My weekend at the Rio for the WSOP
Like many people, I've stayed at the Rio for the WSOP for many years. True, it wasn't the finest hotel, but it had the 3 attributes that great real estate has: location, location, and location. So, apparently CET handed over their customer list and records when they sold the hotel. I got an email offer for 4 free nights, $100 in food and beverage, and $250 in "FrioPlay".
My WSOP plans this year included this weekend's Gladiator, next week's Monster, and the Colossus. Plus random Daily Deepstacks, cash games, and whatever. I wanted to take two weeks off work for all this, but it's gotten tight at work wrt time off, so getting more than a week off was a no-go. I noticed that the Gladiator was conveniently scheduled for this weekend, I have a bunch of free miles on one of my credit cards, and a free room. The natural result of all these ingredients, plus not having to take time off work, is a quick flight for the weekend. I can get in two bullets for the Gladiator, and get in some cheap poker practice, since there is no poker within 4 hours of my home.
I haven't been on a plane for over 5 years because I always drive to Vegas. I dislike the tyranny of a schedule, but the flight to Vegas was fine. The Rio is fine too. There's a lot of the ole 'n' busted about it, but they did a nice job on the renovated room. There are some of the old crappy bones remaining that can only be remedied by a severe gutting, or implosion, of the hotel. But new furnishings and appliances are a big improvement. I realized how much I'm dependent on my CET Diamond privileges, that don't work here any more. There's really not much of a draw here for me, I'm not really a big gambler. It does have a Megabucks machine, the same one that gave me a scare a few years ago. I hit 2 of the 3 symbols needed to win $11 million when the machine went dark. The 3rd reel was still spinning, but it was like someone unplugged the machine. No sounds, no lights at all, time was standing still. Then the lights came back on to reveal LOSER.
Speaking of which, Saturday's Gladiator did not go well for me. I can't even whine about bad beats or terrible luck. It started off well on a hand raised by a very aggressive guy to my right. I called the raise with 4's figuring I could win a nice pot if I flopped a set. The flop came all below a 10, including a wonderful 4. He lead, I raised, he jammed, I called. He jammed about 4x the pot with... 2 unpaired overcards? He was already drawing dead. I didn't need the 4 on the turn, but it's always nice to hit quads. There was another character that was always making sizing errors, like raising pre 4x or 5x the bb. To me, he just didn't know what he was doing, which happens in $300 tournaments. But it had the effect of bullying people off of pots. The overbetting eventually caught up with him, and he was gone by the 6th level.
As for me, I made numerous mistakes. Like raising pre into 3 limpers. It takes a huge raise to get folds in that circumstance, normal sizing won't cut it. I had to constantly remind myself to consider what raising will accomplish. I've actually tried to read books and watch videos the last couple of weeks, but I've got a ton of stuff to study, including stock market stuff. Which actually, you know, makes money for me. I even paid to join Little's training site. I figured having money in the game would get me to watch some videos and such. I think I've spent 20 minutes on it in 2 months. I went out in level 9, and am having doubts about playing tomorrow. Maybe I'll feel better about it in the morning, but right now poker seems like a really dumb game. Although, being at the same table all the way, only 1 original player outlasted me. I guess most of the players at the $300 level suck. Most of my mistakes are preventable, and at least I recognize most of them now.
Good luck on your trip!
Good luck on the trip my man - poker is tough these days, even the bad players are more competent these days - so much material and content out there for them to draw from. I miss 2003-2007 lol.
GL. Enjoy the trip.
There was another character that was always making sizing errors, like raising pre 4x or 5x the bb. To me, he just didn't know what he was doing, which happens in $300 tournaments. But it had the effect of bullying people off of pots. The overbetting eventually caught up with him, and he was gone by the 6th level.
Sounds familiar. Everyone has seen the time bomb phenomenon. Guy will be sitting on 3-4x starting after a couple hours, crushing the table, but you know he's dead as soon as he runs the second best hand into the best hand because he plays every made hand like it's top boat.
Thanks!
I forgot to mentioned what happened with my FrioPlay. Nothing spectacular, I was mostly hoping to run up some points so Rio doesn't get too mad at me. I ran up the vp enough to throw a hundo into the Megabucks machine. Won some nice hands along the way, quads a couple times, but never with the low card bonus. The high point was around 300 bucks. I put in a hundred of my own into the Megabucks, and actually ran it up a little with multiplier wins. I cashed out a $3 winner, lol. But I also had probably a hundred pulls at 11 million, so that was nice even if I didn't win it.
I'm thinking about trying the Gladiator again, for the practice if nothing else. The problem is if I actually bag I need to find a new flight home and I'll lose the credits on my reserved flight.
Very enjoyable read so far.
I had a similar offer from the Rio. Room served it's purpose for a weekend.
I had 200 in free play which i ran through VP. Then i ran another 1000 through vp as a courtesy basically. To my surprise they offered me another 3 free nights no resort fee weekends included which I'll use on some expensive weekend in the future.
I had a similar offer from the Rio. Room served it's purpose for a weekend.
I had 200 in free play which i ran through VP. Then i ran another 1000 through vp as a courtesy basically. To my surprise they offered me another 3 free nights no resort fee weekends included which I'll use on some expensive weekend in the future.
Nice. I considered doing that but I ran out of time. Yes, it's good to have "in the bank" when weekend nights get very expensive at the popular hotels.
Well I decided to fire another bullet at the Gladiator. I late-regged around level 4. There was a 1-man wrecking crew at the table. He was nice about it, but geez he was getting pounded by the deck. Beat jacks with queens, beat queens with kings, whereupon I made a stupid joke about him getting aces next. Because about 4 hands later he got aces and crushed another player. At least I wasn't making as many stupid mistakes as I did yesterday. But I wasn't getting as lucky either.
Finally I get a big hand in level 9, which is where I went out yesterday. QQ, raise, raise, called by Wrecking Crew. Flop is TQK. I bet small. he calls. Turn is J. We go check, check, I wouldn't mind if it checked all the way. River is a blank. Check, check. I turn over my set thinking I won. Not so fast, the Prince of Darkness has pocket Kings. I would've went broke if not for 4 broadways. That hand took a big chunk out of me, not on life support yet, about 30 bigs left. After a couple hands of the raise, fold to a 3-bet game, I was getting close to being on life support.
Then there's a hand with a little drama. A guy makes a standard raise and I'm next the act in the 10 seat. We're crammed in 10 handed, the dealer has some misc flotsam like the 2nd deck in between the well and the rake thingy instead of in the well where it belongs. Seat 1 doesn't see I have a hand because of all the crap in the way and jams about 20 bigs out of turn. I was about to call the first raise with A7hh. I don't mind taking a flier for 2 bigs but I know flush draws are never as good as people think because of card removal. Without the flush draw it's just another mediocre ace, so I fold. Original raiser calls, and just like clockwork, 4 hearts hit the board. Oy vey. If the guy had not acted out of turn I would've felt like I had to call pre, and then certainly continued with the rain of hearts.
Level 10 had me in dire straits due to the increasing blinds. UTG I finally saw some paint, QK off, and jammed about 15 bigs. The other short stack in the big blind called with 8's. I hit a Q on the turn, but he hit an 8 on the river for a set. All-in pre on the next hand with 36 and I was out. I'm glad I played the second bullet, I got 1 level further than yesterday, but more important, I made a lot fewer mistakes. My original plan had been to play the Monster next week, but my play yesterday had me doubting and ready to cancel. Right now I'm on the fence but will likely play it, and then the Colossus in early July.
GL. Enjoy the trip.
Sounds familiar. Everyone has seen the time bomb phenomenon. Guy will be sitting on 3-4x starting after a couple hours, crushing the table, but you know he's dead as soon as he runs the second best hand into the best hand because he plays every made hand like it's top boat.
I've seen that phenomenon too, but it was deliberate instead of being clueless. I was in a Daily Deepstack where a Scandi was making the chips fly. His stack ran up and down like a yo-yo. I avoided him unless I had a big hand. That guy also went out after 5 or 6 levels, well before the money.
Guy probably jams pre anyway if you call with a7 hearts and then you fold for 20 bigs.
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Maybe. The original raiser called , and it would've been 18 bigs to me. At that point there would be 44+ bigs in the pot. It would've been hard to fold. When seat 1 acted out of turn I didn't know if the original raiser would fold, re-jam, or call. Original raiser had a huge stack, all options were open to him. I would've known all that when it came time for me to decide to fold or call seat 1, and I would be closing the action.
I forgot to mention - the nightmare that was the F1 road work last year, was absent (knock wood). Hopefully that holds throughout the Series.
Back in Vegas to throw away $1500 on the Monster Stack. My poor planning meant the reservations I made a few months ago were for the wrong week. Will I ever learn to make proper reservations as soon as the schedule comes out? The magic 8-ball says "unlikely".
Long story short, I'm at the Orleans. They had a nice warm-up event for $300 today. They also called it "Monster Stack", heh. Good structure, 30k chips, 30 minute levels. I told myself I would try to practice discipline in order to make my chips last as long as possible tomorrow for the real thing. I was able to do that for 6 whole levels before I got too bored and made a stupid call that I knew was probably bad.
I did see El Diesel dealing in the tournament but not at my table. He probably went off to cash games as the tournament shrunk.
So, late reg tomorrow in the Monster at Paris. Maybe I should try the Orleans Sunday Special at 11 am. With my luck I'll last just long enough to bubble and then be later than I want for the Monster. I think late reg is available until 10 pm or thereabouts...
Then the lights came back on to reveal LOSER.
rio treating giving their guests royal treatment
Good luck in either/both Monster Stacks!
It’s a fantastic tournament, with a great structure.
Thanks!
Bagged in the Monster Stack. A very small bag. 44,000 with big blind of 3000 in the morning.
I was card dead almost all day. I did have aces once, but did not get a big pot out of it. Otherwise, pocket 7's once, 4's a couple times, and 2's twice. I had pocket tens once, and got all excited, but there was a jam and a call in front of me. Easy fold. Both hands had me crushed.
Pretty much everyone at my table were pretty good. In some ways tables like that are easier to play. There's not as much worry about people overvaluing their hand, etc. There was on character that came to our table around level 9. It was a little old lady that had basically one move - shipping. She had a good stack too, well over 100k. From the couple hands she showed and got called on, as far as we could tell AQ was the bottom of her shipping range, and she was getting hammered by the deck.
The only other time I played this event, I was out on the third hand of Day 2. Let's see if I can make it past hand 4.
Bagged in the Monster Stack. A very small bag. 44,000 with big blind of 3000 in the morning.
I was card dead almost all day. I did have aces once, but did not get a big pot out of it. Otherwise, pocket 7's once, 4's a couple times, and 2's twice. I had pocket tens once, and got all excited, but there was a jam and a call in front of me. Easy fold. Both hands had me crushed.
Pretty much everyone at my table were pretty good. In some ways tables like that are easier to play. There's not as much worr
outstanding! good luck tomorrow and have fun
Thanks!
Congrats on the bag.
