpoint.

Went over to Rio Buffet with the group and had a good dinner, but rushed a little because one friend and I wanted to play the Imperial Palace Mixed game and the rest of the crew were heading to Blue Man Group. Appaently Blue Man Group would have been the cheaper option. My friend bought in for $150 and was felted in about 5 hours. I bought in for $200, added on another $100 and managed to get felted about 2:30 AM. I had a bunch of really good hands and never won with them. Even a couple of other players mentioned that I was losing with really, really quality hands. My friend and I did a post mortem and we counted 5 hands (all in the lowball games) where I had no worse than the 5th nut hand and I lost 4 of them. I lost with a 7-4-3-2-A and a 6-5-4-3-A in Razz, a 6-4-2-A Badugi and, my personal favorite and last lowball defeat with 7-6-4-3-2 in deuce seven triple draw. On that hand, I needed a 2 on the last two draws to make the hand. When my fairly passive neighbor on the button bet out after the 2nd draw, I actually said “this might be stupid drawing to this hand.” I hit the 2 and led out. She said “oh you caught something good” and then raised. I swear, I almost folded face up, but couldn’t bring myself to do that with the 2nd nuts. So, I said “I can’t believe I am not 3 betting with this” then smooth called and tabled my hand. As she was flipping over the nuts, 2 Mixed Game regulars said that they couldn’t believe I didn’t raise either. Afterwards, both told me they’d have gone broke with my hand. I suppose it’s nice my read was that good, even if it didn’t help. In any case, wallet a total of $240 lighter for the trip, I called it a night.

On Monday, I got up and decided to go messing around with some limit at Mirage. I can’t figure out why I like that room. It’s nice and the $3-6 game is fine, but I run for crap in the room. Here is where the poker tooth fairy came out in force. I played from about 10AM until about 6PM. Until 2PM they were doing aces cracked and my table (but not me) had 3 aces cracked during the period, all of them 2 red or 2 black for a $150 payout. There was also one with a red and a black for a $75 payout. During my 8 hours of play the table (but again not me) also had 3 quads which payed high hand jackpots and won a high hand of the hour. So, a lot of money was won at the table. I got nothing, really didn’t get a lot of cards and finished down $180.

During the session I didn’t have a ton of memorable hands. Normal stuff at low limit I raise with a big ace in position, hit the A on the flop, bet and get some calls, bet the turn it’s down to 2 or 3, and someone bets into me on the river when their A-7 off rivers 2 pair to beat my A-Q suited.
The 3 hands that stick out are a mistake by me, a misread snow attempt by me and me folding K-K. First the mistake, I had Q-10 in the big blind, there was no raise. Flop came Q-8-X rainbow, I bet out and get a couple calls. Turn was an 8, I keep the lead and get 1 caller. River A, it goes check-check and he flips Q-J, I screwup and say “he’s got me” as I turn over my hand -- not realizing that we both play Q-Q-8-8-A. The dealer (I think her name was Jennifer) takes her cue from me and pushes him the pot and mucks the hand. After it’s mucked another player points out the error, why he waited I’ll never know. A couple people including my opponent agree as the dealer calls the floor. I suppose the floor could have ruled without going to the tape, but I wasn’t sure because the board was already turned over and the cards mixed to go into the shuffler. So, rather than taking a chance, delaying the game while they went to the tape for a $30-40 pot, I tell the dealer not to bother. My opponent thought that was really gentlemanly of me and asked what I lost on the hand, I totaled it up to $12 and he threw that my way. The dealer apologized several times but I know it was my fault for both misreading it and not protecting my hand, so I don’t blame her at all. If anybody at Mirage reads this, don’t blame the dealer, I totally own this as my mistake.
After the hand I start talking to my opponent. We are chatting for about an hour when we get around to what he does for a living. Turns out he’s a movie director originally from Iran who goes by his English name, Steven Rush. He’s got a few credits to his name and was in Vegas for some meetings about a poker movie he is involved with. It’s supposed to have James Woods and Casey Affleck, plus a few famous poker players. I mention AVP and Jon Friedberg to him so maybe Jon or the crew will hear something -- I’m fine with a small finder’s fee or a credited walk-on role.

After Stephen leaves, an Asian guy with blond hair named James sits down immediately to my right. I realize he’s a pretty good player and we start talking. As the conversation goes on, I realize that he seems to be screwing around, not taking the game seriously. When I ask he say he’s just killing time at low stakes while his friend play high limit Bacarat. I did see his friend in the high limit room so I can verify that. As we talk more, I find out he’s a regular at the $40-80 limit tables at Commerce -- while I normally don’t believe things like this, his play, his attitude towards the stakes at risk and his reasoning (his buddy at a high stakes table and he’s not playing bigger games because they had a bunch of business meetings that morning) all make me think he was being honest about his normal stakes. Anyhow we start talking poker strategy and he tells me at this game he’d show me (and the table) any hand if we asked. So, I took advantage and got a number of nice poker lessons from the guy as we played.
Since I realize he puts me as tight and passive since I haven’t seen crap in an hour, I get involved in a big hand with him when I think he might be trying to snow me. He raises, which was happening about every 2nd or 3rd hand since we were 6 handed at the time. I look down at 7-8 of hearts and 3 bet, everybody folds and he 4 bets, I cap it. Flop comes Q-5-3 all clubs. He bets, I raise and he says “let’s see how good it is” as he 3 bets. At this point I figure him for snowing me with maybe a naked A of clubs, but I decide to just call. He mentions that and bets the blank on the turn, I raise and he 3 bets. At this point, I think it’s either a flopped flush or air. When the river blanks and he bets again, I say “I think you are snowing me, but I can’t beat anything. He shows me the 7 of clubs and I realize it’s a flopped flush and fold. At that point he shows the A of clubs for the flopped nut flush. Really costly misread on my part, but I at least like that I was willing to run hard with my read. He says “oh you had a big pair there.” I tell him he’d never believe my hand. A bit later on, I confess to the 7-8 for no pair 8 high, which I think did shock him.

We keep playing and get back to a full table. I think I’m the only person who realizes that James has tightened up as there are more players and actually mentioned it to him before the last memorable hand. I’m in the hijack seat and James raises, I look down at K-K and 3 bet it. The button calls, as does James and we go to the flop 3 handed. Flop is A-8-2 with 2 clubs. James checks and I decide I need to keep the lead and make it look like the A hit me, so I bet. Both players call. While I’m thinking “oh crap” when a nonclub 7 hits the turn and James checks, I fire another bet. The button calls and James raises. At this point, I put James on A-7 for 2 pair and the button on either a weak A or a flush draw, so I say “these are no good” and muck. The button calls. The river is not a club and the button folds to James’ bet. He flashes me the A-7 and apologizes for the check-raise saying “I wanted his money, not yours.” I tell him no worries, I felt like I had to keep firing with my K-K. He told me he actually thought I played the hand fine and liked that I kept firing without the Ace. I already knew it was the right play, but good to hear in any case.

After a break and a dinner at Pinks Hot Dogs, I decide to play more poker. I went down and tried the Monte Carlo $2-6 spread limit game. Mostly it was another session of frustration. I kept raising and leading with good hands only to get beat at the end. One memorable hand was after several players left and we combined to 1 table. I immediately look at 9-9 in the cutoff position. There are a couple limpers so I pop it to $6. The big blind and limpers call. Flop comes 8-6-2 rainbow and it checks to me, so I fire another $6 and only the big blind calls. Turn is a 7, giving me an overpair (barely) and an open ended straight draw. I fire another $6 and he check-raises to $12. With my draw and the pot, I feel I have to call, so I do. The river 7 and his bet tells me I’m done and I fold only to find I once again got to play the poker fairy. He had 7-7 and made quads on the river for a $211 payout. Glad I could help there buddy. Despite the lack of luck, I have to say that both Tin and Jenn were fun dealers and while the room was almost as quite as a library besides me being a loudmouth idiot, I had a good time. Actually, I think I did a much better job of that this trip, even though I kept losing, I stayed off tilt and really yucked it up at the table. I think it helped me to stay better focused and really made it fun despite the losses.

Tuesday, I spent the day driving around town checking out areas in preparation for my move out to Vegas. That evening, my friends wanted to do another buffet because they had done another 24 Buffet of Buffets pass, but I had a late lunch and decided to head down to Tropicana for the Razz game that Las Vegas Michael claims “He always plays in.” Well folks that claim is BS. I was there from 5:15 till about 7:30 and there was no sign of LVM. I did meet Nick Gullo, the room manager who seems like a really good guy (and encouraged me to give LVM a little needling for missing the game). Actually, it was a pretty tough game with a few regulars who are good lowball players and we played shorthand most of my time there. Despite that, I managed to book a $16 win, which would have been about $50 if my 7-6-4-3-A didn’t lose to a 7th street 7-6 with a perfect A-2-3 in the pocket. Still glad I got down to Tropicana and I think it’s a great little room and will be a nice place to play some dealers’ choice, Razz or HORSE depending upon the night. Keep up the good work Nick!

No more poker on trip, just a stretch Hummer, the Marriage Can Be Murder show at Fitz and a lot of drinking for my friend's 50th. Actually, we did a Wal-Mart booze run in the middle of the evening and got a picture of all 11 of us in front of the Limo parked beneath the Wal-Mart sign -- probably not the most common sight but a good drunken Vegas tourist picture.

Dave