Things didn’t go nearly as I had planned this year. I am back home after a my week in Vegas. I had originally planned to try to qualify for the WSOP ME, and then the Bellagio Cup III ME. What ended up happening was I started off great, chopping one of the $525 STT WSOP qualifiers for $3000 in tournament chips and then playing almost all of that back in additional $525 tourneys. My luck 4 handed when pushing, which is so key in single tables was horrible, with me going out 4th in 5/6 tournaments. A few times I actually pushed into monsters like TT or KK, but most of the time it was just a 40/60 or 35/65 and I just couldn’t catch when it counted. Since I have played thousands of SNGs I know that just happens sometimes, but it is frustrating.
Since I also spend a bit of time in the craps pit to keep my free rooms rolling in, that also factored into my plans. I started off poorly, dropping about $800 at one table at , and then came back with a $600 profit at another. From then on any luck I had was bad luck (including buying in for $1500, and having 7 straight shooters crap out over 2 different tables). I literally didn’t win a single chip and left down $1100. I did end up with $150 in food comps out of the deal so we had a nice steakhouse dinner and a few other meals out of the pain.
Side note: We had 3 nights at the Rio, then 1 night at Gold Coast, then 3 nights at Bellagio, then 2 nights at Ballys. The Gold Coast room was one of the worst rooms I have ever stayed in. Really comparable in quality to a Red Roof inn, with a 20 year old bathroom, a wall AC unit that leaked water all over the floor etc. Funny enough, it had a flat screen LCD TV on the wall LOL. I would highly recommend that you not stay there, even if it is free. The Rio, Bellagio and Ballys were all fine. It was my first time at Bellagio and it was nice, but I was sure glad I wasn’t paying $300 a night for it. We also met up with another 2+2er and his wife and spent a day at a cabana at the Bellagio pool which was really nice.
After my craps losses combined with how badly I was running at the SNGs, I decided to give up on the tournaments and grind out some $$ playing NL cash. I really ran well at the Mirage in their 2-5 NL game, and made a nice $600 profit. It really should have been a lot higher except for one big pot. I held Qd3d in the big blind with a $1K stack and an aggressive player made it $10 to go in early position. He had been doing this will all sorts of crap so I didn’t give it much credit. The flop comes 3c 5d Td. I check, he bets $25, a late position player calls $25 and I decide to pick it up right there and raise to $125. He thinks for a second and then moves all in for $275 more. I think for a minute and calculate that there is $600 in the pot and it is $275 more for me to call. Even if he has TT, I am still getting the right odds for a call. So I call and am really happy when he flips over 8d4d. Unfortunately, the turn came 2s and the river the Ah to give him a runner runner wheel.
I also played in a sick 2-5 game at the Orleans with a drunk who was calling down up to $200 bets with any pair. Unfortunately I was flopping some huge draws against him and never seemed to hit when I needed to. I also had a huge pot that I laid down the winner on. Please comment as appropriate.
I am UTG with JJ with a $600 stack and raise to $20. There are 5 callers and then the BB who was a reasonably solid player reraises to $75. He has a stack of about $800 and I think for about thirty seconds before mucking. I am putting him on AA KK, or less likely QQ or AK. Another player calls his reraise. The flop comes J83 rainbow and I start feeling sick. The preflop reraiser bets $125 and the other player calls. A queen comes on the turn and I feel better that my jacks might not be good. The PFR bets $100 and the other player min raises to $200. The PFR thinks for a minute and then calls. The river comes the case J and the PFR moves all in and the other player calls. The PFR has KK and the other player turns over 9Ts for the nut straight. And I am crying as a $1200 pot is shipped across the table. Is it too nitty to fold there? I know I wasn’t getting the actual correct odds, but with the implied odds and the stack sizes should I call there? I ended up down $700 at that game which finished up the trip for me.
Even though I didn’t get into my big tournaments, I was very happy with my cash play overall and am looking forward to more cash play soon. I think there is a ton of money to be made in cash.