5/28-6/2 Vegas TR: Search for Serenity

tourneys are rarely an exciting lively experience

Unfortunately couldn’t reverse my fortunes in the cash games and ended up losing back $700.

Heading to the center strip to chill for a bit and then jump back into cash games.

No doubt, but I was expecting (maybe not realistically) a bit more banter and fun.

Am going to skip tournaments tomorrow and see how I’m feeling before deciding on Sunday’s schedule.

It’s 9:00am and I’m finally getting back to the room-only in Vegas!

Wish it was after winning thousands in a great game. While it was a spectacular late night game at Planet Hollywood, I only ended up winning $100. Kept fluctuating between even and up $400. Am glad to have left up as some other guys got buried. But felt like an opportunity missed to win a ton.

Will try to write up more after I crash for a few hours.

Am currently playing 1-3 at Caesars and wanted to try and catch up from last night.

After my bloodbath at the Orleans, I headed over to Beer Park to meet up with rppoker for a drink. He’s a real cool dude with a near encyclopedic memory of sports, even for my favorite teams Penn St and the Orioles. I’m looking forward to reading about his deep runs this summer! Beer Park is a nice spot and we had an awesome view of the fountains and the Strip.

After a couple drinks we headed over to the WSOP and I sat down for a 1-3 cash game. Game was decent and most players were friendly. Was able to steadily chip up and won $300 before the table broke at 3am. I decided to walk over to Planet Hollywood to check out the new room.

Room is nice and spacious, but location can only be found if you’re purposely looking for it. I told myself that if the game sucks I would leave after an orbit. I ended up staying for 5 hours-hahahaha.

Game was really good with a few players drunk and splashing around. In a game like that, you have to be prepared to swing around. While I did fluctuate from even to up $400, with the benefit of some sleep and perspective, I should have taken more chances and been willing to try some sizable bluffs that given my image, had a better than average chance d of going through. The 2 big pits that I won, I did so by snapping off bluffs, including one with 4th pair. However, in most of the rest of the hands I couldn’t at all. And this was in a game where a single pair may be the best hand. There was also a guy in the game that had absolute god mode switched on. He when he had a big hand, he hit it and got paid. When he had a speculative drawing hand, he would call big bets and hit his draw every time. Was wild to see him just annihilate people’s souls when they saw his hands. I felt both fortunate and disappointed to have only won $100.

After sleeping in for a bit today, I headed over to the Cosmopolitan for one of my favorite meals, Hattie Bs. Was planning to grab a drink at the Ghost Donkey speakeasy, but it wasn’t going to open for another hour. So I decided to head over to Bellagio and take a shot at 2-5.

Will send a couple interesting hands from my time at Bellagio shortly.

View from Beer Park:

Would be curious on folks thoughts on the following hands from my session at Bellagio-one from my 2-5 and one from 1-3.

Bellagio 2-5, $500 effective. It’s my 1st hand at the table. I’m in the CO with 9-5 suited, 6 players, folded to me and I bet $15. Button calls, flop is 9-6-2 with 2 spades, I bet $20 and villain calls. Turn is a 2 to put two flush draws, I bet $50 and he calls. River is an 8 that does not complete either flush draw. I check, and he bets $300. I took a minute, then called as I put him on a missed flush draw. What do you think villain had and would you have called?

Bellagio 1-3. $300 effective. 7-handed. Villain raises to $15 pre-flop, I call in the hi-jack with 7-9 diamonds, UTG limper also calls. Flop is 5-6-8 with 2 clubs. UTG checks, villain bets $15, I raise to $30 hoping to induce a 3-bet if he thinks I’m on a draw. UTG fold and villain calls. Turn is non-club 4, villain checks and I bet $60, hoping to keep in over pairs or induce a check-raise from a hand with a 7. River is the 2 of clubs and villain bets $145. While it’s definitely possible he has A-x clubs, I call as I’m beating everything else. What do you think villain had and would you have called?

While you guys noodle over those hands, here’s a couple pics from the Caesars 1-3 game, which I smashed for an $1100 win.

Am now playing at the Horseshoe.

Awesome win at the Horseshoe 😀

Hand 1: Fold pre. Bit too weak to open, even from CO imo.
Hand 2: Fold pre. Gap-suited connectors does not play well multi-way.

As played I am tempted to call in hand 1. He shouldn't have much 2x, and your line does not look super strong. So why would he bet $300 into $177 with any thick value hand, and expect to get called?

In hand 2, we need to raise much bigger on the flop. A straight unblocks every value combo on that board, and pot is around $65 when it gets to you. I would make it at least $60-$65 on the flop, depending on the stack sizes obviously.

Hand 1, reads are very important. If I didn’t have any reads, or it’s the first hand I’m playing vs a complete unknown, it’s a fold. Generally, pot river bets or overbets are fat value. There are some opponents I’m eager to call here against, though.

Hand 2, gotta raise flop more. As played, meh. I probably call river, but expect to lose some significant percentage of the time.

Also, agree with folding 95s pre. Hand 2 can be closer to a call, but it’s a fold if the table is tighter, or squeeze-y.

H1: fold, in Vegas, in my experience, that $300 bet after showing no aggression at any point in the hand is a very strong hand like over pair or pocket pair that improved. Particularly the middle aged to OMC NLHE players self adjusted to become trappier types out here when the hyper aggro players started playing high vpip. I’m sure the gto people would say “they are polarized,” but if you call and lose you are likely not going to get that money back from someone who didn’t 3b you pre in position.

(I’m a terrible nlhe player)

I lean that way too.

H1: I've seen sooo much passive pre-flop play at 1/3 that I think you can be shown a lot overpairs here. Not many combos of A2, 66, and 88, but they aren't impossible either. One of the bluffs we want him to have (87) gets there on the river and might check back to win vs. air and low pairs. Unless we know this guy is a blaster supreme, we probably find the fold here. As others said, it's a fold pre anwyay. First mistake was playing a junky hand that's going to get us into trouble more often than not post-flop.

H2: I get worried when a player suddenly activates after passivity on an earlier street, but I think in this case I'm probably just paying it off. Four liners create obvious bluff points and we do beat some value and some of the goofy self-value-owns (sets and inferior straights). In addition to the value we beat, we can imagine someone talking himself into the bluff with hands like AcAx or AcKx here.

I agree with all of this

I am fine with stretching the range a little to play more hands. however, you know that 9-5 isn't great. if you hit top pair and that's good enough, then great. but when he calls three streets and then bets $300 I'm wondering why you are suddenly in a $500 pot with 9-5. know what I mean? keep the pot small or be happy if a little aggression is enough. but continuing to pile in money is bankroll suicide

when you flop a straight and then the river puts a front door flush out there, and he bets a bunch, it's a bad break fold. he bet-called a two club flop and hung around when the turn bricked and then bet big on the river. I suspect that is a completed flush.

Appreciate all of the hand feedback! I should have added context on the players-hand 1 was an early/mid 30s American guy and hand 2 was a middle aged European guy. Not sure if would change your decisions, but it did weigh into mine.

In the first hand, I can’t put him in a hand that just calls pre-flop, flop and turn, and then bets so much on the river for value. If he had an overpair or a set, I would have expected him to raise on one of the 1st three streets. For a similar reason, I don’t think he has a deuce or a two pair hand (not including the 2 deuces on the board). The biggest hands I’m worries about is a stronger 9 from which he took this line. However I block the 9 and his huge bet doesn’t make sense as I could/should have an overpair and he is likely checking back the nine. Ultimately I put him on a missed flush draw and called. And I was right as he sheepishly said you got it.

For hand 2, with the benefit of hindsight and reading feedback here, I agree that I should have raised more on the flop. In the moment, my mindset was to win a big pot by trying to disguise my hand as a flush draw in hopes that he would re-raise my smaller bets on the flop or turn or call down a big river bet if the flush misses. If the flush comes through, I would bet smaller in hopes of him calling out of curiosity. I don’t think there are too many flush draws in his pre-flop betting range, with the exceptions being AK or AQ suited. And if he had one of those, I would expect that he 3-bets my flop min-raise, which would allow me to shove. He unfortunately showed AK clubs and I lost. I did ask him if he would have called a bigger turn bet and he said most likely. So outside of making it $125+ I don’t know that he would have folded. Maybe if I made it $60 on the flop and then shoved the turn, he would have folded. But I honestly (and obviously incorrectly) didn’t believe that he had a flush draw and I wanted to keep him in the hand.

Just landed back in Baltimore and my mind is still hazy from the trip, both because I had a great time and because I’m exhausted from the lack of sleep.

Below is a picture dump from my last night and day. Food pics from Carbone and Parrys Pizzeria & Taphouse. Starting chip pics from the Encore, Venetian, and MGM. And a pic from the Lake of Dreams show from the Wynn.

I’m going to do a recap post this week to summarize the trip including results, liked & dislikes, accomplishment of goals, and general thoughts.

Thanks for sharing. Nice to see I was 0/2 on the hands. Clearly in peak summer form already. Glad you found the call on H1. Nice job.

How did you like Carbone? I've heard mixed things. I was looking at Italian places for a big dinner last year and considered Carbone, Sinatra, and Ferraro's. Ended up going with Ferraro's, but still curious about the other candidates. I've yet to try any of the fancy restaurants in Aria.

Thanks bro-I was a bit surprised at how many times people tried to bluff me in decent/big pots. I must have a very bluffable face-hahaha!

On Carbone, I was honestly pretty disappointed. Not sure if it was because I had built up my expectations to a level that were unachievable or because the food was just good and not exceptional. Certain items were indeed exceptional-the garlic bread and the croutons in the caesar salad were the best I’ve had. But the main dishes of the salad and the spicy rigatoni were average in my opinion. To be fair, I don’t have refined tastes and always seem to prefer more regular/common food vs dishes from fancier restaurants. To Carbone’s credit, the service from women in the front that quickly found me a seat at the bar and the bartenders that were very attentive and friendly were both 1st class. That alone may lead me to give Carbone another shot in a future trip.