MuckPls and everyone else vs Vegas (10/4 to 10/20)

This is a very busy weekend in the city, music festivals, gamer convention, Raiders and Knights games, added to the holiday. Games should have been good all over heading into tomorrow.

After some pool time, I was ready to find a game. They had no less than 10 tables going here at MGM Grand, thus I just jumped into one of those.

I bought in for $300 in this $1/$2 no max game, and quickly found the most interesting spot of the evening. A fishy Asian limps for $2 in MP, and I raise 56ss from hijack. Seems reasonable versus only one limper, and we go heads-up to 5-2-3 with latter two in spades. Pretty cool flop, and after he checks I bet $15. He calls quickly.

Turn comes a Queen (diamond), and he now leads for $30. My first thought was to raise, but then I settled on a call. But I couldn't help but get the feeling that he was maybe drawing to something, and I wasn't 100% sure if I actually wanted a spade to roll off on the river.

River was however Ts, so we do make our flush. He continues to bet, but only for $40 into $117. I could just play it safe and call, but that would be travesty if he has a set of deuces or similar. So after thinking for around 20 second, I raise it up to $105, fully prepared to fold if he jams - even though I only have around $140 behind.

He confirms the amount with the dealer, and then jams all-in, covering me. I immediately turn my hand over and say 'fold', obviously hoping that he would show. And he indeed does show KJss for second nut flush. Overall I am happy with my line here, although I would have saved some money if I just call the river bet. But even though I have the lowest flush possible, I just thought I would lose value by only calling in this spot.

I win one small pot with JJ (3-bet pre and getting a fold), but mostly continued to lose hands. In one I raise 88 from UTG to $10, and get calls from MP and BB. Flop comes J-5-4, which I thought warranted a bet after BB checks. So I make it $15 for some protection/value, only to see MP call and BB clicking it up to $35. I can't continue then with so few good turns, so I just fold. MP had me beat with KJo and won the hand.

Then a decent black player opens from UTG to $10, and I defend BB with Q9dd. We go heads-up to K-K-Q one diamond. I check, he bets $10 and I call. Fairly standard so far. Turn comes an 8, no additional equity for me. I check again, and opponent bets $25. I am probably making too tight of a fold here, because if I don't continue with Qx then opponent can get me off almost anything besides trips and full houses. So I do think I could have called turn here and instead fold river if he bets again, but in game I didn't think this opponent would bet hands on turn that I could beat (maybe with the exception of JT suited).

I was now in for $500 in the game, and was generally quite card-dead at times. I did manage to win some pots though, one where I raise ATcc to $12 over a limp. BB calls the raise, as does the limper. Flop comes A-A-6 rainbow, and it checks to me. I throw out $20, which get two quick folds. Maybe going much smaller would be better here, as everyone automatically fears the preflop-raiser holding an Ace.

Also managed to pick up AA a bit later. I raise to $12 over a limper as always, and get no more than 3 callers in the field. Bit surprising for this game which wasn't super active, although some bigger pots happened on occasion. Either way, we go 4-ways to 5-3-2 rainbow, which seems pretty safe. The limper checks, I bet $25 and they all fold. Could have gone even bigger as all pocket pairs above a five will call, but with how the table was playing I didn't want to blast it here.

I didn't manage much more than keeping stack around $300 though, at least until I was no longer able to do so. And one hand in particular frustrates me. A very tight older Asian raises to $7 from early position, and I am more than happy to call A4ss on the button. No point in 3-betting this particular villain. BB also calls, so we go 3-ways to A-2-T two hearts, no spades.

It checks to me, and I bet $12 as I assume I have the best hand here. BB folds, but then the Asian check-minraises to $25 (practically a minraise). I have no backdoor flush opportunities here, but I am in position and I assumed hitting a 4 could be good. So I just couldn't justify folding for only $13 more. I call.

Turn comes 3h, so a flush comes in. He now checks, and although I was tempted to bet (with the idea of checking back river), I just couldn't see what worse I could get value from. So I check behind, hoping to hit 2 pair or a straight. I do not hit, as the river is a random 6. He now bets out $25, and I just know that I am toast here. He has a better kicker for sure, and although his line seemed a bit random and weak, I didn't consider turning my hand into a bluff.

I should have trusted my first instinct, which was to fold. Instead I stupidly flick in the call, rationalizing with myself that I am getting decent potodds. However, that doesn't matter when I can't name a single hand that opponent could play this way that I beat. He obviously had the nuts with AKhh. Such a stupid call, and while it doesn't cost a lot of money it cost me some pride. I didn't show any frustration outwardly, but I should do better and be smarter than this. There is no point in paying off tight OMCs that plays one hand every hour, because they will be deathly afraid to bet unless they have a very strong hand.

There were other small pots that I could have mentioned as well, but none all too interesting. Ultimately I struggled all night to win any pot above $30-$40 USD, and the one big pot I played I lost. Game was not very good either, but by the time I had properly figured that out I was already a bit too tired to considering moving somewhere else.

-$280 USD after 3.5 hours is not a good result, but I am encouraged by some of the hands I have been playing so far. At least if I stop paying off obvious OMCs that would never bluff. But I like the raise/fold with the flush in the beginning, and having that discipline to actually execute it is good. Just have to put in more hours, but now I am honestly very tired and just about ready for bed.

Hours played: 5h 45min
Won/lost: -$273 USD
Hourly rate: -$47.5 USD

With such results, I was tempted to go into this bar. Seems like it could be a good fit for me:

But instead of heading into 'Losers Bar', we instead went to play some Video Poker. That worked out ok:

No multiplier, but I can hardly complain about landing a draw that is something like 1/13000 to hit. And even though I would prefer to build up my bankroll through poker winnings, it is still a pretty cool feeling to hit a Royal Flush 😀

Edit, posted the above twice and have no idea how to delete a post.

It's okay, a Royal deserves two posts.

Nice hit.

If you jam with K7, you can't be an OWC.

I was super tired last night and went to bed just before 10pm. Fell asleep immediately, and didn't wake up until 5:45am. Great stuff!

Figured I could head down and chill with some low stakes Video Poker, which was not a terrible idea when I got dealt quad nines on a 4x Multiplier (Double Super Times Pay). Even just playing $25c Bonus Poker, that's a reasonable amount of money. But then the multiplier spun again on the draw....

And we have our first ever handpay!

Sadly enough though, even though I tried to argue the case with the Supervisor, I ended up having to pay 30% tax on this baby, which means I 'only got paid out $984 point something. I tried to present a Maltese ID Card, saying that I live and work in Malta, and pay taxes there, and even had booked the room at MGM Grand with a Maltese credit card. So I am clearly a resident there (which would have been 10% tax only). But no, they wouldn't bulge.

Still a nice score though, and I am running super well on Video Poker so far. Now I am going to celebrate in the best way possible - by heading to the gym!

Except she was. And decided to go crazy in that one hand. It was amazing.

Nice VP hit!

I really dig the HH, strategy content. Seems like you’re playing well, and your thought processes are sound.

Slumming it with the locals:

High chance I’ll move to tunnels after today.

Pile it in for stacks on QQJ with QJ vs KcTc. Someone says they folded the Ac. She pings the 9c on the turn for the clean 1 outer.

Vegas is so much fun!

Was enjoying reading your recent post until the just embarrassing race descriptions came in.

Cliffs? Not sure what you are referring to.

Race description..? I’m confused, if you are referring to me then Russian is a nationality not a race.

Neither me or BigWhale are racist in even the smallest way, if you pick up on that it actually makes you look bad.

Edit: read it again and I assume you are referring to BigWhale writing black guy? Would it be equally bad if he wrote white guy or would you have let that slide?

While I wait for a seat at Venetian, here are some pictures on the way there.

Great Sphere-view from Flamingo Monorail station:

Speaking of Flamingo:

Is this a duck? If so, time to flop a set with it:

Linq Promenade:

Brooklyn Bowl:

Nice! Dealt quads and two multipliers!

You have an ITIN though, right? You can file a form and get that money back?

Looks like Jupiter in the background. That must be a really long lens.

Is this a duck? If so, time to flop a set with it:

Guess it is. Weirdest looking duck I've ever seen. Looks like Howard the Duck.

FWIW I didn't even notice any "race descriptions". Maybe he means small pair vs two overcards.

It would be equally bad.

Or you are just seeing things that are not there.

I didn't point it out, but it's ****ed up.

But if you really want to do this... tip someone $20 and you won't be living in a dungeon for 3 days.

Is it okay for various poker vloggers to use those terms? Brad and Boski?

Also here we go again with you and the drama…

I think Boski is a POS. I called out Mariano for a gay slur and the general response on this forum was "whatever"

We didn’t use any slur or any derogatory term in any way or form. He pointed out that the guy was black. In a similar way he points out that the guy is white or Asian or whatever.

I’m not from the US, but anyone seeing anything even remotely bad into that has issues.

Why is race included at all?

You definitely have tipping issues.

Tipping issues?

Serious question, do you have rage issues or something like that? Or you are just a POS who randomly writes **** in TRs to later apologise in private message?