Vega$ Trip Report - Part 4 (Denoument)

Monday, Monday...bring on the mamas and the papas, as long as they gots chips, I say.

The last day our our Vega$ trip was, in some ways, the best. Certainly the most relaxing, and certainly the most profitable. The day started with the Good Doctor Mondo and I back down at the Lazy River for a few more orbits 'round the pool, where I fulfilled my duties as a human floatation device. I can't get over that pool...hope it's open in December. Actually, my only critique of MGM Grand at all is, their pool opens at 8 or 9am, yet the Lazy River doesn't open until 10. WTF is up with that?

Anyway, we chilled down there for a couple of hours, and got upstairs just in time to clean up before extended noon checkout. I'd been hoping to get one more session of 1/2NL in, of a sorta relaxed variety, but I was not prepared for how busy their room was at that time of the day on a Monday.

After waiting my turn on the wait list, I sat down at table 8, and found an interested bunch. One player had about $800 behind, another had about $500, and there were several of what struck me to be old tighties at the table. I pretty much decided to stay out of most action for the first couple of orbits, and found the big stacks not really playing any hands, either. I'm thinking they picked up most of their chips on one or two huge hands.

I wish I could say there were truly interesting hands. There was the AK I bumped up PF, late position smooth called, raised my c-bet on an raggy board, and I check folded an ugly turn that brought a flush. I actually put her on a high PP at that point. She shoved the turn, and the laydown wasn't really *that* tough. It was her first orbit, and reading her soul, she struck me as a solid player.

There was one player who would consistently pay my ass off. If he had an A, he just could not get away from it, and would raise every PF and c-bet every flop, no matter his kicker, or how bad the board was to his hand. I think over half my profits that day came from him --- twice when he paid off my flopped sets, and once when he folded to a river bet. Now I saw where the two big stacks got their chips. Details are fuzzy now.

Eventually, Mr $800 would come and go from the table and miss a lot of hands. The other good stack left. One of the older guys was constantly complaining and seat-changing, until he left when a new table opened. Pretty typical stuff, but that left me as the only truly sizable stack actually playing at the table, for the most part, and I think I used it well, at one point getting up to about $600 in my short session. By the time I had to cash out to catch the airport shuttle, I was up almost two buy-ins, for my most successful 1/2 stint of the trip. Fuck short sample sizes, I'll take a 85bb/hour rate any day of the week, and twice on Sundays. My only wish is that I had another hour or two to play there, but it was time to come back to Colorado where I remain, donkin' in the Rockies.

To all of you out there this weekend, may your stacks be big.

Best of luck to all you bloggers playing the Caesar's Mega Stack today.

And a special note to F-Train, who's not only out covering the WSOP for PokerNews, he's made it to day 2 of Event 26 - $1,500 Razz with a slightly above average chipstack:



Go go go, you furious lil' prarie dog, you!

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!

Vega$ Trip Report - Part 2

Saturday was a very unusual, uncharacteristic day for me. How so? Well hell, first of all, I was coming off a cash in my biggest ever live tourney, measured by field size and buy-in. I was still pretty much half asleep in frog pajamas, when the Good Doctor Mondo dragged my dog ass out of bed around 9am to spend most of the day in the Lazy River pool, and as much I really don't care for pools, swimming, and all that jazz, the MGM Grand's Lazy River was really kinda cool.

Anyway, it was eventually time to play some poker, and I found a 3/6 HORSE table at the MGM. Apparently, 3/6 HORSE is a rare bird at the MGM, indeed. I was told it was only the 2nd time that game was ever spread. Unfortunately, the only thing more rare than running that game, was me having any kind of hand. I sat in at the start of Stud, and didn't win a pot until the 2nd hand of Razz. Ick. Only won a couple of pots, and dropped about $70 over nine orbits. Okay, fuck it, I'm hungry, let's grab a sammich and play some 1/2...off we go!

I sign up to find a 14 name waiting list, but it's only about 20 minutes before I'm sitting down to what appears to be a possibly profitable table. About one orbit in, I pick up KK (either UTG, or EP1, I now forget which). Naturally, I bump it to $14 to go, and I only get one caller - a large tattooed Latino guy who reminds me of some of those Unique Whips folks. Anyway, he calls, and we see a flop of 642, with two hearts (I have Kh). I didn't like the flush draw, so I bet $20, and he raises to $40. I flat call, and 6h shows up on the turn. He checks, and I'm immediately suspicious of turned trips. Still, I check behind, and the Qh shows up on the river. The dude bets $40, and I'm sure he's got a 6, but I have the K-high flush, and call. Well, the read was mostly right. He had 64. Yup, the turned boat. Yup, he called $14 PF out of position, with nothing more than 64 soooted. Nice hand, sir.

That's cool, I've still got $120, and a great read. I'll get it back. Over the next 2-3 orbits, I fold a ton of trash pockets, but watch as this same guy raises 90% of all hands preflop, between $14 and $20 each time. And when he got callers, he C-bet 90% of those times. Twice he was called down and had to show trash like T7o, so he's basically betting not ATC, but ETC (every two cards). The only times he ever folded to flop or turn bets were when he was raised off pots by a dude at the end of the table who looked...suspiciously...like his brother or cousin. They were virtually identical looking, except for the ink. And no, I'm not stereotyping. Anyway, I didn't suspect collusion, just bad aggro play. I'm gonna get paid off, eventually.

And then...BOOM. AA under the gun. Normally, I'd raise this up to $12, $14, or so. But I've got monkey aggro two seats to my right, in the small blind. He's going to raise, and I'm going to get paid. So....I....check. And then five limp behind. And monkey aggro....checks. Fuck. He raises every hand except this one. Still, the flop comes Q42 rainbow, so I feel okay. Now that we're several days later, I'm a bit fuzzy, but I believe the donk checked, I bet $20, and he and one other player called the flop. Okay. Rag on the turn, and monkey aggro shoves a stack that's now smaller than mine. Obviously, I overshove -- he's trying to push me off.

Except the player behind me calls. Monkey aggro turns over AQo, just as I thought...and then the player behind me shows 44 for the flopped set. I miss my 1 outer on the river, and 44 stacks us both. Gack.

I know, I know, I know....never limp AA. But I felt I was playing a player more than the cards that hand. He was raising every damn hand, and I knew I'd get to make a large 3-bet. Meh. If it's any consolation, I figure the 44 would have called a $14 bet PF with implied odds of the expected monkey call out of the small blind. But still, now I'm on tilt. Lost a buy-in in 45 minutes where the only hands I played were AA and KK. I needed revenge, and I was going to get it at....

....table games. Please do me a favor if you're ever with me in Vega$, and I make a move towards the table games. Stop me. I don't care how. Just stop me.

First, I dump $60 in two hands of Pai-Gow, before I realize wtf am I doing playing a game best played drunk in $5 increments, for $30 bucks a hand (and sober, at that). So I take $140 over to 3 Card Poker, where I'm quickly back up to $250. Do I leave, having recovered about 1/3 of my loss for the night? No. I swing down. I swing up. Eventually, I turn that $140 into about $350 or so. I've actually recovered over half my poker loss, and my entire Pai-Gow loss.

Do I leave? Hell no. Not until 20 minutes after the Dealer of Death arrives I lose all of that, and even $100 more. Fortunately, I stopped myself after I pulled out my very last C-note, before turning into chips that would eventually belong to Mr. MGM. What an expensive lesson. Here I am, down a few hundo for the trip thus far, even having cashed in the Mega Series, and having had one nice 1/2 session. No more table games for Mondo, ever. I can't be trusted. Every time I was up, I just knew I'd go up more. When I was down, I just knew I'd recover in a hand or two. Yup. Just say no.

I'm please to inform you that I did not play a single table game hand my entire last 38 hours in Vega$. Hopefully, hard lesson in monkey tilt learned.

Part 3 later!

Vega$ Trip Report - Part 1

Wow, what a trip. Got home late last night and caught up on reading about 157 blog entries by other writers, so I'm just now getting started.

Anyway, the Good Doctor Mondo and I landed safe and sound and got checked into the MGM with no fuss at all. From the moment of landing, CK and I were trading text messages trying to figure out where or what blogger stuff was happening on Thursday. Of course, most were landing on Friday/Saturday, so in the end, by the time I showed up in the MGM poker room (after a truly wonderful burger at the Studio Cafe that was actually worth the $13-14 cost), CK was already there playing 1/2, and seemed to have a good amount of the table's attention.

Anyway, CK did a pretty good job of describing the two hands we got into it with one another. Funny thing about the AA hand is that, yeah, I was worried about her having a Q, but also thought that she'd fire out on just about any river to represent strength. I think if it were anyone but her, maybe I lay down on that river, but I just couldn't get it out of my mind that she was just trying to push a known blogger out of a pot, because it would have been the WPBT tour thing to do.

Well, I very much enjoyed playing with her, and was bummed to see her buy-in gone. CK is every bit as much fun to be around in person as in an online tournament.

In the end, I *was* crushing the table, but gave back about 1/2 my profits in a couple of bigger two pair hands, but ended up about 2/3 of a buy-in on the night. The Good Doctor Mondo made a few bucks at 2/4 limit, and more importantly, was having fun. I made it a short night, because the Caesar's Mega Stack was the next day, and I wanted some real sleep. And boy, was I glad I did.

Woke up really early on Friday. Knowing the turnouts of the first couple of events, I was expecting long lines, and I still needed a Caesar's players card. Well, duh. By 9:45, I'm already there and registered, so I donked off about $100 playing a 1-3 game that was not playing large at all, and then jumped into the tourney. I've already posted that I ended up going out 39th of 582 (for a relatively small cash), but here's a few fun facts.

a. Only had AA and KK once each in the tourney, and both in the very first hour.

b. Had QQ three times, and all three brought significant chips to my stack.

c. Had AK twice, and both times had to fold to very ugly board/flop raises or 3-bets. (more on AK later)

d. Fantastic structure. Antes didn't start until level 7. However, they start getting really pricey by levels 10-11, in comparison to average stack sizes.

e. Very top heavy payout structure. 54 of 582 paid, so less than 10%. Even so, only the top 36 even got an amount at least 2x the buy-in. Buy-in was $340, and 45th-37th paid $508, 28th-36th paid about $590. 1st, however, was a nice $49k and change.

f. I ended up playing for 14 hours, and didn't get moved from my original seat until we were down to less than 60 players, during level 11 or 12, when they broke down to six tables. Moved twice after that. One other player from my original table was still there, too.

g. On the very bubble, I 3-bet shoved AKo from late position, and was actually okay with losing that hand, but when asked by the original raiser, I told him I was equally okay with a call or a fold. I know that's how people become bubble boys, but of the 55th left, I couldn't have been better than 50th or 51st in chips at that time.

h. Only played two hands post flop where I was significantly behind. Once was just after the bubble, when I shoved KQ soooted UTG. (I'd previously folded KQ UTG last orbit before bubble broke.) Called all in by small blind who had AKo, and I hit straight on turn. The 2nd time was my all out hand. With a miniscule M, me having 1% of chips in play (39 players left), 15 minutes before the end of Day 1 play, and the blinds crawling up my ass, I shoved A6 sooted early, and a big stack overshoved AK. Picked up flush draw on flop (when he paired), and paired my 6 on the turn, but missed an 11 outer on the river. Was my shove okay in that spot, given the situation? Was I underestimating my need to try to double up in that spot in the tournament?

What do you think? Should I have folded pf and been willing to show up 12 hours later for Day 2 with an M no greater than about 2 (assuming I didn't get a big hand in final 12-13 minutes? Or was the shove okay in that spot, knowing I was likely behind to any other A, and have little equity. If I hit my outs, I'm up to about 200k, and have a real chance at being competitive early in a Day 2. Anyway, I gamboooled and lost, and went to bed.

Some of the most fun was calling the Good Doctor Mondo with updates, which she was sharing with her 2/4 table. The whole table back at MGM was kinda cell-phone railing me. That felt good. And texting CK with updates. I wish I could have given better news at the end.

Okay, enough for now. Will blog Saturday's ugliness and monkey tilt later today, or tomorrow.

Having to Be Brief...

It's 3:18 in Vega$, and on borrowed internet. Will post more on Monday when I'm home, but just wanted to give a big shout out to every blogger's favorite frush drawer...that's right, BWoP, for text railing me today during my run at the Caesar's $340 Mega-Stack.

Hope the draining's done by now, at least!

Oh yeah, how'd I do? Well, I lost 1/3 my starting chips by two hands into the tournament, when I had to fold raised AK and 88. 14 hours later, I went out 39th of 582 runners. I'm totally exhausted. Of course, the $$$ is very top heavy, and let's just say my hourly rate going 39th was good for a few happy meals. But it was well worth it.

Will write more on Monday, as I won't have net access until then.

Oh yeah, one celebrity sighting. Louie Anderson was playing an $80 SNG, lol.

Leaving On A Jet Plane

Wow, it's finally almost here -- start of the unofficial blogger weekend in Vega$, part one. The Good Doctor Mondo and I take off around 4pm tomorrow, and should be checking into the MGM around 6pm. If'n yer in the area, you may find me at a 1/2 table. Or 4/8L, haven't decided yet.

Anyway, I've been tossing around various options for the trip in my head, and I'd love to hear suggestions tonight, if anyone's around.

My original plan (and my desire), has been to play two tournaments during this trip. The WSOP is out, because I'm not rolled for it, and I don't plan on those two tournaments to be satellites.

I originally was going to allow myself to play two tourneys, a $180 daily at Venetian (8pm), and a $150 at Caesar's (7pm). Both are reasonable tournament values, though neither is deep-stacked.

I then saw that Friday's Casear Megastack event is a $310+30 (for 12.5k chips and 50 minute rounds), and my first instinct is to jump all over it. True deep stack poker, imho, especially for those of us who aren't on the circuit. But the buy-in probably precludes me from playing a 2nd tourney (assuming, arguendo, I don't cash).

On the one hand, I really want to play two tournaments. On the other, I have been running pretty badly lately, though I think that started turning around last night, when I won a $75 token frenzy (only to donk off the token later), final tabled a Limit O8 (for a smallish cash, because there were only about 110 runners), and cashed in the Bodog $5k guarantee (but again, not a very deep run).

My point being, I'd been running terribly, but think I'm slowly starting to come out the other end, even if I'm still losing out to a few runner runner perfect perfect catches. Aside from last night's Bodonkey, where I was already mathematically out of the Top 18, so was just donking for a chance at a bounty, I think I've played very well the last couple of days. I know I only played "okay to half decent" on Sunday, but I've played about 22 tournaments since, and feel better about my game, if not my suckout-avoidance abilities.

I very rarely make it to Vega$, and I desperately want to play a true deep stack good-sized field event, and the Mega Stack series fits the bill. The Venetian Deep Stack is definitely out for me, as the buyins during my days there ar $540 and $1060, and I'm definitely not rolled for that, unless I have a miraculous 4-5 buyin night to the good in my first MGM Grand session, which is more than unlikely, I'm sure.

One thing to consider is, the Good Doctor Mondo and I need to average 4/hr a day cash play at the MGM to keep our poker rate, and I was planning on playing 1/2NL instead of my normal 4/8, 4/8 with half-kill, or 5/10 limit, and I need to be prepared to potentially lose a buyin or two.

So my question to you guys is, what do you do? Do you suck it up and only play one tourney and make it the Caesar's Mega Stack series? Or do you skip the Mega and play a couple of $150 type tourneys? Or do you maybe play the Mega stack and them some bullshit $60 tourney elsewhere? (My last Vega$ trip, I took down a Sahara $62 daily, and never felt less skilled than those at my table.)

I'm looking for suggestions, though my present inclination is to play the Friday noon Caesar's, and a Sunday at Sahara.

To those of you going out this weekend, I hope to run in to some of you, and that you run hot like the wind. To those of you going next weekend, pffffffbbbbt...we'll have to wait until the Winter WPBT to sling chips. Stay awesome.