Vegas 2010 Day 12

Vegas 2010 Day 12 - Wednesday Dec 22nd

Although I don't leave until 7pm today (Thursday), last night's session is to be my last session for this trip. There are several reasons why I'm not playing today. First and foremost, I had trouble sleeping last night, and I don't feel particularly well. I've got a scratchy throat, and I woke up with a queazy stomach. Plus, I hate playing with time limits. I have to be the airport by 5pm, and I can't stand to get caught in a down session with time 'running out.' I just hate it. Finally, I'm happy with my results. I somehow managed to 'win' my last 13 sessions in a row. I'm feeling good about my results and my play right now, and I'd really hate to end it on a sour note if I have an off session today. I think I earned today off.

Final Stats: http://twitpic.com/3itkwu

I had just 2 down sessions out of 20. On one of those losing sessions (Orleans Omaha HiLo 4/8 limit), I finally threw in the towel, and in the other the game (Orleans 1/2 NL HE), the game broke before I could really get going. Omaha HiLo limit was just the worst game ever. I couldn't get going. The wins came slowly and the losses would come in too quickly. When you can only put in 4 or 8 dollars at a time, and you split the pot a lot of the time, the chances to make back $200 in any amount of reasonable time are slim. You'd have to scoop several huge pots pretty close together. And neither 'scooping' nor 'huge pots' are common in a 4/8 Limit HiLo game.

There were a few scary moments in the other NL HE games I played. That Planet Hollywood session where I was in for $1000 was very stressful. As was the 14 hour session I had at the Mirage. I had some stressful moments outside of those, but those two sessions were most taxing.

In any case, here's my last Vegas 2010 poker session…

Session 20: Excalibur $1/$2 NL Hold 'Em
In: $300 Out: $725 Time: 4 hours 30 minutes

If you look at my buy-ins, you'll see that a lot of time I'm in for quite a bit. Usually this is because I add-on if I fall below $200. I've come to the realization that I play best when I have the most chips on the table. That may seem like an obvious statement, but it's really not. A full buy-in or a large chipstack isn't always the right answer for everyone. Some people pay too scared with a bigger buy-in/chipstack. Some players are better short-stack players. They have trouble making the right decisions when they think about the 100's of dollars they are risking. I used to be that way, but not anymore.

That being said, quite a few of my sessions start off with me being in a hole. I might not re-buy or re-load in every session, but it's hard to start a session and stay up the entire time. Everyone loses, and even though I've been very profitable, I found myself in the hole for the first hour or two a lot.

Not this session.

I won early and often. I built my stack to over $400 taking down some pots by putting short stacks to a decision for all of their chips. They tended to fold a lot to All-In pressure. That worked for me.

My biggest win came against a guy that ended up being one of the most action-type players on the table: some black guy with mirrored sunglasses that was sitting two seats to my left. The key to my play against him was watching him play and win with questionable starting hands and getting lucky or by putting a lot of pressure on his opponents. In other words, he was loose-aggressive. He had about $325 or so when most stacks had $100 or even less. I was the only one that had him covered. And I was watching him closely.

I picked up pocket 10's in the blinds. The mirrored sunglasses guy and a slew of others limped in for $2. I popped it to $17. The MSG called as did another player that seemed to be playing in a higher than average number of pots. The flop came 334 two diamonds. I had 1 diamond for what it was worth. I checked. The MSG made it $30. The other player folded, and it came back to me. Now, I had just seen the MSG raise preflop with J4 offsuit out of position and win the previous pot on a turned Jack after leading out on the flop, turn and river. He was aggressive to be sure. I decided to check-raise. I made it $130 to go. The MSG thought for a few seconds. Nobody had dared raise him before… especially not check-raised out of position. And I was the big stack too. He declared All-In, and I instantly called for about $175 more.

He says to me, "I have top pair." I check the board again because as I recall, the top card on the board was a 4. Yep, it was still a 4. WTF? I flip over TT. He nods as if to acknowledge that he's beat. The turn and river cards are 6 and 9 rainbow. He mucks and is quite disappointed with his move. I stack up my new chips and find myself at about $730 or so. I would not improve.

After a while, the table got really nitty and all the short stacks and action players either got busted or left. The table was 9, then 8, then 7 handed. Once the other large stack left (who also took a lot of chips from the MSG… who kept topping off to $300), the table really died down. I made my way back up to $725 and called it a day.

Not much of a final session I know, but I made a decent amount and never really felt at risk. It was a good way to end things.

So that's it! That's 12 days of Vegas Poker! I hope you enjoyed the blogging. I had a lot of fun, and I'm already looking forward to next year.