Vegas Day 3 Continued

Trip Report - Day 3, Part 2

Here are the first three for those of you just joining us:

Vegas Day 1

Vegas Day 2

Vegas Day 3, Part 1

With a 2,500 chip starting stack I knew that it wouldn’t be long before I had to start making some moves and putting the tough decisions on my opponents as much as possible. I played very tight early on and was in shock as to what I was witnessing. All I had to do is pick up a hand and I would surely extract some chips from some unsuspecting donk.

60 people were registered but they continued to let people in as alternates (5 more) as others were knocked out in the first 2-3 levels. Blind levels were 30 minutes and started off at 25/50. I opted not to play much, but rather observe and determine who I could take advantage of, who were the rocks, and who were the donkey calling stations. It didn’t take long.

I don’t think I played more than four hands in the first hour and had my stack up to almost 5,000 before the first break without having to go to showdown (table image can do wonders when you want to accumulate chips in a hurry). I had KK and QQ with no action. I knocked out a lady when I called her min raise with my 7’s from the BB. I checked my set (cuz I’m tricky and unpredictable) and got her to move all in with her over pair Kings (gee is that what a min-raise means?) I insta-call and I am in or around the top 5 in the tournament.

I was always aware of what the average was and tried to stay at least 20% above that number. It was continuously increasing and a couple of the better players at my table were taking advantage and stealing blinds like mad. I decided to take a stand when I was dealt AJs (it was the best hand I had seen in the third hour and we were down to three tables) and re-popped the chip thief that I suspect was just getting a lot of good cards (or so he said). He instantly went all in, and of course I folded (after a short and agonizing decision put on for my opponents) and moved on. That cost me about 20% of my stack as I tried to pull off what I thought was a re-steal. Turns out he had QQ. Good fold me.

Anyway, we finally get down to two tables and my M is running thin. I don’t get a single playable hand in the first two orbits and I am now in push or fold mode. The blinds are climbing now and it is time to make some moves and take some chances. After all, 9 spots were paid and if I wanted any chance whatsoever to make it to the top three I needed to double up, and fast.

My phone kept ringing. It was Lola. She was supposed to call me 3 hours earlier with some news on our apartment. I kept ignoring the calls because I had to. I thought I could wait until the next break, but she kept calling! I excused myself and sure enough… we had received two offers! One for our asking price and one for more than the asking price… Just like that, I had potentially just made more money than what would be the first place tournament winnings. My mindset had changed in the blink of a phone call. I wanted first, and nothing less.

All I could keep thinking was “man, it feels like I am free rolling now.” I look down at my BB dealt hand (the blinds are now 300/600/50) and I see two black eights. I have roughly 5,600 chips after posting my BB and someone (my read was semi-tighty donk) in MP raises it to 1,800. Folds around to me and I auto push.

He really wanted to fold (he was so close to folding damn it!), but in the end he called… with pocket fours! Perfect!... ummm until the second card is a 4. Fawk! IGH in 16th place with nothing but an apartment offer on my mind and am questioning whether I made the correct move. I think I did, I am fine with it anyway.

I stick around for oh, maybe, another minute shaking my head in disgust. The rest of the table also felt bad (not really) and I bolted out of there to catch up with the crew at Okada. I ran to my room, got changed and headed down to the lobby and caught a cab. I felt like I was in a hurry, so I tried to wave down a cab. There was a long line of them there and they just sat there. Apparantly they can’t go anywhere unless the valet/cab arranging dude waves them up. I jump in, make another call to Lightning36 and leave him a message in response to his message and the phone tag continued.

After dinner we then caught a cab downtown to see the Freemont show. A couple more calls to Lightning36 and we still hadn’t managed to meet up. At this point I wasn’t sure it was going to happen at all... So I resided to the fact that I wouldn’t be meeting up with Lightning36 and was still kicking myself for not being able to meet with SinCityGirlCarmen. Time constraints and my duty to adhere to what the crew collectively wanted to do prevented me from being a little more independent than I am use to. December will be a totally different experience I have no doubt.

Final Day Summary: We went home… most of us were empty handed; none of us won any money. Some came back with clothing instead…

Here are some figures from my various gambling activities:

Table games: my biggest loser by far. I probably dumped at least $400 into dumb games like roulette, craps, black jack, 3 card poker, video poker and slots. All those games can lick my ass. I hate them all more than I did before I got there. If anyone sees me playing these stupid games in December please pull me aside and remind me that I hate them.

Sports Betting: I decided to lay a few bets on the Sunday football as it would be much more enjoyable (as it is at home) if there were some teams to cheer for. I’m pretty green to the whole sports book thing, so it goes without saying that I didn’t fair too well in that department. I tried a 4 game parlay and got 3 of 4. $10 would have paid $90 which would have been great. Prior to that, we all laid a nice bet on the Red Sox to win game 6. Sure enough we won that and bet it again on Sunday to come out with at least $400 collectively. The Canucks were also playing the Columbus Blue Jackets on Sunday and we put up another $200 and turned that into $420 after the Canucks pummeled them into a 4-1 defeat. Easy money. So overall I think I was up about $60-80 in total sports betting. Easily my most profitable “game” of the whole trip.

Prop bets: They only lasted one day, and I broke even (See Day 1).

Poker – Cash Games – I came out ahead about $30.

Poker – Tournaments & SitnGos – Stuck for $265.

Well that about wraps it up. I look forward to getting back there in t-minus 4 weeks!!

See you then.