Vega$ Trip Report - Part 3

...aka, the section where our intrepid hero fights back from oblivion.

So there I am on Sunday morning, ragass tired, tilty, and hungry. How to fix this? Head for the bouffffet, MGM-stylee.

The Good Doctor Mondo and I headed down to what was a surprisingly tasty brunch, though I wouldn't have thought pot stickers and seafood ceviche to be appropriate Sunday 10am dining fare, at least not with turkey sausage, blueberry blintzes, and lox with capers.

As it turned out, my stomach didn't think so, either, which resulted in my spending pretty much the next eight hours in bed, moaning and groaning through 500 miles of NASCAR Pocono boredom, and an inability to find a Rockies game on TV. At least my better half had yet another wonderful afternoon at the pool -- we definitely got our aquatic mobnies worth out of this trip.

Eventually, I was able to get up and eat a lil' something, when the thought occurred that we needed to get some hours in to lock in our poker rate. What else to soothe the bankroll than some 1/2NL? The soothing came quickly, and powerfully, when I was able to pick up a full buyin and a half in no more than about two hours, for my best live session on the trip up to that point.

For the most part, I played quiet, staying out of pots unless I had the goods, or could get to the goods. As it was, I didn't really feel *that* great, and probably played more passively as a result. There weren't really a lot of interesting hands, other than one in particular. There were a couple of intraweb 21yo whiz kid types sitting at the table, one to my right, with a bigass jewfro (though hardly Alex Jacob-worthy), and a static chipstack. At one point, he had to fold his PP to a dude who showed quad AAAA after the fold.

Not too much longer after that, I pick up KK in some kind of early-to-mid position. With the whiz kid limping, and me still a bit stung from the previous night, I decided to bump to $18, to see how serious he was. Well, a late player called, as did whiz-fro. The flop comes Kxx (two spades), and I'm feeling fine. Whiz-fro bets $20...I can call, but there is that flush draw out there, and one to act behind. I elect to min-raise another $40, and get a fold (from LP), and then whiz-fro flat calls. The turn brings....the case K. YAHTZEE! Whiz-fro checks, and I have a decision to make. Sure, I can check, but if he checks the river and I bet, there's a good chance he folds, and I get no value out of my quads. So I decide to fire out $40, figuring if he's going to fold now, he'd probably have folded on any river, anyway. So what happens? Well, after I raised PF, raised the flop, and bet the turn...whiz-fro shoves. BINGO!

He didn't much like having to show down his 99 to my quad K's, but I was happy for the chips, and his misplayed his hand soooo badly in the first place. I soon turned in for the night, taking my $145 hourly rate to bed, for a last night's sleep in Vega$.

Part 4 to come!