Hookers & Blow

OK, now that I've got your attention it's time for day 1 of the Vegas trip report. The day begins with me waking up early for the first time in months to get to the airport for my 7:30am flight. The flight is pretty uneventful and I manage a little extra sleep. We actually arrive half an hour early and from the airport I grab a shuttle to the Monte Carlo, where Stars has me staying. My room is pretty nice: king sized bed, nice decor, and very spacious. Nothing extravagant, but I'm sure I'll be quite comfortable for the small amount of time I spend in it. Anyways I head up to Steve and Aaron's room to meet up with those guys. They're just getting up from a late night of poker, but once we get organized we head over to the Rio. The Rio was absolutely crazy. We get some lunch at the Sao Paulo restaurant there which was decent and then head to the poker room. The poker room was packed, but the lines were actually moving and I eventually got seated in a 2/5 NL 500 max game. I sorta do nothing for a while and win/lose some small pots. Then I lose 3 medium sized pots:

First, I raise preflop to 25 behind 2 weakish limpers. One guy behind me calls and the limpers fold. I cont. bet the flop with air, then give up when called. The 2nd time I raise the J9d UTG and get called by the same guy. Flop is Qs2d3d and I bet about the pot, and he minraises. I call and see a blank turn card and check. He checks behind giving me a free river card but I miss my flush and check/fold. In the 3rd hand I make it 20 with 88 in the CO behind a weak limper and get called by the button, who seems fairly solid, a call station in the SB, and the limper. Flop is 653 and I bet $60 into an $80 pot. The button calls as does call station. I don't beat much the button can call with here, so I check the turn and we end up checking it down. Call station shows A5 and button scoops the pot with TT. So I'm down about 250 but then I make a few hands.

The first big hand I have the 54 of spades in the BB. It's folded to the button who doubles it and loose aggressive kid in the SB calls as do I. The flop comes 7s6s3h. Bingo. I decide to go for a checkraise and check to the button who bets 25. The SB makes it 65 and I'm not sure whether I should just call and try to slowplay or raise. I figure calling looks so suspicious anyways I might as well just raise and make it 165. Both fold and I win a decent pot. The next big hand I limp 88 UTG with about 625 behind. Call station from a previous hand makes it 20 and loose aggressive kid also calls in the blinds. The flop comes T84 rainbow and LAG Kid leads out for 35. I don't normally slowplay my big hands much but this seems like the perfect time. I'd like to keep the callstaion around since he only has about 120 left which he's quite capable of calling off drawing dead and I also want to let the LAG kid keep firing away, and there's not many draws to worry about. So I call the 35 as does call station. Then turn is a brick and LAG bets 100. I pretend to think for a second then call, and call station calls off his last chips. The turn is a 5 for a board of T8425 and LAG bets 200. It's now clear that he has a very strong hand so I think for a second to make sure pushing is correct. 76 is possible on the flop with the double gutter but he seems smart enough not to bluff the turn since call station is basically never folding. So the only thing that I need to worry about is TT but there's lots of other hands I beat that call my push so I stop being an idiot and push for another 270. He quickly calls and mucks when I turn over my hand. He didn't say what he had, and I rake in about a $1350 pot. Shortly after that Steve and Aaron got bored and my table really wasn't all that great anyways so I cash out and we head to the Bellagio.

The plan was to eat at the buffet there but the line is ginormous so we go the chinese place there called Noodles, where the wait is only 25 mins. The food again was pretty good but not amazing. Steve and Aaron are kind of burnt out from poker but we go by the Bellagio poker room to see what's going on. It turns out the 7:00 Bellagio Cup event started late and was only in level one. We all decide to plunk down the $1000 buy-in and eventually get in half way through level 2 as alternates. Yes, the biggest tournament I've ever played and I missed the first hour. Aaron busts out early and Steve follows suit not too much later. I'm hanging in there pretty card dead but finally double up when an aggressive kid in the CO raises and I shove with A7o on the button and boat up against his KT. Then I do nothing for a while again until I'm forced to push with AhJ and get called by KhK. The first 4 cards on the board are hearts and I double through. The next hand I push over a raise with AKs and everyone folds. I'm actually above average all of a sudden. As usual it doesn't last as I push over a raise and short stack reraise all-in with AKs. I manage to fold out the original raiser but lose to 99 on the KJ9 flop. Again shortstacked, I eventually push behind 2 limpers with AQo and get called by the 2nd limper with 33. The door card on the flop is a 3 and even the queen next to it is no help. I busted around 50/220, and stumbled around the Bellagio eventually finding my way outside to the cab stand and getting back to my room. I really like this tournament though and will probably continue my ways of solid bankroll management by playing it again at some point this trip. You start with 5000 chips and 25/50 blinds, 40 min levels. The dealers are very good, unlike at the Rio, and there's plenty of dead money in them. So yeah, so far Vegas is awesome, but with the time difference I've been up over 24 hours now so I need to get some sleep. Later,

Mike