Vegas Day 8

"Vegas Day 8"

This was a turnaround day. I was up +$331.75.

The first session is basically a continuation of Day 7.

Session 1: Excalibur 50c/$1 NL Hold ‘Em
Claire had been running bad. I mean she was losing with great made hands. Top pair/top kicker to two pair. Two pair to straights. Sets to flushes. That kind of shit. So we decided to take a break for a really late snack at Fatbuger around 2:00am. This was like, I don't even know... my 3rd time to Fatburger in a week? I was getting pretty sick of it. Anyway, after the break we returned to Excalibur and started this session at 3:00am. At this table, there was a crazy old Texas coot named "Murray". Murray was one of those guys that you felt bad watching lose over and over. I mean, he was a horrible player, sure, but you have guys at the table you want to see lose and guys you're like "Aw, shucks." when they lose. Murray was an "Aw, shucks." guy. He constantly misplayed his hands and pretty much made bad decisions whenever he could make them. He would go all-in for $75 with AA pre-flop with $2 in the pot. Or all-in with J9 with an AK9 board for like $60 into a $30 pot and 3 people behind him. He lost over and over and kept reloading... all the time getting drunker and drunker. And you sorta feel bad for the guy, and then.... Claire picked up Aces, made a pretty good pre-flop raise, and there's ol' Murray again. He goes all in for like $100 on a 9 high flop, no straight or flush possible and $15 in the pot. Claire thinks for a while, but if you'd been watching him play, he could have anything. Pocket deuces, two pair, Ace high. Who knows? Claire calls, and Ol' Murray has a set of 6's. Wow. I don't feel bad for Murray anymore. Now, he's a dick. That's about all I remember from this session. I ended up getting up from the table after Claire busted. I was down $33.50.

We go to bed.

Session 2: Excalibur $1/$2 NL Hold ‘Em
I wake up around 1:30p and Claire and Brian were already down at the poker room. I shower and head downstairs where I find Sean sitting down at the table next to theirs waiting for Brent to show up and for Claire and Brian to get up from their session so we can all go to lunch. I take a seat next to Sean, and we try to decide on a place to have lunch. Well, we sit there and sit there and sit there and Brian and Claire are still playing. Max might have been playing too. I have to note here that Sean and I were pretty much permanent residents on the "interested" list for a $1/$2 game, just waiting for a game to make. All of a sudden, we notice that the table where we were sitting at, you know, just killing time, lights up and shows a $1/$2 game starting literally right under our noses. Sean and I look at each other for a second and then immediately log in for $300 each. Four other dudes show up within a few seconds, and then we hear them blare out over the PA that a new $1/$2 game was starting. Sweet. The game lasted for 22 minutes. No kidding. Within 22 minutes Sean and I had busted three of the four players. Granted, everyone but Sean and I bought in for $40 to $100 each. But in 22 minutes I was up $168.50... just waiting for Claire and Brian to get up from their game. Not bad.

After finally prying Brian and Claire (and Max?) out of their seats, we head out to lunch at Hooters.

It's raining pretty hard and cold as a motherfucker, so after Hooters we decide to take a cab to the Monte Carlo. I had to rack up like 4 more hours of playtime at the MC poker room to get into their $6k freeroll on Saturday, and every else wanted to check out the casino.

Session 3: Monte Carlo $2/$4 Limit Hold ‘Em
All 5 of use show up at the MC poker room, and of course, they want to seat us all together on a new table. Yeah, no thanks. We didn't travel all the way to Vegas to play each other. We can do that back in Austin for free. So we decide to wait for open seats at one of the three $1/$2 games they already have running. After about 10 minutes, I say "Fuck, it." and ask for a seat at the $2/$4 limit table just to kill time. I convince Brent to take a seat next to me. Now, I hadn't played limit in a looong time. I knew it was a very bad game to play, but I was just gonna have fun for a bit. And holy crap... that game is horrible. There is no way you can beat the rake. The pots are tiny and they rake just as much as they do in NL. Plus, after you tip, you're lucky to make $5-6 per for a good made hand. The funny thing is that Brent and I won every single pot we played for the first 6-7 hands. Either Brent or I would take down the pot playing crap like 68o and just getting lucky. Brent gets called up to take a seat at the $1/$2 game right as the dealer is about to deal him in. Brent declines the card so I get it. It's a Jack. Next card I get... another Jack. Sweet. I raise and get 2 callers. I flop a set of Jacks and raise and re-raise as much as I can (which isn't a lot.) I take down what seems to be a monstrous pot, and after tipping and rake, I'm up a whopping $32 total after winning like 4 pots in 10 minutes. Right after that win, I get called up to $1/$2.

Session 4: Monte Carlo $1/$2 NL Hold ‘Em
I'm sitting to the left of Brent, and after about 15 minutes, Claire gets sat at the far end of our table. Curiously, there are 3 couples on this 10 person table.

Claire continues to have horrible luck. On one hand, some guy raises pre-flop in early position to $8. She re-raises to $25. The guy goes all-in for about $90. Claire calls. Claire flips over KK. Guy sighs and shows QQ. Flop... nothing. Turn Queen. :-( River. Nothing. Guy doubles up. About 10 minutes later, Claire decides to re-load for another $100. Immediately, she picks up another big hand. A loose aggressive player limps in, Claire raises to $10. Guy goes all-in for about $100 total. Claire calls. Claire has KK again. Guy has AA. She does *not* suck out a win. That $100 she had *just* reloaded... gone. Some time later, she flops a set to my flush. She makes a Q high flush to my A high flush, and loses pretty much every single way that you can lose with good hands. It's pretty ridiculous.

Meanwhile, I'm down to $30 from my $150 buy-in. I limp in for $2 with 67o from the Big Blind with damn near the whole table in. The flop comes 578 rainbow. That's about as good as I can hope for folks. I got a pair, and I'm open ended. I bet out $6. Loose-aggressive guy to my right raises to $15. Everyone start folding around until it gets to a guy in late position. He calls. I'm thinking... I got like $22 left. I go All-In. Loose-aggressive guy calls. Late position guy? He goes all-in for like $200. Great. He's got something huge. Guy to my left folds, and it's heads up all-in. I flop over the pair and the open ender. Guy flips over the nut straight: 69. Pfft. I'm pretty much drawing to a split. Turn comes 7. Trips. River comes a 5. WTF? Runner Runner Boat! Haha. I win! I looked this up. I was 2.42% to win that hand. Meanwhile, Claire's losing with monsters. Anyway, I drag the $90+ pot and proceed to turn that into $276.

One other thing to note about that table, the dealers were inconsistent. On one hand, I had KQs on the button and everyone was limping. I raised to $6 and got some callers. The flop comes all unders and the checking train starts. Check. Check. Check. Check. So I'm thinking... I'll take this down now... I'll bet $30. I go to put in my bet when the dealer starts to protest. I look to my right as I'm about to lay down my bet. Brent's betting. WTF? Brent's in this hand? And he's betting? OK, well, I'll just pull my money back and fold. Nope. Dealer's like. "You have to call or raise." I'm like "What? It wasn't my turn." He's like. Well, you were putting in $30 and he already put in $20. I protest, "But it wasn't even my turn when I put money in!" He sticks to his guns. I have to call or raise. Fine. I fucked up. I'll put in $20. Everyone else folds. Brent and I check it down. He's got JJ. I totally miss. Boo. But I'm OK with it.

About 10 minutes later. It's raised to $6 and I fold. I watch the action go around and the guy on the button throws in $11 across the betting line. I'm thinking... that's sorta weird. Why didn't he just throw out $12 or $10. Next thing I know the dealer is saying "Did you mean to raise?" The guy's like, "No, I meant to call." The dealer says, "He calls. Make it $6, sir." I was perplexed. I let the hand play out, and then I ask the dealer, "Why did he get to take back his bet pre-flop when he made a legal raise?" Dealer says, "Because he didn't mean to raise." And I say, "Aren't you the *same* dealer that made me put out $20 when I accidentally bet out of turn?" He's like, "Yeah, but that was different." And I'm like, "How's that different?! We both made legal bets!" His response? "Christmas spirit." I'm stunned. Are you fucking kidding me? Fuck that guy. I never tipped him again. I was very close to telling him that I couldn't wait until he was replaced by a machine (a la the electronic tables at Excalibur that NEVER made mistakes,) but I bit my tongue because I thought Claire was geting embarrassed at my protesting. Anyway, it's true. Within 5 years, live dealers will be the exception rather than the norm. And hopefully, only the *good* dealers will survive.

Session 5: Excalibur 50c/$1 NL Hold ‘Em
On our way back to our room... we wandered back into the Excalibur poker room and played a bit more. Nothing much went on here. It was a short 30 minute session. I made about $40.

I'm really starting to appreciate the electronic tables...