Vegas 2010 Day 11

Vegas 2010 Day 11 - Tuesday Dec 21st

Just one session today.

Session 19: Excalibur $1/$2 NL Hold 'Em

In: $600 Out: $1005 Time: 8 hours 15 minutes

I started out this session pretty quietly. I didn't win a hand for over an hour. I saw a couple of foreign guys go at it and went to work identifying the donkeys.

I watched, and I waited. I won a few hands, and lost a few hands. Then I got involved with a Russian two seats to my right.

It wasn't really a big pot. I just check/limp in from the Big Blind with T7 offsuit. The flop comes J7J, and I check. The Russian bets out $5. I decide to call. The turn is a 3. I check again. The Russian leads out for another $5. I think about it and say aloud, "You know. I can't tell if you have a Jack if I just keep calling $5. Let's make it $30." I decide that if he calls, he's got a weak Jack. If he folds, he was just fucking around. If he raises, he's got a huge Jack. He thinks about it for like a second, and calls. I announce, "So you have a weak Jack, eh?" The river is another Jack. I check. The Russian leads out for $40, and I fold.

Now, at The Excalibur, if you have Quads or better, even with just one card, you get to spin "The Wheel". It's just a wheel with a bunch of numbers on it. You can win anywhere from $20 to $100 dollars. It also has double and triple multipliers. Anyway, if you want to spin it, you have to show your qualifying wheel-spin hand. The guy flips over J4 offsuit. Exactly as I thought.

The Russian spins the wheel and proceeds to play every hand for the next round.

He' on the button, and I'm in Big Blind again. This time I have KK. It gets limped around for $2. Our Russian friend limps in as well. I raise to $17 and still get a good number of callers. 4 of us see the flop.

The flop comes pretty harmless: 8 6 2 rainbow. I lead out for $20, and it gets folded around to The Russian. Then out of nowhere, he angrily pops it to $200 and just stares at me. To me, this indicates strength. I know most poker books say strong means weak and weak means strong, but I've seen strong me strong and weak mean weak plenty of times. In fact, I'd say that most of the time strong means strong and weak means weak. I don't have this guy on nothing.

The real problem here is that he could be thinking he's strong and not actually be strong enough. He could have 99, TT, JJ or less likely, but still possible QQ. He could of course also have AA and be the worst player ever. KK is unlikely as I have KK myself. Unless he's really horrible, I would have expected a re-raise from AA. QQ probably raises pre-flop as well. Hell, he could have A8 or K8… or any 8 for that matter and think that I have AK or AQ and am just continuation betting. I've seen it happen. He could have a straight draw. There are a lot of possibilities. If he's got a set or two pair, then oh fucking well. There are just too many 'strong' hands that he might think are good that I can beat. Plus, I still have two outs if I'm wrong. I go All-In.

I'm wrong.

He calls quickly. The turn and river cards are blanks. He flips over 88 for top set. I muck.

Damn. I re-buy for another $300.

I sit there for hours and grind it out. Slowly building up to $400, then $500. Then I'm back to $450. It just seems to be taking forever.

I watch the Russian win pot after pot with junk. I'm just waiting to take him for a huge chunk. I catch a few hands against him, but only get paid off modestly.

The table starts to thin. Crap. The Russian asks for a couple of empty racks. Double crap. I don't want him to leave. We're down to 6 handed with The Russian now playing out of two racks… looking like he's just playing a few more hands. You're not supposed to play with your chips in a rack, but I'm not about to protest for fear that he'll just get up and cash out the second that I do. He starts losing small pots. He sticks around for another round. If he leaves, we'll probably combine tables. He loses a bit more. He racked up about $900, and now he's down to about $775. He plays a bit longer. He keeps playing, and keeps on losing it back to the table. After about an hour and a half, our table has been re-filled and the Russian has to drop an empty rack to the floor. He's down to about $450 before he finally cashes out. Haha. Fucker. So terrible.

After a while, the two 1/2 tables merge. I'm joined on my left by a talkative Aussie. He announces Mr. Moneybags from Amsterdam who proceeds to sit to my right. Mr. Moneybags from Amsterdam sits down with almost $1000. It's $900 and change in two racks. This time I will protest playing out of racks, but it turns out that I don't have to. The dealer change is here, and the dealer that's about to leave offers to color him up and take the racks. The dealer brings him $500 in green and takes his racks. The dealer also tells him to keep his greens visible, but they stick out like a sore thumb. A full stack of green at a 1/2 table always does.

The Aussie starts talking about Mr. Moneybags from Amsterdam. Apparently he's been hitting everything. And the table change doesn't seem to slow him down. He proceeds to win a few decent pots and is up over $1000 now.

Then the big one happens. I'm in the big blind with Q9 suited of spades. The guy UTG+1 goes All-In for his last remaining $18. The calling train starts up. Chugga-Chugga-Chugga-Call-Call! It gets back to me. I call. Let's see what happens.

The flop comes Q33. Hmmm, pretty good I think. Mr. Moneybags from Amsterdam leads out for $30. This isn't a lot considering all the $18's in there. I know that the guy that made it $18 is All-In so I'm not worried about him. I decide to raise to see what's going on. I make it $90 to go. It folds around back to MMfA. He calls. Hmmm.

The turn is another 3. OK, I like this. If he has a Queen, now we're chopping. I was a bit worried before then that he had a better Queen, but now it won't matter. Hopefully he'll just check and then I can bet big and maybe, just maybe induce a fold. What I don't want to see is a huge bet from him.

He bets huge. MMfA makes it $150 to go. Fuck. Really? I look down at my stacks. I have $403 behind. If he called $18 with a 3 in his hand, I guess I'm pretty fucked. I mean, it's possible. He could have like A3 suited or, shit, he has $1000, he could have 3anything and have gotten really, really lucky. He has been running really well after all.

I don't think he has a 3. He's played and won a lot of pots, but he's showed decent starting cards. I push All-In for $403. He does not insta-call. WHEW!!!

He doesn't like the bet. I think he's got to have a Queen if he's thinking about it. I don't want a call. I want him to put me on a 3. He asks for a count. It's $253 on top of his $150. He thinks for a while. Thinks. Thinks. Thinks. Then calls. Damn. Oh, well. I guess we chop.

I flip over Q9. He grimaces. What? He doesn't have a Queen? Seriously? He flips over 66. Holy shit! This fucking pot is over $1,000! River card coming… No 6! No 6! It's not a 6. I win!

The guy that's All-In flips over Q5 offsuit. Haha. Fucker. I split the main pot with him, but honestly, who fucking cares? I tip the dealer $10 and count my chips. $400 in green. $600 in red. $8 in white. Sweet! http://twitpic.com/3idlpw

The table starts to thin again. I promised myself I was going to play until he game broke. It didn't seem that far off. I lost a few pots and got down to $990. Still a respectable $390 profit.

The game went down to 5 handed. I picked up AJ offsuit. It flops AQ7 two hearts. I don't have any hearts. I check. The Aussie to my left makes it $30. I check-raise to $130. He says, "Well, I have to call." and puts in more than half of his remaining stack. The turn is a 4 of hearts. I check. The Aussie says, "I think that card hurt me. I check." The river is a blank little card. I check. The Aussie leads out for $50. He's only got $90 total. So he leaves $40 behind? Well, it's a good value bet. I've seen people make some weak-ass steals before, so I fully believe that it's still possible that I have the best hand, but I'm not optimistic. I call. The Aussie flips over AT… of hearts. God. Seriously? I think I played that as well as I could, but that's little solace to my chipstack which is now down about $200.

People are racking up their chips now. Shit. I lost $200 in the last hand. I guess I'm going to be up only about $200… I look down at my hand. AQ. What are the chances I'll get any action now? I raise to $12. Everyone calls. Hmmm. OK. The flop comes AKJ rainbow. I lead out for $30. Everyone folds except MMfA. He raises it to $100 from the button. I call. The turn is a blank. A 6 rainbow. I check. MMfA bets out another $50. I call. C'mon fucking 10. River is another blank. I check. This time MMfA checks. He flips over QJ offsuit. Bottom pair. I flip over AQ. Top pair. I guess I didn't want that 10 after all!

Now I'm back up to almost $1000. I see two more hands for free, and 3 people decide to cash out. It's over.

I actually cash out $985, but one of the guys that was sitting in front of me all night long in seat 10 came up to me after I cashed out and started talking to me about a hand that I had beat him on earlier in the night. I had promised to tell him what I had after the cashouts had been done. I had beaten him with a rivered Broadway straight to his top pair on the turn. We talked about it for a while and this guy is just enthralled with the way I played the entire night.

He started telling me that he's been playing about 6/7 hours a day everyday, and that his Mom lives here in Vegas and that he plays a lot of poker. He also goes on to tell me that he's never seen a better player than me in all the games he's played. I kinda think this guy is fucking with me a little bit, but he's totally serious. I thank him for the compliment, and he asks me for some poker tips. He was actually a pretty solid player so I just gave him a bit of advice on buy-in sizes (he buys in for too little) and raising more to get more info or really make draws pay. Simple stuff.

He's super grateful for the advice and pulls out a wad of money from his pocket and tries to give me $20. I'm shocked. I decline of course. He refuses to put it away. He shoves it towards me and says he really appreciates that I took time to talk with him. I decline it again, but he's very persistent. Fuck it. I take the $20. He shakes my hand like 10 times, and runs off to find his buddy. That was weird. He was a nice guy, and a decent player, but that was just surreal. Anyway, that's poker earnings as far as I'm concerned because my play earned me that $20. So, that put me over $1000. $1005 to be exact. ;-)

Just a couple of days left…