Thursday, December 15, 2011

Vegas 2011 - Dec 12th - Day 5

Sessions: 3
Net Result: +$425

This is really a continuation of Day 4, and then it goes into Day 5.

Session 7: Imperial Palace $1/$2 NL HE (1h 0m)
Buyin: $200
Cashout: $406
Result: +$206

This IP session was a short one. I hit this game as I was heading to my room to call it a day.

First of all, as I sat down I found a $5 chip underneath the table. Sweet! I was up before I'd even started. :-)

The biggest story here was an Asian lady that new very little English.

When I first sat down at this table, I didn't even notice her. I folded a lot (as I usually do) and joked and talked with my neighbors. She was quiet, and I hadn't played any pots, so she was invisible to me.

Then the dude to my right got involved in a pot and showed me his hand. 6s 6c. He had raised in early position with that hand and checked the flop of 5s 4s 8s.

The guy to my left bet $40 (about a pot-sized bet), and the Asian lady put out a single $100 bill in front of her. This is a call. Everyone knows this. The dealer will make her change after he puts out the turn. Or, he would have, if a guy two to her right hadn't re-raised to $160.

That's when my neighbor with the 6s 6c showed me his hand. How could he call? He has 1 out to a straight flush. He's beat. So, yeah, he eventually folds. I'm not sure why he thought it was such a big deal to fold there. It was $160 to call. He obviously only had 1 out.

The initially bettor to my left folds, and the action is on the Asian lady. The dealer says it's on her and she signals like she wants to see the next card. The dealer explains that she has been raised $120 on top. The Asian lady still doesn't understand, and is wondering why the dealer hasn't put out the turn. At this point, the entire table is trying to explain that her $100 bill was a call of the original $40 bet, and that she needs to put in $120 more if she wants to see the turn. She still doesn't get it. Frustrated, the dealer takes her $100, changes it to $5 chips, puts the calls in the middle and shows her that she still needs to call $120 more if she wants to see the turn. She says, "But I put $100 in already." *Sigh*. The dealer is now aggravated. "Do you want to call?!" he asks. She nods. Fine.

She looks at her cards. At this point, she's got another $100 bill and like $75 in chips behind. The turn is a red Jack.

She checks. The raiser goes all-in for $200+. He has her covered. She has all her chips sitting on her $100 bill, and she slides that passed the betting line. She calls.

The river is an 7s.

Homeboy to my right spazzes. He would have made the nuts. A straight flush. Hahaha.

The dude putting in all the money flips over 4h 4c. A set of 4's.

Asian lady flips over As 7h. Haha.

The guy that lost is… well, not happy. She had called $160 on the flop, and nearly $200 on the turn for a flush draw and a gut shot. And hit it. Wow.

After that, the whole table at that lady's lunch. She called and called and called everything. Pre-flop raises, flop bets, turn bets, river bets. She called.

It didn't take long for her to dwindle back down to about $400. And that's when I picked up my hand.

I had Ad Ts. I was on the button. Now, most of the time I just call $2 or maybe raise it a little bit if I feel like the table is weak, but this time it was raised to $6 from early position before it got to me. There were a few callers. Now, this is a 50/50 for me. Half the time I call, half the time I fold. I do not raise here. I decide to call.

The flop comes Ks Qc 4d. Hmmm. I've got a gut shot straight draw, and that's about it. The Asian lady was in the blinds and checked. The table checks around to me. Now, at this point, I have to bet. I'm not strong here, but I do have a draw to the nuts, and I can possibly steal it with a pot-sized bet. I bet $25 into about a $30 pot. As you would expect, everyone folds except the Asian Lady. She could have anything.

The turn is a Jc. That's the nuts for me, but it puts a flush draw out there. She checks.

Now, normally, I wouldn't put her on a flush draw because it would have to be a runner-runner flush draw, and while that's possible, it's unlikely. She might have a pair of Kings or Queens. Maybe she even had a straight draw. I don't know.

What I do know is that this lady calls damn near everything. If she's got ANY draw or any piece of this board, she's not going away.

So, I push all-in for about $150. She calls.

At times like this, I always flip over my made hand ASAP. This is so that 1) I don't misread my hand and 2) my opponent has a chance to see my strong hand which could make him forget that he has other outs. For instance, if I flop a higher set over a smaller set, and I show my hand, the other guy might only think he has outs to four of a kind. When actually he might have runner-runner outs to a flush. If he doesn't get that four of a kind, maybe he folds without knowing he had made a 4 card flush. I've totally seen it happen.

Anyway, the river is a Kc. Fuck. Worst. Card. Ever. It pairs the board and completes a runner-runner flush draw.

Now I'm hoping that having seen my made straight, that she just mucks. She starts to, but other people start mumbling about a flush and pair board. SHUT THE FUCK UP ASSHOLES! Don't remind her of those things. What if she backed into a fullhouse or a flush and didn't realize it? Let her muck or turn her cards over on her own!

She starts sliding her hand face down to the dealer. Slowly. She takes a look back at them, and the dealer asks if she's mucking. She nods. Whew!

After that double up, I was done. She had almost nothing left, and I was tired. Up over $200 in an hour is good enough.

Session 8: Imperial Palce Freeroll Tournament NL HE (1h 30m)
Buyin: $5
Cashout: $0
Result: -$5 (27th out of 49)

I earned enough hours to qualify for the weekly freeroll at the IP the next morning at 11am. The problem was… it was in the next morning at 11am. If I hadn't had to check out that morning, I would have probably just slept in. Freeroll tourneys are shit. You get very few chips, the blinds go up lightning fast, and it ends up a shove fest.

I set my alarm and woke up in time to shower, pack and make my way down to the check-out desk before 11am. The poker room is right across from the hotel desk, so I checked my bags, registered for the tournament and checked out of the hotel. Just in time.

Now, if this is a freeroll, why do I have the buying at $5? Well, when I registered, I was in such a rush, the guy asked me if I wanted to do something for $5. I didn't even hear what it was. I said, "I didn't hear what you said, but I'm sure it's a good thing, so here's five bucks." He thanked me and gave me my seat assignment.

I thought I was contributing to the dealer payouts since this was a freeroll, and it was. But it turns out that with the $5 extra, I doubled my chips from 1500 to 3000. I mean, it's still shit, but whatever. It was a good thing. It went to the dealers anyway.

I had put in 18.5 hours towards my freeroll entry. If I had put in 20, they would have given me 6000 in chips (which was the max.) So right off the bat, I had 1/2 the stack of 3-4 players at the table. It didn't end up mattering. The big stacks fell early, and people doubled quickly.

I actually played about as well as you can play freerolls. I stole some. Played tight. I played well.

I made it to the first break, but by that time, I only had 4.5 times the big blind.

As I paid my big blind, which was $1000. I looked down and saw 9s 9c. I knew I was shoving the remainder 3000 no matter what. I didn't have to worry about action. Someone shoved exactly 4500 in front of me. I couldn't fold of course.

I flipped over my hand. My opponent flipped over his: AKo. Fuck.

The flop held an Ace. Pfft. No 9 on the turn or river either. In fact, the river was another Ace. Ah, whatever. It was only $5.

Session 9: Mirage $1/$2 NL HE (1h 45m)
Buyin: $200
Cashout: $424
Result: +$224

They serve Orange Julius's here. Just ask the cocktail waitress. They're so good!

Anyway, I made money here because of one hand.

There was a crazy aggressive guy to my right and two of the loosest callers ever to my left. It was perfect.

I was under the gun. I looked down at Ad Kd. Sweet. Normally I raise, but there was so much action at this table, I decided to take a chance and just call $2.

The lady to my left wasted no time. She raised to $7. Her husband, who was directly to her left, called. As did the whole damn table. Then it got to the aggressive guy to my right. I was waiting for a raise. He flat called. I was last to act on the raise. There was about $35-42 in the pot with all those $7 bets. I decided to just end it. I raised to $107.

The initial raiser lady to my left paused for a good 1-2 minutes, and folded. Her husband insta-called. What? He was slow playing too? It folds around to the aggressive dude. He thinks for a while and says, "I just want to call because no one at this table puts in that much money. I kinda just want to get in on the action, but I have shit rags." He folds.

At this point I decided that I was shoving my remaining $224 on any flop. The flop comes Jc 6h Js. I shove.

The husband dude to the lady's left agonizes. He says, "I actually put you on pocket Jacks."

He folds and shows AKo. I show him AKs. :-)

Whew! I sure am glad he put me on Jacks! Haha. Of course, there was no way I'd shove with Quads, but to be fair, he could have put me on any pocket pair, and he can't call.

Shortly after that hand, I left to meet Duy and James for dinner. We were supposed to go for steaks, but we ended up at Maggiano's, which is always yummy. :-)

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