Las Vegas Road Trip Report

By Cameron Angus - October - November 2004

October 24th

I'll try and give a very quick recap of my games so far.

Monday:
Arrive, fall on bed, sleep. I know, I'm way too softcore. ;)

Tuesday:
First comp, a $30 rebuy Limit Holdem at the Orleans. Some players awful, the rest absurdly tight. I bluff my way to the last two and split for $700. Nice start!

Wednesday:
Go to the Sahara, heard the tournament was good value. Play 4-8 Holdem for 2 hours against the worst players imaginable, get rivered about 20 times and lose $200. Great. Then sit in the tournament. A guy who I'd been playing the cash game with was on my table, and I was happy with this because I knew he was bad. Anyway, turned out that he was the best of everyone else on my table, the play was just insane. I didn't get one legitimate raising hand in 1 1/2 hours (not even by Slough Palace standards!) and that was that.

Thursday:
Off to the Mirage. Sit in a NL HE ring game, blinds $2-$5, buyin $100 - $500. I sit with $400. Players look good. Chris Moneymaker is sat two to my left! Anyway, some nice hits and a few hours later and I'm up to $1400.

Then I get up to play the tournament, a $230 NL HE with a more or less compulsory $200 addon. Get to final three tables, make a couple of bad plays and I'm gone. Back to the NL game where I proceed to lose back another $600. Bummer.

Friday:
Time for a real tournament. I go to the Bellagio, play a $200 single table satellite for the evenings $1000 comp, with top two getting seats. Plan to buyin to the comp anyway, but it doesn't matter since I manage to get a big hand at the right time and get a seat. The comp is great, an excellent structure and really fun to play. 3000 chips, 40 minute levels. Good players though. I get up to 5000 early on with the help of aces, then make a horrible move and get really lucky. First position loose player limps in for 200, solid looking player on his left, who has more chips than me, makes it 900 to go. I look down to see AKo in the SB. I figure I can't flat call out of position, it's raise or fold. And a standard raise will be half my stack, still out of position. So I move all-in. I'm too used to the Gutshot comps where you have so few chips that AK is almost an automatic reraise. He says "You have aces?" and I know he has kings. He flips them up, but an A on the flop saves me and I'm table chip leader. A couple hours later I'm at the final table low on chips. I make my second mistake of the night, this time it costs me. A big stack raises on my right. I think he's stealing, and I have 77, huge compared to what I've been seeing. I moved in but right away knew I shouldn't have, since I didn't have enough to make him fold and I dont want to be called with pocket sevens. He calls with T8 and hits a T. I'm out in 7th place for $3000. Not bad, but when first was $34000 it's a little disappointing...

Saturday:
Play a $130 + 100 NL comp at the Orleans. I'm out within 45 minutes. Middle position big stack limps, SB calls, I check in BB with Q2o. Flop 6 Q 2, two spades. Check around. Turn the K of spades. SB checks, I check feeling confident the limper will bet out, whether he has the K or not. He bets the pot, 300. SB folds, I raise 600 more. I think he probably has the K from the way he bet, I'm more or less certain I'm ahead. He thinks a few seconds, then calls. River is a ten. I check, not wanting to risk being raised. He moves all-in. I know exactly what his hand is, he has a K with the T of spades, for runner runner two pair. I call for my last 1500 out of frustration. It was a horrible call, all I can beat is a bare K and he would have checked that thinking it was probably winning. I was right, but I'm out. Idiot! Me that is.

Part 2

About time for another update. I'll recap what I can remember.

Saturday 24th:

Couldn't be bothered to get out of bed, so decided to play the $500 NL on UltimateBet on my laptop. Good choice, finished 4th for 4.5k. Happy with my play overall, slightly dubious final hand. 4 left, I'm in 4th, in BB with ATs. UTG moves all-in for 30k, blinds were 1500-3000 I think. I deliberated and finally called all-in for about 19k. He had AJ and that was it. I should have folded.

In the evening played the $130 + $100 NL comp at the Orleans, about 100 runners. Took my rebuy right away and was going well early on, 2nd on my table. With blinds at 50-100, table chip leader limps in mid-position, SB completes, I check Q2o. Flop 6 Q 2. Check around. Ks on the turn, now 3 spades on board. SB checks. I check here, only because I'm almost certain that MP will bet the K, whether he has it or not. He bets the pot, 300. I raise it a further 600. He thinks for not that long, looking at his cards, then annouces "I call". I'm fairly sure he has a K along with a spade. River is a red ten. I figure I should slow down and check it. He quickly moves all-in. I make an awful call. I knew at this point exactly what his hand was, KT with the T of spades. There's no defense for me making that call, I know I'm beat but just called out of frustration.

Sunday, Monday, Tuesday:

Lost track of what happened when the last few days, mostly cos nothing much did happen I guess. I played some NL at the Palms on the advice of PokerAngel. Certainly there was a lot of money on the table. The players weren't as weak as I had expected from what Angel had said, but I was only there for a couple of hours. The poker room allowed smoking, and it seemed like every chain smoker in LV played there as a result. This was a pretty big negative for me. Won about $100.

Went downtown for the first time in my two visits to Las Vegas. The NL games at the Nugget and Binions seemed pretty good. They were only $1-2 blinds, but there was no maximum buyin and often players were sat with as much as you see in the $2-5 games elsewhere.

I played a $60 + 40 comp at Binions and ran QQ into KK on the very first hand. Also played a comp at the Nugget. This was the best structure relative to buyin size I've come across so far. It was a $100 rebuy with 2500 starting chips and 30 minute levels. Unfortunately they only had about 16 runners. I made the mistake of taking both allowed rebuys when the 1st place was only going to pay out $1500 anyway, and I could have been average stacked by not taking either. I finished about 8th.

Tuesday night I played the popular $40 NL with $20 rebuys at the Orleans, which had about 130 runners. An interesting hand came up just before the 2nd break, with about 70 players still remaining. I was below average in chips on the BB with 95o. The button limped, SB completed and I checked. I think the blinds were about 150-300 at this stage, but I can't be certain. The flop came down 9 7 4, 2 diamonds, 1 spade, giving me top pair. SB checks, I bet out about 700. The button flat called, SB folded. Turn is the 6s. I check, in hindsight I think this is a weak play. Anyway, the button moves all-in. He has me well covered, and knows that I'm short, with about 1500 left. I thought for ages. I tried to eliminate a lot of possible hands he could be holding that would beat me. I figure if he has a 9 with a decent kicker he'd raise me on the flop, and he probably wouldnt play anything less than a 98. 98 is a worrying possibility. If he's flopped a set he's surely going to raise me with the possible straight and flush draws out there. To me his flop call looked like either a flush draw, or possibly a pair of sevens if he thought I was trying to nick the pot. Also, his very aggressive all-in move on the turn stinks of him trying to push me off my hand because he senses weakness. I really believed there was a good chance my top pair was still good, and adding this to the fact I'd picked up an up and down straight draw with my 5, I decided to call all-in. The river was a 3 completing my straight, but was irrelevant anyway. He turned up 7s8s. He had called on the flop with nothing but 2nd pair, and had got an almost perfect turn card giving him an up and down straight flush draw, but it didn't hit and I doubled up. Good reador dodgy call? What do you think?

I went on to finish 7th for a profit of a few hundred. I was somewhat unhappy with the way it ended. Early on at the final table I split a pot when all-in but the dealer made an error and I ended up being given back less than had started with, despite the fact that I should have won half the antes. The floorman came and tried to sort it, I ended up getting a bit more but still not as much as I should have had. Dealers are human and make mistakes, thats fine. But I wasn't impressed with the tournament directors attitude, which was basically, "Tough shit, get on with it". He refused to just pause the clock for two minutes to try and clear things up. I realised soon after what had gone wrong and if he'd agreed to pause for a moment it could have been resolved correctly...

Wednesday:

Played the $540 NL at the Bellagio and busted out in about 40th place (of 90), making a bad all-in bet from the BB. There were 2 limpers and I looked down at 22. I was very short and needed to push within the next round, but this was not the time. When you get low the most important thing in deciding when to push, assuming you dont find a premium hand, has to be that you are first into the pot. With 2 people limping in front of me, thats 2 people that have shown that they like their hands to some extent, so clearly isn't a good time to put in your remaining chips with a bad hand. I don't know why I did it, hopefully I won't make such a move again.

Thursday:

Not sure, but I think I played in the $200 rebuy at the Mirage. Not that great a structure but a good prize pool in general. Can't remember what happened. I didn't do very well. Great reporting huh?!

Friday:

Bellagio $1000 NL day again. Got there early and played 2 single table satellites. I played well, just missing out in both. In the first I kept running a monster into even bigger monsters when short handed. In the second it came down to one hand where the big stack and me took the small stack all-in and checked it down (2 places got seats) but the small stack caught a flush on ther river and I was out next hand. I bought in, so was down over $1500 already. I proceeded to pick up a string of absolute monsters. I nearly go on tilt very first hand. Limp with AdJd, minimum raise on my left, one caller, I have my chips ready to call when the BB reraises a bit more. Damn, can't be winning, throw in the muck. Three players see a K high flop all diamonds and theres lots of action. Arrrghhh!!

Next hand, QQ, raise, take down the blinds. Very next hand KK. I decide to limp in early/mid position. Button raises it to 4x BB, folded back to me, noone else left to act. Time to be a tricky bugger I decide, and smooth call. Flop is 3 low rags, offsuit. I check looking disinterested, he bets 400. I make it 1400. He thinks a while then calls. Hmm, wasnt expecting that and not sure I like it. Anyway, half my stack is already in the pot, so I push all-in on the turn. He folds. A few hands later, AA. I raise, everyone folds. Damn.

Another round or two goes by and I pick up KK in early position. I make it 6x BB, guy on my left moves all-in instantly for about 25x BB. A little worried, I call, he turns up JJ and my stack continues to grow. Not long after I look down at AA again as a short stack moves in on my right. I dwell a while, trying to decide if I want to risk luring someone else in, decide its worth it and flat call. Noone else wants to play, the guy turns up Th9h and hits a running flush to beat me. Then my cards totally dry up for the next 2 hours. I go from being a big stack to being average, to below average by the time we're down to 4 tables.

With blinds at 200-400 and running antes I try to nick from the button with Q9. I put in 1500 of my 5000, the SB puts me all-in and I fold. Down to 3500, very low. Moved tables, 3 left at this point I think. Now, I really can't remember what happened from here, but I somehow managed to keep nicking the blinds regularly enough to stay alive without going to a showdown. Down to 2 tables and still low but not quite in immediate danger anymore, I finally get some hands again. AA, no action. Then the chip leader on the button moves all-in with just a very short stack in the SB and me, also short in the BB. SB thinks for ages then mucks - we're about 2 places from the money by this stage. I look down at JJ. I dont really like calling all-in with that hand, since it could so easily be 50-50, but he's been bullying a lot so I have no choice. He has 33 and I double up.

Then a smaller stack than me moves in and I call with AQs on the BB. He has KQ and suddenly I'm above average in chips going to the final table. Nothing much else happened. I didn't find any more hands, stole a few blinds to hang on until the last five, then made a move and got caught. $5000 for a nice $3500 profit!

Saturday/Sunday:

Stayed at the Orleans for the weekend, playing a couple more NL comps. Got close in both, busting at final two tables.

Plan is to stick around for another couple of weeks at least. The Orleans have a festival coming up starting in a weeks time that I intend to play a few events in.

Part 3

November 15th

Time to bore you all with the latest update on my poker playing antics across the pond.It's been a while since my last one, due to lack of internet access, and I can't really remember whats happened in that time, so I'll just sum stuff up quickly.

Mostly I've been getting sucked out on by morons in the small buyin comps at the Orleans and elsewhere, but been doing pretty well in the bigger tournaments, the weekly $500 and $1000 NL HE comps at Bellagio. I think the last time I posted was just after I got a 5th place finish in the $1000 comp. I've played that twice more since without making the money, but on Wednesday I did a five way split in the $500 comp taking $8000, my biggest win here so far and 2nd biggest ever.
Theres a series of tournaments going on at the Orleans at the moment, $1000 buyins mostly. I'd planned to play a few then head home. In the end the turnout was rubbish with about 30 players each time. I only played one, without success. Am now trying to decide whether I should hang around in Vegas for the WPT festival at the Bellagio in December. Would like to play but they're all big events, the smallest being $1000. Not sure yet...

In the $1000 comp I played at the Orleans, I had a great few hours despite the shite I was getting dealt. I was sat next to an old guy nicknamed Silent Bob. He had all the cowboy gear, hat, boots, and was loaded with gold jewellry. I can only assume the guy who gave him his nickname likes irony. Bob is actually called Jim, and didn't shut up for more than 20 seconds for the entire tournament. He was a bit drunk but an awesome player, and after fighting back from a short stack early on ended up running over the table. He had a WSOP bracelet from a NL HE event from 2003 plus a bunch of other stuff from WPT final tables and such. Was great talking to him. One of his stories had a great one-liner. He was in a NL cash game when some guy moved all-in on the turn for about ten thousand dollars, into a small pot. Another guy called quickly. The first guy, clearly not happy, said, before any more cards were dealt, "You wanna just chop the pot?". The bloke who'd called turned to him and said "The only person I'm chopping this pot with is my wife". Pretty cool I thought.

Right I'm done for now. Admittedly there wasn't really any poker in that update, but thats cos I can't remember any hands. I'll probably move back into the Orleans for a few days so I'll have internet access and hopefully be able to post some more frequent reports.

Part 4

Okay, first the good news: I have a seat for the $15k main event, starting tomorrow. The bad part is I must've spent almost the full amount to qualify. Initially I had no intention of buying in, or of spending any more than a few thousand to try to win my seat. But it panned out differently. Having already invested somewhere in the region of $3500 in supersatellites over the last week, today was my last chance and I decided I'd play 2 single table satellites, $1800 each with one seat for the winner and $2000 for second place. 

Anyway, having gotten heads up in the first one, and fought my way back from 2.5:1 to about even, I realised how totally deflated I'd feel if I lost, so decided to pull up the cash to buy the guy out. It was something of a weird feeling counting out $6400 in $100 bills to hand over to a stranger! My wallet went from bulging to practically empty. I'm now down a couple of thousand for my trip overall, but have a seat in the $15000 event. So if I cash I'll have a good profit, if I don't I'll have spent 11 weeks in Vegas for only a couple of thousand dollars, and gained some great experience in the process. I can't complain.  

All I'm hoping now is that they get as many players signed up as possible. If they get 400 or more they'll be paying the top 100. A pretty huge number of places to pay, but something that suits me since any cash will be a huge win. First aim is to survive the first day. I've never played in a multi-day event of this size before. We start with 30,000 chips, blinds at 50-100 and 90 minute levels. Even by the end of play on day 1 the blinds will only be 300-600 with a 75 ante, 1600 a round, so the starting stack would still have lots of play in it. So there should really be no problem in making it to day two if I can avoid making any stupid mistakes and try to stay away from big confrontations.  

DAY 1  

Just got back home from the Bellagio, a little disappointed. I'm into the second day but am a bit short on chips having had a lapse of concentration in the final ten minutes. A little under 400 players started, not sure of the exact number. Unfortunately this means only 50 places will be paid rather than 100. 30000 chips to start, at the end of the day we had somewhere around 240 players remaining which would put the average stack somewhere in the region of 50000.

I finished with a little under 22000, my lowest point of the day. My high point was 35000 at the beginning of the final level of the day. I picked up very few playable hands throughout the 7 1/2 hours of playing time we had today, only two big pairs, QQ and AA, and one AK. No AQ's and just a couple other medium pairs. I'll try to recall the hands I played. Within the first few minutes with blinds at 50-100, there was a small raise to 300 and one caller, I called with Tc8c on the button. The flop completely missed me, but they both checked, I fired 600 and took my first pot.  

Soon after I pick up AK in the BB, there's been a standard raise from MP. I don't want to put too many chips in pre flop and then be out of position on the flop, so decide to flat call. We check it down and I beat his AJ. I then fold rubbish for about 2 hours, barely putting a single chip into the pot. Finally I find a playable hand, 88, but I'm out of position in the BB and half the table has limped. My hand isn't really strong enough to raise in this spot so I check, the flop comes ace high and my eights go in the muck.  

A half hour after that I find a real hand, QQ under the gun. The table has been extremely aggressive, so I decide to limp feeling very confident that someone will raise it. A guy makes it 3x BB from MP, 1200 to go. I take it up to 5400, and after a lengthy dwell up he calls, which surprised me a little. The flop came 88x, I probably shouldn't have allowed a free card given the size of the pot, but I checked to get a better idea of where he was at. He checked and the turn was a Q giving me queens full. Check check. River rag, I bet he folds. Back up to over 30000.  

Another dry spell and with the running antes starting to eat into my stack, I make my first move of the day. A player who's been stealing a fair bit makes a 3x BB raise from the cutoff, 1200 to go. Tight player calls on the button. I have 97o in the BB. I decide the time is right to take a chance and try to get back the chips I've lost in blinds the last few rounds. The original raiser didn't look too strong to me, and the tight player on the button had previously re-raised his big hands so since he only flat called I figured he'd come off his hand fairly easily. I make it 4800 to go and they both fold. Again, back up above 30000.  

A few hands after that there's a raise on my right, I find pocket aces. I'm in no mood to slow play and risk losing a chunk of my stack. I raise it back strongly and he folds. Up to 35000 with one level remaining for the day. The final level went very badly. With a 75 ante and blinds of 300-600, another hour and twenty minutes of rubbish saw me down to 28000. Unfortunately, rather than just accept it and fold my way into the second day, I got impatient and made two very poor calls against the weak player on the table. First I call his raise with 66 from the SB, attempt to buy it on the turn and get raised. Then I call with 33 on the button and fold on the flop. I had no need to get involved with such crappy hands, but as it was I pissed away 6500 chips to end the day with just under 22000.  

My table today was pretty tough, with only one weak player who kept getting lucky. Some very aggressive play and a lack of playable hands made it difficult to get any chips. Tom orrow there is a complete redraw, so hopefully I'll get an easier table. We resume with blinds at 400-800 and a 100 ante, so it's going to cost 2200 a round. I really could do with doubling through before I get any lower than 15000 chips, but as always it'll just depend on how the cards fall. Hopefully I'll get a chance and take it.        

DAY 2  

Okay, so what happened. I resumed as a short stack. The first hand I had A9 in the cutoff, raised and took the antes. Good start. Junk for a few rounds, find AT and steal the antes again, but after 90 minutes of play I enter the break with only 16000 chips, 6000 less than where I started off. After the break things pick up a little. KTs in MP and decide I need to play it, again I win the antes. Next hand KQs, no point stopping now, I raise, the BB calls. Flop QJx, he checks, I bet, he folds. Couple hands later there's a late position raise, I flat call on the button with 77. Flop QTT. Check check. Turn is an eight, he checks, I put out a small bet, he folds. Up to about 25000 at this point.

Then another dry spell and I'm back down to 20000. Folded to me in the SB, I have 55 and make it 4000 to go, four times the BB. Hellmuth quickly sets me all-in for my remaining 16000 chips. He starts the talk. "Ooooh, I sure hope he doesn't call me". "Some idiot called me the other day in this spot with pocket sixes". I feel he doesn't really want a call, my guess is small pair or AK. It was probably a bad call, but I decided I'd had enough of being a short stack, I felt it was most probably a 50-50 and decided to gamble. He has AK. When I turn my cards up he makes a typically classy comment, "Hah, he called for all his chips with two fives". Whatever Phil, it appears I got my chips in ahead though doesn't it. 4 blanks, I'm one card away from 43000 chips and being right back in the tournament, and the ace of hearts hits the river. While I'm reeling back trying to take it in, he sighs loudly muttering something to the effect that justice was done.

I was a little out of it for a while, but am actually not feeling too bad. I had a great experience. And I'm proud of how I played. I lasted into the second day with some of the worst cards I've seen in my life. In ten hours of playing time I was dealt AA once, QQ once, and AK once. I had not a single AQ, and of the medium pairs I was dealt, most were in unplayable situations and I didn't flop one set. I only flopped top pair once in a raised pot, and that was 10 minutes before I busted out. I think I did pretty well to hang in as long as I did.

I've spent all my profits on playing this tournament, so I think I'll be heading home in a few days. But I'll definitely be back, I've learnt a lot in the last two months, my game has improved and I think I'm capable of playing at this level if I can gather together a big enough bankroll.  

One day I'll have Phil Hellmuth on my right, and he will be my bitch.